FERGUSON, MISSOURI

Civil Rights March: Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Memphis.

"iN A WEBBED & TWITTERED WORLD ALL NEWS IS LOCAL,
EVERYTHING LOCAL IS NEWS."

By Rev. David Rommereim

“All the news that’s fit to print” these days seems exceptionally violent. I would much prefer to quietly wait in my back yard for this year’s arrival of the Monarch Butterfly. I have a butterfly bush all prepared. Many are already showing up on their journey to Mexico. But the lovely Monarch is interrupted by the violence, the honking of the violence in our city and surrounding world.

The violence is expressed intimately in the tragic suicide of the beloved Robin Williams. It is seen publicly in the violence shared from Gaza, Palestine, and Israel. Global public violence comes from Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Congo, Iraq, and our beloved government's funded arms spread throughout the region.

Yet, the institutional violence we witness in Ferguson, Missouri hurts deeply. The unarmed 18 year-young, Michael Brown, is now a number in a death chamber door and a check point in the history of racialized violence filling our morgues.

It is the institutional violence that I ponder in this memo to our e-letter constituents of Good Shepherd ministry. Any institutional violence is what the second century desert monks used to call, “bad talk.” “Bad talk” for the desert fathers was learning how to walk the talk of the Christian Way, as an extreme act. "Bad Talk" incurs deep pain. It produces personal, communal, and cultural scars that are long lasting.

The photo above reminds us of the tragic formula it takes to change social conventions that are “bad talk.” The Civil Rights Act of 50 years ago gave many Americana a part of the vision for a democratic society. 50 years later we see the same image at the marker of institutional violence injuring the code of community needing to be alive, well, and hopeful.

This past week I buried a beautiful woman. She was 90 years old. Her name was, Bonnie. We told stories. We thanked God. We listened to memorial testimonies. We heard the power stories of our historic baptismal covenant embossed on our foreheads from the gift of our Baptism. But, her age was a gift. Unlike Michael Brown, Bonnie died in old age. She died from Alzheimer's. She lasted in the loving arms of a peaceful death, surrounded by family. Yet when I returned from this gift of the church to say farewell in the long goodbye of our Baptismal gift for life through death engaged eternally in life, and I hear about Ferguson, Missouri, my heart cringes with despair as a Christian, an American, and a man. Michael Brown’s death is senseless. His death appears empty and apart from what Dr. King called, “majestic suffering” {that sort of suffering it takes to make social change a reality}.

Institutional violence from the police or any other public official, even clergy, has no place in the human community. We must make sure that our civil servants are part of the community rather than so violently afraid of our community that they carry out senseless acts of violence.

In the faith I adhere to, this radical Christian Walk, I remain committed not to “passivism” but rather to a life dedicated to “non-violent social resistance.” It is the violent demands of oppression and manipulation that I will retaliate to non-violently. I will do what I can to resist the violence that happens around our neighborhood, our city, our country.

I remain deeply sad at Michael’s death. Deeply inspired by this 50th year anniversary of the community standing for justice and equity. And deeply committed to take the soul force of the church to the brute force of a society demanding violence as a just reward.