Arise in Righteous Indignation
By: Jamar A. Boyd
Tags: Politics And Protest, Religion, Morality, African American, Black

The concepts and ideals of peace have been, and is, often uplifted amid civil unrest, societal shifts and by religious contributors and practitioners as they make inquisition [or try to make sense] of humanity’s current condition. Yet, this state of desired existence seems readily expendable when the presumed privilege, potential and power of the majority is at stake. Therein turn, leading to an antithetical and immoral display of misguided righteousness in the demigods of white supremacy and meritocracy.

Commonly and readily uplifted are the conflated ideals of American [Western] morality absent of the intrinsic reflection required for repentance, upon which said morality is to be confronted, to occur. Not miniscule or transactional acts of “change”, but the intentional utilization of one’s structured privileged, denunciation of capitalist exploitation upon the disenfranchised and poor, upending of imperialist violence exhibited and enacted upon Black and Brown bodies, and confronting honestly the intended distortion that is American democracy “for all” while structured for the survival of the fittest. This nation state’s affair with war reasons continued public apathetic consumption of death and tyranny met with an eerie apologetic for the present, and longstanding, state of American democracy. Moreover, America’s lack of human compassion and communal empathy seemingly dismisses the truth of today’s pandemic and over 200,000 lives lost to another preventable crisis. A crisis where, yet again, the poor and marginalized have been deemed expendable commodities.

Understood by the marginalized of society, especially within an imperial nation state, are the lengths those desiring the facade peace will exhaust to construct their desired utopian world. Yet, this façade is upended and denounced, through the one often utilized as the scapegoat of their hypocrisy, all the while His communal teachings and theology state differently. That brown skin Nazarene born in Bethlehem killed at the behest of the state declared, ““Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”” The words of Jesus balance the scale by challenging both the believer and skeptic’s notion of peace and the idea that righteousness is always accompanied with a docile and calming existence. Could it be that peace, while a pervasive concept that encompasses love and loyalty with God and one another, requires a level of authoritative righteous indignation willingly engaged and expedited in the name of justice and utilized as humanity’s sword against evil and unrighteousness? It is not absent from protesting evil or uplifting communal [grassroots]organizing as an essential. It doesn’t view abolition as an extreme, but in many areas and facets of the world as an immediate necessity. It does not absolve one of their communal responsibilities. It does not excuse or make light of reality but is the bold righteous insurrection against demonic forces, wickedness, and actors of satanic schemes that the Kingdom of God may exist on earth.

When the human contract of care, concern and empathy is eroded by agents of state sanctioned violence to enable the suppressive tactics of plantation owners and their heirs the sword must be applied to them, their tactics, and enablers. When a nation state, such as America built upon the ideals of capitalism and imperialism, deduces the truths of their deeds and the added domestic threat known as COVID-19 to a mere incident the moral position of said nation has been identified and the human contract has been evaded. Therefore, the sword must be used without hesitation. Further, illuminating the need for righteous indignation amid a world of destruction.

Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. And there are times where we ought to get mad in our righteousness. There are times, moments, and situations that arise which require humanity to act properly in our anger. It ought to anger you to see children sequestered in their homes amid a global pandemic without food, access to the internet or life’s bare necessities. It ought to anger you to see the discrepancy of the quality of education afforded to rural and urban communities compared to suburban neighborhoods. It ought to anger you when Christians who label themselves as conservatives and evangelicals will willingly dismiss and disregard the plight of minorities in this nation. It ought to anger you when those who declare to be pro-life ignore and reduce state killings to acts carried out by “a few bad apples”. It ought to anger you when a white supremacist demigod emboldens bigotry and racism as a continued practice of normality. It ought to anger you when one considers this nation’s domestic and global atrocities and acts of “judge and juror” all the while declaring to be the home of true democracy. It ought to anger you! Something ought to anger you and cause you to rise in righteous indignation.

The images from Kenosha, Portland and Washington, D.C. juxtaposed to the continued work of grassroots organizers, are a harrowing reminder of the state sanctioned violence willingly committed against citizens of color in the name of order; in the name of peace for some. Yet, as the prophet Jeremiah exclaimed the truth is, “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly [carelessly], Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.” To be Black in America is to know violence. To be Brown in America is to know death. To be a Negro in America is to know propaganda and the illusion of what has never been. Therefore, one could argue the chaotic state of our human condition riddled with a global health pandemic, death and violence, economic uncertainty, and unnecessary suffering still leaves us with great potential to see the impressive handiwork of Jehovah through the intuitive workings of melanin hued creation amid supremacy.

Is it possible or plausible to say that peace in this nation state won’t occur until the sword is rightly applied and its blade readily sharpened by all who decry justice in the name of freedom? A freedom not of exclusivity, but one of divine inclusivity where all of God’s children abide, attain, experience, and rest in life and death within the Holy Spirit’s fullness. The hope for a new world resides within those with deep, broad, and wide communal imaginations. Imaginations that forcefully and readily challenge our concepts of all we’ve ever known to be America, community, and existence. May in the acknowledgement of this hour and continued confrontation of America’s faults and needs enable us to abide in the power of the righteous and their [our] indignation to participate in the project of constructing a new world.