Love Takes A Stand

A Sermon on 1 John 3:1–7 (and then some)

Daunte Wright.

I really don’t know where to begin. . . And what a luxury that is. In my whiteness, I am free just to be astonished.

Not enraged like Charles Blow of the New York Times who wrote simply that he is enraged…no longer surprised or astonished. The killing of Daunte Wright is barely news, it is so heartbreakingly predictable. No, he’s just enraged. Constantly.

Neither am I heartbroken like Daunte’s mother who has been in front of cameras and microphones demanding answers to all of her grief-ridden questions. I’m simply stupefied.

What a privilege simply to be stupefied when another black person has been murdered by the police.

And let’s call it murder. I know what the charges are. I know that second degree manslaughter is what has been charged. But accident or no, the police officer with 26 years of experience had her service firearm in her hand. She knew better. She knew better. And a 20 year old kid is dead.

Dare I simply shrug?

Dare I simply sit here stupefied?

What gall.

I live in Richmond, VA. You may have heard of it. Over the last year or so, the former capital of the Confederacy has witnessed…