COVID-19 has consumed a lot during these past few months. It has consumed our attention, our energy, our money, our freedom, and our lives. This scourge has cost us dearly. Yet as the coronavirus’s death toll and the debt toll continue to climb, over the past few days there has been an increasing inability for Americans to ignore the truth that there is an even more sinister plague in our society: racial inequality. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and especially George Floyd have exposed yet again the astronomical cost of America’s unresolved racial problems.
It is discouraging to see that while so many of us are anxious to get an effective vaccine or cure for COVID-19, we are infinitely less concerned about finding an successful treatment for the racial divide that afflicts our nation. The thing is when it comes to this virus, very few of us have the knowledge and skills to actually work at finding a cure, but when it comes to race relations, we all can work to make things better. We don’t have to be sociological experts to treat our neighbors with love and respect regardless of the amount of melanin they have AND demand that everyone else does the same.
One of the most powerful aspects of the gospel is that it is a message of equality. God came to earth to live among people as their equal. His message was for the rich and poor, religious leaders and fishermen, men and women, tax collectors and prostitutes, old and young. He performed miracles for Jews, Samaritans, and Romans. It is not surprising then to find Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” May we show that we are truly united in Christ by grieving with those who mourn, by demanding justice to be done, and by doing all we can to ensure equality for all!