Baton Rouge, Racial Prejudice, and a Father’s Healing

on July 19, 2016

[Editor’s note: The original version of this article was published by Patheos.com. Click here to read it.]

All morning my mind teetered back and forth, each side debating whether or not to write this post. The “write” side won, as you can tell. For me, writing about racial prejudice and the news surrounding Baton Rouge, my birthplace, is a hard reality to face. But for my family, it’s an even harder past to revisit.

The images of Cameron Sterling sobbing after a press conference and the viral photo of deceased Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson holding his new baby boy haunt my mind. The images force me to think about my own mother at two years old on an ordinary humid day in Baton Rouge. Because of racial prejudices, her daddy did not return home from work either.

Mom doesn’t have any memories of her dad, but his tragic loss left deep effects only a Heavenly Father can heal. It is with my mom’s permission that I share a little bit of her story with you.

My grandfather was 27 years old when a black eighteen year old shot him in East Baton Rouge. It was the middle of the day. My grandfather was sitting in his parked car in a black neighborhood, completing paperwork after a routine house call for work. My grandfather reportedly never saw the fatal shot coming.

My grandfather’s adult life was just getting underway. He married his high-school sweetheart, had a four-year-old daughter, a two-year-old daughter, and an unborn son on the way. Sadly, my grandfather never met his son nor watched his two little girls grow up. He never met any of his ten grandchildren. He didn’t even make it home that night for his favorite dinner, chicken spaghetti.

Racial tensions in Louisiana are undeniably present. Even so, Mom refused to allow one teenager’s actions and her own sorrow to dictate her feelings towards an entire race. “Hurt people hurt others,” is a mantra she repeats over and over to her children. But while she refused to allow bitterness and prejudice to seep in, Mom says she couldn’t overcome the painful sense of abandonment and loss. For that reason, her relationship with the Almighty is a bit special.

“I never had a dad,” shared Mom with me over the weekend. “So I needed to know this Heavenly Creator wasn’t just a hands-off being out there somewhere. I needed to know He was my Father and I was His daughter. Over the years, He has assured me I have a very hands-on dad.”

Whenever upset or anxious about a big problem, many daughters pick up the phone and call their dad for guidance. Mom can’t pick up the phone, so instead she dials Heaven and prays unlike any other I know because, for her, the promise God is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” who “sets the lonely in families” (Psalm 68:5-6) is reality.

Cameron Sterling, the Jackson’s newborn baby boy, and any other little ones who’ve lost their fathers in recent shootings are experiencing (or will experience) a heart wrenching loss most of us can’t imagine. We can’t begin to predict what struggles they will face in life after loss of their dads. But thank God for his glimmers of goodness and hope.

These little ones are not forgotten by Him. They have a hands-on Heavenly Father who can heal their wounds and comfort their sorrow. May God wrap His arms around them now.

 

  1. Comment by Skipper on July 25, 2016 at 3:15 pm

    Thanks for sharing this tragic story. The world wants hurt people to hurt others. Jesus wants hurt people to love their enemies and turn the other cheek. What an incredible difference for both sides when people follow Jesus!

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