Minneapolis Protests

Churches, Minneapolis, Protests & Riots

on June 1, 2020

Sunday night there was a fire in the parish hall of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., known as the “Church of the Presidents.” Every chief executive since James Monroe has worshiped there. Its sanctuary is over 200 years old, and the parish hall behind it is nearly as old.

The fire, set during protests outside, was in the basement, with apparently limited damage. One demonstrator tore the American flag off the front of the parish hall and threw it into a bonfire in the park. On Saturday eve, graffiti was sprayed on the church declaring “f-ck 12,” without further explanation.

Episcopal Diocese of Washington Bishop Marian Budde tweeted: “Thanks to all who have reached out in concern for @StJohnLafayette. We’ve heard from the media that the fire has been extinguished, but no official word yet. A building can be rebuilt. The deeper wounds of our nation remain our focus.”

Early Monday morning, the pastor of St. John’s, after viewing the damage, reported: “My ears are still ringing, and I am still coughing a bit from various fumes I inhaled. But I am happy to share with you that I could see no other real damage besides that one room, and quite a bit of graffiti and debris around the exterior of the church. Protestors easily could have done a lot worse to our buildings, but they chose not to do that. (The damage I saw to other nearby buildings illustrated this point.)”

Earlier on Sunday, before the evening fires on Lafayette Square, the President of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, released this statement about the wider national situation:

The killing of George Floyd was senseless and brutal, a sin that cries out to heaven for justice. How is it possible that in America, a black man’s life can be taken from him while calls for help are not answered, and his killing is recorded as it happens?

I am praying for George Floyd and his loved ones, and on behalf of my brother bishops, I share the outrage of the black community and those who stand with them in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and across the country. The cruelty and violence he suffered does not reflect on the majority of good men and women in law enforcement, who carry out their duties with honor. We know that. And we trust that civil authorities will investigate his killing carefully and make sure those responsible are held accountable.

We should all understand that the protests we are seeing in our cities reflect the justified frustration and anger of millions of our brothers and sisters who even today experience humiliation, indignity, and unequal opportunity only because of their race or the color of their skin. It should not be this way in America. Racism has been tolerated for far too long in our way of life.

It is true what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, that riots are the language of the unheard. We should be doing a lot of listening right now. This time, we should not fail to hear what people are saying through their pain. We need to finally root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society.

But the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost. Let us keep our eyes on the prize of true and lasting change.

Legitimate protests should not be exploited by persons who have different values and agendas. Burning and looting communities, ruining the livelihoods of our neighbors, does not advance the cause of racial equality and human dignity.  

We should not let it be said that George Floyd died for no reason. We should honor the sacrifice of his life by removing racism and hate from our hearts and renewing our commitment to fulfill our nation’s sacred promise — to be a beloved community of life, liberty, and equality for all.

In general, Catholic officials do better with such statements about public events than do Protestants. Catholics often have a wider appreciation of historic Christian teaching about civil life and the public good. Protestants also should be able to call upon this teaching but typically instead select Bible verses making laudable but more narrowly moralistic pronouncements.

There have many admirable Christian denunciations of George Floyd’s death, of racism and police brutality, all of which of course contravene Christian understandings of human dignity. But there generally is not a lot of deep examination in USA Christianity about spiritual remedies for hateful prejudice, whether for individuals, for the churches, or for the nation.

Declarations, marches and activism may serve their purposes. They certainly are very American. But the 2000 year old Church of Jesus Christ has richer spiritual, ethical and redemptive resources in its repository. American Christians, prone to individualism, sentimentalism and pragmatism, frequently to useful purpose, are too often unaware of the historic church’s full moral treasury.

Archbishop Gomez spoke of “removing racism and hate from our hearts.” This project is key, and only the church is fully equipped to perform this task. The aftermath of Floyd’s death has revealed lots of hate, some of it racial, but much of it also political and cultural.

Gomez rightly spoke of our “commitment to fulfill our nation’s sacred promise — to be a beloved community of life, liberty, and equality for all.” The public good requires a higher form of social solidarity in which Americans better love their fellow Americans, and better live up to our nation’s highest ideals. Christians should model this wider civic love, which is patriotism in the highest sense. It precludes hating and demonizing our adversaries, with whom we share the “beloved community.”

The Catholic statement warned that “burning and looting communities, ruining the livelihoods of our neighbors, does not advance the cause of racial equality and human dignity.” Some Christians have minimized the riots and violence, claiming Jesus didn’t care about property. But public disorder threatens both lives and property.

Public disorder is poisonous to the common good. God ordained government chiefly to establish public order, whose absence precludes nearly all other societal goods and decencies. The material essentials of human life, food, shelter and clothing, require public order. And the higher aspirations of every nobler society, which include the pursuit of justice and equality for all, absolutely depend on public order.

American Christians typically don’t focus on God’s purposes for public order because we tend to assume civil tranquility is the natural state. That assumption is wrong and dangerous. The church must nurture a lawful society because it echoes God’s own sense of order, because it facilitates peace and prosperity for all persons, and because the church’s own work necessitates it.

Without public order, churches, among other properties, sometimes get burned. Thank God St. John’s Episcopal last night was not more seriously damaged.

  1. Comment by Ben on June 1, 2020 at 10:23 am

    Public order broke down in the case of George Floyd, resulting in his cruel death. That is the difficulty. If the system is seen as abusing its authority, how do you appeal to that same system for resolution? But rioting and destruction of more innocents’ lives is not the answer.

  2. Comment by L. Cary on June 2, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    Ben, what did I miss? The offending police officer was arrested within 24 hours, and all four officers were fired. There’s a reasonable chance that all four will be tried.

    Bureaucracies like big city PD’s don’t respond immediately. There is necessary due process. In the case of Officer Wilson in Ferguson, MO, that process was long. This one will be, too. t

  3. Comment by Gary Bebop on June 1, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    I appreciate Mark Tooley’s courage to discuss our historical moment. Closed churches have little to offer us in this hour. Falsely-soothing ecclesiastical pieties even less. We need sound biblical teaching that links judgment and mercy. Mercy implies judgment. The absence of sound teaching in our churches leaves us bereft of sound hope.

  4. Comment by Jim on June 2, 2020 at 9:48 am

    You nailed it. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith in turn changes the heart of hate to one of love. There will be no peace until our Lord returns. This generation despises a Holy and Sovereign God.

  5. Comment by JR on June 2, 2020 at 9:48 am

    I would argue that we need leadership. Someone who can demonstrate the moral and ethical lynchpins that hold our society together, and demonstrate empathy while also encouraging unity.

    We should be better than this.

  6. Comment by L. Cary on June 2, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    “the moral and ethical lynchpins that hold our society together”

    Please be so kind as to list those “lynchpins,” JR, so we know that of which you write.

  7. Comment by JR on June 3, 2020 at 4:15 pm

    Happy to do so!

    Love thy neighbor.
    Service to nation above party or person.
    Helping those in need.
    Protecting the people from the predatory actions of the powerful.
    Leading by example, by word and by deed.
    Working with others, to the benefit of all.
    Vision of what is possible.

    I’m sure there are others. Every recent President embodied some or all of those (possible exception of Nixon, but I’d say he’s not exactly ‘recent’), some more than others.

    I don’t think the current President embodies any of them, to our detriment and to the detriment of the world.

  8. Comment by Diane on June 2, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    The President’s use of force (teargas and rubber bullets) to clear himself a path through peaceful protestors in order to trespass on and use a progressive church’s building (St John’s Episcopal), along with a Bible as props for a photo-op in which he promised military action on protestors was obscene. Surely evangelicals know that this man, their golden calf, chose to use a church that supports same-sex marriage. Where are their outcries? This photo-op was used to drum up support from his evangelical base.

  9. Comment by Timothy on June 2, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    The President holding a Bible in front of the ‘progressive’ church was a kind gesture of support for even wacko churches. I watched the CSPAN complete video of the event and thought it was a nice gesture and positive symbolism. Is that why you’re upset and misepresenting what happpened? Don’t believe the lying New York Times hate propaganda.

  10. Comment by JR on June 2, 2020 at 2:28 pm

    https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867532070/trumps-unannounced-church-visit-angers-church-officials

  11. Comment by JR on June 2, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    For this, the C-SPAN video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ShnqmiKLE8

  12. Comment by L. Cary on June 2, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    “obscene”? Strong language, Diane.

    Was it “obscene” when President Clinton clutched a Bible as he frequented church in DC, with HRC on his arm, after his…affiliation…with Monica Lewinski? (All part of a right wing conspiracy, of course.) Or, when he held prayer sessions with The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who later fathered his own love child by a women other than Mrs. Jackson? That obscene, Diane?

  13. Comment by L. Cary on June 2, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    Diane, Park Police confirm (evening of 6/2) that teargas was NOT deployed as you assert. That was an early report from media sources that can’t tell the difference between flash-bangs, smoke grenades, and pepper devices. In short, you were misled.

  14. Comment by JR on June 3, 2020 at 9:18 am

    I can accept that tear gas may have been mistakenly reported.

    For all of the concern on this site regarding some 1st Amendment rights, the use of flash-bangs, smoke grenades and pepper spray on people who were utilizing other 1st Amendment rights seems to be missing.

  15. Comment by Gary Bebop on June 3, 2020 at 2:21 pm

    Denying the facts on the ground is a tired and shabby elite progressive ploy. The organized class warfare tactics rampaging through our cities is being recorded for history by innumerable cell phones focused on horrible destructive moments. The assaults on vulnerable, helpless people caught in the maelstrom are undeniable. You can’t pretend your eyes did not see. The progressive Left that excuses and eggs on anarchism can no longer control the narrative. The truth overthrows Big Lies. Thanks be to God.

  16. Comment by JR on June 3, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    I think you missed an Alinsky reference in there.

  17. Comment by JR on June 4, 2020 at 9:19 am

    One addition.

    I don’t know that there’s a particular difference between tear gas (aerosolized xylyl bromide) and aerosolized pepper spray (oleoresin capsicum) to the folks on the ground. I’m pretty sure that if you were hit with either, you’d react very similarly.

    However, remember this – if you want to play the ‘specifics’ language, do it consistently.

    When a state decides to cancel public gatherings of 10 or more people in order to maintain order and prevent the spread of disease, that’s not ‘religious suppression’.

    When a state decides to ban a specific model of firearm, that’s not ‘anti-gun sentiment’.

    You want to play specifics, then do it specifically. Dishonesty will come to bite you when it’s time to face your maker. Hypocrites are called out by Jesus, specifically.

  18. Comment by Gary Bebop on June 4, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    The truth is in the streets, not in your scolds. The destructive paradigm is unfolding before our eyes. No one is waiting for you to correct our vision.

  19. Comment by wood dweller on June 11, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    Diane, did you actually watch the videos of how the park police and local police cleared the area of people for the President to walk to the church? Did you seek the visually-unmistakable methods police used in moving the protesters who refused to obey lawful commands by officers to move to a particular area not far away? No need for anything except verbal instructions by police if the peaceful protesters had obeyed the officers’ instructions. In most places, refusal to obey a clear instruction or command by a police officer is against the law. These police were self-restrained in their use of least-harmful, non-lethal means to physically move those who refused to obey commands, instead of just arresting them (the normal response to such refusal). The police used the least-damaging methods available to them rather than taking the easiest route and arresting them all, or physically removing each one. If police abide by the least-forcible means of doing their duty in enforcing laws, (after first attempting to verbally do so) and did not resort to more-forceful means, it seems that we would commend them. After all, it IS the ones who use unnecessary force and inflict harm that we are all protesting AGAINST, isn’t it? It appeared that the officers’ refusal to be tempted to use excessive physical force when protesters refused to obey repeated commands, exhibits their professional commitment to NOT let the behavior of several flatly-disobedient protesters to alter their duty to use the least force necessary to gain compliance. While we are all rightly condemning deadly use of inappropriate force by a police officer, thus killing George Floyd, why don’t we correspondingly offer praise for police officers who refuse to cave in to what must sometimes be a nearly-overwhelming urge to use force on people who flatly refuse to obey the law? The police are not perfect, but in this instance, it seems that they used to the least effective means of force required to motivate these protesters to obey the command to walk to a designated place. We rightly commend peaceful protesters for expressing in a non-violent way their anger at the killing of George Floyd, and I am quick to strongly commend them for their peaceful response. But how can we support the flat refusal of otherwise peaceful protesters to obey the law, especially when repeatedly commanded by officers to walk to another specific location nearby? If a police officer’s legal command is flatly refused, what is the officer to do, except to take action to remove other options so that the person actually must obey the command? If no voluntary compliance can be gained by verbal command, the officer has no option but to begin with the least-harmful method of removing the option for disobedience and gaining compliance.
    Obedience to laws (and we are legally bound to obey police commands) is not optional in America.
    In this instance, the actual videos of the officers taking action to move the persons who flatly refused to walk to a different location clearly show what they did and didn’t do. No shooting, no brutality, no arrests. Kudos to officers who restrained themselves when openly defied. And shame on those who criticize them for using violence, but also criticize them for NOT using violence. Maybe we should give that some thought.

  20. Comment by wood dweller on June 11, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    Oops — In 2nd sentence, I meant did you SEE, not did you seek. Sorry for the goof.

  21. Comment by Theodore on June 2, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    “Archbishop Gomez spoke of ‘removing racism and hate from our hearts.'”

    Speak for yourself Mr. Gomez. Floyd’s death, while tragic, was a relative anomaly and has nothing to do with me. The truth is that black people kill white and Asian people far more that the reverse and black crime is wildly out of proportion. These kinds of statements illustrate a lack of perspective of the current situation. Is this erroneous statement from delusion or from a cowardice to straight forwardly tell what is really happening?

  22. Comment by Gary Bebop on June 2, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    My bishop remains silent on the ongoing destructive rampages in her episcopal area. Is she waiting until the looters get all they want? I find it fantastic that carrying away TVs and shoes and liquor and handbags from a store that has been violently ripped open by a mob is vengeance United Methodist bishops accept as reasonable.

  23. Comment by Ted R. Weiland on June 5, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” (Galatians 5:15)

    “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)

    More evidence that:

    “The United States Constitutional Republic was destined to fall from its inception…. It began and continues as a divided house….

    “The day is therefore approaching when the Republic’s cup of iniquity will be full3 and Yahweh’s longsuffering is exhausted. At that time, the Republic will be subjected to His judgment. Like all nations before her built on sand [Matthew 7:26-27], she will cease to exist. The question that remains is whether that generation’s Christians will be prepared to build upon her ruins. If not, another ungodly nation will fill the void until finally a future generation of our posterity are prepared to erect a government and society upon Yahweh’s righteousness as expressed in His triune moral law (His commandments, statutes, and judgments).4

    “It is therefore incumbent upon this and all intervening generations of Christians to do everything in their power to help prepare for that future generation of Christians to do it right(eous) the next time….”

    For more, see free online book “A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government” at https://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/biblicalConstitution.html

  24. Comment by Paul Zesewitz on June 6, 2020 at 5:05 am

    It never ceases to amaze me how people take any occasion to bash president Trump. Can any of you know what’s going through the man’s mind when he stands in front of a progressive (and yes, it is progressive, judging by sermons given by now retired St John’s rector Luis Leon) Episcopal Church with a Bible in his hands? Are you mind readers? Because you are certainly not God! My only question of Trump would be why not stand in front of a Presbyterian Church, because (according to Wikipedia) that’s the denomination he was raised in?

  25. Comment by Brother Thom on June 9, 2020 at 6:54 am

    Well had a Presbyterian Church been set ablaze across the street from the President’s house, I’m sure he would have visited it too.

    Setting fire to St. John’s was not a random act. I lived in DC for over 17 years, have been to St. John’s, and am very familiar with the area. St. John’s is known to everyone in the DC area as the Church of Presidents. Setting fire to St. John’s was not so much an act against the church itself, it was an act against what it stands for in the broader sense of serving Presidents and their families for generations.

  26. Comment by William R. Bouknight on June 6, 2020 at 10:21 am

    Yes, the killers of George Floyd are being prosecuted, and that is a proper pursuit of justice. But is there a word about forgiving one’s enemies in the commands of Jesus? If the good members of Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, SC had not been willing to forgive the racist Dylan Roof a few years ago, a race war might have erupted. Instead, in the wake of forgiveness, the Confederate flag was removed from the State Capitol and a powerful message of reconciliation was sent across the world.

  27. Comment by William Bouknight on June 6, 2020 at 10:52 am

    George Floyd’s killers are being prosecuted and that is a proper pursuit of justice. But are any Christians praying for those four killers, for the salvation of their souls? Didn’t Jesus say something about praying for one’s enemies?

  28. Comment by Brother Thom on June 9, 2020 at 6:49 am

    The photo of Derek Chauvin following his arrest allows us to look into his soul. He is confused, afraid, and possibly remorseful. What he did was horrible, but he was using a form of restraint taught in every police academy. There is no doubt he went too far resulting in the tragic death of George Floyd. But did he intend to kill Floyd, it’s doubtful at best.

    So yes we should be praying for these men. Jesus commanded us to do for the least of these amongst us. Those in jails and prisons were on the list of who we should visit. Clearly we can’t visit these men in prison, but we can pray for their souls.

  29. Comment by Bill Bouknight on June 6, 2020 at 11:17 am

    The killers of George Floyd are being prosecuted and that is a proper exercise of justice. But are any Christians praying for those four killers, for the salvation of their souls? A few years ago a white racist named Dylan Roof killed nine black members of Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, SC. If the members of that church had opted for revenge, a race war might have started. Instead, they shocked the world by forgiving the killer. As a result, the Confederate flag was removed from the S.C. Capitol building, and a powerful message of reconciliation was sent across the world. Jesus urged us to forgive our enemies. There may be more power in forgiveness than in hatred.

  30. Comment by Brother Thom on June 9, 2020 at 6:41 am

    I am so thankful you reminded us of this story of extreme Grace. While I am saddened again at the loss of life in SC, the example set by this congregation of forgiveness and Grace strangely warms my heart.

  31. Comment by Brother Thom on June 9, 2020 at 6:37 am

    I was disappointed that Bishop Marian Budde joined in the rhetoric of the left in defending the actions of those who were rioting and committing arson in Layfette Square. Her statement that “they could have done much worse but chose not to,” assumes the arsonist only wanted to make a statement, but not actually burn the entire church to the ground. This is absurd of course. The arsonist did what they always do, the find an out of the way location, usually undercover (in this case an alley) and start their fire. The arsonist had every intention of seeing St. John’s burn to the ground.

    Bishop Marian Budde then went on to make her progressive stance more public by attacking the President of the United States for standing outside of St. John’s with a Bible in his hand. She should have been speaking about how refreshing it was to see an American President holding a Bible, and standing not only for what is righteous but for what just.

    When religious leaders use their bully pulpit to make political statements that divide the country, and especially so at a volatile time such as this, their motives are on display not their humanity.

  32. Comment by Hopeful_One on June 11, 2020 at 8:42 am

    While a nation roils over the death of a single man, thousands of innocent babies have been slaughtered and that slaughter continues. Do the churches rise in condemnation of those acts of contempt for life? No, little is said. Once a year there is a large protest in Washington, D.C. with over a hundred thousand truly peaceful protestors, but in the bigger scheme of things, I’d think that 2,363 babies slaughtered everyday in abortion slaughter houses would cause an outcry of such volume and intensity that a change must needs happen to stop the holocaust…crickets from the churches.

  33. Comment by Hopeful_One on June 11, 2020 at 8:56 am

    I don’t know if any of you have heard of the underground industry of slaughtering human beings for cash. It is a lucrative business. Other humans actually volunteer and some are paid for their participation…well, actually you all have heard of them, but have forgotten what they do because their names do not reflect their actual business.

    Churches are involved in this business on the other end, trying to save some of the human beings, yet seemingly oblivious to the unjust nature of the business. No huge protest and demand for this to stop, just a yearly remembrance that it continues. Why is that?

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