“Do not pervert justice… but judge your neighbor fairly… Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:15-16
As an Asian-American growing up in Los Angeles and attending a school with very few Asian-American students, I experienced my fair share of marginalization, racism, and prejudice. However, even from a very young age, I knew that I still had it easier than my Black and Latino friends who were constantly misjudged, mischaracterized, and punished more severely. And even as we suffer through this season of Covid-19 together as a nation, we still grieve the losses of two young African-Americans due to mindless acts of killing. One woman who was a full-time EMT was shot and killed while sleeping in her own bed and a young man who was racially profiled and murdered while he was going on a jog on a Sunday afternoon. This is not okay and this will never be okay. Not only is it acceptable to lament, sometimes the most spiritual practice we can do is lament. Lamenting is grieving the things that are not right in this world, whether that’s expressed in sadness or anger. God laments over what is happening in our nation; may we allow the Holy Spirit to help us lament.
Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Let us remember their names.
