Animal Instincts

In the 90’s, the closest we got to the violently plagued Crenshaw and Compton was through the television screen. Within the past year in Philadelphia and Camden it seems as if someone gets shot every second. Now those shots are ringing in an increasing rhythm a whole lot closer to home than some of us are willing to admit. Close your doors, lock them and never come out. “Fight for Justice, Fight for Peace. Speak Up! Speak Now!” Those were the chants that were heard through the streets of Somerset this past Saturday after a string of premature funerals left the entire community unsettled with uncertainty and fear about the future of our youth. Today, three more murdered in Newark and one who experienced the same brutality with a different outcome. She lived. What now? Do we march again? Do we sing in the streets “We shall overcome?” Do we go to the mayor or the governor or the President and demand a solution???? I can just picture it now- a great big crowd of non-violent protest marchers strumming through the streets shouting “No violence” while the real murders sit at home, watching Sonny Corleone murdered execution style by his enemies in The Godfather. What can tame the increasing animal-instinctual-survival of the fittest frame of mind that our generation has succumb to? It seems as if there are two options. 1) either an all out military presence along with city wide curfews; or 2) Genocide. Neither are appealing options ,yet tempting and practical if not for the humanity that God saw fit to salvage upon flooding the entire earth. So I ask myself two questions: What would Jesus do? What would Dr. King do? (I’m sure I can use another figure, but he comes to mind) Both were not afraid to die. (at least King wasn’t in the latter part of his life) I’m not so sure I’m willing to die right now. But the reality is- if we are to engage in this war- and it is a war- that’s kind of a requisite- even if far fetched. You may disagree, but hey. Jesus would pray a whole lot right? Shouldn’t we do something spiritual like have a day of prayer and fasting or something? I don’t know. But we have both a spiritual and natural war ahead and those who wish to be apart have to be willing to engage. And that’s a major decision. One that I can’t make in a planning meeting. At any rate, whatever you decide to do, or however you decide to engage, I’m game until then.