{"id":42935,"date":"2020-05-11T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?p=42935"},"modified":"2020-05-11T08:57:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T12:57:39","slug":"let-justice-roll-down-like-waters-message-from-dean-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/let-justice-roll-down-like-waters-message-from-dean-moore\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: Message from Dean Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

10 May 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Grieving Community,<\/span><\/p>\n

In this week, our community has been overwhelmed with grief for Ahmaud Arbery, murdered in an act of hatred by two people who apparently identified themselves as above the law. Further, the wheels of legal action barely moved for 2\u00bd months, seemingly jarred into an action when a video appeared. We do not know the details of this investigation or the way it will unfold, but we do know that something is badly<\/i> wrong. A lynching took place in our country without any kind of due process, and with a reported lie about \u201cseveral burglaries\u201d in the area. Lord, have mercy!<\/span><\/p>\n

The murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who did nothing more threatening than to jog on a residential street, is shocking. At the same time, it is a painful reminder of attacks and murders of young African American men across the United States and across decades and centuries of time. Then, on May 5, Sean Reed was killed by multiple gunshots (reportedly 15-18) by the Indianapolis Police at the end of a high-speed chase that could have had any number of non-violent outcomes, especially since Reed was unarmed. This young man, an Air Force veteran, did not deserve to die, to have his life taken at the age of 22. When you consider these two tragic deaths alongside those of hundreds of other young men and women \u2013 African American, Latinx, Asian, and Native American \u2013 you see a grim picture of violence in our society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some in our community are personally overwhelmed in ways that others of us cannot know as deeply in our bones. The letter from the Association Black Seminarians expresses this with penetrating clarity.<\/span>[i]<\/sup><\/span> To be a person who is black or brown is to be vulnerable to murder by vigilantes in ways that are inconceivable to most of us who live in white skins. It is to be vulnerable to unjust health care systems and often to crowded housing conditions. It is to live in communities that are regularly denied emergency funding or delayed in receiving it. We live in a society where justice is sorely lacking and violence soars.<\/span><\/p>\n

You cannot turn away from this violence because, with one small turn of your head, you see the statistics in health care access, housing, and immigration practices that reveal the grossly disproportionate percentages of coronavirus cases and deaths among people of color. Another turn of your head and you see acts of hatred against Asian peoples, who daily have to listen to the rhetoric of blame for COVID-19, are regularly turned away from grocery stores, and are called names and spat upon, simply for being Asian. Another turn of your head reveals the violence in anti-lockdown protests, often fraught with racist and white supremacist language, Nazi and Confederate symbols, rifles and guns, and shouted threats made by overwhelmingly white crowds. Violence is everywhere, and racism and hatred are destroying our society.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream\u201d (Amos 5:24, NRSV). Have you ever wondered about that language? Amos is not talking about a one-time \u201caccomplishment\u201d of justice and righteousness; he is talking about mighty rivers and flowing streams. Justice and righteousness are movements<\/i>. They are movements of tears and protests, demands for accountability, and critical analysis of the underlying virus of violence. They are movements that call for a massive reshaping of our society and individual souls. Justice moments are never ends in themselves. Hopefully, they are moments that will catalyze other moments, and hundreds of thousands of moments, until we purge our world of injustice. May God\u2019s loving justice and just love fill and guide us. Let justice roll down like waters!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With sadness and passion,
\n<\/span>Mary Elizabeth<\/span><\/p>\n

[i]<\/sup>https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1aU_J_JZUN3CdSvoBJ3Nl___zVhD7p1LAz3AteWgrmBk\/edit?usp=sharing<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters 10 May 2020 Dear Grieving Community, In this week, our community has been overwhelmed with grief for Ahmaud Arbery, murdered in an act of hatred by two people who apparently identified themselves as above the law. Further, the wheels of legal action barely moved for 2\u00bd months, seemingly jarred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[200,203],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42935"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42938,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42935\/revisions\/42938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}