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Monument Walk #4 - Black Lives Matter

6/7/2020

 

 
I took a very long walk today, from the District Armory to the Capitol Building and White House. There, about 1,000 D.C. church-goers gathered to lament the murder of George Floyd, to protest, and to pray among the monuments.  I chose to join with the Faith+Works D.C. march today for a few reasons: 

First, the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement officers are unjust and ongoing.  Black Lives Matter. Extrajudicial killings must stop.

Second, the Christians of Washington D.C. are my people.  I have a leadership role at my church on Capitol Hill and a responsibility to advocate for the congregation's well-being.  I attend a diverse, majority-white church.  We believe that when one member of our flock has a problem, we all have a problem (See Matthew 18:12-14).  I carried hopes and fears for the children of color in my congregation as I passed monuments to abolition and the arts.  

Third, I must speak out publicly against the tear-gassing of a peaceful crowd in Lafayette Square for the sake of a photo opp at St. John's church. Usually, I don't bring my spirituality out into the open on this blog.  I prefer to focus on design ethics.  But, usually, POTUS doesn't use chemical agents to disperse protesters so that he can waggle a Bible in front of a historic church.  These are unusual times.  I do not understand the religion that cheers or excuses this behavior.  

Last,  I wanted to participate so that I could share the experience.  This is what I saw and felt:

We walked for a few hours, singing, waving signs with BLM slogans and bible verses.  There was some chanting "DO JUSTICE...LOVE MERCY!" (See Micah 6:8). The chanting never got very loud.  I have not had negative experiences with police.  It was difficult to conjure passion in my rebuke against a justice system that has harmed others, but not me. 

Our crowd was all wearing masks. Leaders removed them to lead singing and prayer through the megaphones.  Churches and the NAACP handed out water and snacks in the sun.

I learned that the go-to songs of Faith+Works' black leaders were unfamiliar to me and most of the people in the crowd.  The marshals led us with grace despite our ignorance. 

Bicycle-police escorted us without incident.  There were no rioters.  Nothing was on fire.

The city was eerily empty,  Several blocks were boarded-up. When we finally arrived at the White-house compound, it was wrapped in layers of chain-link fence and graffiti.  I have never seen D.C. like this.  At Black Lives Matter Plaza, we intersected with members of several other marches while singing "Amazing Grace."  Our group was greeted with cameras and expressions of acceptance and confusion.

One march marshal led us in prayer and we dispersed.

* According to the Washington Post, Mitt Romney joined us as we walked past the monuments and Humvees on Pennsylvania Ave. I was unaware of this at the time.  Articles have also referred to the marchers as "conservative evangelicals" a term that I wouldn't apply to myself.   

* This article (from local news blog, DCist) reflects my experience of the march and provides a profile of one of the pastors that led it: 
https://dcist.com/story/20/06/08/hundreds-from-wards-7-and-8-join-faith-filled-march-to-the-capitol/

Rick Conti link
6/8/2020 01:12:50 pm

"I do not understand the religion that cheers or excuses this behavior."

That's because there is no connection between the two. This quote by Frederick Douglass might be well over 150 years old, but just a few changes and it applies exactly to our time:

"…between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels."


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    Matt Sickle is a landscape architect living in Maryland, near Washington, D.C.

    He spends a lot of his time thinking about monuments and memorials.  

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