A Letter Concerning the Death of George Floyd and So Many Others

By
Foley Beach
-
3238

To the Clergy of the Anglican Church in North America,

I am writing to commend the letter below written by Bishops Jim Hobby, Todd Hunter, Stewart Ruch, and Steve Wood regarding the recent killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

I ask that you reach out to the minorities in your community and serve them as Christ Jesus would do.

In Christ,


The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Archbishop and Primate


A Letter Concerning the Death of George Floyd and So Many Others

George Floyd was made in the image of God and as such is a person of utmost value. This is not true because a few Anglican bishops issue a letter. This conviction arises from our reading of Scripture. The Psalmist said:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Psalm 139:13-14)

The opening book of our Scriptures declares the value of all human life:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

What happened to George is an affront to God because George’s status as an image bearer was not respected. He was treated in a way that denied his basic humanity. Our lament is real. But our lament is not limited to George and his family. We mourn alongside the wider Black community for whom this tragedy awakens memories of their own traumas and the larger history of systemic oppression that still plagues this country.

George’s death is not merely the most recent evidence that proves racism exists against Black people in this country. But it is a vivid manifestation of the ongoing devaluation of black life. At the root of all racism is a heretical anthropology that devalues the imago dei in us all.  The gospel reveals that all are equally created, sinful and equally in need of the saving work of Christ. The racism we lament is not just interpersonal. It exists in the implicit and explicit customs and attitudes that do disproportionate harm to ethnic minorities in our country. In other words, too often racial bias has been combined with political power to create inequalities that still need to be eradicated.

As bishops in the ACNA we commit ourselves to standing alongside those in the Black community as they contend for a just society, not as some attempt to transform America into the kingdom of God, but as a manifestation of neighborly love and bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ. We confess that too often ethnic minorities have felt that contending for biblical justice is a burden they bear alone.

In the end, our hope is not in our efforts, but in the shed blood of Jesus that reconciles God to humanity and humans to each other. Our hope is that our churches become places where our life together as disciples demonstrates the power of the gospel to bring together the nations of the earth (Rev 7:9). Such work cannot be carried out by one letter written in the time of crisis. We commit to educating ourselves and the churches under our charge within a biblical and theological frame to face the problems of our day. We likewise commit to partnering with likeminded churches in the work of justice and reconciliation.

The Feast of Pentecost is here in a couple of days. The power of the Spirit is loosed to convict of sin and deliver us from its power. We pray that in a country as diverse as these United States, the Church will be united in the essential truths of Christianity, including its concern for the most vulnerable. So…come Holy Spirit. Mediate to us and all the earth, we pray, the victory of Jesus over the principalities and powers that seek to rule and cause death and destruction in this time between the times. Come Holy Spirit.

Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, you created us in your own image: Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and help us to use our freedom rightly in the establishment of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Sincerely in Christ,

Bishops Jim Hobby, Todd Hunter, Stewart Ruch and Steve Wood

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Where is the evidence that this evil act was racially motivated? Shouldn’t we have that before making the accusation?

    I ashamed that my own bishop has chosen this sad time to send out this letter to ratchet up racial tensions.

    Let’s stir up white against black, black against white, and not deal with the evil of police brutality. Is that the vocation of the ACNA bishops? So sad.

    • I asked my daughter about this. No, I’m not Jimmy Carter. My daughter is a police officer of quite a few years experience.

      When I asked her about this she gave vent to a voluminous response. You might think she spoke to defend the officers in question, I don’t know. But she did not. She instead began to list things that these two officers did wrong. Violations of training (assuming the two department’s training regime is at all similar), violations of doctrine, violations of policy.

      She wears a camera on her uniform wherever she goes. I don’t know that there are any departments that don’t any more. The Left cheered the institution of these devices, NOW we’ll bring those overly aggressive officers to heel! Instead, the police tend to enjoy these little recorders, more often than not they document that it wasn’t the officer that was in the wrong.

      I’m not saying these officer’s weren’t in the wrong. Just the opposite. I think my daughter would know. In fact, the one was arrested, as I think any of them that had eyes on the situation and didn’t intervene should be. He will be very publicly tried, and very publicly punished. This is part of how police brutality is addressed. Train them, equip them support them on one hand, punish when necessary on the other hand.

      But when, oh when are we going to stop encouraging young people to resist arrest if they think the police are in the wrong? When are we going to stop training them to assume the police are wrong as their default posture? Is it not obvious by now this is inflaming the situation? THERE IS NOTHING TO BE GAINED FROM RESISTING ARREST! Cooperate, get taken downtown, DE-ESCALATE the situation, and make a call to your family or lawyer when given the chance. Adjudicate this in court, which is a controlled environment, a safe environment.

      I worry about all this virtue signalling. It’s fine for peaceful protests to take place, what happened to George Floyd SHOULD be made a big deal of, so that we can learn from it.

      But I’m afraid that the narrative is not that there are a few rogue cops who do dumb things and then must pay a steep price for it. I’m afraid the narrative is that police departments are cruising their neighborhoods looking for African Americans to harass, and any who GET harassed should resist energetically. That will get people killed.

      Have you ever seen a black rectangle on a car with a blue line running through it? That’s a symbol of support for police. It’s a recognition that police are the Thin Blue Line that separate us from anarchy. That line is thin. That line is fraying. You won’t like the result if that line breaks.

      • I agree with your point, that if a young person is approached by the police, he or she ought to cooperate, and not get into argument or rudeness . In my opinion, men 18 to 30 tend to argue and have a hard time not getting into a power struggle.They easily get angry. Men 35 or older, get smarter and have some ability to walk away, to pick one’s battles, have learnt to be flexible.

  2. Although we cannot deny cultural differences neither can we deny the value and dignity of each person as being in the image of God and for whom our Lord Jesus died on the Cross.
    I can understand how anyone confronted with violence or abuse on a daily basis can develop ‘burnout’, pushed to the edge and be ready to snap; but these two officers had been in trouble before, and their commanding officers should have recognised that they were becoming unstable or overly heavy handed. The disgrace is that they should have been removed from frontline duty before it ever got this far.
    I most certainly agree that they should face the full weight of the law, but someone(s) else up the line must also face responsibility.

      • Warren, in a fair and just society there surely has to be accountability. Certainly what happened doesn’t justify anarchy or looting, but there has to be accountability in the way in which society is policed.

  3. So incredibly glad I resigned from the ACNA. I must have missed the letter ABp Foley wrote to condemn the black murder of an elderly white couple visiting a cemetery a few short weeks ago.

  4. The ACNA bishops have been maintaining a firm, moral but restrained stance on these issues, which is wise.

  5. This is a lot better than the statement from ECUSA Bishop Curry, elsewhere on this site. However, the judgment, based on that horrible video, that Mr. Floyd was choked to death turns out to be wrong. He died of preexisting heart problems, exacerbated by the unjustifiable action of holding him down in that position, and, pending a toxicology report, probably also exacerbated by an intoxicant in his system. The police officer was wrong, and his colleagues were wrong in not stopping it. I expect the colleagues will also be charged, and they are no longer police officers, which is good.

    As Dr. Professional says, there is yet no evidence that he was held down because of his race. We have many, many examples of police misconduct related to people of all races and conditions in this country. The problem is rogue police officers, often supported by their police unions which will defend rogue officers. Just a couple of years ago, in Minneapolis, an unarmed white woman in her pajamas was shot dead by a black police officer. It took about a YEAR for charges to be filed and the police officer removed. Possibly because nobody rioted?

    The obvious mistreatment of Mr. Floyd was wrong. Also wrong is the assumption that virulent racism infects every white American, ignoring the enormous progress which has been made over the past seventy years or so. And primary responsibility for the destructive riots must go to “progressive” mayors across the country who failed to enforce public order before massively destructive forces took over.

  6. Preaching against other people’s racism is cheap. Let’s see an ACNA bishop call for the end of police unions and the protection of bad cops by corrupt city and county governments. That would take some actual courage.

  7. There were nine other people killed by police in the USA the same week as George Floyd. They had names and faces, yet no one knows them. They were Levi Morse, Wilbon Woodard, Tyler Hayes, Michael Snyder, Gary Dorton, and four others whose names have not been released. Seven of these were white, one Hispanic, one black. If George Floyd’s death is evidence “that proves racism exists”, and of the “devaluation of black life”, then what are the other nine deaths evidence of?

  8. I’m glad they put that verse, Gen. 1:27, out in front of people again, even if not to comment on the “male and female” part.

  9. Someone told me once that if I don’t believe we live in a racist society, then I’m a racist. By that logic, if one doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ, then one is a Christian.

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