Become people of prayer

By jeff Long

One week ago this past Friday, my wife and I left a three-day conference in St. Louis' Central West End. As we were leaving the parking garage, our car pointing toward Southeast Missouri, we heard the news that a judge had found a white former St. Louis police officer not guilty in the shooting death of an African-American man in 2011. The NPR station we were listening to immediately suspended its pledge drive in favor of round-the-clock coverage of expected protests. Schools sent their children home, businesses boarded up, activities were cancelled all over the city. The Italian restaurant we had patronized the night before now had police in riot gear out front. The mayor's condo would be pelted with rocks.

I found myself going through the Facebook posts of a white clergy friend who happens to pastor a predominately black congregation in Cape. Without examining the court's ruling acquitting Officer Jason Stockley, an exercise for which I'm not qualified, reading these posts reminded me again how little we understand other people.

Sometimes it's simply a matter of judgment or simple courtesy.

For example, some people regard my yard as a landfill, because I pick up trash thrown into my yard at least once a week. I don't understand. My dear wife says such folks are "raised by wolves," a remark which is a coping mechanism.

I don't understand lots of things. The motivation behind many protests befuddles me. Years ago, my girlfriend (now wife) and I got caught up in a peaceful protest vigil in Washington, D.C. We were walking by and someone put candles into our hands and we stood there, dumbfounded, while the media recorded the scene. We weren't really sure what the protest was about, quite frankly. Does a vigil, perhaps the most silent form of protest, change anything? Will behavior change because we held candles and got ourselves on TV? Vigils are wonderful at strengthening resolve and holding a community of like-minded folks together. Beyond that, I don't know.

As the protests continued through the weekend and into the first part of this week in St. Louis, the same questions occurred to me. Will these demonstrations, peaceful and not, change anything? I kept scrolling my friend's posts and came across an old quote from Martin Luther King Jr., which gave me at least the glimpse of an answer:

"It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard."

I have no standing to question the decision of St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson. I didn't sift the evidence, I didn't hear the testimony, I don't know how the law applies in the now-decided case. What I do know is that the national conversation in America is becoming more fractured, "we" is giving way to "us" vs. "them," and people are increasingly feeling left out. Whatever you may think of the verdict or the protests that followed, something is not right.

One alternative to a riot is to become people of prayer. As Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."