Jun
28
“God gives us freedom to grieve; he gives us freedom to be angry. But he doesn’t give us freedom to sin while we are grieving and while we are angry.” — Samuel Sey
Lately, I’ve been getting caught up on some blogposts by Samuel Sey. You might remember the name, since I’ve quoted and linked to him before. Sam is a talented, from-the-heart writer and a conservative Christian who works for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. He also happens to have immigrated from Ghana to Canada as a child, which adds to his unusual perspective.
Not surprisingly, Sam has some poignant thoughts about the past few weeks of tragic killings (i.e., Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks), protests, rioting/looting/arson, and the “social justice” demands and (re)actions that have followed. In hopes of bringing well-deserved attention to his writing, here are a few brief quotes:
“Injustices against black men are not synonymous with racist injustices against black men. And if we react to these injustices in a careless and slanderous manner, we’re not just guilty of sin, but we’re also guilty of contributing to the divisions, tensions, and anxieties in our society.”
“Victims of black-on-black crime tend to be irrelevant black murder victims to us. The skin colour of their killers do not give many people the opportunity to virtue signal. Their names do not trend on social media for several days. Their names only appear briefly in local news and local newspapers. However, at least they have a name — at least their murders get mentioned in our local news. There is a group of black murder victims whose lives matter even less to our society — black pre-born babies.”
“Those of us who reject social justice ideology might be tempted to allow the opportunism and foolishness of others to cloud our own judgment. But we shouldn’t allow those who cry wolf to make us deaf to real, genuine growls of wolves.”
“It doesn’t seem like many people are mourning [George Floyd’s] death anymore. People are using his name to steal from their neighbours or shame others. Opportunists have capitalized on his death, using his murder for material and political gain.”
“[I]f we’re going to accuse our governments of participating in systemic racism today, we should be able to list examples of systemic partiality against black people today. Otherwise, we’re guilty of dishonouring our governments and bearing false witness against them. Social justice proponents are unable to list racist laws or policies to support their accusations, so they usually resort to perceptions and racial disparities as evidence for their accusations.”
“Social justice ideology is a religion for people who make gods out of their skin-colours or self-interests. Social justice ideology is a religion with its own orthodoxies and heresies, its own priests and prophets, its own sacred slogans and confessions or catechisms — and particularly, its own version of sin and righteousness.”
“I blame the criminal who looks like me for putting me in a bad position. The police officers were just doing their job. They were just trying to serve and protect my neighbourhood — just as they served and protected me years before.”
Here’s a chronological list of Sam’s blogposts from the past several weeks (i.e., the sources for the above quotes):
1) “Is It Racist To Kill A Black Man?”
2) “Is Racism Worse Than Murder?”
3) “The Injustice Against George Floyd”
4) “Destructive Reactions To Injustice”
5) “5 Black Americans React To George Floyd’s Murder”
6) “5 Non-Black Americans React To George Floyd’s Murder”
7) “Does Systemic Racism Exist?”
8) “If Silence Is Violence, Jesus Is A Sinner”
9) “Dear Police Officers”
I hope you will give them a thoughtful read….
