“How can you not be horrified after watching that video?”
“This is shocking! Can’t you see the problem?”
“Where’s your sense of outrage? We have to do something about this injustice!”
These are the sentiments of socially conscious Americans, after viewing videos that expose some of the most egregious examples of injustice in our society. The initial shock turns to dismay when others don’t seem to be bothered, or when others offer excuses or “context” for what the videos show to be so obviously wrong.
If you are a conservative, white Christian, you are likely thinking right now about the undercover Planned Parenthood videos, which show doctors talking about the best way to crush the bodies of unborn children in order to harvest their organs, and doctors standing over the dead children identifying their body parts (“Another boy!”).
If you are a black Christian, however, you are likely thinking right now about the stream of videos showing grown men – and in one case, a child – dying at the hands of police officers. Eric Garner gasping, “I can’t breathe!” The frightening two seconds it took for a Cleveland officer to shoot 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The shoot-out in Walmart that took down John Crawford. Walter Scott, shot as he ran away. And most recently, a routine traffic stop that ended with Sam Dubose shot in the head.
Shock turns into dismay when people rationalize the violence.
“These videos have been heavily edited. The conversations are taken out of context.” (As if the way we talk about dismembering tiny humans is the problem, not the practice itself.)
“Fetal tissue donation is used for scientific research that can save lives!” (Terms like “Fetal tissue” distance us from the child being dissected in the pie dish. Well, that human isn’t human like I am.)
“Did you know the guy fathered 10 children by different women and had been arrested before?” (As if human worth depends on one’s moral uprightness. He isn’t the same kind of person as me.)
Euphemisms abound to mask the humanity of the unborn, just like mug shots of African-American victims are often the media’s first picks to show the world. Both of these are ways of distancing ourselves from the horror, the inhumanity on display in the videos that interrupt our thoughts and lead us to question our basic assumptions.
“That was an outlier. The officer in McKinney, TX had had a rough day.”
“Planned Parenthood does a lot of good, too. We need to not jump to conclusions, even if the videos are disturbing.”
“Well, the man was resisting arrest. He wouldn’t have died if he had just complied.”
“The real problem is the deception of the video-makers! They invaded a patient’s privacy!”
Do you see what is happening in these cases? Brought face to face with video evidence of injustice, people in our society do back flips to avoid the conclusion that there is indeed a pattern of injustice and we should do something about it. We are trying to squeeze these disturbing videos into the narratives we live by — the way we see the world. We are trying to keep our world right side up. We are trying to make sense of things in ways that deny what the videos show to be undeniable.
Many pro-choice people in our country are uncomfortable with the idea of abortion, but don’t want to see it outlawed. They can see a doctor talking callously about the unborn and they think, “How insensitive!” They see another video or two, with the haggling over fetal body parts being severed for sale, and think, “Well, this is disturbing, but they haven’t broken laws, have they? Isn’t this ultimately for a good cause?”
Pro-life people are flabbergasted at the reticence to condemn such blatant inhumanity. Don’t you see the pattern here? How can you sit back and ignore such injustice?
Pro-life people have already concluded that there is a problem here, and so this new evidence reinforces everything they believe about Planned Parenthood. And to be clear, I’m with the pro-life crowd. It is a sick society that sees an unborn child as worthless when alive and valuable when dead.
But I’m also with my black brothers and sisters, who are deeply discouraged by the lack of empathy or outrage from their white friends regarding racial injustice. They too have come to the conclusion that there is a systemic problem in our society, and the videos expose the awful reality. And so they are pleading – pleading – with us, their family members in Christ, to not sit back and ignore, or justify, or explain away the real problems in our society that we have seen captured on video this year. Can you see the pattern here? they say. Please don’t sit back and ignore the injustice!
Now, there is, of course, a major difference between an organization that was founded in injustice and slaughters millions of unborn children a year (Planned Parenthood) and the laudable work of thousands of police officers who put their lives on the line for the safety of their communities every day. One group ensures from the demise of humans for personal gain; the other group ensures the safety of humans at personal cost.
Still, the tendency to explain away disturbing videos and their implications is the same. But here is an opportunity to fight our instinct and see the world from another’s eyes! People with pro-choice convictions are challenged with the reality that, no matter how much good an organization may do, there is a dead body after every abortion. And conservative Christians who applaud the good work of law enforcement officers every day are challenged to oppose lawlessness wherever it is found – violent rioters and rogue officers. It is because we believe in the rule of law that we are free to stand up and say something when patterns of injustice show up.
If you’re disturbed by Deborah Nucatola, you should also be disturbed by the death of Sam Dubose. The videos are “shocking,” yes. And for the injustice they expose to be dealt with, good people must stop looking away. Now is our chance.
