Today’s Scripture Reading (January
17, 2015): Acts 24
The Movie
“American Sniper” (2014) has just been released and it is already taking
criticism. The argument is that the movie violates the events that really
happened, and that the original story is based so much on hate that there is no
way to mediate it. For many, it seems that the movie glorifies the very things
that they believe should not be glorified. But the movie might be important for
a totally different reason – and for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do
with the historicity of the story. In the advertising teaser, we are introduced
to the main character (Chris Kyle) as he looks down the barrel of his gun at a
woman and a child, and he believes that the woman has given a bomb to the child,
and now that child, carrying a bomb, is moving toward the American position. The
sniper cries out to others who are watching the situation, hoping that someone
can verify what it is that he thinks he is seeing, but no one has a position
that reveals what it is that Chris Kyle has seen. And now he has to make a
decision. If he shoots the child and he is carrying a loaf of bread, his
career, and in many ways his life, will be over. There will be charges, and
imprisonment that would have to follow that kind of an act. But if the child is
carrying a bomb, then American lives are in trouble. (To know what happens
next, watch the movie.)
But the
reason why the movie, and more specifically this scene, is important is not
because of the idea that this might have actually happened; it is important
because of the political and racial landscape that exists today in North
America – and more specifically in the United States. The problems between the
police and American Black population has reached a level we have not seen for a
while. And the pressure continues to build. We have almost reached a point
where the truth no longer matters, and where all that does matter is what is
perceived through our own interpretation of the world. Please, don’t read this
as a judgment in favor of one side or the other, because that is not what is
intended. But the reality is that today it seems to be more dangerous to be
Black in America than it was yesterday – and it is just as dangerous to be
identified as law enforcement.
For some,
the answer is to have police officers wearing camera’s as they move through
their day (after all, it works so well in American Football and Hockey – they
never make any mistakes anymore) so that we can see the events as they happened
later. But the biggest problem is that we are not in the situation, with all of
the emotions and fears of the situation, and with all of the biases and
prejudices that seems to be inherent in the situation. And the ultimate danger,
something that we seem to be on the brink of, is that we will begin to make
decisions according to popular opinion rather than according to what really
happened. We will begin to make our decisions on the basis of the fact that the
police are always wrong (or always right), or the power of popular opinion. In
the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, of a few weeks ago, it would be very easy to
make the judgment in such a way as to minimize the protests, rather than on the
basis of what we think (and I have said that we will never really know) is the
truth. Or that the judgment in next situation that arises will be based on the
public reaction in the past rather than on the details of the current
circumstance.
And this is
exactly what is happening in Jerusalem. Felix was not a liked man. His
reputation is that he occupies the position of governor on the basis of what he
can gain. Truth, during the reign of Felix, could be bought. Luke makes the
comment that he was meeting frequently with Paul hoping that would pay him for
his release. Felix was recalled because of an outbreak of conflict between the
Jewish and non-Jewish segments of the population in Caesarea. And Felix’s
answer was to send in the troops (police) and, as a result, many Jews were
slaughtered. The popular opinion was that Jews were killed because Felix wanted
it to be that way. He had no patience for the native population he oversaw. As a result of Felix’s action, the conflict
was increased instead of deceased – and Rome recalled Felix and it is only
because of the intervention of Felix’s brother Pallas that Felix suffered no
other discipline other than his removal from office. But the text reminds us
that Paul was left in prison because he would not pay his way out, and because
that is what the Jews wanted – and Felix hoped that by keeping Paul in prison this
one act could atone for some of the other sins that he had committed against
the Jews.
It is
interesting that Pilate and Felix share this trait in common. It seems that
both knew that their prisoners (Jesus for Pilate and Paul for Felix) were
innocent, but they decided to act according to political expediency rather than
what they believed to be true. Truth did not matter near as much as how the
current situation could be twisted into an advantage for the governor. And it
seems, in this moment, that we might be standing close to partaking in the same
sin.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 25
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