How to Pray About Ferguson

The word Ferguson is "trending" on social networks like Facebook, now that we know that the Grand Jury has refused to charge Officer Darren Wilson with any criminal activity in the shooting death of 18 year old Michael Brown. Like the case of Trayvon Martin, this case is bitterly dividing the nation. It is dividing even us in the Body of Christ, just as happened in the case of Trayvon Martin. Yes, I have already received email requests to sign petitions calling for justice for Michael Brown and I signed one of them. You may have seen calls to sign petitions online already. Whatever our positions on the Grand Jury decision, we all should be united in praying about the entire sad Ferguson situation, as it affects not only Ferguson but larger St. Louis and the entire US. Let me give some key points for prayer.

1). Pray for the safety of all the residents of Ferguson and nearby St. Louis, Officer Darren Wilson, other Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), the Grand Jurors, the Prosecutor, and the peaceful protesters. We know that emotions will remain raw in the wake of the Grand Jury announcement that Michael Brown's killer will not be held accountable for causing his death.

2). Pray for all those whose livelihoods have been affected by all this. Pray that they will God will draw them to His side, provide for them, and that they will use this time to get closer to their families. This includes many school teachers and staff members, and many businesses, including small businesses.

3). Pray for all supporters of Officer Darren Wilson who may consciously or subconsciously harbor racial prejudices or biases, that they God will convict them, soften their hearts, and that they will overcome fear and hate of those who look or act different because of race, disability, nationality, or anything else.

4). Pray for the Black community and others who look or act different, that they will place their hope in God, turn to Jesus in their hour of need, forgive those who have hurt them, and find true community with others who feel their pain. Pray that they will use their pain to make a difference and work to make the world a better place for all.

5). Pray for the family of Michael Brown and for many other families whose loved ones have never received justice from the courts, that they will find in God their refuge and comfort. Pray that they will be given the grace to forgive and the courage to work for change in this culture.

6). Pray for the criminals involved in this, including groups like the KKK, the Black Panthers, and other hate groups, and for the looters and the arsonists, that God will save their souls from sin. Pray that God will convict them and capture their hearts for Jesus, and that they will overcome anger, rage, bitterness, and hate. Pray that they will find that love is more powerful.

7). Protests are going on in other parts of the US and criminals are infiltrating the peaceful protests, just as they are in Ferguson. Remember these cities also in your prayers, as you pray for Ferguson.

8). Give thanks and praise to God that He can bring good out of all the chaos, just as He can in any situation. Praise Him for His sovereign grace even in this.

Let us remember that this not only about Michael Brown or Ferguson, but is about all of us!

May God help us.

What Position Should Christians Take on the Michael Brown Shooting?

I had thought that the highly divisive case of George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin was spitting our nation and maybe our churches, often along racial and political lines. I remember how bitterly uncivil our conversations could get when any mention of either name was mentioned. Even in our family and in our local congregation, we refrained from mentioning the case because of the controversies. Currently, a case, located very close to where I live--Ferguson, Missouri--has proved to be just as controversial and divisive. We hesitate to discuss the case even with family or close friends whom we sense may disagree with us.

I'm talking about the Officer Darren Wilson/Michael Brown case.

Since this current case broke over two weeks ago, it has continued to unfold. I remember when I first heard about the 18 year old being gunned down, and that it happened right in my area. I learned about it in the local morning news; later in the day it was mentioned in the national news. That evening, we were saddened to watch our local news show, in real-time, the looting that took place, that night, in response to the shooting. A couple family members dismissed the perpetrators as thugs: "They are scumbags. They don't care about that teenager who was just killed; they just want to steal from stores and cause trouble." It didn't do any good for me to counter: "There is no excuse for that and they are just giving that community a bad name. But these people probably grew up with hopelessness from the beginning; they don't see anything to look forward to and so they decide to grab all the gusto they can." The offending officer had kept his name secret for over a week. We still know little about him, except that he was divorced, had no disciplinary history, and claims that he shot Brown in self-defense, feeling bad about "having to do so." From the beginning, protesters have been marching in the streets to call for justice for Brown and to end unjustified police shootings. One or two autopsies reveal that Brown was shot at least six times. And this case continues to unfold before our eyes.

In this over this past week, dozens and dozens of arrests were done in Ferguson. Police officers, heavily armed, arrested even journalists just doing their jobs and one protester who was a Holocaust survivor. Protesters, often harassed by cops and pepper-sprayed, marched in the streets to show their anger and frustration at the devaluing of Black lives. This recent shooting, the last straw in long line of cases of the shooting of Blacks who had not gotten any justice, has drawn the Black community together. Our Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon, even called for a curfew and declared a state of disaster. Later, he summoned the National Guard and Ferguson looked like a scene out of the Middle East. Most of this has died down, fortunately. The St. Louis Prosecutor on this Brown case, having lost a loved one at the hands of a Black youth and with strong ties to police officers, is seen to be unable to be unbiased on this case. Yet even after many of us signed a petition for him to resign, he rejected the 70,000 signatures and our Governor, Jay Nixon, said no to calls to ask him to step down. Currently, an audiotape, currently unconfirmed as legitimate, reveals up to ten or eleven gunshots were fired and a conversation was engaged in at the time. Who knows what will be learned tomorrow?

I have seen many comments that have been trashing Brown, just like Martin was trashed when his case was front and center. Even in a Christian publication, Brown was called a "thug" just as Martin was called a "thug" on a Christian pro-life Facebook page. Brothers and sisters in Christ, would Jesus have referred to anyone, let alone any teen gunned down, as a "thug"? I don't think He would. Maybe we should not, either, whatever we may think of Brown or Martin or other victims who have been exposed as not living squeaky-clean lives. What can a video of thievery or possibly doctored photos tell us about the character of a person, anyway? In the case of Brown, when the suspect cop released his name, he released a video that sparked outrage in the Black community because it made Brown look bad. In the video, Brown was involved in stealing and assault of a store clerk minutes before he was shot and killed. In the Trayvon Martin case, Zimmerman supporters hacked into Martin's supposed Twitter account, which showed pics of Martin flipping his "birdie," puffing on marijuana and brandishing a gun. It showed tweets full of foul language. I cannot count the number of times when Christians have posted articles that posted articles that cast Martin as a person who caused his own death, and that capitalized on that leaked material from his supposed Twitter account. An account that may have been hacked. Hacking websites is a felony and can crime-based "evidence" be the basis to discern anything? Christian Pastors have criticized Martin and defended Zimmerman. Is it no surprise to us that, sadly, many Blacks are converting to Islam because they are being turned off by many of us in the Christian Church?

What can we do about this? Here are some steps to regaining credibility with more people in the Black community: Listen to Black people, especially those closest to us. If we are Caucasian, we need to admit the reality of "white privilege," even those of us who may feel oppressed in other ways, because of disabilities, gender or class. We need to apologize for "the sins of our fathers," and maybe our own (if applicable). We need to talk about racism and admit that it remains alive and well. We need to pray for loving Christian ministry among those in the inner-city ghettos and be willing to become an answer to our prayers if called to be that.

And as for our law enforcement, they need better race relations understanding and training in difficult situations, involving people with racial or disability differences or other differences. Police shootings based on poor training needs to stop. As suggested, maybe more Blacks should be encouraged to become police officers. If you are tired of hearing about Michael Brown and Ferguson, think about how those with racial and other differences are tired of how so many in law enforcement deal with them.

Time will not make this racial discussion go away. Only prayer and action will. Aren't we tired about hearing of Micheal Browns or Trayvon Martins?

Why We Christians Must Pay Attention to Iraq & Radical Islam

It has been a few weeks that many of us in the Christian community have been aware of a genocide. It has been unfolding in the international news. It has finally gotten President Obama's attention. Many of us, who follow the news of persecuted believers worldwide, have been aware of this growing war for awhile before that. One nonprofit states that they saw this exact thing coming years in advance. This is being driven by a radical element. An element that shows signs of impacting us in the West if we do not become proactive in educating ourselves and speaking up.

I'm talking global persecution of Christians and other religious minorities, and radical Islam.

According to my Facebook experience, persecution nonprofits have hundreds of thousands of page "likes" on their pages. That is good. But there are millions of people, in the US alone, who call themselves Christians. In over the past week, in my Facebook Newsfeed, I have seen far more posts about the police shooting of eighteen year old Michael Brown than I have about the atrocities going on in Iraq at this time, let alone the crimes against our brothers and sisters in Jesus (and other religious minorities) in other parts of the world. Yes, Michael Brown was a young man whom Jesus loved and died for, and God's heart was broken, is broken, at his death. He is grieved at is what has been going on in Ferguson, Missouri, for over a week. But our national and international media, which was faithfully covering the radical Muslim (known as ISIS) atrocities against the Iraqi people last week, has been covering the Michael Brown case far more now. What does this say about us, whether Christians or non-Christians?

Obviously, many of us are much more drawn to or energized by sensational and controversial cases like Michael Brown. Persecution against religious minorities, mostly our brothers and sisters in Jesus, cannot be sensationalized like many of our domestic celebrity scandals or many of our true crime stories. Coverage of radical Islamists and their acts of terror cannot be sensationalized and we universally denounce their acts of terror. The media give us what we want to hear, what fascinates us. The horrors of global persecution of fellow believers and the terrorist acts of radical Islamists plain do not fascinate even most of us Christians. Maybe it is because these terrorists and their victims seem distant and unreal to us. Maybe it is because it is all so depressing to think about it. I know that many of us and our families are facing real problems. Though we believe God, we may not want to hear any more problems. We may not feel that speaking out against the atrocities of radical Islamists or persecuted fellow believers, are "our calling." After all, as Christians, we are focused on other worthy missions. That is wonderful. But does that rule out taking time to educate ourselves about global religious persecution and about probably the greatest world religion enemy of Christians (and of all people, including moderate Muslims)--radical Islam.

Besides, what does radical Islam have to do with us in the West? How does it affect us, anyway?

Sadly, it has taken the recent beheading of a courageous American journalist, to bring this home and get more of us to take seriously the atrocities that have already been going on for many weeks. Guess what? Radical Islamists do not wish to stop there, either. Noise is being made about their plans to bring more of this to the West. Plans are made to traffic girls in parts of Western Europe, and to attack more and more interests of the US. Will we ever learn, not only nationally, but also spiritually?

We know, as Christians, that we have been called to care for those in need. We are called to "Remember those in chains, as though bound with them." And yet, it seems that many, maybe most, Pastors and members are silent on global religious persecution. I have never heard it preached from a pulpit, ever. I have never heard it discussed in any Bible study. I suspect that many in my network on Facebook, who call themselves believers, appear not to see my posts that pertain to the persecution of our global Church family, or my invitations to join my Facebook group. I read a recent book about the radical Muslim war against Christians, with many, many heartbreaking stories about atrocities against Christians all over the world, including children. The author, Raymond Ibrahim, states that ignorance of global religious persecution not only enables radical Islamists to persecute Christians all the more, but this can empower these terrorists to Islamize us in the West! Is that what we want? There are graphic, heart-wrenching photos of instances of this savage persecution, including adults holding a child's dead body. Some of us may have heard of the stories of the genocide of religious minorities, mostly our brothers and sisters in Christ. But we may believe we are helpless and unable to do a thing, so why bother trying? But there are things we can do to educate ourselves about radical Islam and about global religious persecution. May I share a few with you?

Educate yourself about radical Islam here.

If you use Facebook, join this group.

To learn about persecuted Christians and how to show them your support, go here.