An Open Letter: Justice is Not Blind
Mike Higgins attended Covenant Seminary earned his MDiv in 1996 and served as a PCA pastor in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia before returning to Covenant Seminary as Dean of Students in 2011. In May 2012, Mike earned his DMin from Covenant where his focus was the “Experiences of African American Church Planters in the PCA.”
Mike and his wife, Renee Higgins, came to South City Church (Saint Louis) in 2012. Below is a letter addressed to his congregation, and extended to all ears.
On Monday, August 10th, I participated in a Saint Louis Clergy civil disobedience that involved a march from Christ Church Cathedral downtown to the Tom Eagleton Federal Building. The purpose of this action was to go forward as a show of unity and solidarity, to pray, sing hymns on the steps of the Federal Building and demand that the United States Attorney for Eastern Missouri move forward on the changes that must be made to ensure that all who are sworn to serve and protect will be better equipped to serve and protect people, not systems.
When the federal marshals and STLPD threatened the peaceful crowd with chemical agents, some of us decided on the spot to be dragged, tazed and/or cuffed as a way of distracting (or at least slowing down) that type of dispersal tactic, hoping to prevent many (including children) from being harmed.
This action was announced last Friday night at the conclusion of our First Friday Prayer meeting. Obviously, though the possibility of arrest was discussed at the meeting, my arrest could not have been announced. My hope, along with those of everyone who participated, was that we would not be arrested, but engaged. I believe we were heard, in some small way, but I believe we must keep speaking, keep confronting.
And I will do it all again if the circumstances are ever the same. I would do it again because I am not just doing this for myself. I was out there for my family, for our family. And I was there for everyone else. I hope that something I do keeps the next generation from being raised to become racists without even knowing it.
Brothers and Sisters, this world is broken. Justice in America – and so many places on earth – is not blind. If she were blind, she would not be blindfolded. She can see very clearly. She can see which ethnic group you belong to, how old or young you are, which side of the tracks you live on.
Justice, without the blindfold, can be manipulated by those who claim to exact it; to make you afraid of black people or Hispanic people; to make you dismiss addicts and ex-cons; to prevent us all from embracing equality or extending grace; to prevent us from affirming that we are all made in God’s image.
I think the blindfold was pulled off in this country when, not long ago, white men constructed a phenomenon called Race to make sure that people of color would never be considered equal, based solely on skin tone. Justice needs someone to help her with her blindfold, and we marched this Monday to demand that she retie it.
The Constitution says US citizens are innocent until proven guilty, but as a black man I am treated as if I am guilty and have to prove my innocence. The Church knows this tension -more than anyone. We are a community of people called to love and trust one another, but we remain suspicious, cynical, and judgmental of people who do not fit into the categories we have deemed proper.
Let’s be first to admit this hypocrisy, and turn from it. Let’s run to testify to our communities, and let’s demand that the authorities search themselves for this hypocrisy as well.
Brothers and Sisters, I know many of you are tired of hearing about Ferguson or surrounding discussions. I get so tired of talking about ethnic division, marching about it, meeting about it, sitting on stages in forums about it, but what else can I do when it seems so many US citizens don’t know, or often forget the history of this country – how our cities evolved into their present state — how many of them became the “hood.”
I grew up in North Saint Louis and I saw how it happened here. In the 60’s and 70’s, a large tract of North Saint Louis (The Ville, Fountain Park and a few other neighborhoods) were racially diverse, with a large percentage of middle class households. Then, the white folks left the City. Many white churches left, especially white Evangelical churches. It was a westward expansion to Saint Louis County. As a result, we are a hyper segregated city in a country that seems to be happy with “separate and unequal” standards of social justice for the black and brown underclass. No wonder my actions seem like foolishness to so many; it would seem like foolishness to me too if I didn’t know what I know about racism – or if I didn’t believe my foolish acts would help change things in this country.
Many of you see me as your pastor and it is an honor for me to serve you and the Lord in this capacity. However, I would ask you to see me as your friend. As we sit together on Sunday mornings, we are tearing down the historical segregation of the American church, and working towards true unity. But we cannot stop there. We must pursue “the elimination of racism in all its forms” as our elders stated in June. So, let’s attack division in all its forms, together. Let’s sit together in each other’s homes. Sit with me during a traffic stop, sit with me at the Rib Shack in north city; sit with me when people think it’s weird that you have a black pastor; sit with me when people think it’s weird so many of the people I serve are white.
I love our country and I know we can do better – God help the USA. But I love you more than any duty assignment I’ve been given, and I know that we will do better, because the Spirit has shown us the end of our story. That’s how I know that we cannot give up, no matter how tired or uncomfortable it gets.
We march on, pray on, sing on – because we know The God of righteousness and justice; true justice.
This Justice is neither blind nor blindfolded, it need not be. While justice in America is blindfolded to ensure some artificial security from bias, true Justice sees all our differences, discerns all distinctions, and judges fairly still. This is our future: we will all see, and finally see rightly.
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I agree with George’s comments! I am proud of you, Pastor Mike Higgins! May the LORD give us courage to follow suit.
George
Thank you Pastor Higgins for the truth. “The wound of a brother…” You do me a love. I am one who is not “easily offended” by my history or the current tone of some debates. I wish there were a way to let my black brothers and sister know that a growing number of conservative white evangelicals that they never hear of, and will never hear of, empathize with them and are not quite about it. We have paid a price for speaking up openly in our churches and at our work and in our families to those who would disrespect black people even those of any ethnicity who would think of singling out Young black men as a type… “Thugs” for instance. I am angry and ashamed at unbecoming speech and attitudes of some of my Christian brothers and sisters. But then I know sometimes too angry and I sin in thought and speech. I am convicted of my sin and crush in my heart. Then I am ashamed of myself. I repent again and again and again….and think what good will I ever be on this if I can’t control my tongue? Then I am quite for a while until I think of Paul who demanded his rights as Roman citizen and demanded to be taken out the front not the back…. and his open confrontation of Peter, Oh how we forget those things sometimes. I am thankful for men like you who would risk reputation like this for others. Maybe Philemon will except Onesimus as a full on brother in our life time because of men like you. I long to see that and not like a Jonah (ok if I have to) attitude. No, the real desegregated power sharing love of the Elders to the church that reflects what heaven is to the world.