Capitol Violence Calls Us To Recommit To Redeeming Institutions, Not Tearing Them Down
A pro-Trump rally turned violent Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2020. Photo by Hamil Harris.
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(OPINION) On Jan. 6, a group of people who felt disenfranchised were led to do something incredibly destructive. These people were not just bad actors. Their sense of disenfranchisement was exploited by those with political power. The events of violence at the Capitol on Wednesday were a horrific assault on our essential democratic institutions.
There is a common cry across the country that many people feel disenfranchised. Black people are used to that feeling, because they have experienced oppression as a norm for a very long time. This event showcases how leaders at the highest positions of power in our government have drawn on the disenfranchisement that some White people are feeling in this moment, and they have weaponized it.
The violence carried out Wednesday called attention to the importance of sustaining the institutions of government, even when those institutions themselves are flawed. And these events have had reverberations in almost every other type of human institution - workplaces, schools and worshipping communities. Now, more than ever, it is essential that organizations and communities across differences recognize that human flourishing for all encompasses the human flourishing of the most marginalized.
In the recent words of a Black faith-based and civic leader in our network:
“There needs to be a recognition among White leaders that the thriving of White communities is inextricably connected with the thriving of Black communities. There needs to be heavy investment in churches, faith-based nonprofits and community-based organizations in Black communities. Not out of charity or pity, but because it is what both justice and our interdependent flourishing call for.”
These words inspired us to unpack what this vision might look like, especially against a backdrop of rising social and political fracturing. The answer to unhappiness with the institutions that we need is not to tear them down and destroy them. We must commit, now more than ever, to rebuilding and renewing the political, religious, education and vocational institutions in our lives. We posit that in this moment, a Christian understanding of the image of God calls for systemic investment in Black communities.
This article will build on concepts we laid on in An Advent Vision to Inspire Equity and Strengthen Black Communities, introducing the idea of a holistic approach for investment by both philanthropic donors and financial capital investors in Black communities: Black-owned businesses, Black congregations and Black-led community-based nonprofits. This article will go deeper and explore the theology of the historic Black Church in relation to revitalizing Black communities. In Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley writes: “What is God’s first answer to Black suffering? It is to enter the suffering alongside us... the Word made flesh. The incarnation that comes all the way down, even unto death, has been enough for us to say yes, God, we trust you.”
The incarnation of Jesus as the embodiment of God’s love for his creation is the fountainhead from which all Black Church theology flows. Love, for God and humanity, shape the Black Church’s understanding of Christian ethics. This ethic of love and its corresponding moral principles are drawn from the commands of Christ in Matt 22:37-39: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The moral implications of this ethic are explained in 1 John 4:20: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
Enslaved Africans in America embraced this teaching. They responded to oppression by celebrating and defending the dignity of human beings. This inherent dignity is rooted in the understanding that humanity is formed in the image of God (Gen 1:27). This image bearing nature is called the “imago dei.” God has endowed humanity with certain representative, relational and functional qualities like his own which make us different from the rest of creation. As image bearers, we are to love God and to love humanity.
The imago dei establishes our sense of equality not simply in terms of our relationship with each other. But in the truth that God has bestowed certain characteristics upon all of humanity equally. We are therefore equal before God. To bear God’s image means that we have intrinsic value rooted in our heavenly father that supersedes all earthly divisions. For how can we claim to love God when we hate His image bearer?
Dr. Dean Trulear, professor of applied theology at the Howard University School of Divinity, wrote in the article “Race and the Image of God”: “In order for us as Christians to resist the insidious effects of those cultural standards that disparage persons based on race, we must start with an ability to see all humanity created in the image of God, irrespective of cultural stereotypes, systemic discrimination, and persistent segregation- whether de facto or de jure.” It is antithetical to the imago dei to deny the image-bearing nature of another person. When we deny the dignity in others, we do violence to God's image reflected by humanity in his creation.
The imago dei provides us with an understanding of humanity’s characteristics. It also provides us with a vision for humanity’s potential. The opportunity of the imago dei is the opportunity to see the full flourishing of image-bearing humanity. We have God-given value and potential. Every person has the capacity to be creative in their God-given roles as family members, congregants, entrepreneurs, employees, students, volunteers and citizens. We live out these roles in the context of institutions - families, worshipping communities, businesses and workplaces, social services organizations, civic groups and the like. This vision of the imago dei is therefore not limited to individual human beings but also embodied collectively in communities and social institutions. Here we have the opportunity to hold up fellow image-bearers together in common purpose.
Black communities have been denied - for social, political and economic reasons - access to economic resources that are essential to these communities. This has affected small businesses as well as faith-based and community-based organizations. This challenge needs systemic solutions. We need an array of innovative ideas and strategies to correct the ongoing harm in Black communities. At some point, we hope, society will realize that Black businesses and Black communities are worth investing in.
On Wednesday, we all witnessed a failure of political imagination. Those who feel disenfranchised need to be heard, and institutions must be held accountable to those who feel their voices are marginalized. Based on the events of Wednesday, institutions must re-examine and recommit to living out their most basic values that honor inherent human dignity. As the Center for Public Justice stated:
“Almost every civic institution is now confronted with the opportunity to embody either those values that preserve a just political community or the idolatry that elevates power over principle, enabling further devolution into a fascist, racist, anti-Semitic or anarchist society. As Christians let us allow the Lord’s Spirit to guide us into activities and policies that honor the true Prince of Peace."
There are certain institutions that are vital to the thriving of Black communities: small businesses, nonprofits and congregations. These groups need to be connected into the larger systems and marketplaces.
The violence at the Capitol this week has magnified how the imago dei calls us to love fellow humans, especially those who are oppressed and easily exploited. For the image of God to be affirmed, historic and structural injustices to human dignity in these communities must be redressed. Let this be a collective resolution for the New Year: to advance a redemptive vision for the building up, and not the tearing down, of our most basic institutions.
Rev. Khary Bridgewater is the co-founder of Norstell Capital Group, LLC, the parent company of the Inspire Equity Platform and its affiliated funds and charities. Bridgewater is the director of the Thriving Congregations Initiative, located in the Urban Church Leadership Center of Cornerstone University.
Chelsea Langston Bombino is a Fellow with the Center for Public Justice, a wife and a mother.