Video of late-night brawl in Cincinnati makes headlines

A bloody, late-night brawl in downtown Cincinnati last weekend has generated national attention. The video of the fight early Saturday shows a crowd milling around before several people start throwing punches; one man falls to the ground and is repeatedly punched and kicked by bystanders. A woman is struck in the face and falls to the ground, lying motionless before another woman helps her.

Several people took videos of the attack, but only one person called 911.

The opposite of Dr. King’s vision

Video evidence shows the man and woman who were beaten to be white and their assailants to be black. A senior figure in the US Justice Department suggested that the attack may have been motivated by race and that suspects could also be charged with federal hate crimes.

I obviously have no idea what motivated these assaults, nor what moved people to record them but not call the police. Here’s what I hope was not at work: a Critical Theory ideological belief that because the attackers were part of a racial minority, as a “victimized collective” they have the right to oppress their oppressors without consequences to themselves.

Such “racism to combat racism” is the opposite of Dr. King’s vision of a nation in which people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” It undoes what the civil rights movement sought to achieve by returning us to a culture of racially-divided subcultures. And it perpetuates America’s “original sin” of slavery by treating some Americans as less worthy of our “inalienable rights” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Now, before proceeding, I must emphatically state that I would have precisely the same fear for our nation if the assailants had been white and the victims black. Such attacks have horrifically been part of America’s story from our beginnings. KKK lynchings, Jim Crow discrimination, and police brutality against civil rights marchers were as unconscionable then as racially motivated attacks are today.

Any and all racial prejudice and violence fly in the face of our founding credo, our “melting pot” E pluribus unum aspirations, and our collective flourishing. And such hatred grieves the heart of the Father who loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Ronald Reagan’s “one final thought”

In his last speech as president of the United States, Ronald Reagan stated:

I think it’s fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote to me and said: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Of course, this sentiment implies and requires a cohesive culture common to all Americans. Otherwise, one can “live in America,” but there is no such thing as “an American” one can “become.”

This cohesive culture was what John Adams meant when he said our Constitution was “made only for a moral and religious people” and is “wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” There cannot otherwise be enough laws, lawyers, judges, and police to regulate behavior in a democracy as large as ours.

Brawls such as what took place in Cincinnati illustrate the fact that the police cannot be everywhere at once. Video surveillance can help catch criminals, but it cannot prevent criminal acts. Apart from consensual morality, people can do nearly anything to anyone. They may be apprehended later, but the victim is already victimized.

Why I disagree with John Adams

It may surprise you to read that, while I appreciate John Adams’s claim that a “moral and religious people” is essential for our democracy, I disagree with his optimism regarding religion. He lived in a day when George Washington could say to Americans, “With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles.”

That day is not this day. Americans are more divided by religion (or lack thereof) and political principles than ever before in my lifetime. And being religious does not ensure morality.

The Apostle Paul, one of the most zealous religious figures of all time, nonetheless admitted, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19).

It was the religious leaders who rejected Jesus and condemned him to death. Radical jihadists have murdered millions in the misguided belief that they are serving Allah and Islam. Many who advocated for slavery in America did so on the basis of their (horribly misguided) “biblical” beliefs.

What America needs most is what all Americans need: a relationship with Jesus Christ so intimate that it molds our sinful hearts into his character (Romans 8:29). As Oswald Chambers observed, Jesus “came to make me what he teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled his own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition.”

The more Americans demonstrate the character of Christ, the more America becomes a nation God can bless (Psalm 33:12). We can give our nation and ourselves no greater gift.

A book that changed William Wilberforce’s life

Tuesday marked the death of William Wilberforce in 1833.

Wilberforce was born in 1759. During a tour of Europe as a young man, he was greatly influenced by reading a book by William Law (1686–1761) titled A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. He considered entering the vocational ministry but, persuaded that his call was to serve God through politics, served in Parliament from 1780 to 1825.

He is best known for leading the fight against slavery in England. Four days before his death, a bill for the abolition of all slavery in British territories passed its crucial vote. The next year, on July 31, 1834, eight hundred thousand slaves, primarily in the British West Indies, were set free.

Wilberforce changed the world when he took to heart Law’s call to holiness. Following his example, I have begun reading Law’s remarkable book, where I found a statement that convicted me deeply:

“If you will here stop and ask yourselves why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.”

How “thoroughly” do you intend to follow Jesus today?

Quote for the day:

“Grant that I may worship and pray unto thee with as much reverence and godly fear, as if I saw the heavens open and all the angels that stand around thy throne.” —William Law

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