Reflections on Daniel and BLM {What if it’s not your fault?}

I, like many, spent yesterday in deep reflection on the race divide in America. As a child, I truly believed that racism was a thing of the long gone past. I heard rumors that it lingered here and there in the deep south, but other than that it was history. I carried this assumption through most of my young adulthood, until the veil lifting stories of social media began to dismantle that belief.

One of the things I’ve since seen and experienced in white America is a defensiveness against taking responsibility for the wrongs done to black America. I understand to a degree: we woke up in this world with its history already written, and many of us had no direct hand in making the choices or laws or holding the beliefs that have led to so much pain. The sentiment sometimes expressed is, “Yes, slavery was terrible… but it’s not my fault.” and “Sure, there’s bad eggs out there, but I’m not one of them. You can’t blame me.”

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted a brief statement about spending the day in repentance and lament. It made me think of a passage I read recently in the book of Daniel in the Bible. Daniel is best known for surviving the lion’s den, but he also received visions of the future and the fates of empires. Prior to this, Daniel is found seeking God “by prayer and pleas of mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes [a sign of mourning and distress in ancient times].” He is confessing the collective sin of Israel in abandoning their covenant with Yahweh, which resulted in exile to Babylon.

Now here’s the tie in – if you read about Daniel, you’ll realize that he is not personally guilty of any of the sins Israel has been judged for. He is a shining example of faithfulness and integrity. He’s even labeled by an angel of God as being “greatly loved.” And yet he comes before God in great sorrow to repent of “our sin.” Not their sin. Not his peoples’, exclusive of himself. He takes on a communal identification with his nation and considers their guilt as his own.

In America we tend to shirk communal identity. The individual reigns supreme. But what if we responded like Daniel to the sins of our nation past and present? What if we sought God by prayer and pleas for mercy for our sin? We are certainly more guilty than Daniel.

“To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our Kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him. ” Daniel 9:8-9

The image of God has been sinned against in the black American. The image of God has been oppressed and treated shamefully. Jesus commented that whatever we have done or not done for the “least of these” [those lacking societal power], we have done or failed to do for Him. Therefore, America imprisoned and enslaved Christ. With Bible held high, it pushed Christ to the margins and said he wasn’t worthy. It looked the other way when Christ was trampled on, it pressed it’s knee against His neck until He died. What if as a nation we repented of our collective sin against our black brothers and sisters, even if we don’t feel “personally” responsible? In repentance there is mercy and forgiveness. May God heal our land.