Dominating the news these days is the story of the beating of Tyre Nichols that led to his death. Five policemen were involved in the incident and are being charged with murder. Much of the story is told in the cameras of the policemen and the public camera at the scene of the arrest and beating. Even so, the legal battle has already begun, who is responsible?
It is difficult for most of us to even imagine something like that happening. When similar things like this have happened, most of it has been stories of white people killing black people. The too-easy response has been “another expression of racism.” That response cannot too easily be made in Tyre’s death because the five policemen involved are all black men.
Apart from the courts deciding individual responsibility in the case, we do need to be giving serious thought to culture and our corporate life. Racism does exist and significantly shapes social decisions and action, but that does not answer the troubling question of responsibility .
As the news reporting and the discussion of the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, I remember reading a story from a century ago. The London Times posed a question to the public, and anyone could submit a response. The question was, “What is wrong with the world?” You can only imagine the plethora of responses from people giving their answer and pointing to their various qualms with the
world, politics, and people groups. But GK Chesterton, the famous English writer, philosopher, and Christian apologist, wrote back, Dear Sirs, I AM. Yours, GKC.
We may not go as far as Chesterton in claiming responsibility for “What’s wrong with the world.” But we can be honest, admit, and take responsibility, for “what’s wrong” with the part of the world in which we live.
We are sometimes tempted to accept our human imperfection as an excuse for irresponsible behavior. “I am only human,” we mutter. It’s one thing to acknowledge that we are weak sinners; it’s quite another to do so with a shrug of the shoulders and a nonchalant attitude that makes us content with lesser values and a below par performance.
Paul talked about it in these terms, “. . .it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 RSV). Whatever else this means, and it means a full life, it certainly calls me to act in my relationship to others in the way Christ has acted in relation to me. My life of faith is Christ living in me, and my actions should be re-enactments of the life of Christ. Do you accept that responsibility? At the core of the freedom, we all claim is the freedom to be responsibility .