Guilty 34 Times: Will We Be Guilty, Too?
By Reverend Monica C. Jones, Ph. D.
I was sitting in my living room when I heard the first count of the verdict: Guilty. The second count: Guilty. As I listened to counts 3-34, hearing “Guilty” on each one, I screamed, “Praise God!” I felt enormous relief, thinking that, finally, we see accountability. Then I realized this was not the end for us; it was simply the beginning of the next stage. A guilty verdict does not a victory win. We have to fight all the harder as anger, hate, and revenge will be the order of the day for those who embrace corruption and greed. Instead of the incidents of violence curbing, we may very well see an escalation. What can we do? We can respond with a definitive call to action: Let’s not be guilty of complacency.
It is far too easy to think things are over when we have one victory. Yet, in this instance, we are at a crossroads, and to save our people, our democracy, and even our church, our response must be one of fortitude and resistance.
The People
Why are we in danger? As voters, our rights are being threatened from state to state. Wherever a thinker, politician, or policymaker believes in suppressing the vote to maintain power, the people will suffer. Therefore, we must vote like we have never done before. We must vote all the way down the ballot to be sure that we put people on our school boards, our city councils and county commissions, and in our state legislative bodies who are godly, justice-minded, and fearless in their fight for a righteous community.
Our Democracy
The democratic way of life is certainly under threat every day, from the Supreme Court to the local voter registration office, where people persistently embrace exclusion and discrimination. These individuals refuse to recuse themselves, even when they are obviously biased. Whether it is storming the United States Capitol or hanging the United States flag upside down, these acts of hatred demonstrate a deterioration that has completely saturated our society. In addition to speaking out and actively resisting attempts to end democracy for all persons, we should become more active in recruiting, identifying, and electing voices to represent us in the halls of Congress and other legislative bodies.
Our Church
Yes, the church is in danger, too; we are not exempt. Christian nationalism is still an issue that we cannot ignore. It is still something we must speak out against, define in every segment of the faith community, and call it as we see it when it is in our pulpits. False teachings under the cloak of Christianity threaten the very fiber of who we are in the Black church. We cannot go back to the days when we allowed the misinterpretation and miseducation of God’s Word to keep us bowed before those who enslaved us.
The Most Important Verdict
It is absolutely astonishing how one individual has been the influencer in each of these issues. It is amazing how one individual, who is now a convicted felon and yet running for President of the United States, is a causal factor in the destruction that we face now in our country. This says that the guilty verdict from the trial in New York should spur us on to a verdict of not guilty in this entire country. We will be found not guilty of laziness; we will be found not guilty of fear; we will be found not guilty of complacency, and with God’s help, we will win.
The Reverend Monica C. Jones, Ph. D., is the Director of Christian Education Ministries at Big Bethel in Atlanta.
