{"id":42092,"date":"2025-09-15T09:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=42092"},"modified":"2025-09-16T11:17:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:17:58","slug":"when-violence-speaks-louder-than-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/when-violence-speaks-louder-than-words\/","title":{"rendered":"When Violence Speaks Louder Than Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

What apartheid South Africa can teach us about America\u2019s fractures\u2014and the miracle of turning toward love<\/span><\/i><\/h2>\n

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is more than one man\u2019s tragic death; it is a mirror held up to our nation\u2019s unraveling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His assassination is horrific and inexcusable. Full stop. And\u2026I thought his message was more than just controversial. He stated his beliefs in incendiary ways. (For a list of actual statements and the clips from which they were derived, please see this article<\/a> in The Guardian.) I ask myself, “Is this how Jesus would talk? Is this how He would want to make people feel loved? Is this truly Jesus’s gospel of love?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of what he said and how he said it though, no one should fear for their liberty or safety because of their views. Nor, for that matter, because of the color of their skin, their ethnic or national background, their citizenship status, their gender\u2026 or anything else. We are all beloved by God, made in the image of our Creator. And we all have a journey of repentance, every day of our lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet we are devolving into a deeply divided country where violence\u2014and the threat of violence\u2014increasingly becomes the language of our political differences. The treatment of minority groups today echoes\u2014chillingly\u2014the systemic marginalization that scarred South Africa for decades under apartheid.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I read Patti Waldmeir\u2019s <\/span>Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa<\/span><\/i>, the parallels were inescapable. South Africa\u2019s story asks whether a society can emerge from entrenched injustice into something new. Our story now forces us to ask the same: <\/span>Can a fractured nation witness the miracle of renewed commitment to justice, love, forgiveness, and hope?<\/span><\/i> [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Candle<\/a><\/p>\n

First Encounters with Apartheid<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first time I remember hearing the word <\/span>apartheid<\/span><\/i> was in my 7th-grade social studies class. I don\u2019t recall many details, but I do remember my teacher trying to explain this system of separation in Africa. It didn\u2019t make much sense to me at the time because I had no context for such a concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, in the summer of 1983, after my sophomore year of college, my friend Missy and I were traveling in the British Isles before a six-week program at Trinity College, Oxford University. As young travelers often do, we stayed in youth hostels and met people from all over the world. One young white South African joined us for a couple of days of sightseeing. When we cautiously asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s it really like in South Africa? What\u2019s going on with the whites and blacks?\u201d he hesitated, then brushed it aside: <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s not as bad as everybody tells you.\u201d<\/span><\/i> His dismissal told us more than he intended, and we soon parted ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic Absurdities and Present Parallels<\/b><\/h3>\n

Reading Waldmeir now, I see how apartheid\u2019s contradictions eventually undermined it from within. She writes, \u201cBusiness could not prosper with an unstable labor force, and migrant apartheid labor was inherently unstable\u2026 But once business had invested in training these workers, it could not just dismiss them and start again.\u201d [2]<\/span><\/p>\n

This reminds me of ICE raids in the U.S., where migrant workers are rounded up and deported, leaving farmers and manufacturers\u2014who invested in their training\u2014unable to sustain their businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Waldmeir continues, \u201cIronically, de Klerk gives much of the credit for ending apartheid to the ordinary people of South Africa rather than to the politicians\u2026 the human, demographic, and economic forces of population growth, urbanization, mass education, and industrial development had far more impact than deliberate government action.\u201d [3]<\/span><\/p>\n

Her words call to mind the protests erupting across the U.S.\u2014ordinary people demanding justice while political leaders delay or deflect.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fragility of Democracy<\/b><\/h3>\n

In the wake of Kirk\u2019s assassination, I find myself agonizing over what it will take for the United States to move toward common purpose again.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Declaration of Independence names what is perhaps our closest attempt at a shared goal: <\/span>\u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.\u201d<\/span><\/i> But as Tom Holland argues in <\/span>Dominion<\/span><\/i>, such truths are not at all self-evident [4]; they are the fruit of the Christian story, not universal assumptions. Our society is forgetting its roots even as division deepens.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not the same as apartheid, and yet I cannot ignore the U.S. parallels in the hate directed at Black and brown people, immigrants, women, the differently abled, and gender-diverse populations. Waldmeir recalls one businessman saying, \u201cPreviously\u2026 \u2018you couldn\u2019t make blacks heavy metal crane drivers, because blacks had no depth perception.\u2019 But the moment the law was changed, \u2018blacks acquired depth perception overnight.\u2019\u201d [5] The economic absurdities of apartheid echo today in the lies used to justify exclusion and marginalization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manufactured Divisions<\/b><\/h3>\n

Too many of our leaders seek power by creating divisions. They deflect blame from policies that serve the wealthy by turning citizens against one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Stacey Abrams observed: \u201cWhen we moved into the space of remarkable income inequality, when the gap widened so much\u2026 [we found that] people fight for the thing they think they can get to. And it feels so remote that we can actually dismantle the current inequities that we have, so Republicans are taking advantage of it and filling the void. They\u2019re saying, \u2018It\u2019s not the company that pays the CEO 100 times more than you, it\u2019s the waiter you have to tip. That\u2019s the person you should be mad at.\u2019 Republicans have been able to redirect both venom and pain onto the people who are least able to fight back.\u201d [6]<\/span><\/p>\n

This scapegoating mirrors apartheid South Africa, where white Afrikaans leaders consistently blamed Black South Africans for the nation\u2019s instability, even as unjust laws and exploitative systems created the very crises they decried.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t have space here to go into the parallels of the suppression of voting rights and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Call to Christlike Leadership<\/b><\/h3>\n

I believe leaders\u2014whether by design or by default\u2014carry responsibility to live and lead as Jesus modeled. Paul exhorts us: \u201cBe imitators of me, as I am of Christ\u201d (1 Cor. 11:1). He would \u201cbecome all things to all people\u201d to share the gospel (1 Cor. 9:22), while still standing firm in truth. He even challenged Peter when necessary, not to win an argument but <\/span>to call him back to the heart of Christ<\/span><\/i> (Gal. 2:11\u201314).<\/span><\/p>\n

This weekend, I attempted something similar in a small way, engaging on social media with an old church friend turned MAGA supporter. Using some strategies from last week\u2019s reading, <\/span>How to Have Impossible Conversations<\/span><\/i> by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay, I tried to stay calm and respectful. Though our exchange was civil, I realized I could not change his mind any more than he could change mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I am left with the question: <\/b>how does one truly change someone\u2019s mind?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Lessons from Mandela<\/b><\/h3>\n

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. He said he used that time to reflect, to learn the language of his captors, and to strategize with fellow dissidents. His long endurance bore fruit when South Africa finally shifted. I am concerned that it may take as long, or longer, before our own nation turns from its divisions toward a shared vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet I find hope in the teachings of Jesus. To guide someone from a false gospel based on fear to His way of love, we must not only embody His words but also speak them and write them, trusting that within this love lies the truth of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Work of Repentance<\/b><\/h3>\n

This week in church, we heard Pastor Emily preach on the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15:1\u201310). Yes, Jesus was showing us God\u2019s relentless pursuit of the lost. But Emily also suggested another invitation: maybe these parables are also about how <\/span>we<\/span><\/i> treat one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

When someone wanders, we are not to close our doors and write them off. We are to call after them, to search, to invite the neighborhood to join the search. And when we find them, we repent together\u2014<\/span>metanoia<\/span><\/i>, Greek for changing our minds, turning around\u2014away from violence and injustice, toward peace, justice, and love. [7]<\/span><\/p>\n

Two Convictions<\/b><\/h3>\n

I end with two convictions:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If I believe my neighbor misses the gospel\u2019s core\u2014God\u2019s love, not fear; God\u2019s welcome for <\/b>all<\/i><\/b>\u2014I must gently but firmly name what is wrong.<\/b> May God grant me the patience of Mandela as I do so.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. It is not my job to change hearts.<\/b> That work belongs to God\u2019s Spirit. It is, however, my responsibility to witness to Christ\u2019s change in me and, as a leader, to call for justice, love, liberty, and protection for those without a voice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A Poetic Witness<\/b><\/h3>\n

    My friend, poet Kate Hagopian Berry, offered this at church during the offering. It captures both the cost and the beauty of Christ\u2019s relentless gathering love:<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Parable of the Lost<\/b><\/p>\n

    How easy in the story<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    all of us, so well-behaved,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    content in the pen
    \n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    the one lost bleating eagerly<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    for salvation<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    such jubilation when they are found,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    lamb with the lamb on his shoulders<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    and the prodigal never puts a hoof down sharp,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    never makes you angry<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    doesn\u2019t dox, or blacklist, or lie,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    doesn\u2019t make you doubt<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    the milk of human kindness<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    or even that they are human,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    doesn\u2019t hate.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    So our welcome shines out<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    like a silver piece<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    and we ignore<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    how dusty it gets among the floorboards and spiders,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    we ignore the cost of it, forgiveness<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    yet Jesus never says<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    politics, never checks<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    to make sure the lamb is well-fed<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    or clean, or that its fleece might attract–<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    He just gathers us in,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    on the threshold,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    on the shoulders of a world<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    that decides too quickly<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    which life to spare and which to end.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

    Katherine Hagopian Berry<\/span><\/p>\n

    www.hagopianberrypoet.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Turning Toward Hope<\/b><\/h3>\n

    I don\u2019t know what divides run deepest in your life right now, whether in your family, your friendships, your workplace, or your church. But I do know this: the way of Jesus is always the way of <\/span>turning toward love<\/span><\/i>. Turning away from fear, scapegoating, and despair. Turning toward the miracle of love, forgiveness, and justice. Just as Jesus challenged the leaders of His day who were leading people astray, what might it mean to gently challenge the damaging voices in your sphere?<\/span><\/p>\n

    South Africa\u2019s story reminds us that whole nations can turn when people <\/span>courageously<\/span><\/i> unite<\/span><\/i> to achieve God\u2019s love on earth, even after decades of violence and oppression. Our story today\u2014painful as it is\u2014invites us to trust that change is still possible and to act\u2014in love\u2014on that trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So here is my invitation: <\/span>This week, ask yourself where God may be calling you to \u201cturn.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n