Do you really support peaceful protest? Really?

Some commentators have quickly denounced the violence and rioting amidst the protests of our day, lumping all together collectively as “thugs,” etc., giving only minimal lip-service to the caveat, “But we support peaceful protests.” I want us to take a moment and ask ourselves just how much have we ever really supported peaceful protests and protesters on such issues. Have you really?

It is now a fairly accepted fact that there have been two distinct groups in the protests following the murder of George Floyd. There are those committed to peaceful protests, even cleaning up messes and vandalism left by others. And then there is a small group of well-organized and distributed rioters (some say ANTIFA) instigating violence and bringing shame on the whole. There is probably some small overlap between the two groups, but there is definitely a large group successfully committed to peaceful protest for something serious to be done in the wake of yet one more preventable case of police brutality, especially to minorities.

The question becomes, if you say you support peaceful protest, then what are you actually doing to support it? And if you are doing nothing, or have done very little ever to support similar protests, then how can you say you actually support them?

Do you know what they are asking for? Do you know why they are upset, or protesting, beyond the surface-level reports given by your favored media sources? Have you listened to any, talked with any?

Don’t say you “support peaceful protest” if you never listen to their pleas.

If you have never done a thing to help bring about the change (for example, criminal justice reform) for which they pray, protest, and yearn, then you don’t actually support the protest.

You may support “protest” in the abstract, or the abstract “their right to protest,” but that is by itself, like most abstractions, an empty platitude. Say what you actually mean, what you practically support in this or that real world context, then help bring it about.

If you truly support any actual, practical change, then you will do something—join, march, speak out, donate, share media, argue your case . . . something—to help bring about such change.

If you don’t think change is actually needed, then there must be a reason why. Maybe you haven’t listened to what the protesters actually had to say. Maybe you’ve never read or listened to what other people actually experience.

If you have not listened to them and therefore do not know, why not? Is a fellow citizen in pain or crying “injustice” not worth listening to?

Maybe you have just assumed they have bad motives. Maybe you let some leader or preacher influence how you see them. Have you really done due diligence here?

If you have listened and simply disagree with them, then obviously you don’t “support” their protest. Say what you mean. You don’t intend to do anything to help them. You in fact don’t want them to succeed.

I think, and hope I am wrong, that many people say “we support peaceful protest” meaning they support these protesters’ right to go protest peacefully, but that they think they are misguided and want them to fade away. They just don’t want to have to worry about it, and in fact don’t want to hear about it.

The sad side to this is that such people will stand by while peaceful protesters are lumped with rioters and silenced along with them, perhaps even by force. They will sit by while pundits malign and cops harass, stifling and marginalizing the actual, real-world peaceful protest taking place. The same pundits will aid and abet such an end while claiming they are the most vehement defenders of “their right to peacefully protest.” Neither they nor their listeners nor their echoes will give one thought to the irony of aiding and abetting those who unrighteously silence peaceful protest in part because they themselves really didn’t want to hear what they said, either.

If you want to know what a real demonic conspiracy looks like, don’t look for George Soros or the Frankfurt School. Look no further than this phenomenon right here. Its messengers look like angels of light (2 Cor. 11:13–15), and it conspires in silence to silence the voices of the most vulnerable among us.

One of the main reasons some protests like these boil into riots is that enough of these vulnerable are made to feel the indignity of their vulnerability over and over again in dehumanizing ways, then routinely silenced by the concert of those who refuse to support them along with those who say they support them but never do.

This nation needs serious attempts at racial reconciliation. It needs serious, meaningful, multiracial discussion by spiritual leaders about what the steps of that look like, how to take them, and what goals will be (not just can be) attained and when.

This nation also needs serious discussion and action in terms of police and criminal justice reform. There are several serious goals on which we could start right away. Congress and the President could easily lead the way, and the only imaginable resistance would come from cop lobbies and actual fascists (of both the conscious and ignorant varieties). If we cannot overcome those forces politically with motivated leaders, then it is all hopeless, and the most vulnerable are merely a weather-vane for what awaits all of us except the most privileged.

But this first baby step much come: are we being honest with ourselves, and do we have the guts to say what we mean? George Floyd was murdered. You say you support the peaceful protests following his demise. Well, for what? What do you actually support? And what will you do about it?

If you really intend to do nothing, or to step aside and leave the peaceful protesters to be savaged by the media and political wolves, then at least do us the courtesy of saying so up front.

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(Cover photo from Victoria Pickering, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), slightly cropped.)