Shai Linne, George Floyd and Me.
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- 00:01
- Hi, my name is AD Robles and There's a I've got a lot of new subscribers in the last month and probably like five or six times more than normal Which thank you for being here, and I hope you find my videos helpful
- 00:13
- So just wanted to give you a quick introduction since a lot of you are new plus I have a feeling that a lot of people are gonna watch this video just because of the topic
- 00:21
- But anyway, my name is AD Robles I'm a youtuber that does a lot of videos on the social justice movement in Christianity in particular
- 00:28
- I do a lot of other videos as well, but that's really where I got my start and really the main purpose of my channel
- 00:35
- That being said I want to give you some information about my intersectionals. I'm a Puerto Rican By my whole family's
- 00:41
- Puerto Rican. I have three young boys that are half Puerto Rican half white and I Live in New Hampshire, which doesn't really have a lot of ethnic diversity
- 00:52
- So I'm kind of insulated from a lot of that stuff, but I didn't grow up in a place like that I grew up in Connecticut mostly my family's all from New York City So diversity is it's been all around me for a very long time.
- 01:04
- I've had black friends Asian friends white friends I've had friends every color of the rainbow And all of that kind of stuff, but I wanted to offer my perspective here as a
- 01:14
- Puerto Rican But really just as a Christian is really what's most important to me Christianity because you know
- 01:22
- We're going through an interesting time right now If you're watching this chances are that you or someone
- 01:27
- You know has been very influenced by the ideas of the social justice movement black lives matter and things like that And I think that that stuff is very dangerous
- 01:37
- Especially and please hear me especially for minorities, you know People often say that what we should do is listen we should listen and lament, right?
- 01:46
- And so I agree with the listening part. I think it's always a good idea to listen to different perspectives the lament part
- 01:53
- I think really depends. It really depends on what someone's lamenting it whether or not you should lament with them in fact
- 02:00
- I did a video last week called I will not lament with you that I highly recommend that you watch because the idea is being
- 02:06
- Put forward that you just need to listen and then lament is like the automatic next step
- 02:11
- And I just don't think that's the case because so often listening really just means listen and shut up And so what we want to do is we want to be
- 02:19
- Christians about this We want to listen and talk it out like equals we want to listen and talk it out and so what
- 02:26
- I'm asking you to do is to follow your own advice and Listen to this perspective listen to what
- 02:33
- I have to say You don't have to agree with it, but I'm asking you to listen and I think that that's fair to do
- 02:39
- I think it's a biblical thing to do. This is a video about Shilin's George Floyd and me article
- 02:44
- I found a lot to like about this article. I found a lot to identify with in this article as well however,
- 02:51
- I have a very different perspective and I'd like to offer a Response to Shilin in this video now a couple things before you should before I get started that you should know
- 03:00
- I like Shilin. I like his music. My kids listen to his music. His Jesus kid albums is pretty good
- 03:07
- They learn I mean they they know all the words of the the books of the Bible song They can even do the voice inflections that Shilin does especially my three -year -old these he loves it.
- 03:16
- He absolutely loves it So I recommend that stuff the Jesus kids album is awesome my kids love it
- 03:22
- I think Shilin's a good guy all that kind of stuff and you know There's there's also something that I've talked about on my channel many times before that Not everybody in the social justice movement is equal
- 03:32
- There's people that I think are kind of swept up in it and then there's people that I think are bad actors I don't get the impression that Shilin is a bad actor.
- 03:40
- I think he's after the glory of Christ I think he's after making much of Jesus Christ as opposed to making much of his political ideologies
- 03:48
- Not everybody's like Shilin. So that's why I'm responding to this one. And I hope you find this helpful
- 03:53
- One thing I wanted to say so the first part of this article is actually pretty good. He talks about About the unity in Christ around the message of Christ even with people who don't necessarily like hip -hop
- 04:04
- They they like his message and he thinks that's so beautiful and I do too I think that the Church of Jesus Christ not just Christian hip -hop
- 04:11
- But the Church of Jesus Christ is amazing that it's ethnically diverse, but at the same time culturally
- 04:16
- Christian I think we should all be seeking to approach things and live life more as a cultural
- 04:22
- Christian That's not a naughty word By the way, some people use cultural Christian as an insult and I don't think that's an insult
- 04:28
- It doesn't mean because you're culturally Christian doesn't exempt you from also being a real Christian We should be living as a
- 04:34
- Christian even as we're converted by the Holy Spirit so Anyway, I wanted to just kind of skip the first part.
- 04:41
- It's really good You should read it the one thing though that I did want to to say before I get to the main part of this is
- 04:49
- Is is really a way that that Shilin and a lot of people who write for Gospel Coalition and people that are involved in Big Eva in that way the way that he kind of poisons the well and I say this
- 05:05
- In as solemn as a way as I can this this is not the way Shilin and I think you know this and I'll tell you what
- 05:12
- I'm referring to in a second, but Before he gets into the meat of this article, which the meat of it is an art is a letter
- 05:18
- He wrote to one of his white sisters about how he's doing in the wake of the George George Floyd murder or killing
- 05:25
- I should say and He's before he gets into it. This is what he says. He says in doing so I understand that I don't speak for all black people on this issue though.
- 05:35
- Many can resonate with my experience I also recognize the risk that comes with putting yourself out there and being vulnerable in the age of social media online trolls and keyboard vigilantes and Shilin men
- 05:53
- This is not the way, you know, this is this is really not the way because it makes people that might have
- 05:58
- Legitimate critiques of what you're saying here legitimate questions legitimate responses
- 06:04
- It tries to put them in a position where they keep their mouths shut because they don't want to be labeled an online troll
- 06:11
- They don't want to be labeled a keyboard vigilante See, I don't actually care about being labeled any of those things because I know what
- 06:17
- I'm actually doing but this is a very kind of a nasty tactic to take because it takes any opposition to what you're saying here and Tries to put them in an immoral category in a sinning category and stuff like that and that's really messed up man
- 06:33
- That's really messed up I really wish you wouldn't have done that not so much because you know It makes me feel bad because I know what
- 06:40
- I'm doing online. I've thought about it I've thought it through that kind of stuff But what I know it does to people that have sensitive consciences and and I really wish you wouldn't do this
- 06:49
- Shilin I'm gonna ask you just to stop doing that kind of thing. Stop poisoning the well like that up front
- 06:56
- It's it's really not becoming of a Christian I wouldn't do it to you and I think that you probably should not do that in the future
- 07:04
- But that's just a side issue I want to encourage anyone who doesn't necessarily take this perspective
- 07:09
- And you want to ask Shilin questions and stuff like that treat Shilin like you would treat any other person
- 07:16
- He's not a wounded puppy he's out there and he's in this fight and he's putting this stuff out there
- 07:22
- And so this is fair game. Don't mistreat him. Don't yell at him. Don't call him names don't be a troll, you know what
- 07:29
- I mean, but responding and asking legitimate questions is not trolling and Unfortunately, this kind of gives it the impression that it is.
- 07:36
- Let's get to the meat of it though This is the this is the letter that he sent to his sister in Christ who asked him how he was doing
- 07:44
- Shilin says sister. I'm gonna tell you how I'm doing and as I tell you Please understand that I am incapable of completing this message without weeping
- 07:51
- There's a part of me that's saying quote spare yourself the pain shy It's not worth it but I'm choosing not to listen to that part of me because I would be robbing you of an
- 08:01
- Opportunity to bear one another's burdens and to mourn with those who mourn And I'm sure as a sister in Christ, you'd want to do just that once again
- 08:09
- Let me just step out of the article. I just recommend that you watch my video I will not lament with you. I posted it last week back to the article
- 08:17
- He says sister. I'm heartbroken and devastated. I feel gutted I haven't been able to focus on much at all since I saw the horrific video of George Floyd's murder
- 08:25
- The image of that officer with hand in pocket as he calmly and callously Squeezed the life out of that man while he begged for his life is an image that will haunt me until the day
- 08:35
- I die I want to talk about this part of the paragraph because There's some things in here that are that are you know indisputable and then there's some things in here that they're they're very disputable and To mix them together as if they're all just kind of one unit
- 08:58
- They're all the same It's very irresponsible Shylin, this is an irresponsible thing to say
- 09:06
- Now on the one hand, he says he's heartbroken and devastated. He's gutted He hasn't been able to focus since he saw the horrific video of Floyd's murder
- 09:17
- Now a couple things here. Nobody's gonna take away. Somebody's feeling you feel how you feel, right?
- 09:23
- You know if you see that video and like 99 % of people you felt horrified by what you saw
- 09:29
- Including me. I felt horrified by what I saw. It's never good to see someone die number one and the image itself of the guy with his knee on his neck, it's
- 09:41
- Revolting it's revolting. There's no question about it And not only that if you feel heartbroken after watching that you feel gutted you feel devastated
- 09:49
- Nobody's gonna want to take that away from you You know your things are yours and you feel how you feel and it's fine to tell somebody
- 09:57
- How you feel especially in the Christian Church. We ought to be ready to receive your feelings and to think about them
- 10:05
- So so on the one hand, there's that and then on the other hand He mixes those feelings which are legitimately he he's telling you how we felt.
- 10:13
- Nobody would want to question that I'll take everyone should take that testimony and listen to that testimony and and and and absorb that But he takes those things that are that are that are part of reality.
- 10:25
- He felt heartbroken He felt devastated and then he mixes it up With stuff that's very much opinion and You can't just put it all out there and expect everyone to take all of it because that's the idea here if you're not gonna
- 10:40
- Take all of it Then you're really not listening and we can't I think as Christians We're required to not accept all of what
- 10:48
- Shilin has said here because here's the reality Heartbreak devastation gut gutting feeling gutted thinking the video looked horrific.
- 10:56
- Those are facts but Murder George Floyd's murder. That's not necessarily a fact
- 11:03
- In fact, the evidence that we have from the autopsy would seem to indicate that it actually wasn't a murder
- 11:10
- I'm not saying it wasn't but there's there's a trial that needs to be had. We need to get to the bottom of things
- 11:15
- God's law Requires that we get to the bottom of such things He also says that the the image of the officer was calm and callous
- 11:25
- That's what you saw when you looked into the eyes of Derek Chauvin callousness And I'm not gonna deny that you saw that But I'm not going to necessarily believe that Derek Chauvin was callous in that killing
- 11:40
- I don't know that he was he certainly seemed calm to me But the reality is like we have to we have to understand that certain people are trained to be calm in extreme situations and Police officers are one of those people we don't want police officers that are gonna be flying off the handle
- 11:59
- Emotionally when they see something intense We have to be able to just take a step back right into and and police officers and and no medics for example
- 12:08
- Detectives like they're they need to go into situations that most of us would go into and we'd probably vomit like I think about medics all the time
- 12:16
- EMTs and they go into like a Situation where people are seriously injured like they're you know, I don't want to talk about it
- 12:22
- And I would probably vomit I couldn't do that job But they're trained to took to in a in a in a way not not rob themselves of their humanity but to dissociate a little bit and to get control of the situation the way they've been trained like that's part of their training and Police officers are definitely one of those people so their calmness
- 12:42
- Shilin here is trying to make it seem like he's just not a human. He's just and he's just callous
- 12:47
- He just squeezed the life out of his person and he did it callously There's all kinds of meaning injected into those words and as Christians we can't allow ourselves to just We can't allow ourselves to think with our hearts
- 13:02
- You understand I'm saying because I was horrified by that video but what I need to do is to insist into it is to insist on due process and to insist on Withholding judgment until all the facts come out.
- 13:15
- I've seen some stuff man I've seen some stuff because I've seen so many videos like this and then it turns out that it's not really what the video
- 13:23
- Seemed to indicate the snippet that we saw seemed to indicate and so while you can be devastated that this man died
- 13:29
- It's never good that a man died. You can feel gutted. You could feel heartbroken. You could you could think it's horrific
- 13:35
- It's always horrific to watch a man die, right? always That's fine but just because you've accepted that this is murder that Derek Chauvin was callous when he squeezed the life out of this man and I don't accept that without you know evidence without a trial and stuff like that.
- 13:54
- That doesn't mean I'm not listening That doesn't mean I'm complicit. That doesn't mean
- 13:59
- I'm a white supremacist and and and the reality is Shailen you have to understand That so many of your buddies are are saying
- 14:08
- I'm not saying you're saying that You seem to be putting that perspective forward a little bit But I'm not gonna go with you when it shifts from your feelings to your opinions on the matter
- 14:18
- I can't think about the situation with George Floyd and Derek Chauvin With my feelings or even worse with your feelings
- 14:26
- I can't take the fact that you're weeping as you're writing this and put that on Derek Chauvin You understand what
- 14:33
- I'm saying Derek Chauvin needs to have a fair trial Do you know anything about how
- 14:39
- Derek Chauvin was trained This is this is that this is an important question, right?
- 14:44
- This is an important question was Derek Chauvin trained to use that kind of a neck hold on that person
- 14:51
- I've seen evidence that says that he probably was and not only was he trained in that way
- 14:56
- But he was also trained that that particular neck hold was not a lethal maneuver
- 15:01
- You see cops need to be trained in lethal and non -lethal maneuvers because that's the job that they have
- 15:07
- Just like I should be trained in lethal and non -lethal maneuvers. I should be trained how to shoot to kill.
- 15:14
- I Should also be trained to shoot how to shoot to Incapacitate I should also be trained for that kind of thing.
- 15:20
- And so do you know how Derek Chauvin was trained? Maybe he was calm because he because he was trained that that maneuver was a good way to withhold the suspect
- 15:30
- Without threatening their lives, maybe that's why he was calm. Maybe it has nothing to do with him being callous
- 15:37
- Maybe that's how he was trained Maybe he's been do you know anything about Derek Chauvin?
- 15:42
- Do you know maybe he's been in situations before where he had a different hold on someone the suspect? Escaped and nearly killed him.
- 15:49
- Do you know anything about this guy's background? And I'm saying this with emotion because a
- 15:54
- Christian is required to think about all sides of this. That's what God's law says That's why
- 16:00
- God's law requires that you have two or more witnesses before you condemn a man Nicodemus was was insisting on that with the
- 16:08
- Pharisees when they were trying to Condemn Jesus Christ. He said no our law doesn't require a lot doesn't allow us to do that because Nicodemus was against lynching and I'm against lynching too, so as I was horrified and Disgusted and and and just revolted by that video that I saw where Derek Chauvin is
- 16:30
- Sitting there on this guy's neck and the guy ends up dying By the way, the the the autopsy seems to indicate that he didn't die from asphyxiation
- 16:39
- So this whole idea that he choked the life out of the man is also something that's highly questionable and we're seeing this in a in the beginning of a letter
- 16:49
- That's also mixed up with your emotions that none of us would want to deny so so so the thing is that the reason why
- 16:56
- I think it's inappropriate shy to Mix these up is because it puts your readers in a very
- 17:02
- Difficult spot because on the one hand we're gonna affirm how you felt But we can't affirm your facts.
- 17:09
- You see here's the thing like you're entitled to your own Opinion you're entitled to your own feelings
- 17:17
- But you're not entitled to your own facts. And the thing is we need to establish those facts before we can go with you here
- 17:24
- And so many of your buddies are saying if we don't go with you here now, we're complicit
- 17:30
- And so you're putting us in this really weird spot where God requires something of us
- 17:35
- That you're telling us we shouldn't do we should go with you because you're weeping as you write this email or whatever
- 17:42
- This was a letter and we love you shy. We love you. We want to go with you there. We want to be with you there
- 17:49
- But we also have this word that insists that we don't think with our emotions.
- 17:54
- We think with facts. They're God's facts Every fact that's a fact is
- 18:00
- God's fact. And so God requires certain things of us when we're dealing with facts
- 18:06
- You want it? You seem to want us to think that show run was intending to kill this man first Murder in the first degree is probably what a lot of you want.
- 18:16
- I'm not saying you want this shy You haven't said that But a lot of people want murder in the first degree. Do you have any idea what murder in the first degree means?
- 18:25
- If Derek Chauvin wanted to go kill a black guy. He's a police officer He could probably figure out how to do it without cameras rolling.
- 18:33
- I Urge you to to watch it. I'm not gonna go into it too much, but I got some of this information from Stefan Molyneux, he's an atheist philosopher.
- 18:42
- He had a police officer on interviewed him about the Chauvin situation It's very very interesting
- 18:47
- I'm not saying it proves the case or disproves the case but what I am what I am gonna tell you is that These things are always more complicated than a 10 -minute video that you saw and that you're saying if I don't agree with you on Well, then
- 19:00
- I'm not listening. I'm not I'm not sitting with you I'm not lamenting with you and that's just not the case And so I just urge you that we have to we have to be
- 19:07
- Christians about this stuff You can have your feelings you're entitled to them. You're entitled to your emotions. You're not entitled to skew the facts before we establish them
- 19:18
- Anyway, so he says It'll haunt me till the day I die, but it's not just the video of this one incident for many black people
- 19:26
- It's never just about one incident Just as it wasn't about the video just about the videos of Eric Garner Tamir Rice Philando Castile Sandra Bland Laquan McDonald Walter Scott Rodney King, etc, etc, etc
- 19:37
- This is about how being a black man in America has shaped both the way I see myself and the way others have seen me
- 19:44
- My whole life It's about being told to leave the sneaker store as a 12 year old because I was taking too long to decide which sneakers
- 19:51
- I wanted to buy with my birthday money and the white saleswoman assumed I was in the store to steal something
- 19:57
- Let me stop there because I this resonates with me I've said this many times on my channel, but I remember one time.
- 20:03
- I was in Modell's in New York City I was there on a school trip and me and my buddies they were all white me and my buddies went into Modell's and we were just looking around shopping and a man followed me around the store and at first I thought to myself well maybe he's just following me around the store because Because I have a big starter jacket on right?
- 20:23
- I had a kind of a baggy starter jacket on But I thought about that for two minutes and I was like No, all my friends had a baggy starter jackets on right?
- 20:31
- He chose me out of my I don't know It's like maybe five or six friends Five of them were white
- 20:36
- I was not and he chose me to follow around the store And it made me feel uncomfortable and I didn't like it and all that kind of stuff.
- 20:43
- I never forgot that I remember that to this day. So this resonates with me. He says this he says it's about being handcuffed and thrown to the back of a police car while walking down the street during college and then waiting for a white couple to come identify whether Or not
- 20:57
- I was the one who'd committed a crime against them knowing that if they had said I was the one I would be Immediately taken to jail.
- 21:02
- No questions asked You know, this is a weird one. I've been arrested before I definitely did what
- 21:07
- I was arrested for. I Was arrested before so that's happened to me, but this is a weird one
- 21:13
- So if if a white couple came and identified you as someone who had done a crime
- 21:21
- Why wouldn't the police officer take you to jail? I mean, what do you expect them to do?
- 21:26
- I mean, you know this happens with white folks too shy. So I'm just I'm what this is a weird kind of thing
- 21:33
- I make what I'm what I'm supposed to believe is that that's racist But number one, it doesn't look like he was taken to jail.
- 21:40
- So the white couple said no this wasn't the guy Number two like what's supposed to happen?
- 21:45
- That's how police work is done. If if someone is a witness to you being a criminal Then you get arrested and then you go to trial and then if it turns out you weren't the criminal you get
- 21:56
- You don't get convicted. I mean what's supposed to happen here? But you see there's a narrative being pushed here and I'm shy
- 22:02
- I'm not I'm not gonna tell you that you shouldn't feel Disgusted or annoyed or whatever it is about being arrested or being held by the cops
- 22:12
- Because I was I was annoyed in her and all that kind of stuff I in fact when I was arrested
- 22:17
- I was doing a crime with my white girlfriend at the time and She wasn't arrested and I was
- 22:23
- So I was annoyed by that but but what am I supposed to believe here like the cop was racist
- 22:29
- I Think there's probably something else to play there. But anyway Let's continue
- 22:35
- It's about walking down the street as a young man and beginning to notice that white people especially women would cross to the other side of the street and to avoid walking past me and be and me beginning to preemptively cross the other side to save myself to save my
- 22:49
- Myself to save them the trouble of being afraid and to save me of the humiliation of the silent transaction and so the idea here is that racist white women in particular cross to the other side of the street when they saw him coming and so they're racist and that's that's that's been damaging to him and all that kind of stuff and you know,
- 23:10
- I gotta say like again like It's just assumed so much And and that's the thing shy this is why this is such a problem for so many people because you're assuming so much about people based on their skin color
- 23:25
- You know, this is a story I told and actually I've got a story from this past weekend But I was arrested once, you know
- 23:31
- And I did the crime that I was arrested for and when I was in jail I met four people or three people.
- 23:37
- I met a black guy. I met a Latino homeless guy and I met a white guy
- 23:43
- And I've told this story before they could look it up on my youtube channel I think it's called story time with old ad and I talked about how the black guy wasn't wasn't afraid of him
- 23:50
- Latino guy wasn't afraid of him the white guy. I met I was afraid of I was very afraid of the white guy.
- 23:56
- I Do it was just a snap judgment. I made based on appearance, right? And it turned out that that he was the one facing the most serious charges as well
- 24:05
- So my instinct served me well, but but the reality is like Are we really gonna say that white or that women if they're nervous to to be around a man that they're the ones that have a problem
- 24:18
- Like are we really gonna go there because that kind of conflicts with some of the me too stuff and things like that You don't know anything about these women
- 24:24
- Because some women have experienced really bad things at the hand of a man and you're assuming that it's because you're a black man
- 24:31
- Maybe it is maybe it isn't but you're assuming that you see that Tells me about the condition of your own mind more than it does them
- 24:39
- Because the reality isn't this is a story from this weekend. I went to a park with my sons and my wife and we saw a very old -school kind of car that you know the kind of car that you see in an episode of unsolved mysteries and it had a lot of old
- 24:55
- Confederate flag stickers on the back and stuff like that and all of a sudden my spidey sense is tingling My spidey sense is look.
- 25:01
- I'm a northerner. I'm a northerner. So my that that got my spidey sense to tingle, right? okay, there's a
- 25:08
- There's a a white dude around here And he's got a weird -looking old -school car that looks like right out of the episode of unsolved mysteries and he's got
- 25:15
- Confederate flags I'm gonna keep my head on a swivel. That's what this is this weekend. I did this And then
- 25:21
- I saw the guy and he was shirtless look really shady He was just kind of kind of creepily hanging around the park and stuff like that.
- 25:29
- So I kept my eyes open I kept my head on a swivel. I was watching him.
- 25:36
- Was that appropriate for me to do? I Could certainly see arguments on both sides, but does that say anything about that particular man, or does it say something about me?
- 25:46
- You understand I'm trying to say to you like that man could have been the nicest guy in the world I don't know, but I was keeping my head on a swivel.
- 25:52
- Was that wrong? I don't think that was wrong by the way to do that But when you see that whole interaction that whole that whole silent transaction that Shilin's talking about here
- 26:03
- That reveals a lot about me It doesn't really reveal anything about that person since you don't know that person this guy could have been a pastor
- 26:11
- I have no idea. This guy could have been the nicest guy in the world. I have no idea He could have not been creepily hanging around the park because I just characterized it as creepily
- 26:19
- He could have just been enjoying the nice weather because after two months of isolation quarantine, just like I was doing
- 26:26
- That's what it could have been or it could have been he was a creep So the thing is like we all do this
- 26:34
- And that's one of the things about this this this letter, you know shy that I think is a problem Because this is this is this is this is part of being human
- 26:44
- We all kind of do this and there's nothing special. I know this is this is heresy in the woke church
- 26:51
- There's nothing special about being a black man in America in 2020 because we've all experienced stuff
- 26:58
- Like you're experiencing if I saw a Latino, you know dressed like like a cholo coming at me in a street
- 27:07
- I would probably be on guard more than if I saw a little old lady walking down the street towards me
- 27:13
- I'd be on guard more would that be a problem? I don't actually think that's a problem, but that would reveal a lot more about me than it would about that cholo
- 27:21
- You know what I'm saying? It's just that simple. It's just that simple And so I I know what you're trying to do here, but this is revealing
- 27:29
- Your own heart more so than it reveals anybody else. It's just that simple He says this he says
- 27:37
- It's about taking a road trip with my sons to visit Blair's family in Michigan and my greatest fear being getting pulled over For no other reason than driving while black
- 27:46
- Told to get out of the car Coughed and sat down on the side of the road utterly emasculated and humiliated with my young boys looking out the window
- 27:54
- Terrified which is exactly what happened to a good friend of mine when he took his family on a road trip It's about the exhaustion of constantly feeling
- 28:01
- I have to assert my humanity in front of someone in front of some white people I'm meeting for the first time to let them know.
- 28:06
- Hey, I'm not a threat You don't need to be afraid if you got to know me, I'm sure we have things in common It's about me sometimes asking my wife to do things in a certain customer service situation since I know she'll likely get treated better than It's about borrowing a baby swing from a white friend in our mostly white suburb of DC and her telling me sure you can borrow
- 28:25
- It I have to step out, but I'll leave it on the front porch for you Just go grab it and then feeling heart palpitations as my car approached her home
- 28:32
- Debating whether or not to get the swing and being terrified as I walked up the steps that someone would think I was stealing
- 28:38
- It and call the cops on me It's about intentionally making sure that the car seats are in the car
- 28:43
- Even if the kids aren't so that when not if it happens all not if it happens all the time
- 28:48
- I'm stopped by the police They will perhaps notice the car seats and also the wedding band on one of my visible hands on the wheel
- 28:55
- Which I've been taught to keep there not to move until he tells me to and even then in an exaggeratedly Exaggeratedly slow manner and perhaps will think to himself.
- 29:03
- This man is married with a family and small kids like me Maybe he wants to get home safely to his family.
- 29:08
- Just like I do. I Think we can all see
- 29:17
- I'm gonna continue but I think we can all see how this is revealing a ton
- 29:23
- About shy's own heart and I don't think he would deny that because he seems like a reasonable guy, but Let's continue and we'll talk about what
- 29:32
- I want to talk about It's about having to explain to my four -year -old son at his mostly white Christian school that the kids who laughed at him for having brown
- 29:39
- Skin were wrong that God made him in his image and that his skin is beautiful after he told me daddy
- 29:44
- I don't want brown skin. I want white skin It's about having what feels like genuine fellowship with my white brothers and sisters who share the same reform theology until I mentioned racism injustice or police brutality at which point
- 29:57
- I'm looked at skeptically as if I embrace a social gospel or I'm some kind of liberal or social justice warrior
- 30:05
- And it's about sometimes feeling like some of my white friends aren't that particularly interested in truly knowing me at least not in any meaningful
- 30:12
- Way that might actually challenge their preconceptions rather It feels like they use me to feel better about themselves because I check off the black friend box
- 30:21
- Much more could be mentioned. These are just the first things that came to my mind, you know
- 30:30
- Again there's there's How do I say this so Just like in the beginning, right?
- 30:37
- There's some things here like you can't tell shy He doesn't feel the way he feels right you feel the way you feel and that's that But the truth is here guys that again, it's it's mixed up his feelings which are we're not gonna deny are mixed up with opinions and Things that he's putting on other people.
- 30:58
- He's doing this in his own mind. He's putting this on other people He's saying that cop that pulled me over.
- 31:04
- He was gonna shoot me unless I did exactly this whole thing I was terrified he was gonna shoot me, you know
- 31:10
- Someone was gonna call the cops on me that I was stealing this this baby seat, you know My white friends they they don't really care about me.
- 31:17
- They're just trying to they're just they're just trying to check off black friend in Their checkoff box. Oh, I don't really have true fellowship because these people think
- 31:25
- I'm a social gospel thing If you notice every single one of these Almost maybe with the exception of the one about his kid who said he wanted black a white skin every single one of these
- 31:38
- Shy is projecting something on someone. He's projecting something on someone why?
- 31:47
- Because of the color of their skin You see we all do this from time to time we all do this we all prejudge people
- 31:58
- And so we need to under if it if prejudging someone is always wrong, which I don't believe by the way
- 32:04
- I don't believe that prejudging someone is always wrong But if it even if but if it was it's got to be in an impartial way
- 32:11
- You see the thing is I've never I've never thought about Someone that they were some kind of social justice warrior if they mention race
- 32:20
- But if they mention race in a certain kind of way, like if they say something like this
- 32:25
- There's an epidemic of unarmed blacks being killed by whites I I'm required by God to look at the facts and say well,
- 32:35
- I can't believe that I can't go with you there because the facts indicate that that is actually not the case
- 32:41
- That is actually not the case. And so despite how you feel which is again.
- 32:46
- I'm not gonna dispute how you feel I can't go with you on your Unfounded opinions as well.
- 32:53
- And so the thing is here shy like every person every Christian has to take responsibility
- 32:59
- For themselves, right? And so if you're gonna project on to white people that they really don't care about you
- 33:05
- They don't affirm you they just want to check off black friend in their black friend box That's on you, man
- 33:12
- That's on you Because I'm pretty sure none of them have told you that that's what they were doing
- 33:18
- That's on you. And so you can feel however you want to feel but you have to understand that This is not somebody else's fault that you feel this way.
- 33:27
- This is your fault that you feel this way They you know you could
- 33:33
- I think if you're white and you're watching this
- 33:39
- I got something especially for you here You need to you need to respect
- 33:47
- Latinos and blacks and minorities enough to tell them the truth man You can't you can't be so scared of what men think of you that you won't tell them the truth like on The one hand we're gonna affirm
- 34:01
- Shylin's feelings he feels a certain way But on the other hand we need to treat him like we would treat any other believer
- 34:07
- And and I'm gonna say to you Shilin if if you feel like your white friends are doing this
- 34:13
- Then you need to go to them and say hey, are you just checking out black friend in your box? And if they tell you no
- 34:20
- You should probably believe them You should probably believe them instead of going and then going on gospel coalition and just saying blanket
- 34:29
- Sometimes my white friends are just they don't really want to know me They just want to check out black friend of their black friend box
- 34:35
- This is this is this is the thing man. This is this is what we don't like That you just feel so comfortable slandering white people on Gospel coalition, and it's and it's just if someone were to have written an article like this about black people it would be roundly condemned and rightfully so and rightfully so because it mixes
- 34:59
- Feelings and opinions and it really at the end of the day what it ends up doing is ripping people
- 35:05
- Based on nothing, but the color of their skin and whether or not they have a uniform on Christians can't do this man.
- 35:13
- We can't think with our feelings. We can't think with our emotions
- 35:19
- We just can't do it man. We can't I don't know if this is gonna be helpful or not, but I'm just gonna um, we'll see
- 35:28
- Okay, so when I watch a video like George Floyd's it represents for me the fresh openings of a deep wound and the reliving of Layers of trauma that will get exponentially compounded each time a well -meaning friend white friend says all lives matter
- 35:44
- Of course they do but in this country black lives have been treated like they don't matter for centuries and present inequities in criminal justice income health care education
- 35:58
- Show that all lives don't actually matter like they should this is why you're called a liberal Shilin This is why you're called a social justice warrior or that you embrace the social gospel.
- 36:10
- It's not because you talk about race It's not because you talk about injustice
- 36:17
- It's not because you talk about police brutality It's because you talk about them in ways that are identical to liberals
- 36:25
- Social gospel proponents and social justice warriors because the reality is inequities in criminal justice income housing health care education inequities
- 36:37
- Do not prove at all that black lives don't matter the way they should at all and so when somebody when a white person questions you on that when they say well, what do you mean an
- 36:49
- Income inequities like you seem to be saying that an income inequity is an injustice
- 36:56
- And that needs to be proven. It could be or it could not be You need to prove that like that that's something that we need to we need more than the inequity because that's the same kind of thing a liberal would say and then when you when you hear that case being made and you say
- 37:13
- I Guess I don't have genuine fellowship with my white brothers and sisters in Christ See the problem is with that Shilin that you're projecting that on white people man
- 37:24
- We don't like like if in order for us to have genuine Fellowship, we have to go with you in saying that inequities in criminal justice income housing health care education
- 37:35
- That's that's an injustice. That means all lives don't matter black lives don't matter If that's what you're saying
- 37:42
- Then we can't have fellowship Because you've decided that that's a dividing line for you
- 37:49
- We can't have genuine fellowship if I don't agree with you on your opinions on racism injustice or police brutality
- 37:57
- You're putting that on that's not us. You're projecting that on us. I know you said you don't speak for all blacks
- 38:05
- You know definitely don't speak for all Latinos and all that kind of stuff But there are a lot of us who don't agree with you on this stuff and there's a lot of white people that don't agree with you on this stuff and the thing is like What I'd really like is if you stopped projecting beliefs on us for that Because there's nothing about me disagreeing with your opinions on injustice and racism police brutality
- 38:27
- That requires me to not affirm you as a person to not think that your life matters as a person
- 38:33
- And all that kind of stuff you see there's two ways to approach this You can say well
- 38:39
- Listen and believe kind of stuff where it's just like listen and then lament with me the same things
- 38:44
- I lament and I will not do it if you're lamenting an inequity in income and That's just it.
- 38:51
- You're saying well if there's if there's income inequality, then that's an inequity lament with me the answer is no
- 38:58
- Why would I lament that that's I have to I have to focus on these things the way a Christian is supposed to I have
- 39:04
- To use the categories that God has given us I have to use the commands and the law and the system of justice that God has given us and income inequalities
- 39:13
- Aren't something aren't a problem to be rectified in God's law. I Mean, that's just what it is.
- 39:19
- And so I have to go with that kind of stuff. I can't think with your emotions I can't do it
- 39:27
- And so this is this video is gone on long I'll probably come out come back to it to do the rest of it because there's some interesting stuff in the rest of it
- 39:34
- But but this letter, you know, you want us to know how you feel. That's fine But I want you to know how
- 39:41
- I feel how I feel is that I'm not going to just use your emotions and then make my decisions on what's just and what's right and all that stuff
- 39:52
- Based on your emotions. I am required not to do that. I can't just go with you and say well
- 39:59
- That George Floyd video was horrific and I've experienced so much racism in the past Therefore George Floyd is guilty and he was callous and he was all these things
- 40:09
- I can't do that I can't do that man and To require me to do that in order to have fellowship with me in order for you to think that I think your life matters
- 40:20
- If you're gonna put that on me That's pretty sinful man. That's pretty sinful and I know that you don't really do it to me so much as you do it to white people in general
- 40:33
- But that's pretty messed up man. I want you want you me to know how you feel Well, that's how
- 40:38
- I feel. I feel like that's pretty messed up to hold your brothers and sisters in Christ in such a low regard
- 40:44
- Whereas if they don't agree with the same things you agree with they don't see the facts the same way you feel they don't feel
- 40:49
- The same way about them the way you do That somehow they are saying that all lives don't matter like they actually should
- 41:02
- I think I'll stop there There's there's other things that are in my mind right now, but I think that's that's sufficient for now
- 41:09
- If you like this video Please share it if you want me to continue with this article because there's some other things in it that I think are worth talking about Then then that's fine.
- 41:19
- I Let me let me end with this Shylin, I I don't think that you're necessarily doing this intentionally
- 41:27
- But everyone that shares this perspective and thinks this is so helpful. Let me just urge some caution for you
- 41:36
- Because Christians should listen to how you feel about things they definitely should But let's not use that as a weapon to inject your ideologies into it as well because I can affirm
- 41:48
- I think most Christians can this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to hold this together I can affirm my love for you as a brother and I want to to hear how you're feeling and I want to I want to Lament the things that are lamentable in what you're feeling you understand or saying like I want to hear
- 42:05
- I want to hear your pain and I want to share my pain with you as well So we want to do that But we want to do that in a way that doesn't compromise us as far as the truth is concerned because God requires me to be
- 42:21
- Devoted to the truth. I should be loving you but I should be devoted to the truth because the truth is a person and I Love Jesus Christ more than I love you shy
- 42:32
- You don't I mean I I'm if if if if if I look if it if you require things of me
- 42:40
- In order to really feel loved by me that God has commanded me not to do. I'm sorry
- 42:46
- Then I'm just gonna have to stop. I can't go with you all the way We have to establish the matters first before we can do all that kind of stuff like like don't use the the good desire of Christians to listen to you to Ramrod your ideology in there and don't require them to believe your ideology in order to feel like you have true fellowship with them
- 43:08
- That's so twisted man. That's so twisted. I hope you can you can hear my heart there because I think that's where a lot of white folks are falling right now where they're like Man, like I feel so sad when
- 43:20
- I see this stuff and I feel like man I you guys really believe that when you drive down the street, you're just gonna get arrested for being black
- 43:27
- You're gonna be shot for jogging and stuff like that you guys really believe that's a really sad thing to believe But I've also got to look at the data
- 43:34
- I got to look at the truth and establish the truth of the matter here and I think a Christian can do both a
- 43:41
- Christian is required to do both And so stop using this whole thing about listening and lamenting as a weapon to drive your ideology and your political
- 43:52
- Preferences through it's not something that's good to do.
- 43:58
- I hope this video is helpful
- 44:04
- God bless You know, you know one of the reasons why
- 44:18
- God requires you to have evidence and requires you to be devoted to the truth and and make certain
- 44:24
- Commands towards you on how to deal with conflict and stuff like that It's a lot of times we don't know how to help someone unless we know what the facts of the matter are
- 44:35
- So in other words if I were so deathly afraid to go outside and I said I can't go outside.
- 44:40
- I can't go to work I can't do any of those things because there's a lion outside. That's going to eat me
- 44:47
- Okay, so like we would have to figure out, you know If that's true that there's a lion outside or not or if that's a legitimately
- 44:56
- That's something that I should be worried about or should not like if I live in in New Hampshire I probably shouldn't be worried about lions
- 45:02
- But maybe if I lived on a nature preserve or something in Africa, it'd be legitimate to worry about lions so we don't the point is we don't know how to help someone unless we know what's actually true first and with the
- 45:14
- Reality is with this narrative of like I'm so scared to be shot by a cop every time I step outside That narrative is not supported by the facts
- 45:22
- And so the only way to help someone who's feeling that way is to know those facts and to bring those facts into conflict with that person's beliefs
- 45:32
- There's nothing loving about Feeding an irrational fear and the reality is if you're black in the
- 45:38
- United States It is an irrational fear to be petrified of being killed by a police officer
- 45:44
- When you're walking around the streets that kind of thing simply doesn't happen at the rates
- 45:49
- The media would traumatize you to believe that it happens It's just not the case Larry Elder always says you're much more likely to be
- 45:57
- Struck by lightning and killed than you are to be killed by a police officer and so it would be irrational for me to be worried about being struck by lightning and so in order to know how to Deal with me when
- 46:07
- I have that kind of an irrational fear you need to know what the case is first That's why the truth is so important in the lives of a
- 46:13
- Christian because we don't really know how to love our neighbor until we Know what the truth is first. That's why