By Quick to Listen | Listen | 56m
Published in June of 2020
SUMMARY: Aaron L. Griffith, assistant professor of history at Sattler College in Boston, discusses the history of policing and the intertwining of evangelical’s support of law and order presidential candidates. Griffith also dives into what we can do to change by examining our motives, terms to be wary of and that we have to admit that we expect too much of the police which is a failure of how we have setup our society.
KEY QUOTE: “We have to reckon with ourselves and with our society. We demand too much of our police. We ask them to be things they are not trained to be. We want them to be social workers. We want them to be mental health workers. We want them to be school resources. That’s not what they are trained to do, but they have to do it because we have divested from the kinds of programs and shared practices of common life that could enrich our communities, particularly those that are vulnerable. We as a society are to blame. And I say this to my white evangelical white brothers and sisters we are not capable of speaking in critical ways about our own propensities towards violence, endorsement of state power and our inability to see social change is happening in more constructive ways. It goes beyond the individual intentions of a single police officer – it is our story.”
More curated podcasts on policing:
PODCAST: Policing with Chief Allen Banks
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PODCAST: Changing Police Culture from the Inside Out
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PODCAST: Where the Gospel Meets Law Enforcement & Ethnicity
Co-hosts Jesse Eubanks and Rachel Szabo weave commentary from protestors and police while exploring the history of law and order and the evangelical community. For Christians, it is not either being for protestors or for police, but a third way that is having compassion for the police while seeking justice.
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