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Baltimore Protest

Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

We have seen clergy  pitching in to help. We have even seen clergy sending out calls for help during this trying time in our country,

Kynan T. Bridges is the Senior Pastor of Grace & Peace Global Fellowship in Tampa, Florida, where he lives with his wife, Gloria, and their three children. He took pen to paper to write the following engaging essay for Charisma Magazine. Reporters have spent hours filming.Preachers, pastors,ministers have hit the streets to plead for calm. Today one pastor used his pen to write the following thought provoking:

While I am completely against police brutality, racial injustice, and the overall breach of due process in our modern culture; I am also against the hypocrisy taking place right now. Quite frankly, I am disturbed! Not only am I disturbed by the police brutality, the premature death of young men and the failure of Justice, but I am also disturbed by the reaction of the black community. 

There has been an overwhelming lack of moral and spiritual leadership in the black community. There has been a deep-seated hypocrisy among us that few are willing to admit. I agree that the death of Freddie Gray was extremely tragic (yet another male dead unnecessarily), but the truth is, there have been thousands of young black males killed in the city of Baltimore: not at the hands of abusive police, but at the hands of other black men.

Hundreds of black men in these communities have been killed by gang members (the same gang members who are rioting), drugs and other forms of violence, yet where is the outrage over these deaths? I am sure that there are those who speak out against such things, but it is nowhere near the reaction we are seeing in the wake of recent events.

Why? What makes people feel justified in rioting, looting, and defying authority in the name of “social justice,” when these same violent crimes have committed by the hands of people in their own community? Is this what Justice looks like? Is this what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had in mind for the 21st century?

Is a black man only considered a “social martyr” if he is killed by the police? Are the deaths of hundreds of young people insignificant if they are killed by people of the same skin color?

I believe that the rioting and protests (not the peaceful protesting) are extremely hypocritical. Don’t get me wrong, I believe much of the frustration is founded, but where is the visceral response to these types of tragedies within our own communities? Where is the outrage when young teens are killed in drive-by shootings? Where are the civil rights leaders when young black men are committing crimes? Why is there not an emphasis on keeping young men out of the judicial system so that tragedies like this never happen?

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What do you think? Is he right? Tell us. We want to hear back from you. We have all hashed, rehashed and wondered. Is there an answer?

Make sure to read:

Pastor Kynan T. Bridges Expresses Dismay In Essay About #FreddieGray Movement  was originally published on elev8.hellobeautiful.com