This morning I stopped in a convenience store. A man was seated there, his deep chocolate skin accentuated by an
accumulation of street dust and dirt. He
was disheveled, apparently both homeless and mentally ill. For a moment I wondered what Jesus would do
in NYC, how He would deal with the scores and scores of people in need. I focused on Jesus the man, forgetting that
the Divine person of Jesus could and probably would choose to restore them to
wholeness.
My thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of the store
manager yelling at the man to leave and threatening to call the police. True, that is his right, but the guy, though
dirty and half-dressed, wasn’t smelly, the store wasn’t crowded, and he wasn’t
disruptive like the entitled white guy who was in there arguing the day
before. This brother was just trying to
sit down in the cool for a minute.
I was left wondering why mental illness is used as an
explanation/quasi defense when considering someone who commits an act of
premeditated terrorism with the goal of starting a race war, but why that same condition
of mental illness is completely ignored when considering someone who simply
needs help to survive.
Seems like there’s more than mental illness going on here.
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