As I wake up today and write this at 7am on Thursday, January 7, I think I am like many Americans in having a “what in the “#$%^” happened” yesterday. I think our country has a collective hangover today.
I feel shell-shocked that a group of people would storm the United States Capitol building. The questions that are going through my mind are, What has happened to our world? How did our country get to this place?
I also can’t help but think about the response in the Twin Cities this past summer after George Floyd, an African-American man, was killed by Derek Chauvin, a Caucasian, Minneapolis police officer.
I do not want to insinuate at all that there is one bit of moral equivalency between the people who committed violence after George Floyd was killed and the people who committed violence yesterday. These groups of people are different, the causes they represent are different, and the motivations they hold are very, very different.
And full disclosure. I marched in the streets of Minneapolis after George Floyd was killed. I joined a peaceful march of clergy, and I participated with my family in a march on a Friday evening. When that march started to turn violent, my family left the march.
And full disclosure—I am a pacifist. I do not believe in violence as a tool for change. I was trained to participate in the system and if the system works in an unfair way to protest in a non-violent way. When I protest, I follow the teachings of Dr. King whose methods aimed at the heart of the person in power. Non-violent, resistance.
I spoke up against the violence this past summer, and I speak up against the violence that happened yesterday.
Both incidents reveal a foundational lack of trust. To risk overgeneralization the people who committed violence yesterday do not trust the integrity of the elections and the people who committed violence do not trust how the police treat people of color.
When someone joins Chain of Lakes church, I tell the person that I am their pastor. And over time I ask them to trust me as their pastor. I share that I don’t expect them to give me their trust; I believe that I have to earn their trust.
I’ve spent the last half hour reading about trust. This doesn’t make me an expert, but what I read about trust is consistent with the beliefs I’ve always had about trust. Trust happens when a person, an organization, or an institution exhibit reliability, transparency, competency, sincerity, fairness, and vulnerability. I took these words from this site: forbes.com/sites/dennisjaffe/2018/12/05/the-essential-importance-of-trust-how-to-build-it-or-restore-it/?sh=702f384a64fe
The Gallup Poll has been doing research on trust for decades. Their research has shown that trust in institutions has declined significantly in the past twenty-five years. Trust in the church, the Supreme Court, Congress, Organized Labor, Big Business, Public Schools, Newspapers, the Presidency, Television news, banks, and the police has all gone down. In their polling the only institutions where trust has increased is the criminal justice system, the military, and small businesses. I pulled this information from here: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
The purpose of this blog is not to go into why trust is lowered or to even share how trust can be increased. The purpose is to say that the reality of a decrease in trust is one significant foundation of the violence we have seen in the last eight months.
At a minimum all of us have to commit ourselves to earning trust. I have to earn your trust, and you have to earn my trust. Until these numbers and beliefs about trust change, our country will continue to be vulnerable to the unacceptable actions we have seen.
