Mohler: The Central Tragedy of this Case Remains—Trayvon Martin Belongs to Us All

[christian cerna]

Mohler’s entire opening paragraph turns his article into one of race. Basically he is implying that the Martin-Zimmerman case took place because one night, a young black man was picked out because of the color of his skin. Hence the analogy of the black father having a talk with his son about what to do when he is discriminated against by law enforcement.

I agree - the opening paragraph frames the rest of the article, hence it is interpreted along those lines.

If you want to plead with folks to understand the plight of young black men who have to contend with racial profiling, then fine- write that article. But Trayvon is an inappropriate example, since his situation is not one of a young black man being gunned down on his way home from the store because he was black. He was shot while attacking another person. This fact completely undermines the premise put forth by the introduction and repeated in the conclusion.

And honestly- I think if the media, politicians, and charlatans like Sharpton, Jackson, and Pres. Obama stopped beating people over the head with the ‘color line’, most of America would forget it was there. Racism is a wound our nation bears, but unless people stop picking the scab, it will never really heal.

The “smiling 17-year-old boy” walked to the convenience store and bought most of the ingredients for an illegal street drug that he publicly boasted of using—a drug that often produces highly aggressive behavior. (This was confirmed by the physical evidence in the autopsy.) Whether that’s what Trayvon intended to use them for that night or not we don’t know. We do know exactly how and why Trayvon Martin was shot to death. He attacked George Zimmerman and paid for it with his life. What we don’t know is why Trayvon decided to launch that attack. Was it an attempted gay-bashing? A continuation of his love for fighting? Fear? Anger? That is what we don’t know.

Online, Trayvon explained to a friend how to make “purple drank” using soda and cough syrup. Not the Watermelon flavored Iced Tea nor the skittles that he had. Of course the defense is going to try to cast as much doubt on Trayvon’s character, to make him as shady as they can. Just like the prosecution also tried to cast doubt on Zimmerman’s character. Also remember, Zimmerman proved to be an outright liar when he told the court that he had no money to afford the legal fees when he had close to $200,000.

Yes Trayvon had a record. Yes, Trayvon had traces of weed in his system. Yes, Trayvon attacked Zimmerman after he was followed by Zimmerman.

Much of this discussion lacks seems to lack nuance and it seems as if several on this site, in their frustration with the media making Trayvon out to be a saint, had set out to outright demonize Trayvon and make Zimmerman out to be a saint.

I’d be curious, how many of you are regularly followed in grocery stores or in the malls, and pulled over by the police because of racial profiling? For the past 20 some years, in my interaction with hundreds and hundreds of inner-city teens and young adults, I hear countless stories of such situations. I am guessing that my students are profiled about once a month. In two of those situations, I witnessed it first hand. One in a grocery store at Meijers and one when I was driving home from a missions conference where I shared and shared our ministry (UTM) and one of our student leaders (that happens to be African-American) shared his testimony. A county sheriff profiled me as the white “drug fiend” driving around the allegedly black “drug dealer.” He realized I had no proof of insurance with me, but still aggressively went after my friend. The first thing he did was put him against the car to frisk him and asked him if he had drugs on him (usually the first question is “do you have any sharp objects on you). He totally forgot about me, but yet centered his attention on my friend. To my friend, he shrugged it off as just another day being black in America. While I was the benefit of white privilege. That is why so many African-Americans can honestly say, “I am Trayvon Martin.”

Personally I don’t think the Prosecution had much of a case, especially because they went after a murder 2 conviction.

That being said, alot of broad brushing about African-Americans is coming out from this post (such as “the white man owes me”) and it needs to stop. In all my work with African-Americans for the past 20 years, I’ve only seen that attitude among a small percentage of those who I work with (the urban poor, African-American teens and young adults that fit the “thug” profile with similar stories to Trayvon’s). Then we start believing all of the media’s lies as well because they are the ones that are running to the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons for their opinion, perpetrating the stereotype that the “white man owes me.”

[Susan R]

[christian cerna]

Mohler’s entire opening paragraph turns his article into one of race. Basically he is implying that the Martin-Zimmerman case took place because one night, a young black man was picked out because of the color of his skin. Hence the analogy of the black father having a talk with his son about what to do when he is discriminated against by law enforcement.

I agree - the opening paragraph frames the rest of the article, hence it is interpreted along those lines.

If you want to plead with folks to understand the plight of young black men who have to contend with racial profiling, then fine- write that article. But Trayvon is an inappropriate example, since his situation is not one of a young black man being gunned down on his way home from the store because he was black. He was shot while attacking another person. This fact completely undermines the premise put forth by the introduction and repeated in the conclusion.

And honestly- I think if the media, politicians, and charlatans like Sharpton, Jackson, and Pres. Obama stopped beating people over the head with the ‘color line’, most of America would forget it was there. Racism is a wound our nation bears, but unless people stop picking the scab, it will never really heal.

Yes! This! I understand that because of the Trayvon-Zimmerman trial, the media exposure, and the street protests by blacks, ‘race’ has become a hot topic in our country- more specifically, the fact that blacks feel discriminated against because of their skin color. But this is the wrong incident for people to use as an example of it.

If you want to use this time to speak about race in America-the progress we’ve made, and the work that needs to be done- that’s fine. But don’t go manipulating facts or presenting a one-sided view of the case, just to make your point.

[Joel Shaffer]

Online, Trayvon explained to a friend how to make “purple drank” using soda and cough syrup. Not the Watermelon flavored Iced Tea nor the skittles that he had. Of course the defense is going to try to cast as much doubt on Trayvon’s character, to make him as shady as they can.

My “version” is exactly true. Watermelon juice (not iced tea) and skittles are common components of purple drank. I specifically said we don’t know whether that’s what Trayvon bought them for…but that frequently is how those two ingredients are combined together. The defense did not cast any doubt on Trayvon’s character. Much of the evidence that would have demonstrated his character was (I think erroneously) excluded by the judge. They were allowed to bring in the marijuana use from the autopsy but chose not to do so.

This is from a news story about a trial four years ago in Rochester, New York for a man who killed a teenager and successfully claimed self defense.

Cervini’s family members say justice wasn’t served. They say Christopher was murdered in cold blood, that he’d never been in trouble and Scott acted as judge, jury and executioner.

“The message is that we can all go out and get guns and feel anybody that we feel is threatening us and lie about the fact,” said Jim Cervini, Christopher’s father. “My son never threatened anybody. He was a gentle child, his nature was gentle, he was a good person and he was never, ever arrested for anything, and has never been in trouble. He was 16 years and four months old, and he was slaughtered.”

The teenage boy (who was trying to steal a car with some friends) was white. The man who shot him was black. Roderick Scott was acquitted by the jury after two days of deliberations. The charge was manslaughter rather than murder 2, but the story is very similar in a lot of respects. What does that story tell us about race in America? Where are the articles saying Christopher Cervini belongs to all of us and we should mourn a tragedy? Where are the calls for Christians to understand? What makes Trayvon Martin so much more special than Christopher Cervini?

[Robert Byers]

This is from a news story about a trial four years ago in Rochester, New York for a man who killed a teenager and successfully claimed self defense.

Cervini’s family members say justice wasn’t served. They say Christopher was murdered in cold blood, that he’d never been in trouble and Scott acted as judge, jury and executioner.

“The message is that we can all go out and get guns and feel anybody that we feel is threatening us and lie about the fact,” said Jim Cervini, Christopher’s father. “My son never threatened anybody. He was a gentle child, his nature was gentle, he was a good person and he was never, ever arrested for anything, and has never been in trouble. He was 16 years and four months old, and he was slaughtered.”

The teenage boy (who was trying to steal a car with some friends) was white. The man who shot him was black. Roderick Scott was acquitted by the jury after two days of deliberations. The charge was manslaughter rather than murder 2, but the story is very similar in a lot of respects. What does that story tell us about race in America? Where are the articles saying Christopher Cervini belongs to all of us and we should mourn a tragedy? Where are the calls for Christians to understand? What makes Trayvon Martin so much more special than Christopher Cervini?

What makes him special is the media adopted him as their darling to manipulate emotions in order to increase their ratings, and race baiters saw an opportunity to stoke the fires of discontent and hatred in order to reinforce their standing amongst their followers.

People die every day in various ways, but a few, for some reason, become lightning rods of controversy, while others are buried without any of us knowing their names or the circumstances of their deaths. And yet their families are grieving just as much, needing comfort, and some hoping for justice.

I remember feeling the same way after the 9/11 attacks. Those people died suddenly and tragically, but they are not ‘more deader’ than others who lose their families to accidents, disease, or violence. America has succeeded in making even death a way for people to become ‘celebrities’.

I believe our focus should be on ministering to those with whom we can make a difference, and we do that by remaining steadfastly honest and emotionally balanced and involved in our own communities.

Ann Coulter is her typical “in your face” but it’s worth a read

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2013-07-17.html

Instead of turning every story about a black person killed by a white person into an occasion to announce, “The simple fact is, America is a racist society,” liberals might, one time, ask the question: Why do you suppose there would be a generalized fear of young black males? What might that be based on?

Throw us a bone. It’s because a disproportionate number of criminals are young black males

I remember feeling the same way after the 9/11 attacks.

Yes, those people died, like someone who was say, hit by a train. At the same time, they died as the result of an attack on our soil. That’s not something that has happened all that often in our history. Like a generation before remembered Pearl Harbor, I don’t think it’s inappropriate to remember the 9/11 attacks and its victims and heroes in a more significant way.

As to our case immediately, you can’t really control what “gets wings” and what doesn’t. For example, why did Rosa Parks get entrenched in our minds, as opposed to Irene Morgan or Sarah Louise Keys, both of whom made similar acts of defiance on buses prior to Parks?

Niece: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Not Wear A Hoodie

[Greg Linscott]

I remember feeling the same way after the 9/11 attacks.

Yes, those people died, like someone who was say, hit by a train. At the same time, they died as the result of an attack on our soil. That’s not something that has happened all that often in our history. Like a generation before remembered Pearl Harbor, I don’t think it’s inappropriate to remember the 9/11 attacks and its victims and heroes in a more significant way.

As to our case immediately, you can’t really control what “gets wings” and what doesn’t. For example, why did Rosa Parks get entrenched in our minds, as opposed to Irene Morgan or Sarah Louise Keys, both of whom made similar acts of defiance on buses prior to Parks?

Well, I certainly didn’t imply it was inappropriate to remember the tragedy, the victims, and the heroes. The problem comes when we (general ‘we’) speak (or write) as if the grief suffered by those families was somehow more than others who have lost loved ones. I can’t imagine what it was like to be on those airplanes, and the heroism demonstrated was inspiring. But they weren’t significant than the man who died in February after jumping into an icy pond to save a little boy, or the teenage girl who died in March trying to save her little brother after he fell into a river. Did either of those families get a movie and a book deal? Were their community churches ministering to them, or were they distracted by the crisis du jour?

Considering that the furor surrounding the Martin/Zimmerman case was a media fabrication, I think we should be very circumspect in how we discuss the issues, and not give more meaning where there isn’t more meaning.

I don’t think we need to concern ourselves with controlling what ‘gets wings’ and what doesn’t, but we can certainly control how we react. The basic point of Mr. Mohler’s article is valid, and would have been more effective, IMO, if he’d’ve used an appropriate illustration. Because it isn’t apples and apples, it feels like he’s jumped on the media bandwagon.

My “version” is exactly true. Watermelon juice (not iced tea) and skittles are common components of purple drank. I specifically said we don’t know whether that’s what Trayvon bought them for…but that frequently is how those two ingredients are combined together. The defense did not cast any doubt on Trayvon’s character. Much of the evidence that would have demonstrated his character was (I think erroneously) excluded by the judge. They were allowed to bring in the marijuana use from the autopsy but chose not to do so.

I know very well what makes purple drank and yes the watermelon flavored juice, with the Ice Tea label (its sad that I have to get so detailed so that people understand me) along with skittles can be used to make it. Even though you say that you don’t why he bought the items, by the very nature of you bringing it up, you are insinuating that there was a strong possibility that he was going to use it for that purpose. My point was that those ingredients seems not to be his regular brew to make it based on his facebook post. Therefore, based on his very words, I am not going to assume innocence until proven guilty in this situation.

But they weren’t significant than the man who died in February after jumping into an icy pond to save a little boy, or the teenage girl who died in March trying to save her little brother after he fell into a river.

Well, they were (I assume you meant) more significant to us as a nation, because the circumstances were more than just a personal crisis- the events that led to their demise changed the way we live. The media may magnify some of these things, true (movies and the like), but they do so to a large degree because people want to know, want to respond. In some ways, it provides an expression for a national crisis, I suppose. There are better responses, I would say (the way churches were flooded, for example, immediately after the event), but these things reflect something happening beyond people dying in tragic situations.

The situation at hand does involve media magnification, yes. We’ve seen a few of those in our lifetime. The O.J. Simpson case was another such example. I would observe, though, that even this thread shows that there is an audience for such a thing. As strong as the “media fabrications” for TM have been to incite responses leveling charges of racism, the retorts seem equally, if not even more vehemently, to paint the young man (not to mention all the others just like him) as a violent, drug abusing thug.

There is, admittedly, a larger situation that we need to have more conversations about, and not just with each other. I appreciate you observing “The basic point of Mr. Mohler’s article is valid.” I am not going to even attempt to discuss the apparent inaccuracies and media misrepresentations, because in the end, I don’t think the specifics about the case were his point (they certainly haven’t been mine). Rather, the focus has been how to minister in light of the societal wound exposed by the proceedings. In the end, recipes for drug concoctions, Twitter handles, non-emergency numbers, etc and how those storylines resolve themselves don’t really change the opportunity for response that we as believers have to address the sinful conflict, violence, and division in our land.

The reason this matters is that the misleading reporting was part of an orchestrated effort to “de-thug” Trayvon Martin and demonize George Zimmerman. Was Trayvon going to make purple drank? I don’t know. But the professional race hucksters that latched onto the family did know that watermelon juice and Skittles are used to make it, so the story was put out that Trayvon was carrying iced tea. Even though the crime scene photo (and while I didn’t post that here, I assure you that it is the can pictured above) very clearly showed what Trayvon had, that iced tea story was repeated again and again. You still believe it. Hopefully you’ll change your mind in light of the facts. This is the same reason that they released the several years old picture of Trayvon looking angelic in the red Hollister shirt. They were painting an image. But the image wasn’t true. And it would help everyone if people like you and Dr. Mohler who I fully believe mean well would stop allowing preceptions of the case to be shaped by these falsehoods.

Interesting thread.

I believe Mohler was simply reminding Christians that we need to think more about the “N” word—Neighbor. We all have a lot of our neighbors who have been mugged, wounded and are bleeding by the side of the road. We need to ask God to give us more understanding of their predicament, and to help them to a place of safety and healing.

Greg,

If that was the point of the article, then this is a poor case to use to make the point. There is no hint of impropriety on the traveler’s part in the story of the good Samaritan; in other words, he did nothing at all to bring on the problems he encountered. Consequently, there was nothing in the account which would distract form the point Jesus was trying to make in the lesson. This case is filled with distraction which takes away from that important lesson (as anyone can see after reading this thread).