We are fond of the dialectic method of arguing. In this, there is always “us and them” and things are always “black and white”. We assign sides and it is simple and clean.

Life is never so simple and clean.

Those raising concerns about systemic violence in the criminal justice system, particularly toward young, unarmed, black men, women, girls, and boys are often portrayed as “hating the police.” Just as those speaking the same way they did 30 years ago are portrayed as suddenly racist. These things can all be true and still be beside the point.

'Wanting reform doesn't mean hating cops.' Share on X

A century and a half ago, Episcopal churches were self-describing as Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical. They were treated as adversaries, opponents, and therefore, opposites. They weren’t mirror images of each other. They had different, not opposing goals. But the politics of the day pitted the two groups of Christians against each other. Much like today’s Republicans and Democrats.

It isn’t cops vs. people. Wanting reform doesn’t mean hating cops. It means actually dealing with the few bad cops, inappropriate training, and systems which put good people into situations in which they seem like bad cops. Seeking reforms that make our world better doesn’t mean a person hates every police officer.

We don’t need to revel in complexity. We just have to recognize that the simple binary is a lie, and needs to be treated as one. Because it is the binary, not the complexity, which sends us into the weeds. It is the binary which sends us into bickering with one another rather than solving our common problem. It is the binary, not the complexity, that has us feeling divided, hopeless, and without a chance.

Oversimplifying the problem of race, justice, and reconciliation makes it far easier to throw up our hands and do nothing, because we make it out to be a competition, rather than a common struggle.

Meanwhile, we will wait and watch for more confusion, more violence, more dying. Because it isn’t just racism that is killing us. It is oversimplifying the problem to the point in which nothing can happen that allows the sin of racism, division, and inequality to keep killing us.