Moses, Minneapolis, and Facing the Truth

 

I feel like Moses this week.  In Parshat Shemot, at seeing the strange bush on fire but not burning and then hearing and feeling the presence of God, the Torah tells us, “At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”

Usually, the endless stream of videos showing violence and unrest of all sorts do not make the impression on me that the multiple angles of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good have had.  It is a brutal reminder that terrible and tragic things can happen in an instant on an average-looking street in the middle of the day, right outside your house. 

But what makes me angry and makes me hope I can be even more like Moses, and that other Americans will join me in emulating him, is the response of so many of our national leaders and officials, who seem unwilling or unable to acknowledge that whether or not the incident proves to be illegal, unjust, or evil, how can we not all agree that the scene is terrible, is horrible and heartbreaking? 

I’m inclined at this point to believe it was an unjust and unwarranted act by the agent.  But I don’t know that for sure.  I support law enforcement, I am a police chaplain even, but never would it occur to me that after seeing that video that there needs to be at least an investigation to know the truth about a chaotic and disturbing-looking interaction between a government agent and a member of the public.  How have we gotten to the point that saying that is controversial?

And while I doubt it will be the case, if it turns out that Good had looked at the agent, declared she was going to kill him by running him over with his car, and that he was in the way, that somehow it turns out that the action was justified, I am saddened to think that those who are outraged now will be unable to accept that truth – that they will be unable to accept that even though doing so needn’t mean their other objections to the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement can still be legitimate. 

Moses, after being so afraid that he hides, somehow turns it around.  So much so that he goes on to argue with God about the mission Moses is being given to lead the Jews from slavery to freedom.  He argues, he wants to understand the details, the nuance.  Is he going to have help?  What is God going to do?  What about his own limitations? 

I believe, whether Moses was afraid or not, his arguing, his wanting to know more, his investigation into what the Creator of the Universe tells him to do is precisely why Moses was the right one for the job.

If we Americans, no, if we humans, are going to fight for what is right, even when we are afraid, that we must be informed.  We must be willing to accept the truth.  We have to accept that we won’t always know all the answers.  And most of all, when we or others make mistakes, or even do the wrong thing, we must admit it.  Because if we do not, then our cause, please God it is the right cause, is never, ever, strengthened, not in the long run, by denying it.

It took Moses forty years to complete the plan God gave him.  I’m glad Moses asked a lot of questions about what he had to do.  I hope and pray I will be able to do the same when moral quandaries confront me.  And I pray that all others in our country will do the same.  It is long path to take, but the only one, that leads to the Promised Land.