‘I can’t breathe’ is a prophetic cry for real change

We have reached the bottom and must mend our ways,

“I can’t breathe.”

These are the haunting words of George Floyd as he was restrained by a police officer on a Minneapolis street. These words are symptomatic of our COVID-19 days.

They awaken us from our apathetic slumber.

“I can’t breathe” are the words of an elderly person, as they speak to a health-care worker when they discover a positive test for the novel coronavirus.

“I can’t breathe” are the last words of the Indigenous woman who has been taken captive and becomes a statistic of another missing and murdered woman.

“I can’t breathe” are the words of the vulnerable people of colour who are exposed to COVID-19, six times more likely to die than their white cohorts.

“I can’t breathe” are the words of the poor who seek a better way.

“I can’t breathe” are the words I speak when I consider my part in the privilege I carry as a white male, who has had every benefit to survive and thrive when many have not. My privilege chokes me silent. “I can’t breathe.”

“I can’t breathe” are the words of a parent who returns to a meat-packing plant because they cannot afford to not work, even when it isn’t safe.

“I can’t breathe” are the words of the earth. Creation is groaning.

Our planet is crying out as we have polluted and stressed the earth with our greed.

“I can’t breathe” is a prophetic cry to change. They are words of conviction.

We have to recognize our place in this story. We have to take our knee off the necks of the weak, the vulnerable and the ones we reject. We have to stand up together up for all.

We can’t wait. We can’t be lulled into waiting for the pandemic to be over. Or wait to go backward. We need to move forward. There is no vaccine for racism. We need action now.

We can change in the midst of the mess we are in. We need to hear the anxious cries, to taste the salty tears, and touch the open wounds.

We have reached the bottom as a people and now is the time to change our ways. The cries in the streets are a signal that we can no longer wait.

We can’t say, “Oh, well.” We must say, “Oh, yes!”

We must act now. Every race, every creed and every colour, every gender, every class, must work for change so that justice will roll down like a mighty stream.

Many of us have wondered about opening our churches, temples, synagogues to worship again. I say no. The actions we need to be about are not in the sanctuaries but in the streets.

Worship is pointless if it stays in the church. We must take our songs, our rituals, our stories and our scripture to the streets. We must be about love, not hate. Inclusion, not exclusion.

We do this not to have power over, but to have power with the powerless and the vulnerable.

Religion isn’t about our buildings. It is about what we do when we leave the building. It is about breaking down walls that separate us one from the other.

Religion should bind us in love not hate. Religion should not choke life, rather breathe life.

What is required today is action, solidarity and protest that leads to action. We all need to work to make our world a more just and loving place for all to enjoy, for all to thrive.

Religious communities must join non-religious communities to work together for ALL people.

We do this so that George Floyd’s death is not in vain. We do it so that all can breathe freely and walk compassionately on the earth. Rev. John Pentland is the lead minister at Hillhurst United Church in Calgary.