"White lives matter!"

Did I get your attention with that headline? Good. For in the recent torrent of news on racially charged police violence, attention withers quickly, and weary spectators retreat to one side or another of the opinion divide, or of the racial chasm.

But this headline, the color inverse of the slogan used by Ferguson protesters, has the potential to cut across that divide. For it invites us ("us" as in: White people, the stock population of the mainline church) to imagine race relations were reversed, and to walk in other shoes for a little while.

What did you feel when you read the post title? Did you feel dismayed? Offended? Or maybe satisfied that someone turned the tables? Whichever it was, don't judge it. That's your state of affairs, your angle of view right now. But now, let's try something different.

One quality of Jesus that we talk too little about is his compassion. His ability to be moved beyond words by suffering, moved in his innermost being. He literally felt with (com-pati) others. We, curved in unto ourselves, must practice this ability. So let's practice.

If you are White like me, I ask you to do this. Go on a little imaginary journey. Imagine an American society where race relations are reversed. Where White people are in the minority, and Black police officers exert deadly force on them in larger proportions than on Black citizens. 

Put detail into your fantasy. Paint it in stark, graphic colors. Imagine a White teenager followed around, approached, and shot by a Black vigilante. Or a White father of six dying after being put in a chokehold by a Black officer. Try to imagine a world in which YOU had no meaningful choice but to take to the streets, with thousands of others, and to shout "White lives matter!"

What would a society look like that compelled you to use these words? How would you feel about your place in that society, about your worth as a White person? How would this world feel to you?

I can say for my part that even the attempt at imagining such a society made me feel scared, oppressed, suffocated. Wanting to scream.

Whatever the outcome of the judicial processes may be, whatever we may think or feel about the protests, we must never forget that there is a reality experienced by the people we see on the news that is quite different from the reality we experience. There is a reason, or rather a multitude of reasons, why people take to the streets.

Prayer: Lord, may our encounter with the suffering of those we view as "other" change our hearts.