A well-meaning post:
“With everything happening in Los Angeles right now, here’s a reminder for those of us who follow Jesus:
1️⃣ God’s still in charge—even over governments.
Romans 13 says every authority exists because God allows it. We don’t have to agree with everything, but we’re still called to honor the role.
2️⃣ Rioting isn’t righteous.
Galatians 5 calls things like rage, chaos, and division “works of the flesh.” That’s not how the Spirit leads.
3️⃣ Yes, there’s a time to stand up—but it should look like Jesus.
In Acts 5, the apostles disobeyed human orders to obey God—but they didn’t riot. They stood firm in faith and humility.
4️⃣ God cares deeply about justice—but not through destruction.
Proverbs 31 tells us to speak up for the hurting and the vulnerable, but always in a way that reflects His heart.
5️⃣ Even Jesus didn’t riot.
When He stood before Pilate, wrongly accused, He didn’t lash out—He trusted the Father and walked in peace.
Let’s not confuse breaking things with breaking chains.
Let’s be people of peace, truth, and courage—just like Jesus.
🙏 Let’s also be praying for Los Angeles—for peace to return, for hearts to turn to God, and for true justice to be done His way.”
Dear Pastors,
With all due respect, it’s a privilege to protest peacefully.
How exactly would you have us respond? With quiet prayers and polite petitions? Is that what you’d have said under slavery or Jim Crow America? Under Pinochet, Francisco Franco, apartheid South Africa? Under the Nazis? There’s a pattern to authoritarianism and tyranny, and it must be stopped before it reaches those levels. How many must lose their freedom, their families, their lives—their LIVES!—before non-passive resistance is justified to you?
Peace is beautiful. But peace without justice isn’t godly, it’s just comfortable for the powerful. Neutrality always benefits the oppressor, never the oppressed. And Jesus stood with the outcast, not the empire.
Your scripture choices are tone-deaf and misapplied in this climate. Those verses speak to personal sin and spiritual discipline, not public uprising against oppression. They were written to Christians resisting legalism, not injustice. Using them to dismiss modern protest is a distortion of the Gospel.
Yes, the apostles disobeyed peacefully. That doesn’t invalidate collective uprisings from communities facing real, immediate danger. They preached in defiance of religious and state authorities…. and were jailed for it. Peaceful and disruptive.
And yes, Jesus was calm before Pilate. But that moment led to His crucifixion, not a universal model for resistance. Jesus was nonviolent, yes, but His life was a direct threat to unjust systems. He disrupted, and was executed by, The Empire.
So let’s not tone-police the oppressed while quoting scripture out of context. Let’s not shame righteous anger from the marginalized.
Christ doesn’t prioritize peace over liberation. We’re not called to protect the status quo.
We’re called to free the captives.
And if you weren’t there to help free them, you don’t get to dictate how they break the chains.
