Lament for the Atlanta Shootings

Grieving over Misogyny and Anti-Asian Violence

Like many of you I have been shocked, saddened, and appalled by the callous murder of eight people, mostly Asian women, in Atlanta by alleged shooter Robert Long.

By a Southern Baptist

If the heinous act was not enough, the fact that Long was a member of an SBC church is all the more harrowing. High school friends described Long as “super nice” and “super Christian.” Yet he purportedly killed six women in these massage parlors because he wanted to destroy the temptation of his own sexual addiction. According to CBS News, Long told investigators that "he loved God and guns."

In the aftermath of this tragedy, I do not think it helpful to infer that Long committed this crime because he was Southern Baptist. That would be like saying that Muslims commit terrorist acts because they are Muslim. I’ve seen many Southern Baptists grieve and lament this awful crime and despair that it was committed by one of their own.

Daniel Akin @DannyAkin

I am heartbroken for the Asian community, and my Asian brothers and sisters in Christ. This heinous act of murder in my hometown of Atlanta is difficult to put into words. Know @SEBTS is praying for you asking God to minister His grace and comfort to you.

However, the question does need to be asked, to what extent did a certain type of teaching contribute to the mental make-up of a killer? How does a purportedly benevolent patriarchy so quickly descend into an evil, lustful, and murderous one? Is there a link between, “Beware of women as sexual temptations” and “Mortify sin in your own body,” to suddenly killing women as the way to cleanse yourself of sin?

No doubt other contributing factors will also come to light, such as pornography addiction, mental health issues, and gun access. I know that some of my Southern Baptist friends will want to reply that this heinous violence is not true Christian manhood, it is rather, a twisted evil. Perhaps, but I want to ask, what makes such a view of masculinity and authority so twistable into evil? That’s the rub.

I have many wonderful Southern Baptist friends, men and women, and I pray that in the coming weeks they will enter into serious reflections about discipleship, gender, power, and violence.

Anti-Asian Racism

Duke Kwon @dukekwondc

You may distrust or despise the concept of “intersectionality,” but I’d like to suggest that you cannot truly grasp what happened in Atlanta without seeing the cumulative force of the victims’ overlapping identities as women, as Asians, and as economically vulnerable immigrants.

The women murdered were Asian and immigrants. While Long has denied being racially motivated, he appears to have directly targeted Asian women.

America (and Australia too) continues to wrestle with anti-Asian violence and racism. At my own college, Ridley College, close to 20% of our students are Asian, and it troubles me to know how often they experience anti-Asian prejudice. Whether flat out abuse on the street or the unspoken shadow of “otherness” that sometimes follows them.

It is truly staggering that Asians get accused of things like “hyper-whiteness” by the progressive left and being carriers of “Kung Flu” or the “China Virus” by the far right.

We need more than solidarity posts on social media. We need to expose prejudice when we see it and prosecute violence when it occurs.

Be sure to actively support your Asian friends, colleagues, and family. Let them know that you see what they’re up against, you see hatred against them, and you stand with them so they never have to stand alone.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we grieve over the loss of innocent life in Atlanta, we see the pain of those who mourn, we see evil layered upon evil, we confess the wicked perversion of our faith, so we ask Lord, comfort the mourners, fill the earth with justice, convict our hearts of sin, and fill our hearts with courage to act against misogyny and xenophobia in all its heinous forms.