George Floyd Indeed "Touched The World"

"Jesus Christ, who preached love, truth and forgiveness was crucified on a crude cross, to save man, according to God's plan. God's righteousness demanded such a price.

"George Floyd, who once told a friend 'I want to touch the world' and who mostly spread love and joy during his 46 years on earth, was also killed by hate, it seems, to save the rest of us."

I wrote that on my blog last summer. 

I was reminded of it when ex-cop Derek Chauvin's trial began Holy Week. The irony or perhaps the ordained timing wasn't lost on me -- with images of Floyd's death fresh in our minds come Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified for our sins.

It served as a reminder that perhaps Floyd's murder in broad daylight by a cop seemingly intent to crush the life out of Floyd for more than nine minutes, in essence, was a crucifixion capturing the world's attention.

Floyd's death was a cruel lynching that served to wake us all up, perhaps white Evangelical Christians as much as anyone -- and ultimately save us from our sins.

For decades many white Evangelicals have sat quietly, idily by, embracing an indifferent rightwing agenda, while our society and Republican leaders have effectively abandoned Jesus Christ's command to "love your neighbor as yourself" -- often when that neighbor's skin is a much darker shade than theirs.

So, 12 racially mixed jurors have handed down their verdict. Guilty on all three counts. 

It won't bring George Floyd back. 

But perhaps it will serve, in time, as a vital impetus to wake up those same Christians who too often resemble the hypocritical Pharasees of Jesus Christ's day. 

George Floyd's life -- and death -- indeed mattered more than we may comprehend. 

George Floyd's desire to "touch the world" was, like Christ's, painfully but powerfully fulfilled. 

A Pivotal Point

So much hinges on the trial of George Floyd's killer.

We live at a time where deceivers in the highest offices of the land increasingly insist that we Americans can't trust what we see.

That's an undeniable part of Donald Trump's destructive legacy, through his relentless lies (some 30,000) over four years.

Truth has become a mere inconvenience to so many of Trump's fellow Republican sycophants still insisting their cult leader had no culpability in the Jan. 6, Capitol Hill coup attempt that was clearly orchestrated by Trump and left several Americans dead.

But, that all will be tested as final arguements are heard today and the case is handed off to the jury. 

If former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who crushed the life out of Floyd by kneeling on his neck and back for some nine minutes last May, were to get his freedom, all Americans could soon lose ours -- amid the resulting chaos.

A guilty decision lays the groundwork for change. But it will still be a rocky road to healing and enduring justice.