Rioting

Rioting in the Cities

Richard Hollerman

Some of us are used to “law and order” or a plain and simple lifestyle, free from the pain, the confusion, the wickedness, and the bizarre struggles all around us. We imagine that the Police will come to our aid and want law-abiding citizens to not consciously violate the peace. Alas, we have now discovered that this is not the way that we can plan to live our lives. Rioting seemingly is all around and there is no alleviation from this disturbance in society. The mayhem, the bizarre behavior, the open lawlessness, the fires, and the breakdown of society seem to be a way of life—at least in some areas. This may not be true of all the nations of the world, but it definitely is America!

Thus, whether we speak of demonstrations on our streets or the rebellion of people—young and old—this is not something that we are used to or want. In fact, we react  against this state of affairs. We oppose this sort of rebellion in society. Even if we learn that much of this is instigated by educators that influence our youth, or a rebellion that has come to be habitual among young people in their teen years, or their twenties, their thirties, or forties, we find this offensive and to be flatly rejected. We do find it interesting that rebellion is more common in the younger generation and it becomes less of a problem as the age increases! Even the media, in many ways, seems to aggravate and promote this sort of rebelliousness.

Some of you will cite certain well-known passages of Scripture that condemn “rioting” but if we are honest (and this we always want to be) we must admit that instead of “riot” or “excess” a more modern term would be “prodigality” or “wastefulness” or “profligacy.” The Greek term is asotia. Yet, we do find literal “rioting” that occurs in American cities and elsewhere. Other countries also experience this riotous behavior and attitude. In fact, this is not limited to the United States but we find this in other countries too. Yet it does seem that the larger cities in America are particularly prone to this evil attitude and wicked behavior. As I have researched this, it would seem that rioting has occurred in America and elsewhere for various reasons.

There have been riots regarding the immigration of people from Europe. Riots regarding people coming to Anglo America from the East. There have been riots regarding immigrants from Hispanic countries, especially to the South. There have been riots regarding ethnicity and slavery. There have been riots of various sorts in the United States. And we know that riots have occurred in other parts of the world, for various reasons—whether that be ethnic riots, national riots, immigration riots, and so forth. It seems to be part of fallen human nature that opposes people different from themselves.

In the United States alone, in recent years, we may chronicle the following. We think of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois, and New York, New York. We also think of Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California; Saint Louis, Missouri; and Saint Paul—Minneapolis, Minnesota. Perhaps we further think of Miami, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; even Salt Lake City, Utah. Then there has been Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Lewisville, Kentucky; Atlanta, Georgia; and Dallas, Texas. There has also been the national capital, Washington, D. C. We must also include Philadelpia (the “city of brotherly love”) and New Orleans, Louisian (that this past year has had more murders than any other! So this rioting has been widespread and the rebellion pervasive in America.

Thus, we must see these disturbances as found in the major cities of the nation as not only wicked but widespread. We must see rebellion all around us. And we must discover the demonstrations to be found across this fine land. At present, we don’t know the makeup of those who participate in these disastrous events, whether this would be “whites,” or “African-Americans,” or Hispanics, or Asians, nor have we discovered whether this would be more common in the south or the west or the north or the east. (We doubt that the heartland is involved! Further, we don’t know whether this would be the common lot among a particular age group, although it would seem that younger ones were the main participants. Nor do we know whether these would be high-school “dropouts” or college-educated or otherwise.

But this we do know: Whatever the racial background, whatever the location, whatever the form of destruction, we do have the decided impression that younger people were mainly involved and the major urban cities were more involved than the rural areas. We don’t find rioting occurring in the fields of Nebraska, or the cattle ranches of Texas, or the forests of North Carolina, or the open areas of Montana or the Dakotas. Yes, these are sparsely populated areas, but once again this seems to point to people, people, and more people—as is found in the larger metropolitan areas.

Sadly, when we look out at the rioting of the past few years, we find that fires were started, looting (which we would call “stealing”) was involved, and opposition to legal authorities (such as the Police) was implicated. In short, this was a period of total anarchy and societal mayhem. This definitely was a riot or rioting, to use the older term.

Needless to say, God not only would frown on this attitude and behavior, but He plainly forbids it. He is grieved with it and He is angry about it. We do get the impression that these were not only lawless crowds but they were not holy, righteous, and good people, Rather, they must have been evil, immoral, wicked, and malevolent people, generally young people and slightly older. But all have been involved! But we must admit that we doubt that those who participated in this malevolent activity would be interested in what God has said or what He would think.

Further, we realize that there are nine billion people on earth and those in America are a small portion of them. Yet we are aware of the evil, the mayhem, and the rioting that we see all around us and what we see on the internet. May God help us!

We do call on God’s people to “come out from their midst” and live exemplary lives of purity and holiness. Let us, as true Christians, seek Him and His will in all of our activities and relationships. Let us exalt Him and His righteous ways—regardless of what society around us may do or say! As Jesus said so plainly, let us love others as we wish to be loved. And, most of all, let us love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength!