I’ve been sitting on this for months, but with the lack of murder charge for the killers of Breonna Taylor, it’s time to talk about a few bad apples (aka the bad racist violent police officers, or when police make bad decisions):

*THREAD 1/n

Have you ever been to a party or bonfire where a stranger asked you what you did for a living, and when you told them, it was assumed that you were an abuser?

I have. And deservedly so.

I am a pastor. AKA clergy, priest, preacher, etc.

Our profession has a sordid history of abuse. And we also have a sordid history of coverup.

Some of us pastors still think that coverups and “hush hush” and “it’s only a few bad apples” and “the work we do is more important than these isolated cases” and “ah well what can you do?!” and “let’s circle the wagons” is good enough. It’s not.

And others of us pastors have learned that this behaviour in our profession is a scourge. It hurts everyone, and we have to make it stop. And so we name the actions, and we name the conditions that allowed those actions to occur...

and we have accountability processes, and we attend mandatory seminars on boundaries and abuse, and we get 3rd experts involved, and when some of us *still* cross those boundaries (infuriatingly, it happens), we say, “You can’t be a pastor anymore.”

Accountability for one’s actions in their profession is not a pie-in-the-sky dream. It is possible.

You abuse people? You can’t be a pastor.
You hurt children? You can’t be a teacher.
You steal money from a client? You can’t be a lawyer.
You sleep with patients? You can’t be a doctor.
You take bribes? You can’t be a judge.

You commit violence against unarmed BIPOC? You can’t be a cop.

This is possible. And really not that revolutionary. But it takes a lot of us to demand better from those in whom we put our trust. And there are very few public jobs that require more trust than a police officer - We give them guns, for goodness sake.

So when Breonna Taylor was killed SLEEPING IN HER BED, the 99% of good cops (the good apples) really CAN say “Enough. Those cops have lost the trust of the people they’re supposed to protect. They’ve lost the privilege of being a cop. They can no longer be a police officer.”

It took us clergy decades(!) to learn about accountability, and because of that we have left a trail of victims behind us, and countless others are done with organized religion - And on a far smaller scale of importance, I am accused at parties and bonfires of being an abuser.

My hunch is that until the good police officers learn to name the abuse and violence and murders done by their co-workers and have the courage to say “You can’t be a police officer anymore”, I’m going to have company answering awkward questions at parties and bonfires.

#blacklivesmatter - They always have, and they always will.

*end thread