Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer yesterday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is a verifiable fact. She was a mother, a daughter, and a child of God. She was 37 years old. Three of those four things can be proven empirically, while one is based entirely on faith. It is likely that there has been more said about her in the past 36 hours by more people than in the entirety of her life. There are those that are hailing her as a hero and martyr, while others vilify her and say that she got what she deserved. Who deserves to be shot in the head?
If we seek and serve Christ in all people while respecting the dignity of every human being, we cannot say that anyone deserves to be murdered. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian, said that if he were able to murder Hitler, he would do it for the good of humanity. But he also said that he was willing to cast his soul into hell for the sin of taking another person’s life. He unequivocally named murder a sin, for which there is no excuse. It’s much easier to say that someone needs to be killed or taken out for the betterment of humanity, and easier still to say that it’s good to remove such people from the world. Does Jesus call the death of any person good?
The most difficult funeral I’ve ever done was for a young man who had struggled with addiction for all of his adult life, until the day he died of an overdose. He was in and out of rehab at least ten times, and his family stuck by him the whole time. On the day of his funeral, it was standing room only in the church. The family was standing in the narthex waiting to process into the church, and they had to squeeze to the sides to make way for the casket. The young man’s mother was wearing sunglasses and standing stone straight as he went by, and as my eyes moved from her to the casket, I crumpled and wept. The young man’s father gave me a big hug and slapped me on the back, then walked ahead of me into the church.
I pulled myself together and walked into the church, the last person in line, directly behind the casket. We lived in a small town, and there was no shortage of opinions, good and bad, about the young man and his family. But there was also an outpouring of love and support for the family; all squabbles and divisions were set aside, and people went out of their way to offer their condolences.
There will likely be a funeral service for Renee Good. I can’t imagine celebrating that service, talking about the hope of the resurrection and the promise of the kingdom to come, all the while knowing that there are people outside the church with loud voices and a long reach saying that Renee Good deserved to die. She will be called many things over the next few weeks (hero, martyr, terrorist, agitator), until her name fades into the background and the next tragedy dominates our attention. But to her children, she will always be mom; to her friends and family, she will always be Renee. They are the ones left here to struggle and find their way, and they are the ones who will bear all of the slights made against the person they dearly loved and lost. If we truly believe that whatever we have done unto the least of these we have done unto Christ, then let us act in accordance and honor our savior by honoring one another.
The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector
jason.shelby@stfrancispalosverdes.org