How should Christians respond to the protests happening across the country?
Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear
J.D. Greear
4.8 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pastor J.D. is joined by Pastor Bryan Loritts for a special edition of Ask Me Anything where they look at the events of the past week.
A glimpse inside this episode:
Immediately: Bear one another’s burdens, grieve with those who grieve. Love your neighbors as yourself. Pursue empathy. Relieve yourself of the burden of having to come up with answers, and take a posture of humility. Even in the face of Martha saying something untrue, Jesus listened and wept with Mary and Martha (John 11). He didn’t immediately correct her theology.
Longterm: We need a full-court press from the three institutions created by God, the family, the government, and the church, in dealing with the issues of systemic racism. Considering a healthy spiritual upbringing of our children, considering how we vote, and considering the heart change that happens with the gospel. God’s strategy for dealing with the problem of sin as part of the new covenant was not dealing with it from the outside in but from the inside out (Jeremiah and Ezekiel). Imagine the power of Ahmaud Arbery in a small group relationship with the McMichaels–where they’re all redeemed and getting to know each other. Proximity breeds empathy; distance breeds suspicion.
When something happens to one part of the body of Christ, it happens to all of us. That’s where we start. Don’t rush past lamenting into problem solving. “White evangelicals have a PhD in statistics and a third grade education in empathy” – Bryan Loritts, Insider Outsider
On social media, do the same: don’t rush to problem solving but spend time lamenting and empathizing. Simply, “We are with you.” Instead of being paralyzed by not having the answers, make yourself available.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | LifeWay Leadership Podcast Network. |
| 0:05.0 | Hey, everyone. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm |
| 0:09.0 | with J.D. Greer, and I am also here with |
| 0:26.1 | Pastor Brian Laritz. Which is amazing because instead of just being me and you, we've got a third |
| 0:32.2 | wiser voice with us. Exactly. Exactly. Brian, we're really glad you're here and glad you're now on staff of the |
| 0:39.1 | Summit Church here in Raleigh, and so I'm glad we get to get to talk to you, and I think this is |
| 0:43.2 | probably the first of many guests times on Ask Me Anything. You like how he just obligates you to that |
| 0:47.4 | kind of on air. If it's many, then we're going to change the name. Ask Pastor J.Dady and Brian. |
| 0:55.0 | It would be great. |
| 0:58.5 | Pastor Brian, as much as I think we'd love to just talk about how excited we are to have you here, |
| 1:01.8 | we know that we're actually recording this because, man, the last few weeks, |
| 1:03.8 | just our country has seen a lot go on. |
| 1:07.5 | We've seen the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, George Floyd, |
| 1:12.2 | and now we've seen in response to those things some protests around the country in different cities. And then alongside those protests, we've seen some looting and violence and |
| 1:19.0 | rioting and whatever you would want to call it. And so I think for a lot of us, we're trying to |
| 1:23.8 | figure out how do we process all of this that's happening right now, not to mention |
| 1:28.3 | that it's all happening while we're quarantined in our homes during a global pandemic. |
| 1:31.5 | We won't touch that one right now. And so the question for both of you guys today is how should |
| 1:35.9 | Christians respond? And we're going to say specifically to the protests that are happening right now |
| 1:40.8 | around the country. Brian, do you want to start? Yeah, I would, I would say two things. |
| 1:44.3 | One's an immediate, one's a long term. I'd say step number one is just bearing one another's |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from J.D. Greear, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of J.D. Greear and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.