One of the more heartbreaking things we’re witnessing in the current unrest is the inclination to silence certain aspects of the discussion on race and healing. The “silence is violence” crowd is ironically the worst offender, immediately stepping in to silence voices and points of view that don’t begin and end with getting white Americans out of the way and defunding the police.

No one is immune. Black, white, man woman – if you’re not toeing the current lines being thrown out there and prioritized by the left-wing media then you’re not “on the right side.”

Case in point: actor Terry Crews. The Brooklyn 99 star and host of America’s Got Talent is well known for his positive spirit and he and his wife have been advocates for strong marriages and families for years. They have quite a story to tell if you’re ever in the mood to hear it. Crews also jumped into the fray on the #MeToo controversy when he shared his own story of sexual harassment in Hollywood. Some people felt he was brave for stepping out and sharing his experiences, while others slammed him being “homophobic” for pointing out his harassment came at the hands of powerful men in the industry.  Crews has never been shy about sharing his own struggles and particularly how his faith has helped him through those things.

On Sunday, the former football player tweeted out what might sound like a very thoughtful and seemingly benign thought on the issue of equality.

He was immediately met with a litany of outrage. Some people accused him of being insensitive. Others said his timing was off. A plethora of responses called for him to be “cancelled” and driven out of entertainment for good. I won’t highlight them here (follow this link if you’re curious) but needless to say it was savage and sad.

Terry Crews is a black man who has accomplished the very rare task of making a name for himself in Hollywood. There is no doubt that he is intimately familiar with the bigotry and discrimination of his industry and the difficulty black men have in smashing stereotypes in entertainment. He’s also intimately familiar with the Gospel. Crews has always been vocal about his belief that the forgiveness and healing offered by God to all who ask is really the only thing that can keep us from destroying ourselves. He believes in equality as laid out in the Good Book – that all of us are created by a loving God who so desperately treasures each and every one of us that He did not rule man but became man. He made himself equal to us even though surely not one of us deserves to share the same status as Creator of the universe. As we say in the church…

But God…

But God…

It broke my heart to read the rage directed at Crews for such a simple and obvious message. True equality requires that we all follow the example of our Lord…that we become each other. We can’t trade one type of superiority for another, and if anyone thinks that minority Americans are immune to feeling superior just because we don’t occupy the position of the majority they’re fooling themselves about human nature.

I loved what Crews expressed here. It doesn’t seem to be unreasonable in the least. We can’t erase white people from the equation of racial healing. That makes no sense. We all live in this country together. No one is leaving so get used to it. If we don’t tackle this problem together we will fall together.

Like it or not.