From Scapegoats to Lambs. . . by Charles L. Brown Jr.

Unlike so many murders of unarmed black & brown bodies by police officers, the viral video recording of George Floyd’s modern-day lynching set into motion a Kairos moment in time, the impact of which is still being felt over a year later. How/Why did God usher in this season of transformation now? Can God’s Word teach us how to reverse engineer communal violent scapegoating? What role can each of us play to eradicate police brutality? From Scapegoats to Lambs: How God’s Word Speaks to George Floyd’s Murder audaciously confronts these issues stemming from Charles L. Brown Jr.’s unflinching belief that God’s Word is uniquely qualified to preach to & through the legacy of the suffering of black & brown bodies, & that the Lord has a way of humbling the powerful & empowering the humiliated. In adopting what he calls “hood hermeneutics,” Charles joins the ranks of a growing number of unapologetic, black, Christian intellectuals unashamedly challenging the Church to mine the text with ferocious passion until it speaks compellingly to the struggle of those violently scapegoated. Charles L. Brown Jr., a Baltimore, MD native, is the founding pastor of Family of Faith African Methodist Episcopal Church, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, & co-founder of The Virgin Islands Alliance for Consumer Justice. Before engaging in consumer advocacy & public policy in the territory, he served as Capitol Hill legislative staff for members of the US House of Representatives & Senate. Afterwards he served as a lobbyist for a national, non-profit called Teach For America. Charles has been an ordained minister in the A.M.E. Church for over 30 years, & after sitting in multiple graduate courses under Dr. Cornel West while matriculating in seminary, he became relentlessly passionate about the nexus between faith & social justice.