"Last week, a video was leaked of a white man shooting and killing Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery in his neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia. While Arbery's death occurred in February, the alleged shooter and his father were only arrested last week following a massive public uproar following the release of the tape. Many Christians, of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, have condemned the Arbery's killing. But widespread condemnation from the church for these types of killings was not always the case.
"For years, for white Christians, 'the critique of lynching rarely moved beyond Lynching is anarchy, and we need to kind of reinforce the rule of law,' said Malcolm Foley, a PhD candidate in Baylor University's Department of Religion, whose dissertation examines African-American Christian responses to lynching from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Not surprisingly, the black church took a much more forceful response to these atrocities."