George Floyd and the Spiritual Rot We Must Confront

By Rev. M. JoDavid Sales, Ph.D., Contributing Writer

For eight minutes and 46 seconds, the sinful and demonic nature of white supremacy was on full display as George Floyd cried out, gasped for breath, and ultimately, lay lifeless. Floyd’s death was not random nor was it an accident. White supremacy, and the demonic spirit of domination that birthed such an idolatrous ideology, is neither random nor accidental. 

The spirit of domination manifests itself differently depending on culture and place but its focus remains the same. This spirit has long mastered the art of getting folk to breathe in the idea that their life and humanity are tied to their ability to rule over others. Therefore, Floyd’s death is not merely or simply the result of “sin.” Floyd was not just murdered; he was also ritually and nonchalantly sacrificed to the god of domination as an act of worship. 

Those eight minutes and 46 seconds were both sinful and demonic. When I say “demonic,” I am not absolving Floyd’s murderer of responsibility by saying “the devil made him do it.” The demonic points to the wicked forces of this world that get into and shape us. We breathe them in and exhale them out; and soon, this demonic atmosphere changes the very cells in our bodies, emotions, thoughts, spirits, and behaviors. So, white supremacy is not simply the result of human wrongdoing, it is also caused by spiritual rot.

Many people and communities do not tie their humanity to domination. Jesus reminded his disciples that some folk seek to rule over others but “not so with you.” Yet, for those tied to white supremacy and the spirit of domination that undergirds it, they feel they cannot breathe unless they can take the breath away of others. Their food doesn’t taste good unless it is snatched out of the mouth of someone else. They’ve mistaken domination for oxygen, and thus, display their possession. They mistake domination for God, and thus, display their idolatry. Enslaved by an insatiable hunger for power, they are possessed by domination and greed and participate in their own dehumanization and the dehumanization of others. 

Before Floyd was killed, before white supremacy was conjured, and before an African slave disembarked on Virginian soil, the first trigger pulled on this continent was by a Spaniard Christian taking the life of an unarmed or lesser-armed Native American who was mislabeled as an “Indian.” Senseless, asymmetrical violence—in league with the spirits of greed and domination—have been in the DNA of this hemisphere since 1492. Like Abel, the blood caused by such violence has been crying out from the ground and is now spilling into the streets across America. 

We desperately need economic, political, and social alternatives. We must struggle against injustice and denounce white supremacy and all ideologies born of domination. We must stand with those who are protesting in the streets. However, the AME Church would be remiss if we did not call out America’s spiritual rot and work towards a liberating spiritual alternative. 

America needs an exorcism. That’s what a liberating spiritual alternative is: an exorcism. Since our problems are diverse, indeed they are legion, we need multiple responses, including the direct confrontation with the spiritual rot of America. The Kingdom of God is still at hand. Another world is still possible.

The Rev. Dr. Malik JoDavid Sales is a native of Huntsville, Alabama. He graduated from Xavier, Harvard Divinity School, and concluded his educational preparation at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His dissertation was accompanied by a full-length musical album. Since graduating, Dr. Sales has published a novel and continues to write and release music under the artist name “Jolowmight x Cervantes.” Dr. Sales currently teaches in the Theology and Religious Studies Department of St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. The Rev. Sales serves as the CA Conference Co-Director of Christian Education and an associate minister at St. Paul AME Church in Berkeley. He is married to his college sweetheart, Dr. Keedra Sales, and they have two daughters, aka “The Blossom Sisters.”