It was on the third day of the chaos in Charlotte that I realized that what had gone up in flames on our streets was truth, or several truths actually. Standing behind Rev. William Barber at a press conference as he asked for transparency from the police, and for all of us to look squarely in the face of governmental policies and personal attitudes that are blatantly adverse to the African-American community, I got stuck on his words which were first Jesus’ words: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” I wonder if, in order for us to get anywhere with race or justice or anything that matters, we have to dig our way out of the crusty cynicism that has given up on the idea of truth. No matter how flawed the press or politicians or religious leaders or even we ourselves might be, there is still such a thing as reality. God not only wants us to know what's true, but has mercifully given us the ability to figure out what happened. When we do, we’ll begin to walk toward freedom.

Many of us were distressed with the press right now, and for two good reasons. The storyline on TV and in the newspaper was this: “Three thousand people showed up to protest in Charlotte, and although it began peacefully, it grew violent.” Whites and those who support the police gobble up this storyline, but it is patently false and only feeds false biases. I was there. What happened was this: Three thousand people, black, white and brown, engaged in an intense but peaceful demonstration that remained peaceful. Two or three dozen provocateurs jumped into that march, and began throwing rocks, breaking windows, and setting things on fire. Who was most mortified, and actually terrified by the provocateurs? The three thousand peaceful demonstrators. This is what really happened, and the distinction is enormously important to us, and important in God’s eyes.

The press sensationalizes in these instances by showing the guy hurling a metal chair through a window and the teargas looming. I could fault them, but that’s what the public has a taste for; it’s what we demand — which means we insist upon a very narrow picture of the larger truth. But there is a larger truth. I personally was distressed with the paper, as I appeared in a photo standing behind a speaker on a podium who, according to the story, was fomenting the anger that turned the crowd violent. Of course, he didn’t want violence, and the crowd as a crowd wasn’t violent. Personally I was chagrined in that I'd been nowhere near that speaker. The paper had lifted a photo from an event more than three years ago where he and I and others were at an event promoting good education for children. Naturally I started getting calls from parishioners, either applauding me for supporting him or castigating me for promoting violence.