The Jena Six

As one of my former youth group members headed down to Louisiana this week to cover the Jena Six protest for his college newspaper, I was reminded once again how far removed human nature is from "God nature." For those who believe we now live in a liberated, color-blind country, the racial tensions in the small community of Jena should be a reminder of how deep the sin of racism runs in the United States. It is perhaps buried a little deeper now than it was 50 years ago, but it is still alive and well. The real shame of this story is that that the primary conflict is not among adults, but among youth.

The conservative radio talk show folks here in St. Louis have shamelessly painted this story as a simple incident of black thugs ganging up on a single white student. The truth is, as you might expect, much more complex, with wrongdoing on both sides of the racial divide and failure by adults to do the right thing before matters got out of hand. For a more thorough timeline of the events that led up to the Jena 6 incident, see here. Read college student Robby Lewis' article on the protest here.