This essay was originally published at The Evangelical Pulpit blog at Patheos on August 9, 2016.

I admit it: I did not want to watch the video a few weeks ago of Alton Sterling pinned to the ground by police, struggling, and then being shot in the back. And then I did not want watch the footage of Philando Castile bleeding out in the passenger seat of his girlfriend’s car after he was shot in the arm by an officer, all while his girlfriend live-streamed her grief on Facebook. And I did not want to memorize the details of the terrorism done against the police in Dallas, as a psychopath sniper took the lives of five officers (and planned to use his homemade bombs to kill more).

But I could not hide from the controversy completely, as I have black friends and next door neighbors. So I found myself wanting to catalogue my own interactions with the police, to compare them with these atrocities occurring across our country…

Read the rest at Patheos.com.