As more and more police literally kneel before BLM protesters, in an act that best case is in solidarity with them, and worst case is in submission to them, A Lowell Police Officer is under scrutiny after he willingly agrees to pray with protesters while standing his ground and refusing “take a knee” before them.
In the video, the leader of the protesters asks the officer if they will “take a knee and pray?” The officer agrees to pray with them but declines to do the latter, responding, “You guys can kneel, I’m not going to, this is no church.”
The refusal of the officer to bow and take a knee upsets the rest of the distressed protesters, who begin to shout out “show us you’re with us” and “why won’t you?!” and “actions speak louder” as the low rumbling of disjointed shouts coalesces into a deafening roar of “TAKE A KNEE! TAKE A KNEE!”
When it becomes apparent that the officers are willing to bow their heads and pray, but determined not to take a knee, the leader offers a loud prayer for the police, in what is surely one of the more condescending and passive-aggressive prayers we’ve ever seen.
The accusatory prayer reads like a laundry list of condemnations against the officers, a lecture for not being sufficiently woke. It chides them for not believing that black lives matter, judges them for only “saying” they stand with them but not “actually standing” with them, suggests that they are in the dark and need to see the light, and decries them for not being sufficiently educated. If there was ever a backhanded prayer, this was it. We’ve appended the full transcript after the video.
“Father God. We gather here today for great reason, God, to bring people together for great, a great cause. We have people in front of us here today that might not kneel with us, but can you change, can you change their mindset God? Put them in a position to believe that Black Lives DO Matter, Yes they do matter. We also need you to stand with us and show that you stand with us. You can say you stand with us, but we need you to show that you stand with us. God, I pray you would help them to [unintelligible] in the light, to see. To be able to see, and to be able to be like “yes, I understand, and I will walk with you. I will talk with you. I will educate myself to be with you so that we can change the world for the better.”
