Many people who participate in riots do not represent the constituents of the original protest nor understand their plights or demands. Sometimes, they are only seizing the opportunity to take out aggression and hate. Unfortunately, this results in the original protest losing its effect and misrepresenting the demographic of people that originally gathered. The Bible reminds us that God is our defender. I am often quick to defend myself out of fear of what people will think of me. The first issue with that is that I am fearing people rather than God. Secondly, I am usurping the role that God has as my defender and misrepresent Him. 1 Corinthians 6:7-8 is particularly convicting: “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!” It is better to be reviled and treated wrongfully than to defend ourselves at the cost of misrepresenting God. God is so much more capable of defending us than we are of defending ourselves.