Pastor Falsely Arrested to Disintegrated Racism
"I had a hatred of white people. God took me and totally disintegrated racism in my mind"
Zac Morrison was considered a prodigy. By the time he entered college on a music scholarship in the late ’70s, he was already proficient on 12 instruments. As a young black man, Zac was raised in several integrated neighborhoods where black, white, Hispanic, Asian and Islander families co-parented.
“We lived in very unique neighborhoods,” he said of East Compton and Long Beach.
That safety spawned a deep love for Jesus, his community and his church, where Zac served as a youth leader. He entered adulthood with a focus on upward mobility as he pursued his passion for music and ministry.
A racially motivated arrest near Valencia derailed it all.
That’s when he and three friends were stopped by police on suspicion of several felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, and a possible rape charge.
“There was a clicking of guns, cocking a gun to our heads,” Zac, now pastor of Grace Church in the San Diego suburb of Spring Valley, said. “I had one to my head and one to my back. We were called all types of racial slurs. The next thing we knew we were arrested and a crowd gathered round. We were pushed around and really dehumanized. All the officers involved were white.”
Instead of studying for his finals, Zac spent eight days in jail before finally being cleared and released. Although not harmed or abused during his incarceration, (due in part to a miracle he shared with Church United. See the video here) Zac felt a foreign emotion percolate from deep within: a hatred for whites.
“The system wasn't what it’s supposed to be, and the guys that were supposed to protect us ... they only saw me as a black guy,” he said.
The ramifications of the arrest lingered far longer than his weeklong confinement. As his anger flared, it snowballed, impacting his studies.
“There was just so much trauma during that time,” Pastor Zac said.
Eventually he quit going to class, ultimately losing his scholarship. The one-time prodigy put his music dreams aside, seeking refuge in corporate America. Over time, faith buffed the rough edges of racial indication and Zac entered the ministry. He’s served the multi-ethnic Grace Church for more than 15 years and continues to play the piano and has earned awards for his songwriting.
“God had bigger plans for me,” he said, attributing his ebbing hate to hearing “the voice of God speaking, and the things that I learned in church. That's why I'm so adamant about the church being essential, the pastors being essential, brothers and sisters being essential. I just remembered what God had done for me. I remembered the miracles that I had seen, and my faith just increased.”
Over the years, Pastor Zac rarely mentioned his police encounter, only sharing bits and pieces with family and close friends. That was, until a recent Church United Zoom meeting were clergy from across the state were discussing the racial unrest sweeping the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis.
“The Lord said it’s time to share your story,” Pastor Zac said, adding he was shocked by the transparency of his testimony. Decades after the unwarranted arrest, Pastor Zac found himself tearing up as he spontaneously detailed the encounter. Others on the call soon followed suit.
“That's how I knew that it was time,” he said. “I said, ‘Lord, we don't need another Watts riot or another L.A. riot or anything like that.’ What we need is the love of Jesus Christ.
“Love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you're not gonna loot, you're not gonna riot, you're going to have a conversation. All we need to do is just listen. I always say, ‘listen in silence.’ Both words have the same letters, you just change the order of the letters and people will be heard.”
While much of the country’s dialogue in recent weeks has centered on race relations, peaceful protests and the counter-productiveness of looting, arson and violence, Pastor Zac said the true issue runs much deeper than race.
“We have a heart problem in America,” he said. “We have a sin problem. If we turn hearts back to the Father, if we deal with our sin issue, we deal with our race issue.
“I'm hoping that you can take this story and, if you know someone that's dealing with this, is dealing with the hatred, and dealing with retaliation, tell my story. Tell them how God took me and totally disintegrated racism in my mind. I didn't go (into jail) being that way; the series of events caused me to be that way, but only the power of Jesus Christ brought me back again.”