My Problem With Christians and #blacklivesmatter

My friend sent me two articles from Christianpost.com about some Christian perspectives and #blacklivesmatter. One, which I completely rolled my eyes at after reading, was by a black man who explained 10 reasons why he would never support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Just an aside on him: His first reason was that the Black Lives Matter movement’s premise isn’t true. To support this, he gave a few statistics, including saying a comprehensive 2019 study concluded that “White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.”

If you actually take the time to click on his supporting link, you will clearly see that this study has posted three corrections:

And one letter clearly says that the initial report’s claims of there being no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities in fatal police shootings “are misleading because the reported results apply only to a subset of victims and do not control for the fact that we would expect a higher number of White victims simply because the majority of US citizens are White.”

Dear I’m-the-true-woke-Christian writer: C’mon, sir. Do better research when attempting to discredit something.

Moving along . . .

The second article was about Pastor J.D. Greear endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement while denouncing the Black Lives Matter organization. I don’t follow him, but apparently he’s the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, so this was big news.

The article quotes him as saying “As a Gospel issue, black lives matter. Of course, black lives matter. Our black brothers and sisters are made in the image of God. Black lives matter because Jesus died for them.”

On the Black Lives Matter organization, he’s quoted as saying “I realize that the movement and the website have been hijacked by some political operatives whose worldview and policy prescriptions would be deeply at odds with my own, but that doesn’t mean that the sentiment behind it is untrue. I do not align myself with the Black Lives Matter organization.”

Though the site only mentioned his distaste for this organization calling states to defund the police, I can imagine that Pastor Greear and other Christians (including my friend who sent me these articles) also don’t agree with another position this group takes.

We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.

BLM website

The Black Lives Matter organization appears to be for ALL people, including the Black LGBTQIA+ community.

The “woke Christian” writer also included this stance in his reasons for not supporting the movement. And, honestly, as a Christian I can understand the conflict some of us may have as we attempt to navigate our Christian foundation with being black and deeply affected by and passionate about injustices toward our community.

But the church versus social justice debate is not what compelled me to write this.

My problem is with our approach to who and what we support as Christians and what we deem Christian values. From political parties and voting to race relations and lifestyles, I feel that some of us Christians give more weight to different types of behaviors.

And two of the heaviest are abortion and gay rights.

I cannot tell you the number of times a Christian has debated abortion and gay rights and condemned anyone who would ever think of supporting or in any way associating themselves on the “pro” sides of these issues.

Weeks before the 2016 election, I remember a Christian colleague telling me that his church handed out flyers showing Trump and his positions on one side and Hillary Clinton and her positions on the other side, and the pastor said that Christians have a duty to vote for Christian values.

Of course, his church was being not-so subtle in encouraging its members to vote for Trump because most Republicans are pro-life and don’t support gay rights. None of Trump’s other actions and views seem to matter because he and his party’s stance on these two issues mean that they promote Christian values.

But what about loving your neighbor as yourself?

What about showing mercy?

How about not committing fornication or adultery?

And offering your tithes unto the Lord?

Using your spiritual gifts to serve the Lord and others?

We Christians overlook cursing . . . everyone slips up now and then.

We have pre-marital sex . . . it’s not easy to control natural urges.

We cohabitate for years . . . we’ll probably get married one day.

We cheat on our time sheets . . . who doesn’t?

We listen to profanity-laced music and watch violent, crude, and sexually immoral movies . . . but it’s not real so it doesn’t affect us.

We get drunk, we lie, we harbor unforgiveness, we’re domestically abusive, we choose ourselves over God and others, we’re judgmental, and so much more.

But none of these are as bad as a woman who aborts an unborn child. We Christians can shame two men getting married yet don’t think twice about the “lesser” sins we commit each day.

But the bible reminds us,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

The beginning of this chapter in Romans emphasizes how not one, Jew or Gentile, is righteous.

Some churches teach that all sins are equal and others that certain sins have greater consequences. I simply encourage us to remember that we are ALL sinners and EVERY SIN we commit will have consequences. But verse 24 gives us hope because though everyone falls short, we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”

I’m grateful that we won’t have to suffer those consequences because of Christ! Sharing the Good News of His gift of redeeming love for those who will accept it should motivate us to promote our Christian values—not our human reasoning of which sin is more sinful.

In Matthew 7, Jesus questions how a man can point out the speck in his brother’s eye yet miss the log in his own.

I pray that the next time we Christians go to lie down with someone we aren’t married to or let a little white lie slip from our lips, we pause and ask ourselves if these behaviors convict us as much as supporting #blacklivesmatter.

I know many who would be quick to say that all lives matter. Well, Christians, shouldn’t the same be said for our values?

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Photo cred: Flickr.