Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter August 29, 2016

Duluth-lynching-postcard_optIf you are a Christian, black lives matter.

“But wait,” we start to say, “Don’t. . . ”

Stop. Think about it. Don’t say it. This last weekend marked the anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder for the “crime” of daring to flirt with a white woman. This was a mere sixty years ago. 

Look at this horrific image. This picture was taken in my grandfather’s generation. This is not ancient history and the evil that caused lynching has not ended. We are better, but we are not there yet. Policing is better, but it is not equal. Government is better, but it is not equal. Schools are better, perhaps, but they are not yet equal.

The answer is justice and no Christian can refuse the plea of any man, woman, or child seeking justice.

We had three hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of legally enforced segregation. Our local police chief had to eat near the garbage cans as a child, because of the color of his skin. Friends have had jobs denied to them because of race and I have heard racist jokes from Christians in positions of power. These leaders have said that: “They” are troublemakers and we had better not let “them” get too powerful. I have heard this racism with my own ears from Christians and it stinks to heaven. This is not from the past, but from present experience. I once had a manager who grew angry at a pro-life commercial on television because “black people would keep having babies.”

Black lives matter.

No cause is so noble that some twisted soul cannot use it for profit or power. I am told that grifters and wicked men have attached themselves to the phrase, but just as violent extremists do not represent the pro-life movement, so the fringe does not represent millions of African-Americans.

Having said all of that: what is to be done? How can we build on improvements?

Sadly, the cause of justice has become conflated with government solutions or leftist social theories. We have fifty years of failed projects from the left and ruined cities. We do not need more of what got us here. At the same time, solutions from conservatives have been too weak and not led by thecommunity.

One cannot help end injustice by taking all the positions of power. We need a liberty movement centered on devolving power to communities. There is great wealth, much education, and good thinking in American minority communities. Government should act to safe guard liberty and then allow the people, all American people, to freely experiment with social solutions.

Government made racism mandatory in many states and denied basic American rights, like Second Amendment rights, to people of color. We don’t need more policing from the outside, we need more liberty from the inside. Let’s give  local communities the power to make their own decisions without being overwhelmed by Federal solutions or state bureaucracy.

Give people power and watch the results. Don’t snatch that power away as people learn: allow the republican values to function for all Americans. 

We need local policing, local schools, and church based solutions. Americans should stop tolerating toxic Hollywood products that denigrate the very values that oppressed minority groups need to thrive. We should follow the wisdom of W.E. Du Bois (though not his socialism!) and educate all God’s children classically. Nobody should graduate unable to speak the language of power in the United States. We should also follow the wisdom of Booker T. Washington and train all God’s children for jobs.

Most of all, we must affirm “Black Lives Matter” but not confuse this vital truth with particular solutions. All souls are created in God’s image and if not squashed and oppressed have the ability to flourish under God by His grace.

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This image is courtesy of Wikimedia commons where it is marked public domain.


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