{"id":87,"date":"2016-07-09T23:15:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T05:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/elpuente\/?p=87"},"modified":"2016-07-10T12:38:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T18:38:49","slug":"black-lives-matter-and-the-preferential-option-for-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/elpuente\/2016\/07\/black-lives-matter-and-the-preferential-option-for-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Lives Matter and the Preferential Option for the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Black Lives Matter movement is again at the forefront and many have reacted again\u2013almost instinctively\u2013by\u00a0affirming that all lives matter. \u00a0Last week, police Officers in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana shot and killed two African Americans during routine encounters<\/a>. An African American shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven more in Dallas, Texas.<\/a>\u00a0Those who affirm\u00a0that all lives matter seem to assume that\u00a0if a person asserts that black lives matter then white lives don\u2019t and neither do the lives of police officers. \u00a0Yet, as Bishop Edward Braxton explains:<\/p>\n

The true intent of Black Lives Matter is a plea to all Americans to work to refashion our country so that the lives of people of color actually do matter as much as the lives of white people. It is a call to help us all live in communities in which everyone enjoys equal safety, education and employment opportunities, as well as equal political power and equal treatment by the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

(America Magazine, May 16, 2016 Issue<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Ten<\/a>
Ten Candles #2, by Michael Jastremski, creative commons license, http:\/\/openphoto.net\/gallery\/image\/view\/25580 at http:\/\/mike.openphoto.net\/gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The backlash against Black Lives Matters reminds me of the opposition by some Latin American Catholics\u00a0against the preferential option for the poor. \u00a0To be clear: Black Lives Matter has a complicated relationship with the U.S. Catholic Church while the preferential option for the poor developed from within the Church in Latin America. \u00a0Nevertheless, the near-instinctive opposition\u00a0experienced by those who affirm the human dignity of African Americans in the U.S. and the poor in Latin America bears some resemblance. \u00a0Some Latin American Catholics believed (and many still do) that if God and the Church have a preferential option\u00a0for\u00a0the poor, then they must hate the rich and the middle class. \u00a0Others wondered\u00a0what the suffering of the poor had to do with our faith, since that was their lot in life (a common misreading of\u00a0Matthew 26: 11<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The bishops of Latin America discerned the preferential option for the poor as a necessary way to proclaim the Good News of God\u2019s love. \u00a0At the time, the social sciences had recently reached a consensus\u00a0that poverty is man-made and sustained. The bishops\u2019 purpose was not to glorify poverty but to follow Jesus\u2019 lead in proclaiming a Reign that entails liberation from sin and all its effects, material and spiritual. Their purpose was to help us see that the Reign of God entails\u00a0an end to the unjust suffering of the poor, to poverty itself.<\/p>\n

Pope John Paul II took up the preferential option for the poor and wove it into Catholic social doctrine. \u00a0He wrote that it \u201caffects the life of each Christian inasmuch as he or she seeks to imitate the life of Christ, but it applies equally to our social responsibilities and hence to our manner of living [.]\u201d (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church<\/em>, 182, quoting\u00a0SRS 42<\/a>) Our decisions must advance the Reign of God in our society.<\/p>\n

The preferential option for the poor continues to\u00a0be\u00a0challenging to Catholics in Latin America\u2013particularly those who are better off\u2013because it requires a decentering of one\u2019s self, a\u00a0willingness to befriend those who are poor, and an openness to see the world through their eyes. It requires the humility and grace to see Lazarus at the gate (Luke 16:20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What would a preferential option for African Americans look like for white Catholics in the United States? And for Hispanic Catholics?<\/p>\n

Racism, like poverty, is man-made and sustained. \u00a0It has no place in the Reign of God that the Church proclaims. As theologian Bryan Massingale writes, therein lies the hope and the challenge:<\/p>\n

\n

The society we live in is the outcome of human choices and decisions. This means that human beings can change things. There is nothing necessary or fated about racial hierarchies or white racial privilege. They are the result of human agency; it does not have to be so. What humans break, divide, and separate, we can\u2014with God\u2019s help\u2014also heal, unite, and restore.
\nWhat is now does not have to be. Therein lies the hope. And the challenge.<\/p>\n

(Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, 180<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The last time that our bishops joined to address\u00a0racism in the United States in a pastorally significant way was in 1979<\/a>. \u00a0It is time for them to do so again. \u00a0If they do, I hope they broaden the dialogue\u00a0that Bishop\u00a0Edward K. Braxton has begun with members of the Black Lives Matter movement because the Church needs it. \u00a0And may\u00a0they evoke in\u00a0us the hope, as Massingale has, that \u201cWhat is now does not have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Black Lives Matter movement is again at the forefront and many have reacted again\u2013almost instinctively\u2013by\u00a0affirming that all lives matter. \u00a0Last week, police Officers in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana shot and killed two African Americans during routine encounters. An African American shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven more in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2649,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[47,43,10,9,45,44],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blacklivesmatter","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-catholic-social-teaching","tag-liberation-theology","tag-preferential-option-for-the-poor","tag-racism"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack Lives Matter and the Preferential Option for the Poor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Black Lives Matter movement is again at the forefront and many have reacted again--almost instinctively--by\u00a0affirming that all lives matter. \u00a0Last\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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