The phrase “black lives matter” has become extremely divisive in the United States. Some people hear it and wonder why black people are getting so much attention or special treatment. This group might respond by saying “all lives matter.” Others feel so strongly about the cause that they’re willing to riot, loot, and burn down buildings in protest. To complicate things even more, there’s the general phrase/cause “black lives matter.” And then there’s the formal organization called Black Lives Matter, which stands for a variety of things.
Let’s tackle these questions separately. First, should Christians support the organization Black Lives Matter? And what does the more general phrase “black lives matter” really mean?
Black Lives Matter wants to defund the police
The organization advocates for the defunding of police nationwide. Here’s what they say on their website:
“We know that police don’t keep us safe—and as long as we continue to pump money into our corrupt criminal justice system at the expense of housing, health, and education investments—we will never truly be safe.”
I don’t support defunding the police personally. I also don’t think Christians should get caught up in broad stereotypes against police officers.
Of course there are some bad police officers. But to defund all police departments just because some officers are corrupt is not something I believe we should support.
This isn’t to minimize the tragedy of police officers killing black men and women. But to paint with a broad brush isn’t something Christians should get behind. We still need those 90% of good police officers in our communities and schools. And even if we did defund the police, that doesn’t solve the issue of racism.
Black Lives Matter supports and affirms the LGBTQ lifestyle
From the BLM website:
“We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead. We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.”
Now, you might read that and conclude that they are simply standing in opposition to violence against black transgender people. But they go further:
“We foster a queer-affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”
Let’s unpack this a little. They say they want to “dismantle cisgender privilege.” Cisgender is defined as “denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.” Put more simply, a cisgender person is someone who identifies with their biological sex. They want to dismantle the concept that there are two genders, male and female, which isn’t biblical.
BLM also calls themselves “queer-affirming,” meaning they stand behind and support people who want to live those lifestyles. They also want to attack the idea of heterosexuality as the assumed normal.
As Christians who must prioritize following Christ over our race or other affiliation, we cannot support organizations who hold such anti-biblical views.
Black Lives Matter supports the disruption of the family
Again, from their website:
“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
Black Lives Matter openly opposes the God-ordained institution of the nuclear family, and they wrongly attribute that to Western culture. A family unit is made up of a male father, female mother, and children. BLM wants to break that structure down and disrupt the definition of the family.
It is demonic, Satanic, and unbiblical to come against the family structure that was established by God in creation, and is not something Christians can support.
Ironically, one of the major problems facing the black community is the fact that 73% of black children are born into single-family homes. Fatherlessness causes a variety of damaging generational issues in the black community, which makes it counterproductive for a supposed black-advocacy organization to attack the nuclear family model.
What about the slogan?
With all that said, most people who use the phrase “black lives matter” are not pledging explicit and specific support to the Black Lives Matter organization. Rather, they are simply expressing their support for the black community and emphasizing the fact that despite the violent crimes committed against black people, black lives do matter and have value.
Think about it like this: If I’m talking to someone and I use the phrase “just do it,” that doesn’t mean I’m supporting the brand Nike and everything it stands for. I’m just using a phrase that was appropriate in the interaction I was having. So when people say “black lives matter,” it doesn’t mean they’re affirming everything the organization stands for.
The heart of the phrase “black lives matter” is that every black person has the same right to life as any other group.
If you have resistance to hearing this phrase, you should know that black people would prefer it didn’t exist at all. Because it was a response to the killings of black people, and even more importantly, the lack of justice in response to those killings. Ideally, the phrase wouldn’t even need to exist.
Black lives matter - what it means
This phrase in no way implies that only black lives matter, above and beyond other races. It’s a phrase of emphasis addressing specific tragedies and injustices. It would be appropriate to say Asian lives matter if we saw an issue of violence against that community, for example. The same goes for police officers (blue lives matter).
What is inappropriate, however, would be if you saw someone post “blue lives matter” on Facebook in response to a black person killing a police officer, and then respond to that post by saying “all lives matter” or “black lives matter.”
Christians are supposed to empathize with people, mourning with those who mourn and rejoicing with those who rejoice.
Let’s say you have two houses right next to one another. One is on fire, and one is not. Do both of those houses matter? Absolutely. But the one that is on fire is the one that demands immediate and urgent attention. That’s what the phrase black lives matter means. Not that other lives don’t matter, but that we have a specific and urgent issue that we want addressed as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
Should a Christian support Black Lives Matter? I would say no, because so much of what they represent is anti-Christian. But if you’re talking about the idea that black people have the same right to life as other races, then it is absolutely in our role as Christians to support that cause and fight for justice.