10 Reasons Why I Don’t Support Black Lives Matter
Don’t confuse the slogan with the organization. They’re radically different things.
Much has happened since the murder of George Floyd. While many have marched the streets in peaceful protest, others have resorted to rioting, looting, and shooting.
Unfortunately, many of us have failed to realize that what’s happening today is about more than race—-it’s about revolution. And one organization at the forefront of today’s debate, Black Lives Matter, is a radical, far-left group intent on destroying America.
I want to be absolutely clear. Racism is evil, and we must oppose it at every turn. Yes, there has been real injustice in America at times. But we must also realize that BLM is using “racism” to promote radical solutions.
It shouldn’t be surprising that corporations, politicians, and the media are quick to signal support for Black Lives Matter. After all, corporations believe it’s good for public perception, which means profits.
Politicians are desperate to appear on the “right side of history,” for fear of losing their jobs. And the media loves to fan the flames of conflict, as crisis keeps viewers glued to the news feed.
However, it is most alarming to see how many professing Christians have wholeheartedly endorsed Black Lives Matter, without first evaluating what BLM is all about. How many have actually read what BLM actually believes? Could it be that we fear being labeled “politically incorrect,” more than we fear God?
A balanced Christian response to today’s debate requires both grace and truth. To embrace one without the other is to risk endorsing evil, or to eliminate the reality of redemption.
Today, we’ll uncover ten alarming truths about Black Lives Matter Global Network. I pray that this post will help Christians respond with the right solutions for this critical hour of American history.
1. Black Lives Matter is Openly Marxist
While claiming to advance human rights, Black Lives Matter openly embraces Marxism, the ideology that claimed over 100 million lives in the 20th century alone.
This is no conspiracy theory. The evidence is plain for all to see.
To quote BLM co-founder Patrice Cullors, “The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia (one of the three BLM co-founders) in particular are trained organizers…We are trained Marxists.” (Click here to watch her speak those words.)
2. Black Lives Matter Admires Communist Dictators
When Fidel Castro died, in 2016, BLM paid the former Cuban dictator this tribute: “Although no leader is free from shortcomings, we must respond to right-wing rhetoric and defend El Comandante.” “Fidel vive!” (Fidel lives!)
In 2015, one of BLM’s co-founders, Opal Tometi she traveled to Venezuela as head of a BLM-sponsored delegation to observe the Venezuelan parliamentary elections. The regime only allowed observers who were friendly to the “revolutionary cause.” Later that year, Tometi even posed for a photo with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
If BLM admires Communist dictatorships and embraces their ideology, what do they have in mind for America?
3. Black Lives Matter Supports Infant Murder
Since Roe v. Wade, 19 million black babies have been tragically murdered via abortion. Could this be because 79% of Planned Parenthood clinics stand within walking distance of minority communities? As Walt Blackman observes, “White women are five times less likely to have an abortion than black women.”
As Christians, we know that life begins at conception (Psalm 139). We also affirm that all are made in the image of God, including unborn babies.
Tragically, Black Lives Matter refuses to defend this horrific genocide against the Black community. How can Black Lives Matter stand up for Black lives, but ignore those in the womb?
4. Black Lives Matter Opposes the Biblical Family
According to BLM’s 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.”
Strong families create vibrant communities, while broken families cause a plethora of societal ills.
As Black sports commentator Marcellus Wiley observes, children from fatherless homes are “five times more likely to commit suicide, six times more likely to be in poverty, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home.”
5. Black Lives Matter Promotes a Radical LGBTQ Agenda
Two of BLM’s three co-founders openly identify as “queer.”
Hence, it should be no surprise that their website states, “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 she/he or they disclose otherwise).”
6. Black Lives Matter Calls to Defund the Police and Abolish Prisons
Another to a partner organization in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, The Movement for Black Lives, “We believe that prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives.”
What would happen to America if we defunded the police and abolished prisons?
Yes, we should be open to discussing how to make our justice and law enforcement system better. But these radical solutions can only lead to more death and destruction.
Unfortunately, some police officers abuse their position. But most of them do an excellent job. They put their lives on the line every day to protect our freedom in America. Why would we shame the good guys, and let the bad guys out?
7. Black Lives Matter Uses the Black People Instead of Helping Them
An unknown 1960s radical once wrote: “The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.” Beginning with LBJ’s “Great Society,” leftists have attempted to enslave the Black community via welfare and division. The same is true today.
Black Lives Matter is not about helping Black people. Indeed, today’s riots and protests have disproportionately harmed Black neighborhoods. Small community stores vandalized by mobs may take years to recover. And the riots have claimed the lives of many more Blacks, including police officers and children.
8. Black Lives Matter Demands Cult-Like Homage
BLM has all the trappings of a religion. They have a core message. They call for a wholehearted embrace of their movement and ideology. And those who refuse to kneel, or who even dare to question stand guilty of the ultimate sin, as bigoted racists.
In fact, white individuals may not be entitled to an opposite expression, because they are deemed the cause of oppression. Where is space for tolerance? Have we lost the art of civil discourse in America?
9. Black Lives Matter Calls for System Change
If we redefine the family, rewrite history, defund the police, abolish prisons, and embrace socialism and “social justice,” what is left of our way of life?
Take a moment to understand how extreme every one of BLM’s goals is. If realized, these goals would spell the end of Christian Western Civilization as we know it. While not perfect, this system has produced the greatest freedom and prosperity the world has ever known.
Hawk Newsome, Chairman of the Black Lives Matter New York Chapter, admitted what they really want. “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right?”
M4BL stated, “We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system.”
10. Black Lives Matter Misses the Hope of the Gospel
Because we live in a fallen world, we’re all tainted by sin. We’re not naturally good. We’re naturally bad. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”
Without Christ, we will abuse our fellow men. Without Christ, we will set ourselves up as the standard of perfection for today’s society.
Changing external environments alone is not enough. We need a heart change. All of us, regardness of skin color, can find redemption and forgiveness in Christ alone. And when we find forgiveness with Christ, we can experience reconciliation with our fellow man.
Without Christ, our world will spiral further into the chaos of anarchy and destruction. He alone is the answer to today’s crises.
This is what Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick meant when he stated, “You cannot love your fellow man if you don’t love God.”
All lives matter to Him.
Conclusion
Today, may we respond with grace and truth. Grace to realize where we’ve been wrong. Grace to engage in Christlike, civil discourse. And grace to bring’s Christ’s healing to those hurting or misled.
May we respond with truth. Truth to call out the radical organizations sporting catchy slogans that have nothing to do with their real agenda. Truth to call out politicians, the media, corporations, and Christian leaders who are vacillating in today’s crisis.
And truth to realize that Black Lives Matter has no interest in bringing hope to America.
So don’t confuse the slogan with the organization. They’re radically different things.
Question: How do we respond biblically to Black Lives Matter?
26 Comments
OI · March 4, 2021 at 2:21 pm
100% agree to this.
Anonymous · March 29, 2021 at 6:53 am
Dr. King is kicking in his grave because of this BLM hypocrisy
Anonymous · January 6, 2021 at 11:05 pm
Thanks so much for sharing the truth. With all that has been going on, it’s been difficult to translate thoughts to words, and you did that really well.
Claire · July 30, 2020 at 4:17 am
Super post Josh and well researched.
As someone else said to me “ all lives matter and are precious in his sight”.
Thank you once again for sharing and we send you our Christian love and blessings from the U.K.
Joshua Bontrager · July 30, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Claire,
So true. Christ gives us the only perspective that matters. Apart from God’s Word, we’ll be easily misled to following well-sounding slogans.
Polly · July 29, 2020 at 1:01 am
Interesting article! I don’t support the organization myself but believe that if we approached institutional racism with equal parts activism and a heart for Christ, we could accomplish so much more.
I read somewhere that being black in America is like being left-handed in a classroom designed for right-handed children – everything is there but something is stopping you from using it properly. We need to lift our brothers in Christ up for they were so made in His image – we can prosper where previous generations have failed thanks to spiritual minds like yours. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on proposals to modify policing by encouraging non-violent (“holistic”) approaches rather than physical solutions.
As always, thanks for getting me thinking!
Joshua Bontrager · July 30, 2020 at 12:54 pm
Polly,
Thanks for your comment! I agree with you that we need have a Christlike approach to this issue. However, part of a Christian approach includes understanding how the media and historical revisionists have hyped up race tensions to appear greater than they actually are, with deadly results.
Here are a few facts I hope you’ll consider and contrast with the mainstream narrative being propagated today.
(1) Police violence is not a “systemic” problem. While there are individual problem officers, the vast majority are committed to protecting us, and do not have a “racial bias.” According to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in 2019. 41 of these died in accidents, but 48 died in criminal violence.
(2) According to the Washington Post’s database, police shot and killed 999 people in 2019. This sounds like a high figure. But consider these facts: (a) out of 250 blacks killed by police, only 14 were unarmed. 25 unarmed white men were killed. How is this classified as “systemic violence?”
(3) Statista reports 7,407 black homicide victims in 2018. Every single one of these is just as much a tragedy as George Floyd. 14 is a very small percentage of 7,407. Murder among the black community is a much greater problem than police violence against the black community.
In the end, the world is an evil place, far worse than we’d like to admist. And without God, men commit unspeakable acts of evil. Today’s rioters will not be reasoned with. Romans 13 reminds us that government exists to punish evil and reward good. Evil men must realize that there are consequences for sin. Only once they have faced that reality are they prepared for Christ’s redemption. Man is desperately wicked without God. That evil cannot simply be reasoned away.
The media will not admit this, but we have a fatherhood crisis in America, especially in the black community. And, as I observed in the post, fatherlessness directly leads to far higher levels of crime, as young men seek to find affirmation and meaning. Fathers.com observes that over half of black children live apart from their biological fathers.
America needs Christ. And America needs fathers to return to turn their hearts to their children. May we brightly shine His light in our dark world!
George Craig · July 30, 2020 at 3:28 pm
It should be noted also that just because the police kill an unarmed person, that does not make it unjustified. Police are not omniscient to know the intent of a person that is resisting arrest. And they have to make split-second life-and-death decisions. So keep that in perspective when you hear about the police killing an unarmed man. You take your life into your own hands when you resist arrest and threaten a police officer, whether or not you have a gun.
Polly · July 30, 2020 at 5:46 pm
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful & well-researched reply! I really appreciate your focus on facts & data, it’s given me so much to think about.
God bless you and your family!
Joshua Bontrager · July 30, 2020 at 5:52 pm
Polly,
Thank you for your great question! I’m glad the answer was beneficial.
Denver · July 28, 2020 at 7:12 am
Fantastic article! As Christians, we need to be discerning in regards to political messaging. Just because the slogan is good (of course black lives do matter) doesn’t mean the organization is. The same think can happen with Democrat and Republican Politicians who say one thing in their messaging and then do another.
Abbie · July 25, 2020 at 9:45 pm
Sorry Joshua you are very wrong here. If you read Luke 15:3-7 and Matthew 18:12-14 it is what BLM is all about it. One stray sheep matters just as much as the 99 other ones. Question-did you condemn Eric Rudolph’s actions and Scott Roeder Dr George Tiller’s assasin? BLM has killed fewer people than those two murderers have.
Joshua Bontrager · July 27, 2020 at 4:04 pm
Abbie,
Thanks for your comment.
Luke 15-3-7 and Matthew 18:12-14 remind us that God cares about individual souls, and so should we. Every life matters in his sight. It grieves Him (as it should grieve us) to see individuals made in His image commit unspeakable atrocities against one another.
However, I have to disagree with your application of these passages to BLM. These passages do not accurately describe the purpose of the BLM organization.
As I tried to illustrate in the post, Black Lives Matter Global Network has demonstrated that they do not care about individuals. (1) They embrace Marxism, the ideology that claimed over 100 million individual lives in the 20th century. (2) They support abortion, the murder of unborn babies. Millions of babies (both Black and white) have been mercilessly slaughtered in the United States. (3) BLM also fails to distinguish between good and bad police officers.
Yes, there has been injustice in the United States. Slavery and was a brutal evil. Jim Crow laws were unjust. LBJ’s “Great Society” attempted to again enslave the Black community, especially with the AFDC program (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), which encouraged Black women to have children out of wedlock, thereby destroying Black families, and leading in turn to crime and destruction.
There are some individual bad police officers (but the vast majority condemn brutality and lay their lives on the line every day for Americans).
Yes, some in America have let race be a matter of division.
But the solutions prescribed by BLM would only contribute to further lawlessness, death, and destruction. One needs only look to the anarchy unfolding across American cities like Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, or Seattle’s CHAZ Zone. Anarchy fomented by BLM has already claimed the lives of many Black individuals.
Regarding Eric Rudolph and Scott Roeder, I most certainly condemn their murderous actions.
America needs Christ. At the foot of the cross, we all can find forgiveness and redemption. Ultimately, our divisions today are the result of sin, not skin.
George Craig · July 30, 2020 at 3:35 pm
Joshua is not wrong in his judgment In this article. The standard of right and wrong is not how many fewer people one has killed compared to someone else.
In looking at the parable of the lost sheep, the rejoicing in heaven is when one of the sheep repents. God’s long suffering allows time for sinners to repent. And God warns men of their sin and of the coming judgment if they do not repent. Joshua is not saying that people involved in BLM cannot repent. He is stating correctly that what BLM stands for is wicked and evil, and Christians should not align ourselves w9th wickedness. We should reprove and expose that wickedness by bringing it out into the light.
Bernice · July 25, 2020 at 8:20 pm
Thank you, Joshua, for researching and articulating this urgent message to Christ-followers today. I’m deeply saddened when I read of believers who embrace this ideology without knowledge of it’s origin and stated purposes.
Joe · July 25, 2020 at 3:15 pm
Very interesting article, man! I think, unfortunately, a lot of people conflate the Black Lives Matter Movement with the BLM organization, which is deeply flawed and unbiblical as you explained.
Joshua Bontrager · July 25, 2020 at 4:20 pm
Joe,
I’m glad you found this perspective helpful. Sadly, radical groups like BLM and Antifa have made it difficult to engage in any meaningful, reasoned dialogue today. Since BLM is using race to achieve their objective, it makes it much more difficult to separate fact from fiction and to promote real solutions. BLM’a efforts today appear suspiciously like a Marxist divide-and conquer strategy.
George Craig · July 30, 2020 at 3:48 pm
Joe, BLM does not separate the Marxist ideology with the movement. To the founders of BLM, they are one and the same. I think it is unwise for Christians to redefine people’s words when they do not do so. Speak out against racism, but don’t use the BLM language. Using the cultural icons of the day Such as BLM on social media is unwise because of the commonly accepted definitions and associations and you risk communicating support for wickedness even though I know you do not want to do so.
Think about evolution as an example. Biblical creationists believe in evolution, just not the molecules-to-man Godless type. If we use the term evolution without defining it, we risk being misunderstood by people who may misunderstand our position to be the cultural commonly held belief that we all came from nothing. Words matter and we should be clear in our communication.
If you choose to use the phrase “black lives matter” (and I encourage you not to do so), be sure to qualify it every time with a denouncement of the organization specifically and Marxism in general.
Joe Xiques · July 30, 2020 at 5:48 pm
Appreciate your thoughts, Mr. Craig! I understand your point, but the “Black Lives Matter” slogan did not originate with the organization; rather, the organization appropriated it from a social media hashtag. If an unbiblical organization has misused a certain phrase, does that necessarily make it inappropriate to use? For example, can’t we express support for “American Civil Liberties” without associating ourselves with the ACLU? Many Christians have been at the forefront of racial justice efforts for centuries, and I’m not sure that we need to cede linguistic territory to those who hold to ungodly philosophies.
George Craig · July 25, 2020 at 2:55 pm
Excellent reasoning Joshua. Christians need to be sure they understand what is behind BLM. We communicate a message with our words, and we need to be sure that we send the right message. Stand against racism where it exists, but don’t get caught up in the politically correct movements of the day that have an anti-God agenda. I agree with you that Christians should never give credence or support to BLM.
I recently attended a rally at the statehouse in Ohio and a group of Antifa/BLM showed up to counter-protest and disrupt. It was sobering to see the hate, anger, and vulgarity of BLM as well as the open defiance to the rule of law. I saw first-hand what BLM is really about and it was sad to see the souls of those young people turned towards hell and destruction. BLM is not about racism, it is about revolution.
Joshua Bontrager · July 25, 2020 at 3:13 pm
Mr. Craig,
Thank-you! It’s sad to witness how our society has highlighted certain sins like racism, while ignoring others, such as infanticide via abortion, moral perversion, or socialism. Without God, we become the standard. This leads down a scary road, both for the individual, and for society.
Thanks for getting involved with the rally in your own state! Your action reminds me that Christians cannot leave political activism to those who hate God. We must take the lead, with the authority of God’s Word.
It must have been sobering to watch those BLM/Antifa protestors. It should be clear by now that they seek nothing less than the destruction of Christian Western Civilization.
So many people today need Christ and the gospel! How do you think we as Christians can call out the evil of lawlessness and lawless organizations while somehow bringing the hope of Christ to today’s radical “social justice” warriors?
George Craig · July 30, 2020 at 3:52 pm
Joshua, my opinion after observing the mob behavior at the statehouse is that the only hope to reach them is individually. As a mob, they will shout you down, use vulgarities, and some would literally kill you if they could get away with it. Any attempt to engage the mob resulted in a shouting match that did no good. They have set themselves against God and everything that is good and righteous.
Joshua Bontrager · July 30, 2020 at 5:11 pm
Mr. Craig,
In this case, and in so many others, we are reminded that Christ is the only solution for sinful hearts. As the agent of justice, the government should hold these individuals accountable. As the agent of grace, the church (and Christians) should reach out with Christ’s love and the gospel, while at the same time protecting ourselves and our families against lawlessness, and encouraging governments to uphold the law. May we pray for grace, wisdom, and God’s power to reach these people.
Ryana Lynn · July 25, 2020 at 2:21 pm
Amen! I will never support this unbiblical, racist organization! Thank you for sharing!
Marissa · July 25, 2020 at 3:44 pm
Thank you for this! I had never really researched about the organization before. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and perspective on the matter.
Joshua Bontrager · July 25, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Marissa,
I’m glad it was helpful. There’s so much disturbing information on Black Lives Matter Global Network. But unfortunately, the media, for the most part, fails to bring this out.