By Mark Oppenheimer, the New York Times.
For some Christians, support for the Black Lives Matter movement is a no-brainer. After all, Jesus opposed violence, opposed the taking of life and opposed racial distinctions. As the apostle Paul taught in his letter to the Galatians, there is neither slave nor free, for “you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Many Christian groups have become active in Black Lives Matter as the movement has progressed. The website of the United Church of Christ, for example, offers “Black Lives Matter” buttons. A campaign by the Presbyterian Church (USA) “affirms the Black Lives Matter movement.” And the American Baptist Churches alluded to the movement in its resolution, passed last March, celebrating its denomination’s role in civil rights. “We affirm today that black lives matter,” the statement read. “Every life matters.”
But those denominations tend to be liberal in their thinking. The path is trickier for conservative evangelical groups. They would all agree that black lives, like other lives, matter. But evangelicals, especially those who support Republican candidates, are uncomfortable with the movement because of its embrace of liberal politics, associated with Democrats.
That was a lesson that 16,000 evangelicals, most of them student members of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, learned in the aftermath of Urbana, the group’s triennial student missions conference in St. Louis in late December.
6 Comments. Leave new
” her speech probably would not have pleased many evangelicals, who consider Black Lives Matter to be a liberal movement.”
It’s amazing that the first litmus test is whether the topic is “Liberal” or “Conservative”. So if the Liberals become Scriptural, the Evangelicals will abandon the Scriptures for fear of appearing Liberal?
Such a surprise that a New York Times writer would just happen to leave out details like Black Lives Matter members calling for death to policemen….. When I was little boy, I thought when you got to be an adult, you were mature and you knew things…but I now I am continually amazed at how immature and blinded adults can be…they simply play in their own little world and deny reality.
Mr. Oppenheimer’s personal web site provides a wealth of information about who he is, and about the publications for which he most frequently writes. To determine a writer’s perspective or bias, I often find it useful to read what he chooses to say about himself, and what he carefully chooses to avoid saying.
The link to Mr. Oppenheimer’s self-introduction is:
http://markoppenheimer.com/about
If evangelical Christians want to know what is going on in their churches, among their fellow believers and at events such as InterVarsity’s Urbana conference, there are many publications to which they can turn. But … if they want to find out what the cultured despisers of evangelical Christianity think about these things (however ridiculous or inaccurate it may be), they can scarcely do better than to read the New York Times and its articles by people like Mark Oppenheimer.
Evangelicalism’s primary criticism against Theological Liberalism is that it compromises the authority of Scripture to the world. If Theological Liberals “became Scriptural”, they would cease to be Theological Liberals because they would cease compromising the authority of Scripture to the world.
Now as to whether I appear liberal or conservative is not a driving concern in my life. It will not be a “liberal” or a “conservative” to whom I must give an account of my life at my life’s end but to God Almighty, the omniscient, omnipotent Sovereign Lord of all Creation. He it was who created me in my mother’s womb, calls me to repentance and faith in His Son Jesus Christ, calls me to stand for His Truth over against the lies of this world, calls me to seek the lost of this world and to present to them the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and calls me to do good works (i.e., mercy and justice) in His name for the benefit of those less fortunate than myself. It is for these things that He will judge me, not whether I have been, let alone appeared to have been, “liberal” or “conservative”.
So the PCUSA has taken on the Black Lives Matter movement.
This “movement” started in Missouri. How many boots on the ground did the PCUSA dispatch to calm fears and share the gospel in a time of fear and angst? None.
But now they feel obligated to take on this social injustice? If the PCUSA is truly concerned with racism, it needs to start a “Jesus Matters” movement. Because He is the only one that can bring calm and peace to the crowds…one person, and one heart, at a time.
Black Lives Matters is largely a youth led movement. I sense that quite a number of the elders in the black community are silently (some not so silently) in disagreement with most of the tactics of the movement.
The PCUSA seems recently young at heart, and so it is not surprising that they would rally around this organization.