In recent years in the United States, there has been increasing discussion of the slogan “Black Livers Matter,” used in activism protesting recent killings, particularly by police, of African-American individuals. Many have prominently highlighted how a key organization using that name also promotes radical and seemingly unrelated causes we at IRD could never support, such as open hostility against both “cisgender privilege” and promoting intact nuclear families. When it comes to donating to or otherwise supporting any organization, people should always be careful and do their research first. However, the reality is that the slogan “Black Lives Matter” has now grown to take on a life of its own, wider than any particular activist group using that phrase.
In this guest piece, the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, former president of Asbury Theological Seminary and a giant in defending biblical faithfulness, shares his thoughts on the sometimes controversial phrase “Black Lives Matter,” aside from questions raised about any particular organization. You can click here to watch our interview with him, which includes lengthy discussion of the relevant topic of how he stuck his neck out to stand for racial equality in his native Mississippi in the early 1960s. Dunnam originally posted the column below on Facebook. It is reposted with permission.
UM Voices is a forum for different voices within the United Methodist Church on pressing issues of denominational and/or social concern. UM Voices contributors represent only themselves and not IRD/UMAction.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
PART OF POPLAR AVENUE COULD BE RENAMED.
That was the headline of our Memphis newspaper today [Monday July 20, 2020]. Immediately my mind registered, BLACK LIVES MATTER.
It’s happening all over the nation, and certainly it was going to happen here. At the same time of that awareness, discussions I have often had since the public murder of George Floyd by a police officer came to mind. The arguments seek to discount the affirmation, Black Lives Matter, by countering “All Lives Matter.” These are my perceptions.
One of Jesus’ last words to his disciples is the specific call to Christians, but a legitimate call to all, could be captured it would be this—“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)
To the gospel writer, John, there is only one test of love, and that test is obedience. It was by his obedience that Jesus showed his love of God; and it is by our obedience that we must show our love to Jesus.
The murder of George Floyd, one of a long series of such events, has put the issue of love in dramatic full focus. Racial division, call it human division if you like…but don’t do so to evade the truth: no division is as pronounced in our culture, no division is as painfully impacting all of us, as our racism and racial division.
I plead with you…let’s not allow the misuse of protest movements, and the violence that too often accompany them, to divert us from the racial division that is breaking God’s heart. Don’t be diverted from the love that is being called for, and from the desperately needed healing of racial division, by taking issue with the language and demonstrations of BLACK LIVES MATTERS.
Like many of you, I keep up with the impact of the coronavirus. It is clear that we elderly persons are the most vulnerable. Did you note I said WE elderly? I’ll soon be 86. Far more of us elderly are dying from the virus than all the other age groups put together. I am in exceptionally good health. I live in a life care community and communities like this are like “dry tinder in a wildfire” for a highly infectious virus like the coronavirus.
In the early outbreaking of the virus, not enough attention was given to like places. It looks like legal cases are going to be brought against some states because they have disregarded the plight of the elderly in the midst of this virus. When I read of the Soldier’s Home, a veteran’s home in Massachusetts, where at least 74 died, and the National Guard was called in to relieve the superintendent, I want to scream, OLD PEOPLE MATTER.
Most people would hear, and lend a sympathetic ear to my scream, Old People Matter. Yet many of us try to discount BLACK LIVES MATTER because its sounds like an exclusive demand.
The evidence is clear. People in our country suffer and are denied privileges because of the color of their skin. This is the most critical, and potentially the most destructive struggle, in our nation today.
I know, issues are not always clear cut and are too often politically motivated and used; innocent persons are hurt, demonstrations become violent, people who are demanding aren’t held accountable and too often don’t take responsibility. It’s a mess! We want to throw up our hands and remove ourselves as far from it as possible. But that’s a costly decision, and it is certainly not a Christian one.
I’m sure our City Council is going to approve the naming of a portion of Poplar Ave., BLACK LIVES MATTER. When I drive along that portion of the Poplar, I will come to the James Meredith building, named for James Meredith, a civil rights activist and the first black student admitted to the University in the early sixties. I will be thankful for the tremendous progress we have made, but also acknowledge that public education is still a huge civil rights issue. I believe it is the civil rights issue of this century, because education is intimately connected with the massive incarceration of young black males, and single parent families.
A bit later, driving on Poplar, I will come to a landmark of Memphis greatness, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Why? “Children Matter!”
Of course; as do old people and all people. Those are not exclusive claims, but calls to pay attention. Are you listening? We are at a most critical point…I would even describe it as a life and death point…in our church and in our nation. So let’s hear the call, BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Comment by Charles on July 22, 2020 at 6:37 am
Once more the death of George Floyd is referred to as “murder by police.” Review of what is known now suggests otherwise. It is probable that Floyd died while in police custody although some allege that he was alive when transferred to an ambulance.
Derek Chauvin has been charged with manslaughter, third degree depraved heart murder and second degree felony murder. The charging documents are contradictory in that the first two counts allege that Chauvin killed Floyd while the third and most serious specifically provides that he did not. The felony murder charge was added after the Minnesota Attorney General entered the case. I believe there were three reasons for this: 1. Third degree murder did not have a high enough penalty to satisfy the mob; 2. The other three officers were not implicated; and 3. Proving the charge would be very difficult since the autopsy showed no sign of asphyxiation.
Second degree felony murder “solves” these problems. 1. The penalty is greater; 2. All the officers were charged as felons; and 3. It is not necessary to prove that Floyd was “killed” by the police, only that he died in the course of a felony perpetrated by them, in this case third degree felony assault.
(As an example, if a bank robber is killed by police in a shoot-out, the robber’s accomplice is chargeable with felony murder, the death having occurred in the course of a felony bank robbery.)
For Chauvin and the other officers in this matter to be guilty. The State must prove that their action in subduing him constituted force so in excess of accepted procedure as to be assault. It should be noted that the knee/neck restraint used by Chauvin is a specifically permitted hold.
The case comes down to the total circumstances of the arrest and there is much that is not known. We shall see.
Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on July 22, 2020 at 11:15 am
“The murder of George Floyd, one of a long series of such events, has put the issue of love in dramatic full focus. Racial division, call it human division if you like…but don’t do so to evade the truth: no division is as pronounced in our culture, no division is as painfully impacting all of us, as our racism and racial division.”
With respect, Maxie, you’re not only wrong, you’re dead wrong.
This current ordeal is not about the death of Floyd, nor was Ferguson about the death of Brown. (While interviewing the co-founder of the “Hands Up” coalition in Ferguson for an article back then, she told me “Officer Wilson will not be indicted. He did nothing wrong. What this is really about is new civil rights movement.” Her confession enlightened and stunned me.)
If this current ordeal was about the death of blacks perpetrated by whites, where are the young white and black protestors outside the Planned Parenthood Clinics where tens of millions of black lives have been aborted, and some of their body parts sold for a profit? If black lives really mattered to Black Lives Matter, they’d be there, in great numbers.
Where are the white liberal clergy protesting outside Chicago’s City Hall demanding that blacks in Chicago’s legendary ghettos, where the Killing Fields continue, be protected by the Chicago PD?
Maxie, this is not about racial division – it’s about political division, and further dividing the nation.
Both BLM and Antifa, are, by history and by self-descriptions that have been openly stated by BLM leadership, Marxist-Leninist ideologically driven. Antifa emerged in early 1930’s Germany as Communism’s street thugs battling the Nazi brown shirts. Compare the Antifa’s flag to their one now. They virtually identical is style and (translated) language.
Comment by Steve on July 22, 2020 at 11:14 pm
Black Lives Matters (the slogan, the movement and the agenda) has its issues that prevent many people from embracing it. The article basically is saying forget those and embrace the zeitgeist. But is it even the zeitgeist? Polls indicate that most Americans have a negative impression. The more people see, the less they like.
Comment by Jeff on July 23, 2020 at 9:31 am
Steve,
I agree with you completely — and I would argue that clerics like Dunham who press in to the gauzy cultural marxist zeitgeist while turning a blind eye (and an empty pen) to the stealing, killing, and destroying that this “zeitgeist” has unleashed on the world are guilty of nothing less than clerical malpractice.
I see no John 10:10 life in BLM! But I can’t help but see the thief…
Comment by Lee Cary on July 23, 2020 at 9:58 am
Jeff & Steve: You give two me hope that more and more Americans are seeing thru the BLM smoke to its true nature and purpose. Division in nation. Lee Cary
Comment by Rev. Dr. Bill Allen on July 23, 2020 at 4:39 pm
Great word, Maxie. Thank you for pointing out that a phrase can be more important and have a greater, more noble meaning than the agenda of a group which calls itself by the same name. Thank you for noting that Black Lives Matter is not an exclusive statement. Thank you for clearly stating that racism is a sin. Well done.
Comment by Lee D. Cary on July 23, 2020 at 5:29 pm
Dr. Allen, if Black Lives Matter (BLM) is not an exclusive statement, help me understand why “All Lives Matter” is an insult to those most vehement about the exclusiveness of the BLM mantra.
The three founders of BLM proudly cite their Marxist training. An excerpt from the “Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” that was “initiated and led personally by Comrade Mao Zedong,” dated May 16, 1966, reads, in part: “Just when we began the counter-offensive against the wild attacks of the bourgeoisie, the authors raised the slogan: ‘everyone is equal before the truth’. This is a bourgeois slogan. Completely negating the class nature of truth, they use this slogan to protect the bourgeoisie and oppose the proletariat, oppose Marxism-Leninism, and oppose Mao Zedong’s thought.”
Are you suggesting, Reverend, that all lives do not matter equally to God? And, if someone says “All Lives Matter,” that equates to a racist statement against BLM?
Comment by William on July 23, 2020 at 8:55 pm
Is BLM a religious movement?
https://www.umnews.org/en/news/lawson-black-lives-matter-a-religious-movement
Comment by Jeff on July 23, 2020 at 9:28 pm
>> Is BLM a religious movement?
Great question, William. Marxists claim atheism, but whether they admit it it or not they worship and obey satan, so I suppose you could argue it either way. 😉
Comment by Mark on July 23, 2020 at 10:44 pm
Dr. Cary,
Thanks for your continued clear-mindedness. I agree, this mess has practically nothing to do with a racial divide but rather is political/ideological. We have two worldviews heading in opposite directions vying for the soul of our country. This isn’t the ol’ tug-o-war anymore between left and right, but a battle between up and down.
Comment by Skipper on July 26, 2020 at 6:59 pm
Some people grow up hearing they are so victimized they never really try in life – to please God, get a job, etc. Dr. Ben Carson grew up different. His family told him to be productive and he did. It didn’t matter whether he was privileged or not (he was not) or that they lived on the “wrong side” of town. Get up, get going and don’t expect work to be easy all the time. He did and such people can be a benefit to others. I benefited from reading a book by Dr. Carson. I read “One Nation” about his poverty and how he later helped others. There is so much to our attitude and family. His attitude is contagious. Give it a chance!
Comment by Keith Wells on July 28, 2020 at 10:57 am
The last time I checked the statistics , a total of 8 unarmed black men were killed by police last year. Unarmed does not mean not dangerous.
That is not a “long series of events”
Blacks are shot less by police than their participation in violent crime would indicate. 18% of the population, over 50% of violent crime. Of course this assumes we trust the FBI.
This is not about the deaths of unarmed black men. It is about destroying our nation.
Comment by Lee Cary on July 28, 2020 at 4:31 pm
Keith Wells: Your stats are accurate, and your comment is very nearly so.
You write: “This is not about the deaths of unarmed black men. It is about destroying our nation.”
To those rioting, burning and looting in the streets of several large cities. the rationalization of their behavior – particularly the young whites (most appear to be females) many yilar
Comment by Lee D. Cary on July 28, 2020 at 4:41 pm
…the site refreshed without notice…picking up with – particularly the young whites (most appear to be females) their hysteria likely has a variety of motives,
But to those coordinating the events, there is a core motive: They aim to divide the nation and rebuild it in a form of their liking.
This dawned on me back during the Ferguson, Mo event when the co-founder of the “Hands Up” coalition, who was from a CA Foundation dedicate to social reform, funded by about $12 million yearly, a former ACLU attorney in W. Missouri, told me in a phone interview (I was writing for a conservative website at the time), while Officer Wilson was under indictment and his fate was in the hands of a grand jury, that “He did nothing wrong. He acted within protocol. He won’t be indicted. What this is really about is starting a new Civil Rights movement.”
And there it is from a horses mouth. BLM is based on a lie.
Progressives don’t need the truth to seek a end, The ends justives the means, true or not.
Comment by Steve Carder on August 27, 2020 at 7:08 pm
lotta gnat straining going on