Journalists covering the demonstrations and riots after the killing of George Floyd have struggled with a number of issues and several are directly linked to religion.
For starters, I’ve been stunned at the lack of coverage of the African American church. It would appear that the traditional leaders of Civil Rights Movement-style marches and protests have been replaced by anonymous leaders, many of them young, white and linked to colleges and universities.
My question: Is this true? Have black church leaders been silent or has the press been looking the other way, in part because violent protests and riots are “more newsworthy” than peaceful demonstrations that play by the rules of a civil society? I’m genuinely curious about this.
There is another issue that really needs to be addressed head-on in mainstream coverage. When we talk about #BlackLivesMatter — and cover disputes inside religious groups about supporting #BlackLivesMatters — are we talking about:
(a) The ideas and concerns expressed in a slogan?
(b) A movement that is planning specific demonstrations inspired by that slogan (it would appear there is no one unified movement, as noted earlier)?
(c) The actions, goals and doctrines of a specific organization that calls itself Black Lives Matter?
Journalists cannot accurately cover controversies inside religious groups linked to these issues without settling, or discussing, that issue.
With that in mind, I want to point readers to a long and very detailed feature at The Christian Chronicle written by Bobby Ross, Jr., a long, long-time contributor here at GetReligion. Here is his double-decker headline, which is quite revealing:
Why the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement is so controversial to many Christians
Some believers point to a radical, anti-Christian agenda. Others see racism at play in the slogan’s opposition
You can see the main theme right up top:
To Christians such as Taneise Perry, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” voices a simple truth about the importance of equal treatment and justice for Black Americans.
To Perry, a Black mother of three sons, the viral hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has little to do with an activist organization that has raised millions of dollars and maintains a website at BlackLivesMatter.com.
“For me, it’s a really sad day to know that racism is a political issue,” said Perry, a Church of Christ member who lives in Charlotte, N.C. “Most people — I would say 99 percent of people who are out there protesting — are not card-carrying, dues-paying members to that organization. It’s really about supporting a movement.”
But to other believers, including Merijo Alter, the Black Lives Matter Global Network — incorporated in Delaware — pushes a radical agenda that threatens the Christian way of life.
“Their own writing shows that they are on the opposite side of the spectrum from those of us who try to follow Christ’s teaching,” said Alter, who is White and a member of the High Ridge Church of Christ in Missouri.
At the heart of the controversy are two statements in the credo posted online at BlackLivesMatter.com. It’s important that Ross put these quotations into play, because it’s impossible to understand the heat in these debates without seeing this:
“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.”
Frequently that statement is quoted without the final clause about the role of “mothers, parents and children.” And here’s another question: What about fathers?
Then there is this belief statement:
“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).”
Are there tensions here between black church leaders and white church leaders? Of course. Ross shows that.
But there are also black church leaders who understand that slogan vs. movement vs. specific organization confusion is affecting the ability of churches to find middle ground — starting with the obvious truth that racism is a sin, at the level of individuals and the systems and structures of a broken culture — and work together.
Read the following carefully:
John Edmerson, who is Black and serves as the senior minister and an elder of the Church of Christ at the Vineyard in Phoenix, said he is not a proponent of the Black Lives Matter Global Network’s stands.
But Edmerson said: “Yes, you can say ‘Black Lives Matter’ and not sign onto a platform that represents a lot of things that Christians in the Churches of Christ don’t really espouse or adhere to.”
The hashtag preceded the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which was founded in response to the 2013 acquittal of a White neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. Also, FactCheck.org points out that a number of groups use the phrase “Black Lives Matter” in their name.
In other words, there is no one “Black Lives Matter” organization or network.
That only adds to the complexity of this religion-beat story, as Ross demonstrates.