F. Black Lives Matter....To the Christian Church?

POST A. An Invitation

POST B. Politically Speaking

POST C. How Important Justice?

POST D. What can be done?

POST E. Taking Action

POST F. Black Lives Matter....To the Christian Church?          

                1. What is a "Christian"?

                2. Materialism and Social Justice

                3. Should Christians Limit their Caring?

                4. Is Boycotting Unchristian?

                5. Catholicism and Justice

This post was written with Christians and Black lives in mind.

Post Summary

 

As long as I prioritize my personal financial prosperity and convenience of daily living over the quality of human life in general, I am demonstrating that Black lives do not matter to me. Can I sincerely believe that Black lives matter and yet support that which deprives Blacks of self-sustaining incomes, threatens their health, perpetuates their poverty? Profit is not intrinsically evil. However, as long as I support abusive corporations that prioritize profit over the common good, I am demonstrating my indifference to the plight of black people in this country. If I do not hold abusive Wall Street corporations accountable, I am saying to the Black race,“Sorry. Profits matter more than your lives”.  

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1. What is a "Christian"?

Many Christians I have met like to know if it is a fellow Christian that is speaking to them. I suppose they think the only people worth listening to are fellow believers. Then there are a percentage of the 1200 different Christian denominations in this country that believe one must be born again in order to be a true Christian. Being born again is the experience of accepting Jesus Christ as one's personal savior. This belief is probably based on the gospel of John 3:3, which quotes Jesus speaking to Nicodemus. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again" (of the Spirit) "he cannot see the Kingdom of God." From personal experience (more than 30 years ago) I can say that being born again is significant and profound.

     I had considered myself a Christian since that experience until a couple months ago when I was editing a piece I had written on religion and rights. The Greek word translated as "Christian" in English means a follower of Christ, i.e. of his teachings. In my opinion, according to the original meaning of the word Christian, anyone who follows Christ's teachings is a Christian. It doesn't matter if the person has ever heard of Christ, whether they are saved or unsaved, atheist, humanist, Jew, Hindu, Moslem, etc. Being born again is more a matter of surrendering than of behaving according to Christ's teachings.

     Since I fall short of following Christ's teachings in regard to how his followers should behave,    

I am not a Christian according to the literal Biblical meaning of the word. I recently realized, thanks to the Holy Spirit, that I am a disciple of Christ. The Greek word translated as "disciple" in English meant a student.

2. Materialism and Social Justice

So, I am a Christian disciple addressing the Christian Church regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement. Should the Christian Church respond to the Black Lives Matter movement and, if so, how might it respond? As explained in POST D, there are large Wall Street corporations like Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Wells Fargo expressing their belief (through their behavior) that profit matters more than Black lives or any human life. Matthew 12:12 describes how Jesus drove the money changers from the temple in Jerusalem. I see Wall Street as the present day temple of Mammon; Mammon referring to the modern god or value system of Materialism.  As Jesus said in Luke 16:13, we cannot serve God and Mammon.

      But aren't we serving Mammon when we support greedy self-serving abusive(1) corporations by unnecessarily purchasing their goods and services? Aren't we doing the same thing when we allow institutions such as banks with ties to the stock market to indiscriminately invest our money in Wall Street? When a person or organization chooses to serve Mammon in these ways, that person or organization is sending a non-verbal message to the impoverished(2) that their lives and the quality of their lives must be forfeited so that Wall Street profits can be maximized. Is that the response the Church should be sending to the Black Lives Matter movement?

3. Should Christians Limit their Caring?

I realize not everyone thinks in terms of the "larger picture." Many Christians probably feel that caring about the people they know and see on a daily basis is sufficient for them to be good people. Caring is a good thing. But I don't think Jesus instructed his disciples to limit their caring.

    I have heard a number of people attempt to criticize the Black Lives Matter Movement by saying "Everyone's life matters". One to that criticism is this: unless Black lives matter, everyone's life does not matter. I believe the reality is that everyone's life certainly does not matter equally to everyone. It often seems to me that for those in positions of wealth and authority it is impoverished black lives that seem to matter least in this country. 
    
     When individuals and organizations negatively affect the common good through their abusive materialistic behavior and attitudes it hurts everyone, but especially those with lower incomes. Should we respond to hurtful behavior with forgiveness? As Christians, we should. When negative abusive behavior, whether forgiven or not, is not challenged or opposed, it is likely to be repeated. This repetition will cause more suffering. Holding the abusive individual or corporation accountable is not contrary to forgiveness. It is an assertion that people matter more than financial profit attained at any cost. Is this not an appropriate response of the Christian Church to the Black Lives Matter movement?

     Some powerful people in this country have made decisions that have resulted in millions of American citizens living unhealthfully and in involuntary poverty. Since the majority of American citizens (76%) identify themselves as Christian, I suspect that at least most of those powerful people also identify as Christian. The Son of God cared about the poor. Yet these particular Christians act like they are the Son of God, deserving a perpetual supply of expensive oil washing their feet. They prefer that to effectively lifting the poor out of the yoke of poverty and disease.

4. Is Boycotting Unchristian?

Is it a good thing or a Christian thing to boycott certain companies and not others? Many of us already, almost automatically, boycott certain companies for moral reasons. How many of us have ever bought child porn or knowingly patronized a business owner dealing in child porn? How many of us have ever knowingly purchased anything on the black market? How many of us would patronize a jeweler that we know deals in blood diamonds (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facts-about-blood-diamonds/)? If a company is selling child porn, it does not deserve to be supported. If a company is selling illegal drugs or alcohol to minors, it does not deserve to be supported. If a company is ripping off the public, should we not stop supporting it? If a company is unnecessarily poisoning the environment, does it deserve to be supported? When companies unnecessarily destroy the quality of our environment or attempt to avoid or revoke regulations that protect aspects of the common good, they are failing to support the common good. 
 

      The common good(3), by definition, is designed to help everyone, including Christians. Jesus, who was a Jew, loved gentiles as well as Jews. To follow Christ is to want and support what is good for Christians and for non-Christians. Christians need to express their disapproval of corporate activities which threaten the common good as well as their disapproval of corporation dishonesty and mistreatment of employees and customers. That disapproval can take the form of not investing money in these companies and not purchasing their goods and services unnecessarily.

5. Catholicism and Justice

I wonder. Is there enough concern for the impoverished and enough political will in the American Christian church to at least explore the possibility of churches and their individual members and families supporting social justice rather than serving Mammon? Perhaps it depends on the church. 

    I was surprised to find a blog site (http://stlouiscatholic.blogspot.com/2010/08/justfaith-notreally.html) that purported to be written from a catholic view point and that seemed to be claiming that justice work is not true Catholicism because social justice is not part of catholic tradition. I was baptized and reared in the catholic faith and know from experience that it is common for catholic clergy to rely more on catholic tradition than on the Bible for guidance. The result is something which is difficult for me to identify as "christian." 
    The author of the blog sited above seems to think that justice work is socialistic, even communistic, non-American, anti-capitalistic, anti-free enterprise, etc. He does not mention that Jesus Christ did not promote democracy or any other form of government in his teachings. Jesus did not teach that one theory of economics is superior to all others. 

    I suspect the blogger would like to equate Christianity with American "ideals" in order to justify his lack of a moral commitment to creating a better world on earth. I remember being taught in parochial school that those who suffer the most in this life will get the highest rewards in heaven, assuming they don't end up in hell. If that is the case, why diminish the eternal rewards of the victims of discrimination, starvation, disease, unemployment, poverty, and/or homelessness?
    Not all Catholics share the blogger's viewpoint. Mother Teresa served the poor in India. Pope Francis seems to care a great deal about environmental quality.
      

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(1) abuse (adj. abusive): Unnecessarily mistreating, deceiving and/or unfairly injuring others deliberately or negligently. In this blog, “abuse” does not refer to self-abuse nor to abusing drugs/tobacco/alcohol. For an understanding of how abusive behavior permeates our society, you can refer to INALIENABLE RIGHTS VERSUS ABUSE: A Commonsense Approach to Public Policy by R.Q. Public (for sale on Amazon.com.
  
(2) impoverished: Refers to the inability to afford to provide a healthful lifestyle for and /or to prevent the health deterioration of oneself and/or one's family because of insufficient self-generated financial resources.
 
healthful lifestyle: For most people this includes a good balanced quality diet (minimally processed, preferably organic), physical exercise, hot running water, a warm safe healthful living space. To live a healthful lifestyle, some people require allergen-free food and living space, special diets, prescribed medications, food supplements, quality health and dental care, or the help one needs to kick health threatening habits

(3) common good: That which is owned and/or administered by some level of civil government and which benefits citizens in general but which most individual citizens could not afford. Such things as the infrastructure, libraries, public health protection, environmental preservation, the courts, law enforcement, national security, firefighting, public education, public parks, public playgrounds, public green spaces, employment security, government fiscal responsibility, responsible foreign policy, and caring for the disabled and retired citizens in need are all aspects of the common good.