Christian, Are You On The Fence About Supporting BLM?

By Joel Settecase / September 4, 2020

This article lays out considerations for Christians who are concerned about whether to lend their support to the Black Lives Matter organization. It does not contain a fully-detailed, point-by-point takedown of BLM doctrine. For that, I recommend this episode of the Just Thinking Podcast.

Supporting BLM Seems Like A No-Brainer

It can be a beast trying to navigate the current cultural and political climate as a Christian. Take the issue of whether to support BLM.

Christians need to be the first to affirm the God-endowed dignity of every human being. When it comes to a phrase like "Black lives matter," it seems like affirming that would be a no brainer. After all, black people do matter. Of course we believe that. We're Christians.

Within the Church we are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indigenous, and every other ethnicity—all united together in Christ. We don't divide by ethnicity, and we affirm the dignity of all our brothers and sisters in Christ, and of all people in general.

But then there is the BLM statement of belief. It’s a doozy, and while there are some points of doctrine Christians can affirm (e.g. working against injustice, celebrating differences), there are some deeply troubling and downright awful doctrines that they hold to, which discredit the organization as being anything close to Christian or biblical. About which more below.

So it can be very troubling to decide whether to support an organization that purports to defend what we believe (that black people have inherent dignity—which, again, so so glaringly obvious to Bible-believing Christians that it seems like an obvious no-brainer), and yet actually believe all kinds of unbiblical, untrue and downright harmful doctrines.

Reasons For, Reasons Against

On the one hand, it can feel like we *ought* to support them. After all, even Christians haven't always gotten this right in the past. Perhaps we should support BLM, the organization, as a way of standing against the views and actions of Christians and others who have been racist in the past (and didn't act Christ-like toward black people or others). Maybe this could be a way of distancing ourselves from the racism of others and, perhaps, even open up doors for evangelism?

But on the other hand, doesn't Scripture tell us to build our house on the rock of Christ's words, not the shifting sand of disobedience (Matthew 7:24-27)?

How BLM Is Disobedient To God

Aren't many of BLM's core doctrines blatantly disobedient to God?
Don’t they promote abortion, which is the greatest civil rights issue of our time?
Don’t they promote homosexuality, which opposes God’s good design for marriage (and distorts the Gospel, according to Ephesians 5:32)?
Are they not proponents of so-called transgenderism, which denies the the goodness of God’s image reflected in humanity as immutably male and female (Genesis 1:27)?
Haven’t they said they want to “disrupt the… nuclear family structure requirement,” falsely attributing it to “Western” civilization (rather than God), all while making no mention of fathers’ importance to families?
In addition to being unbiblical and disobedient to the Creator, aren’t all these above doctrines harmful to black people, white people, all people?

And aren't we supposed to "hate even the garment stained by the flesh" (Jude 1:23) and avoid "friendship with the world, [which] is enmity with God" (James 4:4)?

In saying all this, am I accusing BLM’s founders of intentionally harming black people in the name of helping them, of willfully deceiving good-intentioned people into joining the Devil’s cause? No not necessarily. It’s possible (and very probably) that they themselves are deceived. However, whether the leaders of BLM are simply misguided or purposefully leading people astray, either way this is a group with bad, bad doctrines at its core. It’s a bad tree, so don’t expect it to bear good fruit (Matthew 12:33).

And if you are surprised that a group with such harmful beliefs could fly under the banner of a good and true statement (i.e. “Black Lives Matter”), don’t be so shocked. Bad actors have been masquerading as stalwart defenders of righteousness since forever. Remember when Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees “whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity” (Matthew 23:27)? And that was two thousand years ago.

So what is a Christian, who wants to publicly affirm the dignity of his or her neighbors, but doesn't want to swallow a whole unbiblical system of doctrines that dishonor his or her Lord *and* actually deny the dignity of black lives (abortion, anyone?), to do?

The Gospel Matters

The first thing I'll recommend is to remember the Gospel. Jesus Christ died and rose again to save sinners like you, like your neighbors, and like the founders of BLM. They are not your enemy. We do not hate them. We love them. They carry the image of God, same as you and me.

Whatever they believe or have done, they too are created in God's image, yet sinful, yet fully redeemable by God's grace through Jesus Christ.

Something To Pray For!

We need to be in prayer for them, out of love and hope that, just as God redeemed you (through no good deeds of your own), he can redeem them too. (May it happen, Lord!). I will say this again: the founders and leaders of BLM are not your enemies. Your enemies are real, but they aren’t human (Ephesians 6:12).

Your true enemies will never be redeemed. Yet God is in the business of redeeming and transforming his enemies (his human ones), through Jesus Christ, into some of his greatest followers and workers. Look what happened to Saul the Pharisee, who became Paul the Apostle!

Just imagine the shockwaves that would be sent through the world (the seen and the unseen) if the founders of BLM became believers in Jesus Christ! My friends, we need to be praying.

Pitfalls To Watch For

The second thing I'll suggest is that, if you do use the phrase "Black lives matter" or the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM, that you don't do so in a way to (A) display your righteousness (AKA virtue signal) or (B) keep the mob off your back. A is motivated by pride, B by fear, and both are sin. I know, we've all been there.

So you could just refuse to use the phrase or the hashtag at all, as many are suggesting. That's an option, but again, don't use it merely to promote or protect yourself! There is another, way, though.

Shrewdness Is An Option, Too

"Look, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.” (Jesus Christ, Matthew 10:16).

Sheep have no physical defenses. When predators attack, fluffy wool turns out to be of not very much use. Jesus told his disciples that they would be like sheep. They would be attacked, and their enemies would be well-fanged, so they would need to be careful. No, he didn’t just say careful, he said φρόνιμος (phronimos), which means “intelligent,” “mindful of one’s interests,” “sagacious” or “discreet.” In other words, shrewd.

Consider using the phrase “Black Lives Matter” or hashtags #BlackLivesMatter or #BLM rather in a ways that are biblically shrewd. Think along the lines of the Apostle Paul who chose to "become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22) (hat tip to my brother Parker for that insight).

Think about making it your goal to start a conversation on (or redirect one toward) the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that God made humanity good, that we've fallen into sin and deserve condemnation, that Jesus Christ died for sinners and rose again, and that he forgives and heals everyone who repents and receives him by faith.

Why not let your objective be to lead your discussion partners or audience to repentance and faith? And you can do this in good faith, because you *do* believe that black people have dignity—the Bible teaches this unequivocally—and because you want as many people as possible, anyone of any ethnicity that you can reach, to be saved.

There are myriad ways you could do this, and I will leave it to you to think of some ideas.

In this way, you will use the true statement, “Black lives matter,” which has been adopted by an organization working against Christ, to actually further Christ’s kingdom.

Conclusion

You can do all of the above without supporting (tacitly or explicitly) BLM. You should not support BLM, but you can use this time we are currently in to spread the Christian message, to further Christ’s kingdom, and to win disciples for the Lord Jesus.

Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, if you're a Christian, this is something you can affirm. Injustice, prejudice, and greed are all realities of our world, and at the root of them all is sin. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really is the remedy for it all.