NILS VON KALM on why he believes Christians should supports calls for racial justice…
I have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus would support Black Lives Matter. He would be out there marching with them for justice for people of colour. In fact, I believe He actually is out there protesting.
Why is this such a contentious issue for many Christians? I think the fact that it is so contentious is a sad indictment on our limited understanding of the Gospel.
A Black Lives Matter banner in Washington, DC. PICTURE: Clay Banks/Unsplash
Jesus’ kingdom is one in which the poor are uplifted. You will get called a radical leftie by many Christians for saying that, but it has nothing to do with left or right. It has everything to do with being a follower of Jesus.
All through the Scriptures we see God’s preferential option for the poor. Jesus’ own announcement of the launch of His ministry quotes Isaiah 61 in saying He has come to bring good news to the poor and liberty for the oppressed. In Jesus’ kingdom, all are welcome.
All through the Scriptures we see God’s preferential option for the poor. Jesus’ own announcement of the launch of His ministry quotes Isaiah 61 in saying He has come to bring good news to the poor and liberty for the oppressed. In Jesus’ kingdom, all are welcome.
Doesn’t that mean then that all lives matter, not just the poor, or in the case of what we are talking about here, people of colour? It does indeed mean that all lives matter, and that is in fact the point. The lives of people of colour haven’t mattered as much in many societies as the lives of white people, including, of course here in Australia with our awful treatment of Indigenous people which still occurs to this day.
That’s why it is not only reasonable, but necessary, to highlight the fact that Black lives matter as much as anyone else’s. We need to be told again and again because we haven’t paid heed to it.
When Jesus said He had come to bring good news to the poor, do we think He meant that that didn’t include good news to the rich? Of course not. And when He told the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15, where He emphasises the shepherd going after the lost one and leaving the 99, He wasn’t saying the 99 don’t matter as much. He was saying that He had to go after the lost one because it mattered just as much.
God is always on the side of the outcast. That’s just a fact. There are more than 2,000 references in the Scriptures that attest to that.
Our view of life is determined by where we stand. In the West, we need to remember that our worldview is almost always that of the powerful and privileged.
I am a white, middle-class male. That statement alone has privilege written all over it. By an accident of birth, I was born and raised in one of the richest countries in the world. I’ve had my share of suffering in life, but I’ve never known what it is to face serious discrimination because of the colour of my skin or my gender or my sexual orientation, or anything else. I can sympathise all I want with people experiencing discrimination, and I will continue to do so, but because I am privileged, I can never truly understand what it’s like.
There is a scene in the movie, A Time To Kill, which illustrates this powerfully. Based on a true story, the movie is about a black man who killed two white men after they had raped and killed a black girl. His lawyer is a white man. Over the course of the trial they form a close bond, and the lawyer genuinely cares about the plight of his client. In one poignant scene, the black man points out though that the simple fact that he is not black means he can never fully grasp what it is like to face the constant discrimination that people of colour face.
This is why it is incumbent on us people of privilege to sit down and listen when people of colour tell their stories.
When considering whether or not supporting Black Lives Matter is a Christian stance to take, we need always consider what love requires.
One of the complaints against Black Lives Matter by some Christians is that the movement apparently promotes a “godless agenda”. Southern Evangelical Seminary president Dr Richard Land has said that BLM is “antithetical” to Christian beliefs: “The BLM organization espouses an anti-biblical definition of love, freedom, and justice, as well as opposing the nuclear family and promoting same-sex and transgender ideologies, and is a self admittedly Marxist organisation”.
Whether you agree or disagree with Dr Land, to use such an argument as a reason to not support BLM simply doesn’t hold water for any Christian.
Let us never forget that Jesus’ band of disciples contained the most motley bunch of people you could ever hope to meet. You had a tax collector, someone who was hated by the people because he colluded with the oppressing Roman occupiers and had sold out their people for money. Alongside him you had Simon the Zealot, who fought for a cause completely opposed to that of Matthew the tax collector; a cause which sought to overthrow – probably violently – the Roman oppressors.
Did Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot believe the right things about Jesus? In fact, did any of the 12 believe the right things about him? No. Jesus regularly had to remind them that He was a different type of king. Even after his resurrection they didn’t believe the right things about Him. In Acts 1:6, His disciples asked Him if He was now going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus had to reply that that wasn’t what it was all about.
“If Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it, yet He still believed in them to start His kingdom movement, who are we to say that Black Lives Matter is illegitimate because there are certain things they espouse which some of us may not agree with? What always matters is love, and the lifting up of an oppressed people is what God is all about.”
If Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it, yet He still believed in them to start His kingdom movement, who are we to say that Black Lives Matter is illegitimate because there are certain things they espouse which some of us may not agree with? What always matters is love, and the lifting up of an oppressed people is what God is all about.
Being Christian isn’t all about believing the right things, determining who is in and who is out. None of us has a monopoly on truth. I don’t and you don’t. Jesus is the truth, so let’s follow Him.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Jesus was here in person today and chose a band of disciples, a BLM member would be among them.
When asking whether Black lives matter, we need to remind ourselves that love always matters, and that Jesus is the personification of that and commands us to love the marginalised as He did.
