1. a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not;
especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
2. an act or instance of hypocrisy
The simple definition of the term would be in application – to claim to believe or hold a belief or view, but your actions or words contradict your claims.
I have been reading, watching, and listening to the constant noise regarding the so-called #BlackLivesMatter movement. I have been trying to absorb all I can to try to understand where those protesting (or participating in much more nefarious activities) are coming from. But the more I read, the more I actually look at facts, the more I spend time in prayer for our nation and for those who are involved, I find the more jaded I become. I have been labeled a racist more times than I can count. I have been told that I just cannot understand – after all, I apparently am afflicted with this now dread disease called White Privilege.
Ok – I’m fed up. I’m tire of the labels, and I’m tired of the abject lies and hypocrisy being demonstrated. But as always, I want to take a biblical angle on this, so here goes:
What does the Bible say? It says all people are made in the image of God (Imago Dei). Scripture clearly points to the very reason murder is wrong:we are made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6). Further, Jesus clearly commanded that we LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS. Neighbors in this context is not just literal neighbors who look like us, who live near us, who are parts of the same social circles and do the same activities – or who look like us. Our neighbors are humanity. The easy answer to all the garbage we see would be to “love our neighbors”. But that is shunned – why? Oh, because it means actually seeing people of other backgrounds and races, people who don’t look or act like us – as having intrinsic value in their very lives.
But let us get back to the hypocrisy that spawned this post:
#BlackLivesMatter is probably one of the most hypocritical movements I’ve every witnessed. The movement began with the shooting of a young man on the street in Ferguson, Missouri. The immediate response, before his body was even cold, was a media-fueled frenzy over the claim that he was unarmed, and that he was shot in cold blood with his hands in the air shouting “hands up-don’t shoot!”. Yet when the evidence – the cold, hard facts – came out, the officer was shown to have clearly been clearly justified in the shooting, as his life was threatened by the attack by this young man.
But in response to the shooting, long before any real facts were available, large crowds assembled ostensibly to protest the “wrongful shooting” and in a more broad sense – against the “open season on black men” by law enforcement. Protests led to riots, which led to looting. All behaviors that the core of the black community has tried hard to distance themselves from – chalking such behavior as unfair to label them with. Yet it gave ammunition to those who do indeed still hold racist views of African-Americans.
We have heard cries of “open season” on Black men, over police shootings of black men. Yet the actual statistics show something quite different. Last year, the official numbers show that nearly twice as many Caucasians were killed by police as African-Americans. Yet those claiming to want the truth, continue to absolutely ignore the statistics. Telling lies and repeating lies to gain support for your views is repulsive, no mater who does it. If you want justice, then it must begin with facts.
And now we have, after two high-profile police shootings of black men in two different states, and now police officers are being targeted for murder – police officers that are not even connected to the shootings in question. Indeed, the guilt born by the officers killed this past week was exclusively based on wearing a badge (and having light colored skin).
#BlackLivesMatter – blocking traffic on major roads, delaying medical care for a young girl headed to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis.
#BlackLivesMatter – spawning, inspiring, and encouraging hate towards Police Officers (even if it really is unintentional).
#BlackLivesMatter – using the label of racist to anyone who points to facts and reality.
#BlackLIvesMatter – conspicuously absent in Chicago where young Black men are murdered every day, by fellow Black males.
#BlackLIvesMatter – conspicuously absent from the abortion clinics all over this nation who have killed more African-Americans than all the wars fought, and police violence taken in this nation’s history.
And then we have the politicians who are playing along with this movement, calling for gun bans, stricter gun-control, and other measures that would actually disarm and/or limit access to firearms by law-abiding African-Americans.
Of course, a student of history knows that the earliest gun control legislation in this nation was a response to the freeing of slaves, and was pushed specifically with the intent of keeping guns out of the hands of these freed slaves.
Planned Parenthood, started and built by Margaret Sanger, who had a well-known agenda of eugenics against Blacks. Yet so many in the self-appointed leadership of the Black Community are adamant supporters of…Planned Parenthood, and often are among the biggest supporters of so-called “reproductive choice” (aka – the murder of unborn children).
We are told that #BlackLivesMatter in such a way that it can’t help but be interpreted as ONLY Black Lives Matter. Maybe it isn’t intended that way, but when one brings up one of my original points – that ALL lives matter, as we are ALL made in the image of God, the vitriol and anger is unleashed – and the “racist” card gets slammed down.
Indeed, for years, we have heard of the unfairness of being judged by the color of our skin (Dr. Martin Luther King said it beautifully when he said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Yet we still see hiring practices and quotas, college admissions, and governmental contract requirements that specifically and very explicitly singling out a particular race for preferential treatment, overriding actual qualifications and merit.
How is this not hypocritical?
What is the answer? – What did Jesus say? LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR – something all but impossible if not for a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
Since this entry was originally published on my old blog, many things have happened – including the election of a new President who has been vilified by many, particularly of the #BLM as a racist. Also since that time, the above group has been joined by another, far more terrorist in nature now as #ANTIFA (ostensibly standing for “Anti-Fascists” – though their tactics are, themselves, trademark fascist tactics). Since that post, a woman was killed and several others injured by a driver in Charlottesville, SC, the scene of an incredibly ugly set of protests from widely-differing viewpoints, all driven by local government to an obviously intentional clash. Violence meets violence, all set-up by city officials and law enforcement.
Since that original post, I have found myself the center of vitriolic attacks for essentially holding to the viewpoint I espoused in the original. Apparently, believing that all lives matter before God, our Creator, is somehow both racist and hate-filled.
And just recently in Las Vegas, NV – a supposed lone gunman opened fire on over 22,000 music festival attendees outside the Mandolay Casion and Resort, killing (at latest count) nearly 60, and wounding over 500 in a senseless act of cowardice by a man (assuming the narrative holds) who was a pawn of Satan, unregenerate in heart, and completely given over to his evil intentions.
And again I ask – does life matter? Should certain skin colors have more value in the eye of the public than others? Not according to the Bible.
Pray for this nation – pray for repentance. Pray for revival of local churches – including a rekindling of the fire for the Gospel message and Christ’s command to make disciples.
Contending For Christ 