7 “He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners. 8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts those who are weighed down. The LORD loves the godly. 9 The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.” – Psalm 146:7-9 NLT
The heart of the Lord God and, therefore, our hearts and actions ought to be given to demonstratively care for those who are genuinely oppressed, poor, and downtrodden. God has always been concerned about taking care of the poor. However, God also gave specific instructions of who and how the poor were to be taken care of. The commands from Scripture (Leviticus 25: 25,35, and 39) tell us that individuals in the Covenant Community (Leviticus 27:8) and the Church (Romans 15:26) should care for the poor. Never once in the Bible is the Government instructed or mandated to provide for the needy!
According to (“Welfare Reform: Testimony of Michael Tanner, Health and Welfare Studies, Cato Institute, before the Finance Committee, United States, March 1995,) only 30% of every dollar collected by the government for the poor actually reaches them. The U.S. government is quite possibly the nation’s most inefficient mechanism for meeting the needs of the poor. No reasonable donor would fund an organization where only 30 cents of every dollar reached its target, but many today tolerate such malfeasance and even encourage increased government spending to fight poverty. Why? —just to see 70% of each individual dollar wasted? Biblically, taking care of the poor is to be done by individuals, churches, charities, etc. but not the government! Even Founders of America like Thomas Jefferson affirmed this:
“I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of his income for charitable purpose, and that it is his further duty to see it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable.”
(The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Henry Augustine Washington (Washington: Taylor and Maury, 1854 Vol. IV, pp, 589-590 to Doctors Roger and Slaughter on March 2, 1806).
Enter Black Lives Matter
Economic Considerations Have Been Neglected
One significant casualty with the shift to socially constructed identities, and the emphasis on the oppressed, is the almost complete disregard for the economic health of racial and sexual minorities. This conspicuous neglect has been a matter of grave concern to left-leaning liberal people, and adherers of socialism. The socialist feminist, Linda Gordon writes regarding this phenomenon,
“…a SUNY-Albany School of Social Work syllabus contains a “module” on intersectionality that lists gender, age, ethnic group or race and career identities as the influence to be considered. Neglecting class or economic inequality is a common and over-determined phenomenon.”
This shift from class towards gender identity, race, and sexuality troubles traditional economic leftists, who fear that the left is being taken away from the working class and hijacked by the bourgeoisie within the academy. Privilege-consciousness has since nearly completely replaced class-consciousness as the primary concern of those on the academic, activist, and political left, and one’s status as privileged is assessed intersectionally (a variety of ways to be treated unjustly), using the appropriate applied postmodern (no absolutes) Theories.
Regarding the benefit of the bourgeoisie (a class of people that owns most of the wealth) this is exactly what is happening.
Factual Evidence
2 [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter. – Proverbs 25:2 KJV
Samaria Rice, mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice (who was shot and killed by police in 2014) and Lisa Simpson, the mother of Richard Rishera, who was killed by LAPD officers in 2017, told activist Tamika Mallory and civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritte to step down.
Ms. Rice released an official statement, “Tamika D., Malloy, Shaun King, Benjamin Crump, Lee Merritt, Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah and Black Lives Global Network need to step down, stand back and stop monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for justice and human rights”, the statement read. We never hired them to be the representative in the fight for justice for our dead loved ones murdered by the police. (Look to google.com: Tensions brew as Tamir Rice’s mom….”). Tariq Nasheed, a film director, and activist took to twitter to say he stands with Ms. Rice because some Black activists have an agenda. He accused BLM that they were using the resources to fund immigrant and LGBT groups, while doing nothing to help protect Black society.
Donations and pledges from corporations and individuals poured into the movement in 2020, with $21.7 million committed to grant funding and helping 30 black-led groups across the country. (Look to the New York Post article titled, Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullos’ million-dollar read estate buying binge).
Black Lives Matter leaders would not specify how much money they took in from prominent donors, according to the AP report.
It’s also not clear how much Khan-Cullors makes in salary as one of the leaders of the movement, since its finances are split among both nonprofit and for-profit entities and difficult to trace.
Notice that Ms. Rice states “…for our dead loved ones murdered by the police.” According to judicial justice rendered in the court of law, in both cases the verdicts were not determined to be murders but they were deemed to be justified killings and the police and the police departments were not found guilty. However, this is not what we hear from the leftist press nor the proponents of the SJM, nor from the parents.
Observe, Exodus 23:1-3 “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. 2 Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3 and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.”
Once again, I cannot overstate the profound modern day application of the Ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:16) “You shall not bear false witness…” While we can and should feel deep sorrow for the young men that were killed, and for their families, compassion is not the most important value in the case of determining guilt or innocence. As Dennis Prager says in his excellent commentary on the Book of Exodus: “While goodness and compassion may be the most important values in the micro, or personal realm, in the macro, or societal realm, truth is even more important than compassion or kindness. Virtually all the great societal evils—whether African slavery, communism, Nazis, or anti-Semitism—have been based on lies.” Page 268
The NT as well as the OT are filled with the realities of judicial law and order that was meted out legally or was meant to be carried out — “As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” – Act 22:25 NIV
Please notice, once again, there is no recognition or acknowledgment of the suspicious behavior of their sons by theses mothers.
Whenever the verdict in a court of law does not result in guilt on the part of the police or those in authority, it is promptly dismissed as prejudice or discrimination. This false accusation is VERY disconcerting. The importance of righteousness in the Court Room is vital to the health and longevity of any society. When there is no acceptance of the legal process, a country is in jeopardy and, before long, tyranny will reign.
Without knowing it, people who make such accusations are undermining our Judicial System which eventually leads to the downfall of a country. Once again this is the intended outcome of Marxism.
Many Of Us Are Being Used As Pawns
As I look back over the last historic months here in America, it is intriguing to observe how white educated wealthy elites have become strong supports of the BLM. In West Linn, Oregon young white girls, and even some parents, will hold up banners and stand on street corners championing, in a sincere and compassionate manner, the support of black people whether they are guilty or not. They clearly are falling into the ideological trap of “guilt and atonement,” which has been propounded by those who champion the Social Justice Movement.
It is one thing for young naïve teenagers to get on board, but when pastors buy into the movement without critically analyzing it, and making public a biblical critique of it, we see deception that settling in to the Evangelical Church.
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” – 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV. It is safe to say that the heresy of CRT can and is equal to the heresy of liberation theology, which has permeated the American Church and especially the Catholic Church.
This is one of the reasons why I have said that a major sin in the American Church is the sin of cowardice and timidity and at this time in Christendom the gift of discernment is greatly lacking in many churches.
Courage Needed:
“But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part [will be] in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:8 NASB
Without Fear:
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (fear) but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
Discernment Needed:
“Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment, But a man of understanding walks uprightly” – Proverbs 15:21 NKJV
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,” – Philippians 1:9 NKJV
It takes courage and bravery to follow Christ, to stand alone for Christ, and to uphold Truth against the cultural landslide, especially within the church where unity has replaced Truth as the greatest value. It takes the ability to judge well the health of the Church, and what constitutes Truth.
Meanwhile the majority of under privileged blacks are not benefiting from the movement. In fact, more and more evidence indicates that a significant number of advocates are pocketing millions of dollars at the expense of the truly needy.
It is positively refreshing to hear what Rashad Turner has done since he left the BLM.
The founder of a Black Lives Matter chapter in Minnesota said he quit after learning the “ugly truth” about the activist group’s priorities.
“In 2015, I was the founder of Black Lives Matter in St. Paul,” Rashad Turner, the president and executive director of Minnesota Parent Union, said in a YouTube video called “the truth revealed about BLM.”
“We denounce the idea that the country is guilty of systemic racism, white privilege and abhor the concept of identity politics and the promotion of victimhood in minority communities,” the group says.
Instead, it’s objective is “to inspire and educate the black community and other minority groups in the Twin Cities to take charge of their own lives, the lives of the families and communities as citizens fully granted to them in the Constitution.”
The group’s “coalition of community champions, academic professionals, and business leaders” seeks to transform the local black community “by embracing the core principles of America — not rejecting them,” it says.
“These principles are embedded in the belief of hard work, education, faith, family, and free enterprise in the personal pursuit of dreams that can be realized by anyone regardless of race or social standing,” the group insists.(Look to BLM leader says he quit after learning ‘ugly truth’ about group’s priorities. From the New York News).
Mr. Rashad Turner, is espousing what Scott David Allen identifies as The Preservation Narrative on pages 146-149, in his superior book, Why Social Justice is not Biblical Justice.
The Verdicts in the Rice and Risher cases.
Rice was killed in Cleveland, Ohio by officer Timothy Loehmann on November 22, 2014. Within two seconds of Loehmann arriving on the scene of a recreation center where Rice was playing with a fake gun, the officer opened fire, striking the 12-year-old boy. Loehmann said he mistook Rice for a man when responding to a call that there was a threatening man at the recreation center with a gun. Loehmann was not charged with Rice’s death, and on December 29, 2020, the Department of Justice announced that an “independent federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice on Nov. 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio, found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.” This was yet another blow to the Black community after enduring the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.
Richard Risher, 18, was killed by LAPD on July 25, 2016, when officers say they saw members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang hanging around a housing project. Officers say when they approached the group, Risher took off running and they chased after him. They noticed he was holding a gun and at some point, officers say a back-and-forth exchange of gunfire took place between them and Risher. As a result, one officer was struck in the arm, and Risher was fatally struck in the hand and back. The LA police commission said the LAPD officers were justified in killing Risher.
Rice and Simpson added, “The ‘activists’ have events in our cities and have not given us anything substantial for using our loved ones’ images and names on their flyers.
The statement concluded: “We don’t want or need ya’ll parading in the streets accumulating donations, platforms, movie deals, etc. off the death of our loved ones, while the families and communities are left clueless and broken. Don’t say our loved ones’ names period! That’s our truth!”
Patrisse Cullors, Marxist BLM leader buys $1.4 million home in ritzy LA enclave
(Look to New York Post, “Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ million-dollar real estate buying binge.”)
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the leader of Black Lives Matter and a self-described Marxist, recently purchased a $1.4 million home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood where most residents are white, according to reports.
Black Lives Matter, which began as hashtag in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, took in more than $90 million last year and was at the forefront of protests across the country last year after the death of George Floyd in May.
Ms. Rice said “If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you must ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” he said. “It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.”
She went on to accuse the Black Lives Matter organization and prominent civil right attorneys of monetizing off the deaths of black people. Mallory is not a leader within the official BLM organization but runs her own social justice group, Until Freedom.
It appeared on the YouTube channel for TakeCharge Minsnesota, which calls itself a “new organization committed to countering the prevailing narrative … that America is structured to undermine the lives of black Americans.”
“We acknowledge that racist people exist in the country, but explicitly reject the notion that the United States of America is a racist country. This is a subtle, but significant difference!” the group says in its objectives.
Corruption With Those in Authority
Under Communism, and Socialism, there was and is always the few in power who get rich and live in extravagance and fail to use their wealth to generate wealth for the people in their countries. In Venezuela, it is the Maduro’s and the Chavistra’s who live in abject extravagance as they post photographs on Facebook of their European vacations, their lavish parties, their designer outfits, and the bouquets of fresh flowers that adorn their homes. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan people starve. The major reason Communism and Socialism has failed in different counties is because the masses eventually revolt against the economic disparities.
It is sad to say that corruption is alive and well in American even with our “public servants.” There are politicians in America who are getting rich and even becoming multi-multi-millionaires by misusing their positions of power in our constitutional republic. Apparently, they all came to Washington to do good and stayed to do very well.
It is one thing to make money by hard work in the public sector, but when one profits in the millions while in public office and supposing to “serve the public,” well, this is a shame. To be a representative of the BLM movement espousing to help people of color and pocketing millions of dollars for one’s own personal gain is not only a travesty, it is criminal. This is exactly what has happened, and is happening, within the BLM farce!
Actions To Take
- Have a biblical disposition of sincere care for those who are legitimately in need and demonstrate that care with tangible help where needed.
- Voice your biblical discernment by bringing up the fact that many of the founders of BLM are making millions of dollars without channeling the money to the needs of the black community.
- Take portions of this article and communicate it to your pastor.
- Celebrate and tell the story of RashahTurner who left BLM and has started an organization that is making a difference with a healthy moral compass.
In Christ,
Dale