In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, many people have tried to find ways of engaging with the issue of racism. One way has been to support the movement Black Lives Matter (BLM). Thousands took to the streets to march in the organised protests, or changed their online social media profiles to show solidarity with the movement. However, some commentators began to suggest that although the intentions of the organisation may have been good, their approach was wrong.
In our experience, this backlash against BLM has led to two things. First, the initial concern that seemed to be expressed in the wake of George Floyd’s death has, to some degree, been drowned out by criticism of the intentions of those calling for change. Second, people in our churches who want to engage with the issue of racism have been left confused as to where to turn.
So how can Christians begin to think wisely about approaches to anti-racist activism that we encounter in secular spheres?
Black Lives Matter was started by three Black, female activists in the US in 2013, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot an unarmed Black teenager, Trayvon Martin. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter asserted the dignity and value of Black lives in response to ongoing racial injustice and police brutality in the United States. Since 2013, BLM has grown and evolved into both an organisation and a broader social movement, with supporters active in numerous countries, including in the UK.
So what is it about BLM that some people have found worrying?
One objection is that the policy solutions BLM proposes extend beyond the issue of racial injustice. Such policies amount to a detailed and wide-ranging political campaign. For example, among the demands listed on the UK BLM website are:
1. an immediate reversal of all cuts made during austerity.
2. an end to prison and police expansion.
3. an end to all British military operations abroad, including in Iraq and Afghanistan and across Africa.20
People who agree that racism is wrong could quite reasonably disagree with any of them.
When I shared this fact with one of my daughters recently, she was shocked. Her teacher had only that week asked her class to write about an issue of injustice. The list of options that she wrote on the board for them to choose between read: sexism, homophobia, BLM. In other words, for that teacher, “BLM” was identical with “anti- racism”. Indeed, for many people, saying, “I support BLM” is simply a way of saying, “I am against racial injustice”. However, for others more closely affiliated with BLM as an organisation, saying “I support BLM” means endorsing a broader range of progressive social policies.
A second concern that critics have raised about BLM is its alleged links to Critical Race Theory. For example, during a six-hour debate in Parliament about Black History Month in October 2020, Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch linked BLM and CRT, saying that both were promoting dangerous and divisive ideologies.
It is important to recognise that CRT is an academic framework within legal studies, and that not all anti-racism literature or activism is linked to CRT. However, there are some key ideas within CRT that have influenced wider anti-racism movements like BLM. Perhaps what is most controversial for some is the working assumption that racism has been systematically embedded across institutions in ways that sustain white supremacy. The implication is that for any real change to happen, society needs something far more radical than a few nasty people to be nicer to minority-ethnic people. Instead, change requires a complete overhaul.22 23
In the midst of the confusion around these ideas, what are Christians to make of them?
When we line up BLM and CRT against the Bible’s teaching, do such approaches offer the right treatment for the problem that we face, and are there any serious unintended consequences that come from adopting them?
To help us navigate the confusion we want to humbly suggest using three principles:
Principle 1: The ingredients are everywhere
Truth can come from secular sources. Some Christians have argued that the ideas behind BLM are rooted in non-Christian thinking. Does that automatically mean that these ideas are off limits? This first principle answers, “Not necessarily”. All truth belongs to God, and so we can evaluate and use it no matter where it comes from.
Of course, like all ideas, secular thought must be taken captive for Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)—that is, subjected to the limits of the Christian gospel and worldview. But when it comes to approaches to race relations that we encounter in secular spheres, we shouldn’t dismiss them merely because they are not explicit about being Christian. The question is: are these particular ideas consistent with Scripture or not?
Principle 2: Be open to another angle
Different ideas, even ones that we encounter outside of the Bible, can sometimes help us look at a problem differently, from another angle, to see a truth that was there all along but that we might have otherwise missed. For example, the idea of intersectionality (our identities and experiences are shaped by multiple dimensions of ourselves) demonstrates the need to really understand the experiences of those in our communities and churches, rather than making generalisations that miss the complexity of the individuals we are relating to.
Principle 3: Beware of bundles
In some cases, individual ideas get bundled together in a bigger package of ideas called an ideology. Examples of ideologies include conservatism, socialism, liberalism, globalism, feminism and environmentalism. For people who are committed to an ideology, promoting and applying the principles of that ideology becomes the ultimate goal and the means by which we can be saved from the evils that we face in the world. From a Christian perspective, the wholesale embrace of an ideology can be a form of idolatry—taking created things (in this case, ideas) and making them ultimate things.
In the case of the BLM movement, individual ideas about racial injustice have become bundled up with ideas about economic systems, gender and sexuality, and foreign policy. Its UK website states that “we fight against racism, but also against capitalism and patriarchy because ALL Black lives matter”. Whichever parts of that you agree or disagree with, our point is simply that to support the full set of BLM demands is to support a broad collection of values and ideas. As Christians we need to be wary of investing wholesale in an approach that inadvertently causes damaging side effects.
Perhaps the biggest weakness of the BLM or CRT solutions is that they do not take into account the reality of our universal sinful nature, which lies behind all injustice. While these movements have done much to expose crucial issues of injustice, we must remember that no set of policies can ever fully root out sin. Any attempt to stamp out racism that ignores this truth will never be able to fully produce the outcomes that it seeks.
The takeaway point from all this is that we get much further in understanding and engaging with the issues of the day when we slow down and ask more carefully, “What do people actually mean by the words and concepts they are using?” This happens best when we take time to enter into dialogue and relationship with people.
We do well to carefully assess an idea in light of biblical truth rather than either adopting it without thinking or dismissing it out of hand.
All of this takes patience as we interact with others on the issue of racism. But in the end, slowing down might serve to speed up our desire to heal the divides among us.
This article is an extract from Healing the Divides By Jason Roach and Jessamin Birdsall which helps readers find ways to advance God’s vision for racial unity and justice. Get your copy of this book (available in paperback and ebook) here.
20 “Demands”, Black Lives Matter UK, 2021, https://ukblm.org/demands/ (accessed on 30 Jun. 2021).
22 Kimberlé Crenshaw et al, Critical Race Theory: The key writings that formed the movement (The New Press, 1995), p xiii.
23 “We recognise that these issues are part of a political and economic system which is reliant on the exploitation and control of Black and other oppressed people. We understand that these systems of power are global, and exist due to centuries of colonialism. We are part of a flourishing anti-racist movement which is fighting back against white supremacy and all forms of oppression.” “About”, Black Lives Matter UK, 2021, https://ukblm.org/about/ (accessed on 30 Jun. 2021).
Jason Roach is Director of Ministries for London City Mission and founding pastor of The Bridge, a multi-ethnic church in Battersea, London. He worked as a medical doctor and journalist before training for Christian ministry. Jason is married to Rachel and has four children.
