We continue into the sordid mess called Social Justice that is sweeping our nation.
We believe that the bulk of what is said is either unnecessary or simply deceptive.
One of the points that is heard over and over again is the idea of systemic racism.
We must tear down these systems of racism. The problem with the police today is that they are a major cog in these systems of racism.
The reason black people are in prison is systems of racism.
The reason black home ownership is low is systems.
When teams over the last few years were trying to keep players from kneeling, it was evidence of these systems. Not enough black owners. Not enough black front office employees.
So, today we want to give a little bit of our take on this whole thing and it will be fairly brief because we have spoken about it in various ways already.
Did you all know that the healthcare industry is racist?
Here is how one article in a Christian publication said it: “Four months after COVID-19 brought the nation to a standstill, Americans are waking up to an inescapable reality: an uncontrolled virus is steamrolling the nation leaving death and devastation — with no end in sight.”
Well, we might argue just about every single claim in that sentence but we will let it pass. Instead we will go a bit further into the article, “And as the nation celebrated its Declaration of Independence, it became clear that, in the eyes of COVID-19, the proclamation '…that all men are created equal,' falls short. A July 5 New York Times article revealed, 'Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors,' according to new data released by the CDC.” (Ibid)
The article goes on to spout many of the well-known mantras of the day. People of color are hurt by the virus far more than the white person because somehow racism makes it that way.
When people protest against shutting down states, it is not born out of a love for the people of color, but a love for whiteness. “We’re not the ones dying.”
When testing sites open up, it has to be free so that people of color can take the test, and it must be in their neighborhoods so that they can go to get the free test.
The article then begins to make its conclusion, but notice how it is all premised on what is actually never proven: “It is clear that COVID-19 is highlighting the overwhelming racial bias of the healthcare system. It ranges from doctors making assumptions about their patients instead of taking the time to ask respectful questions and listen, to pharmacies assuming a morphine prescription is fraudulent because certainly a black person must be looking for drugs. Black women’s health is less researched across all conditions. This is especially alarming when it comes to conditions that could require surgery such as fibroids, which are far more likely to develop than in white women. And yet black women are often told the only option is a hysterectomy rather than a noninvasive approach. Black women are also two to three more times likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.” (Ibid.)
Anecdotes that fail give any real picture or real information. But regardless, the healthcare system is a system of racism.
And the list could go on and on.
First, we would argue that the whole, so-called, conversation is unnecessary.
It is filled with empty words that seem to be so deep, but are without any substance.
The arguments are like the apostates described in Jude, clouds but without water; hidden reefs lurking just under the surface of water waiting to rupture the ship. Men and women reviling what they don’t understand. All with a deeper agenda then to help push justice forward for all people.
Thomas Sowell, one of the great thinkers of our day is unimpressed with the arguments. He has shown time and time again the ability to reveal that the roots of their arguments do not lie in truth, but in agenda-setting.
He points out that the arguments and goals are merely the natural outworking of the CRT and Social Justice movements, which are modern day forms of social Marxism.
In other words, this is a political movement, and not a justice movement.
Sowell makes the simple but powerful point that the claims of systemic racism are not something that can be specified. Nor can you really test its truth claims.
Rather it is a loose compendium of anecdotes that say a lot but have nothing really of substance. But if you ask the average person speaking about it you will hear the opposite. They have bought the lie hook, line and sinker, and they are now committed to rooting it out.
This shows how effective the tactics have been in the schools and media in pushing this agenda. It is somewhat eye-brow raising how many anti-BLM folks are chanting, “Open up the schools” during this Coronavirus shutdown. They see the evil of the movement but then they want their children right back into the very system that is creating this. It tells us that there are serious disconnects on both sides of the divide.
If a police officer uses force on the black man and the officer is white, the presumption is racism. Not just in the officer but proof that the system is racist.
How? Well it is obvious, if your system was not racist then this officer would not have done what he did to the man. Bam, all done, proof is given and riots may now commence.
If you counter it with the massive number of statistics showing that violence against a black man by a police officer of any color or gender is exceedingly low the response is that it too is a proof of systemic racism.
DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility, is now considered required reading for anyone who wants to be woke. The book will be reviewed by us very soon, but its whole premise is based upon the idea that the systems in place are opposed to the black person.
She takes great pains to make sure that every white person understands that they are racists. How? By first changing the definition of racism.
But then showing how even the most progressive person is still functioning in a system that is racist.
She seems to fail to grasp that if this is true, then she is a racist as well. She is participating in the promulgation of evil, racist ideas that keep oppressing all black people in America. Even those who don’t think they are really oppressed by the white man or the system.
It is laughable that she is given this level of serious acceptance when the logic of her book impales her, and everyone who is white who claims to agree with her. They speak out of their whiteness and they speak within the safety of the very systems that keep them safe and superior.
It is worth noting that the leadership of Penguin Random House has no blacks even remotely on it. More shocking is that it is a white man who sits as CEO of its South African branch.
But what you find is that woke Christian leaders are all bowing at the altar of whiteness and systems of racism that is pushed by a white woman published by white-led publisher that says that you are a racist not because you hate other races but you belong and participate in a racist system.
Second, the basic argument is flawed because it assumes what it cannot prove.
Ask a person why they think America is racist, and you will get a story. Almost every single time some kind of story they read or heard or did themselves.
It could be that they point to the way police seem to single out blacks, or the fact that there is an overtly high number of blacks incarcerated. Perhaps they get nervous when they find themselves in a black neighborhood, giving evidence that they are racist.
But none of these are proofs. At best they may be indicators, but they must be investigated to see why they are that way.
So by way of example. Does the white guy get nervous because he sees black people, or because he is in an area that is known for high crime? Or is it because he is getting hard stares that indicate he is not welcome?
With the police, why are they dealing so much with certain blacks? Is it their choice to go looking for them? Are they sent on a call with no say about it? Are they dealing with individuals who keep getting release on no bail or low bail, and then repeating their crime? Are they assigned to a primarily black district where the vast majority of their contacts are black? Did the crimes actually occur? Did the black comply with the officer’s commands?
Example of this is the infamous Rodney King video. Obviously it is proof that cops are racist and love beating down a black man. But to all who hear this right now ask yourself a few questions:
How many blacks were involved in this situation?
How many resisted the officers?
When you hear about Rodney King, do you also hear about the other two black men in the car with him?
Did you know that both of them were also ordered out of the car, and they obeyed the officers commands and were taken into custody without any problem? Why didn’t they get so-called "beaten?"
But frankly, we aren’t allowed to ask these sorts of questions because they do not support the rant of systemic racism.
Once you argue that something evil is present, but no one can see it but the truly enlightened, then any chance of a reasonable dialogue is finished.
A basic argument for systemic racism is that a white person, especially a white man, live and move in a system that is designed to make them feel normal and right. But this is not true for the black person. They are always aware of their blackness.
Because the white feels normal he is unable to see the bars that block opportunity for the black man. So the idea goes that the black person (or person of color) must always take their race into consideration. Why? Because of this system of racism.
The racism is not overt but rather is a series of microaggressions against the people of color. Because whites dominate the various systems in place such as politics, courts, business and education it creates a situation where benefits flow naturally to other whites that are withheld from the person of color.
This is the basic lens through which every event becomes interpreted, and it is here that it reveals how broken it is as an idea.
When you look for the facts you find them greatly wanting and very vague.
But that is not necessary. If you can get people to think that the only reason that white officer was not charged with a crime is because he is white, then your work is done.
Worse, if you can infect an entire generation of young blacks to believe that no matter what they do that the system will keep them down, then you win.
It is really about how to define reality and truth. This movement creates a vile and evil gridwork through which life is to be poured. And everything must be forced through that gridwork.
But the grid is broken, and the lies it perpetuates are not designed to heal but to shift power and money to a new group.
Third, follow the money.
Matt and I laugh when we think about so many of those leading the charge of systemic racism. They are not the downtrodden but the intelligentsia and the government officials and the so-called elites.
When a woman with tenure and a Ph.D. complains from her nicely appointed office in an expensive university about how she is a victim of racism and sexism you ought to laugh. She points to her books that are published as books to read. She does it with all the accoutrements of status, comfort and safety. No one is marching outside her house like the couple in St. Louis. No one is burning her storefront after looting it. We speak of Kimberle Crenshaw who popularized the idea of Intersectionality.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are men whose very livelihood rests upon keeping racism alive and well in America. But they are now old men who only can engage the older crowds of liberals from their day.
Today we have a whole new batch of people who are looking to cash in on the money cow that is systemic racism. No matter what happens they will never be happy, because it will mean they are out of work.
We seriously mean it when we say, follow the money.
You want to keep your job and not be canceled? Then say nothing about this movement.
You want your school to continue to grow then you need to keep the students happy and give into their demands.
You want your church to not suffer a loss of people? Then preach about the god of justice who sent his son into this world as an immigrant child who was rejected by the systems of power of that day.
Biblically Derived Thoughts
The Christian is to live under the domain of truth, and that truth is always and only the Word. Other things may contain some level of truth, but never against the Word.
The Word of God is truth, and truth is the Word.
Nothing else can claim this. Can other things be factual? Perhaps, but that is not the same as truth - not in the ultimate sense of truth.
This means that when you back the Word into truth claims that are born from false narratives and philosophies then trouble is sure to occur.
It takes only a few minutes of work to see that the arguments of the BLM/Social Justice movements are built upon false ideas.
We have already dealt with this so we won’t rehash it.
But how many Christians are lining up to explain how they are now woke and ready to fight to bring down these systems? How many are marching in protests organized by overtly anti-gospel, anti-Christian groups? How many are now parroting the same broken phrases as if they are the very words of Christ?
We said before and we say again, this is going to be a line that divides the Church in America, and it is going to be nasty before it becomes better.
The battle is over what is truth, and it is over what is our mission. It is also over the means that this mission is to be accomplished.
Until we go back and open the Word and declare with the power of the Spirit, “Thus says the Lord God almighty,” then the Church will fizzle and shrivel into even greater mediocrity.
This division is an opportunity as well. It is an opportunity to clarify your position and your convictions. This is what we are doing in our city. We want it clear that we reject these ideas not because we are white, but because they oppose biblical truth.
This is a time for men to be men, and to stand fast on what is right. It is not a time for a conversation. It is the time to proclaim the glory and majesty and absolute sovereignty of God. It is time to be unabashedly a slave to Jesus Christ, and only Jesus Christ. It is a time to set aside our little loves that have never satisfied us, and cling to God alone.
Though it seems financially wise to get on board with these movements it will not pay off as desired.
Matthew 5-6 is still in operation today. You do what is right because it is right, and not to be noticed, and your Father in heaven will repay you. It is as simple as that. God promises it, so we should believe it.
But if you do what you do so that people will take notice, then your reward is now limited to this world alone.
Not one church denomination that made social justice one of their pillars is still worthy of being called “Christian.” Once you go down the slide there is no end. From one drumbeat to the next you continue to go down ward embracing anything and everything that is thrown your way.
The UCC, United Methodist, ECLA, Congregational all are known for their love and concern for all things other than Christ and Him Crucified. The gospel is lost except in their long rejected confessions.
The ideas perpetuated are racist and nothing good comes when we call evil good and good evil. There are always the false prophets in the world, but the Christian is not to support them or run with them. In America we do both.
To accuse a person of racism, but without any proof, is evil.
To attempt to take what is not yours is called theft. Perhaps not by our lawyers and courts, but before the living God it is theft. No thief has a place in the Kingdom of God.
Finally, one of the greatest problems we see with it, is that it is a grand distraction from the great call of God to bring the gospel to all the nations.
Massive amounts of energy and money is diverted from the task of preaching the Word and calling people to repent. Strife is being stirred up not via actual examples of evil, but presupposed evil without fact.
We devour one another as we compete for wokeness and fight the shadow demon of racism. All the while we only harm those for whom Christ died.
We seek to silence any black voice that speaks against this folly.
Paul said it best when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:2-7, “I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. 7 You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.”
If you want to tear down a true stronghold then stop thinking it is some physical manifestation. It is always and ever a spiritual battle against a Satanic lie.
The weapon to destroy it is always and ever the Word of God.
We hold up high the knowledge of God as found in the bible. We take our thoughts captive to obey Jesus alone. Everytime we find our minds going elsewhere we rebuke ourselves, and recenter upon Him.
When we find people teaching and living out something contrary to sound doctrine we punish them, calling them to repent.
We can all look at things outward, but the whole while that we do the real battle is raging in the mind and realm of truth.
So let us go back to the simple road that is paved by God’s word. Let us put on a heart of humility and serve one another. Let the pulpits once again cry forth the weekly exposition of the Bible, not flying high over the passage but delving into its depths and drawing God’s children ever deeper into biblical truth. Let us resist the conforming pressure of this age and do it by fathers who will lead their families in biblical doctrine and biblical living that renews the mind. Let the Church be known for its love of God and love for sinners in need of the gospel.
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For an enlightening but exasperating read consider this article.
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