George Floyd Protests: Why Do Christians Urge Silence on Racism?

Welcome Critical Thinkers,

The recent incidents following the May 25th murder of George Floyd served to highlight a pervasive issue in the American Church today. While many Christians, who we’ll call Table Tossers, protested the injustice or supported protests from afar, many Christians, who we’ll call the Comfort Keepers, were notably silent. In this post I attempt to show that silence and an urge for others to be silent by the Comfort Keepers is mostly rooted in one or more of the following false beliefs:

·       No injustice occurred in the death of George Floyd (and similar situations)

·       Focusing on Bible verses about peace and forgiveness exempts Christians from protesting racism

·       Black Lives Matter promotes Socialist/Marxist ideals, so Christians should avoid the entire movement

“This is how the world is…” *SHRUG*

One of the main reasons why many Comfort Keepers are silent on justice issues connected to race is because frankly, they don’t believe an injustice has occurred. In conversation and in print, I have seen Comfort Keepers argue or support the idea that it is God’s will for some to be at the bottom of society while others are on top due to race, class or even country of birth. This clearly isn’t a popular idea so instead, in response to incidents of “alleged” racism or injustice, Comfort Keepers patronizingly assert that all Christians should just pray and focus on heavenly matters, not earthly ones. In other words just graciously accept it. It is reasonable to doubt the sincerity of this advice however when the Comfort Keepers don’t apply it to matters of sex trafficking, abortion, inequality for women, or baking cakes for gay couples for instance.

Other Comfort Keepers will grudgingly admit the system which promises fairness is not fair to some, but insist we should still honor, respect and uphold that system. And why should we uphold that system? Because the brokenness of the system does not disenfranchise the Comfort Keepers, and in fact many times benefits them.

In the New testament, there is only one time we see Jesus get angry, and that is when he observed the actions of the money changers at the temple (John 2:13-16). At that time foreigners came from far away to worship at the temple in Jerusalem and needed to purchase animals to sacrifice (instead of bringing their own animals on the long journey). In order to do so, they had to change their money into local currency using expensive money changers. In response to the clear exploitation of the foreign worshippers by the Jewish money changers for profit, Jesus did not stop and pray, or accept the practice as status quo since eventually these people would not have to deal with crooked money changers in heaven. Jesus turned over the tables in righteous anger and demanded change (no pun intended:) immediately (John 2:16).  

“The Bible Relieves Me of the Requirement to Act Against Racism”

After the George Floyd video appeared even the most hardened Comfort Keepers were quietly stunned and horrified. However immediately after the first riot was reported during protesting, their Social Media timelines were abuzz with images of property burning and interviews of crying small business owners (of color) that were hit. Though silent on the original injustice which inspired the protests, the Comfort Keepers now deemed it acceptable to quote Bible verses on peace and unity in response to the riots. After all it is far easier for us to address the unrighteousness found in the other group than to address the deep-rooted sins in ours. (Matthew 7:5)

Those Comfort Keepers who casually referenced the original injustice, did so with an appeal to the Bible as well to support inaction. Verses on forgiving and loving one’s enemies could be seen, also in the absence of any word of outrage at the unjust act Table Tossers were being instructed to forgive.  This forgiving nature stands curiously in stark contrast to the Comfort Keeper’s attitude towards Nazis, Palestinians, Planned Parenthood workers, Brothel owners in India, and rioters targeted by Donald Trump.

In the New Testament book of Matthew, Jesus strongly criticizes the religious leaders of that time for this same type of posturing. In Matthew 23:23-28 Jesus blasts the Pharisees for attempting to appear as if they perfectly follow the Old Testament Jewish law, while they ignored the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

“BLM promotes Socialism, so Christians should reject any involvement with the movement.”

The Black Lives Matter organization (BLM) is a secular organization birthed out of the hashtag of the same name, protesting the constant penalty free killing of Black youth in America. Although the importance of punishment as a means to deter future acts of violence is found in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 8:11), BLM also subscribes to ideals Comfort Keepers deem unbiblical. This makes it easy for Comfort Keepers to remain silent on the movement altogether. The Comfort Keepers’ argument (oversimplified version) goes like this: BLM supports a range of uncomfortable ideals including reparations for Black Americans. Reparations are a form of redistribution of wealth, and that is Socialism. Socialism is the foundation used by revolutionary Karl Marx to promote Communism, which is anti-God. Anything that is anti-God is from Satan and should be avoided at all costs. Space in this article doesn’t allow for developed discussion of these very important topics, however I’d like to touch on three points regarding the resulting stance taken by Comfort Keepers towards BLM.

First off, the purported connection of BLM to non-Christian ideals is just the most recent in a long line of excuses the American Church has used to try to justify silence on racial inequality in the past. During Slavery Blacks were not considered fully human. In the post Slavery era segregation was deemed more comfortable for Blacks. And in the Jim Crow Era, even as the lynching of Black men and rape of Black women continued with impunity, all Christians were encouraged by Comfort Keepers to focus on individual holiness and evangelism alone (more on this below). Unfortunately, ‘justifications’ for Christian apathy have always existed, they just evolve.  

Second, the passionate rejection of the so-called Socialist motivations of the Table Tossers is justified many times by the twisting of terms and a healthy amount of fear. Table Tossers are currently fighting for equality (equal opportunity to flourish for all). However, the Socialism label put on so called Social Justice Warriors, like the Table Tossers, is cleverly justified by demonizing their alleged calls for equity (everyone has the same level of wealth). In reality a conversation about how to restore Blacks to a place where they can flourish has not seriously begun as a movement by the Church.

The underlying fear seems to be that any real conversation about inequality will have a domino effect ending in loss of wealth and power for the Comfort Keepers, having people tie their success to their advantage and not superior work ethic/intelligence, and being shamed for their complicity in oppression. Although the focus of the Table Tossers thus far has been Biblical (Proverbs 28:1), the Father of lies Satan (John 8:44) is happy to exploit the fear of the Comfort Keepers in his ongoing pursuit of their silence and the division of the Church.

Finally, the moral stance Comfort Keepers take against the Black Lives Matter movement based on any objectionable aspect of BLM (Socialism or other) is yet another example of their inconsistency. Comfort Keepers will vehemently defend this country and its founders as great, despite evidence of the atrocities of both towards Black slaves. But if members of BLM believe in certain ideals contrary to God’s heart, that somehow relieves Christians of the mandate to participate in the current movement, which simply calls for the Biblical ideal of the equal protection of Black lives in America. This is blatant hypocrisy.

 “Just preach the gospel.”

This is the standard advice many Comfort Keepers still give to matters of racism. Don’t change the law, change people’s hearts they say … as the bills to change laws on abortion, gay marriage and freedom of religion pass through Congress. But fine I’m game…let’s talk about the gospel…

At the cross, God powerfully demonstrates how he feels about justice. Humans accumulated a huge sin debt and God demanded payment. The payment was in the form of the very gruesome death on the cross of His beloved Son Jesus. It was only after this gruesome death, God allowed us the option of access to him for eternity through salvation. THAT is the gospel. It isn’t just reciting a few sentences, then skipping down the road towards heaven. Jesus could have visited earth, preached, and left unscathed. Instead there was dramatic, divine justice, THEN forgiveness.

Jesus left heaven to come here and humble himself even to death (Philippians 2:6-8), to satisfy justice. Saul, an elite Jewish Roman citizen (Philippians 3:5-6) became Paul the Apostle - a broke, battered evangelist, in order to preach the gospel and reinforce equality (like in Galatians 3:28). Nothing about their ministries appealed to peace, calm, and comfort in the presence of widespread unrighteousness and injustice. The “cul-de-sac” Christianity the Comfort Keepers long for at the sacrifice of their marginalized neighbors is decidedly not biblical – and not the gospel.

Why write this post?

This post is an attempt to correct the inaccurate depiction of the God of the Bible, as one who doesn’t care to address issues related to inequality and racism (see more in my article ‘Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion?’). This post is written for the many Christians who were disheartened, hurt and confused by the silence of the brothers and sisters in Christ they thought would share their pain. It’s also for skeptics who see the silence and draw the wrong conclusion about the God of the Bible.

As millions of multi-ethnic, multi-generational, socioeconomically diverse Table Tossers around the globe raise this issue, and Christian leaders publicly lament decades of being a Comfort Keeper, I am hopeful. I am hopeful that from here on out all will know that the God of the Bible, and therefore the Church, cares about justice for George Floyd, for Ahmaud Arbery, for Breonna Taylor, and for every other image bearer (Genesis 1:27) that has ever walked this earth.

Ciao for Now.

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