Note that the question isn't, "Should Christians oppose racism?" Absolutely we should, for racism (or partiality of any stripe) is an affront to God and a crime against our fellow image bearers.
The question isn't, "Should Christians support social justice?" Absolutely we should, so long as justice is defined (much of 'social justice' isn't justice at all but whitewashed Marxism). We worship and obey a God of justice whose aim is to flood the sin-drenched cosmos with His justice, so to stand against justice is to stand against God's will.
The question isn't, "Should Christians take a stand against police brutality?" Again, absolutely and of course. The question here is, "Should Christians support the organization Black Lives Matter?" The question, again, isn't whether or not black lives matter. The object of the question is the organization itself. And the simple answer is that, "No, Christians should not support Black Lives Matter."
The reason is because Black Lives Matter is flagrantly anti-Christian. The organization Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization that wears racial justice as an outer garment while seeking to realign society among Marxist lines. This isn't conspiracy theory. This is explicitly addressed on their website. Black Lives Matter is starkly opposed to Christianity in a number of ways: they oppose God's created order in gender identity and roles; they oppose God-ordained patriarchy; and they oppose the nuclear family which God has instituted. Below are quotes taken directly from their website (under the tab What We Believe):
Let's get something out of the way right quick: no Christian worth their salt will declare that black lives, or black trans lives, or black gay lives, or what have you, don't matter. That's absolute rubbish. At the same time, attributing worth to someone doesn't mean you agree with their lifestyle choices. Any violence against any person for any reason is anti-Christian, and Christians should be the first to stand against violence against minorities of any stripe. With all that said, Black Lives Matter works to dismantle what it calls 'cisgender privilege,' the idea that there is an inherent privilege in being 'cisgender' (or, in other words, 'straight'). Black Lives Matter literature paints cisgender privilege as an affront to humanity; the fact that being straight is normative is anathema to them (never-mind, of course, that less than 2-4% of people aren't straight; and note that an increase in that percentage is innately linked to the 'progressive' atmosphere that puts extra value and worth on those willing to 'break free' of cisgenderism). The language of dismantling cisgender privilege is, in effect, language seeking to overturn the way that God has designed His world. Sadly, it's a shocking and provocative thought that God has built 'straightness' into the world and that variations aren't to be celebrated but to acknowledged as sinful, wicked, rebellious perversions. To say that isn't 'unloving'; it's biblical. It's right there in the Christian text. Should straight people have more rights and safety than those who aren't straight? I don't believe so. But that isn't to say that violation of God's law is to be celebrated, and that's precisely what Black Lives Matter seeks to do. They also write:
Christians are called to love everyone. In that vein, there's no room for hatred or discrimination against those who are in the grip of sin. Whether it's homosexuality, drunkenness, thieving, or what-have-you, everyone is infected with sin, and that sin manifests itself in different ways. Christians are not called to hate those who are in sin, but at the same time, we are not approve of those choices and lifestyles. Most Christians can uncomfortably recall St. Paul's words in Romans 1.18-28, in which he writes about how human beings turn from the living God to worship idols and become infected through-and-through with sin. He catalogues a number of sins that reveal that deep corruption, not least of all 'dishonorable passions': "For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error." (vs. 26-27) The homosexual lifestyle bars one from the kingdom of God, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.9-10. Yet the true 'showcase' of human depravity isn't the fact that people embrace such perversions of the natural, God-ordained order for humankind; no, the greatest sin of all is that 'though [human beings] know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things [not just homosexual activities but a whole catalog of sins] deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." (v. 32, emphasis mine) According to Paul, the evidence of human depravity is seen in a litany of rebellious and wicked actions; but the 'icing on the cake' is that depraved humanity approves of such actions. The point is this: to affirm any perversion of God's natural order is just as perverse of committing the acts themselves. When Black Lives Matter affirms the LGBTQ+ agenda and all it stands for, they are approving of those things that God has condemned. And when Christians approve of such things, they are, in effect, showing their hand: their love isn't for God but for the world. Because Black Lives Matter approves of that which God condemns, Christians shouldn't support them.
But, alas, let us move on.
Should black women be affirmed? Absolutely. Should sexism and misogyny be opposed? Again, absolutely. But Black Lives Matter is conflating sexism and misogyny with patriarchy. The reality is that God has instituted patriarchy. It's on nearly every page of scripture. It saturates the biblical narrative. Progressives argue that the biblical writers wrote patriarchy into the Bible because they came from a patriarchal society; if that's the case, then the Bible is nothing more than a dusty book from a bygone past. If, however, the Bible really is the Word of God - as Christians believe - then patriarchy was written by God, and the earliest civilizations were patriarchal because of this innate patriarchy built into the system. Patriarchal hierarchy is built into the created order, and to oppose it is to oppose the way God has ordered the world. It's worth noting that after the Fall in Genesis 3, we see the first glimpses of patriarchy abused: men would become tyrants over their wives (which is a perversion of biblical patriarchy) and women would try to overrun their husbands (which is a perversion of biblical patriarchy). The sad reality is that for so long, power-hungry men have been tyrants towards women in the name of patriarchy (this is true misogyny), but that isn't the biblical model. The solution isn't to eject patriarchy but to recapture biblical, God-ordained patriarchy under when both men and women flourish. Black Lives Matter seeks to overturn God's created order, and because of this, they shouldn't be supported by Christians.
Black Lives Matter seeks to 'disrupt' the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.' This is progressive language for seeking to overturn father-rule in the household. God's preferred design for the family is that a husband and wife remain together and have godly children whom they raise up in the Lord. Our culture hates this, which is why divorce runs rampant, why husbands and wives tend towards not having children, why abortion mills are so popular, and why men are so easily swayed to abandon their families. The uncomfortable reality is that the black community is experiencing an epidemic of fatherlessness, and such fatherlessness is linked to many of the problems in the black community. The answer, however, isn't creating 'villages' to raise children but to getting men to act like men and stay with their wives and raise their children. Black Lives Matter places the failure on God's prescription for the nuclear family and seeks to both justify its current malaise and to promote it as the 'first step' towards a better future. It's interesting that Black Lives Matter writes that they're seeking to do this 'to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable'; note that they excluded 'fathers' from that sentence. To mention 'fathers' would be to give a 'head-nod' in the direction of patriarchy, and God forbid they do that.
Much more could be said regarding gender and gender roles, the value and reality of patriarchy, and God's designs for the nuclear family. But let's not belabor the point, which is to show that Black Lives Matter - while arguing, correctly, that black lives regardless of sexual orientation, gender, age, etc. matter - opposes many of the things which God has ordained. Black Lives Matter praises things that God condemns, and they advocate a societal revolution that seeks to upend God's law. Of course, many Christians would be shocked at what I've written, and they might harumph and say, "Well, we know better now. God's Word doesn't really say what you think it says. We have lots of modern scholars who argue against what you're saying. If you really read scripture, you'll see that God is a God of love and that the best thing we as Christians can do is support people the way God made them." I've heard this trope again and again, and it falls flat under serious scrutiny. Besides, Jesus claimed that his Spirit would guide his people into all truth, and that the world would hate us for it. So why do so many Christians think the church got sexuality and gender roles wrong for nearly 2000 years and had to be guided into the truth not by the Spirit, not by the Word, but by the world? More could be said on this, and more will be said in the future, but let's suffice to say that the Bible does speak on these subjects, it is clear, and if Christians are to love and obey God, they need to take Him at His Word.
Many Christians have bent over backwards to pander to Black Lives Matter. They've marched in the streets with placards, they've gotten down on one knee to apologize for things they didn't do, they've bought T-shirts and 'blacked out' their Facebook pages. Black Lives Matter has become the poster child for opposition to racism, and to oppose Black Lives Matter - even to question it - has been tantamount to admitting your own racism. Can a Christian oppose Black Lives Matter and simultaneously oppose racism in all its forms? Absolutely. But the movement has made its motto so pervasive that to oppose the movement is made out to be denying that black lives matter, and thus you become - at least in some peoples' eyes - a racist (or at least a racist collaborator).
Let's just get this out of the way: all Christians, if they live by the Word of God, affirm that black lives matter. Galatians 3.26-28 says, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." While some argue that this implies that gender distinctions, class distinctions, and ethnic distinctions are eradicated under Jesus, that's not what Paul is saying at all. Distinctions do exist. Of course there were Jews and Greeks; of course there were slaves and free men; of course there were males and females. Paul's point is that these distinctions don't matter. No, they're not done away with; but they don't carry the same power a godless culture wants to give them. In Christ, everyone is on equal footing with God. All are equally worthy and valuable. All have equal access to God the Father. All are loved the same by God. These distinctions are evident in God's throne room, as seen in Revelation 7.9: in the throne room of God, there are white people and black people and all shades between. God has a purpose for every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. These distinctions aren't eradicated even in heaven. If being white or black somehow made one inferior, then this passage doesn't make sense.
(As an aside, this is also why it's wrong to believe or preach inherent evil or inferiority in being white; if you've been racist, then you need to apologize, make restitution, and repent; but if you haven't, then don't. Apologizing for things you haven't done is nothing more than virtue signalling and pandering, a way to tell people you're 'woke.' I am white, and God made me white. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that. If I have more blessings or privileges, then my response is to thank God for that - not all are blessed the same; God isn't a Marxist - and to seek how to use that blessing and privilege to glorify God. End sidebar.)
So of course Christians agree that black lives matter. It's for that reason that Christians need to oppose racist-driven injustices done to people of any race. Racism in any form - whether institutional (part of the fabric of government institutions), societal (embedded in the social fabric and psyche and manifested in behaviors), and personal (on an individual basis) - is an affront to God and a crime against human beings made in His image.
(Okay, another sidebar. Guess what? Racism isn't mentioned anywhere in scripture. It's a modern prejudice. Does this mean that it's made-up and of no consequence? Nope, not at all. Racism is a new manifestation of an old sin, that of showing partiality. Racism's underlying sin, whether institutional or societal or personal, is partiality. Showing partiality - in essence treating one person better than another, or one person worse than another, for any reason whatsoever - is sinful. Racism is showing partiality based on skin color; classism is showing partiality based upon one's social standing; favoring people from higher income neighborhood over lower income neighborhoods is partiality; favoring people because of where they come from, or who their parents were, is partiality - and the list goes on and on. This is where the idea of 'reverse racism' falls apart. There's no such thing as 'reverse racism'; it's simply just another form of racism. Condemning whites for being white, and holding them accountable for sins not their own, is no more or less racist than condemning blacks for being black, and holding them accountable for sins not their own. 'Woke' racism against 'the privileged whites' is still racism. End sidebar.)
As for police brutality, which Black Lives Matter vehemently opposes, it's quite evident that reform is needed in the United States (and, no, 'defunding the police' isn't abolishing police; can we get over that already?). Christians - who are God's imagers and tasked with extending His rule and fatherhood through the world - need to pursue justice, even it makes us uncomfortable - and for many of us, it is uncomfortable. This is because Christians have a tendency, in our volatile culture, to dig in their heels with their political brethren. As the left has swung far to the left, the right has entrenched themselves like Vicksburg under siege. This entrenching has happened along party lines, so that we (and I speak for moderate Republicans, such as myself) have confused the gospel with Republicanism (and many Democratic Christians have confused the gospel with the Democratic agenda). We Republicans like to share memes disparaging the Democrats without checking them (ironically playing into Russian hands), and we oppose anything regardless of merit that comes from the mouth of a Democrat. This trend is absolutely nauseating. The Black Lives Matter movement, and the attendant protests, have been rejected out-of-hand without considering any of the grievances. Christians, regardless of their political party, need to look at the issues rationally, with wisdom and not as reactionaries, and respond from Christian convictions backed by scripture rather than parroting the talking heads of our favorite partisan news station. This goes for Christians of Republican and Democratic stripes. Our core identity isn't a political party but who we are in Christ and to whom we belong.
The reason is because Black Lives Matter is flagrantly anti-Christian. The organization Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization that wears racial justice as an outer garment while seeking to realign society among Marxist lines. This isn't conspiracy theory. This is explicitly addressed on their website. Black Lives Matter is starkly opposed to Christianity in a number of ways: they oppose God's created order in gender identity and roles; they oppose God-ordained patriarchy; and they oppose the nuclear family which God has instituted. Below are quotes taken directly from their website (under the tab What We Believe):
We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
Let's get something out of the way right quick: no Christian worth their salt will declare that black lives, or black trans lives, or black gay lives, or what have you, don't matter. That's absolute rubbish. At the same time, attributing worth to someone doesn't mean you agree with their lifestyle choices. Any violence against any person for any reason is anti-Christian, and Christians should be the first to stand against violence against minorities of any stripe. With all that said, Black Lives Matter works to dismantle what it calls 'cisgender privilege,' the idea that there is an inherent privilege in being 'cisgender' (or, in other words, 'straight'). Black Lives Matter literature paints cisgender privilege as an affront to humanity; the fact that being straight is normative is anathema to them (never-mind, of course, that less than 2-4% of people aren't straight; and note that an increase in that percentage is innately linked to the 'progressive' atmosphere that puts extra value and worth on those willing to 'break free' of cisgenderism). The language of dismantling cisgender privilege is, in effect, language seeking to overturn the way that God has designed His world. Sadly, it's a shocking and provocative thought that God has built 'straightness' into the world and that variations aren't to be celebrated but to acknowledged as sinful, wicked, rebellious perversions. To say that isn't 'unloving'; it's biblical. It's right there in the Christian text. Should straight people have more rights and safety than those who aren't straight? I don't believe so. But that isn't to say that violation of God's law is to be celebrated, and that's precisely what Black Lives Matter seeks to do. They also write:
We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).
Christians are called to love everyone. In that vein, there's no room for hatred or discrimination against those who are in the grip of sin. Whether it's homosexuality, drunkenness, thieving, or what-have-you, everyone is infected with sin, and that sin manifests itself in different ways. Christians are not called to hate those who are in sin, but at the same time, we are not approve of those choices and lifestyles. Most Christians can uncomfortably recall St. Paul's words in Romans 1.18-28, in which he writes about how human beings turn from the living God to worship idols and become infected through-and-through with sin. He catalogues a number of sins that reveal that deep corruption, not least of all 'dishonorable passions': "For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error." (vs. 26-27) The homosexual lifestyle bars one from the kingdom of God, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.9-10. Yet the true 'showcase' of human depravity isn't the fact that people embrace such perversions of the natural, God-ordained order for humankind; no, the greatest sin of all is that 'though [human beings] know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things [not just homosexual activities but a whole catalog of sins] deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." (v. 32, emphasis mine) According to Paul, the evidence of human depravity is seen in a litany of rebellious and wicked actions; but the 'icing on the cake' is that depraved humanity approves of such actions. The point is this: to affirm any perversion of God's natural order is just as perverse of committing the acts themselves. When Black Lives Matter affirms the LGBTQ+ agenda and all it stands for, they are approving of those things that God has condemned. And when Christians approve of such things, they are, in effect, showing their hand: their love isn't for God but for the world. Because Black Lives Matter approves of that which God condemns, Christians shouldn't support them.
But, alas, let us move on.
We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.
Should black women be affirmed? Absolutely. Should sexism and misogyny be opposed? Again, absolutely. But Black Lives Matter is conflating sexism and misogyny with patriarchy. The reality is that God has instituted patriarchy. It's on nearly every page of scripture. It saturates the biblical narrative. Progressives argue that the biblical writers wrote patriarchy into the Bible because they came from a patriarchal society; if that's the case, then the Bible is nothing more than a dusty book from a bygone past. If, however, the Bible really is the Word of God - as Christians believe - then patriarchy was written by God, and the earliest civilizations were patriarchal because of this innate patriarchy built into the system. Patriarchal hierarchy is built into the created order, and to oppose it is to oppose the way God has ordered the world. It's worth noting that after the Fall in Genesis 3, we see the first glimpses of patriarchy abused: men would become tyrants over their wives (which is a perversion of biblical patriarchy) and women would try to overrun their husbands (which is a perversion of biblical patriarchy). The sad reality is that for so long, power-hungry men have been tyrants towards women in the name of patriarchy (this is true misogyny), but that isn't the biblical model. The solution isn't to eject patriarchy but to recapture biblical, God-ordained patriarchy under when both men and women flourish. Black Lives Matter seeks to overturn God's created order, and because of this, they shouldn't be supported by Christians.
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
Black Lives Matter seeks to 'disrupt' the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.' This is progressive language for seeking to overturn father-rule in the household. God's preferred design for the family is that a husband and wife remain together and have godly children whom they raise up in the Lord. Our culture hates this, which is why divorce runs rampant, why husbands and wives tend towards not having children, why abortion mills are so popular, and why men are so easily swayed to abandon their families. The uncomfortable reality is that the black community is experiencing an epidemic of fatherlessness, and such fatherlessness is linked to many of the problems in the black community. The answer, however, isn't creating 'villages' to raise children but to getting men to act like men and stay with their wives and raise their children. Black Lives Matter places the failure on God's prescription for the nuclear family and seeks to both justify its current malaise and to promote it as the 'first step' towards a better future. It's interesting that Black Lives Matter writes that they're seeking to do this 'to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable'; note that they excluded 'fathers' from that sentence. To mention 'fathers' would be to give a 'head-nod' in the direction of patriarchy, and God forbid they do that.
Much more could be said regarding gender and gender roles, the value and reality of patriarchy, and God's designs for the nuclear family. But let's not belabor the point, which is to show that Black Lives Matter - while arguing, correctly, that black lives regardless of sexual orientation, gender, age, etc. matter - opposes many of the things which God has ordained. Black Lives Matter praises things that God condemns, and they advocate a societal revolution that seeks to upend God's law. Of course, many Christians would be shocked at what I've written, and they might harumph and say, "Well, we know better now. God's Word doesn't really say what you think it says. We have lots of modern scholars who argue against what you're saying. If you really read scripture, you'll see that God is a God of love and that the best thing we as Christians can do is support people the way God made them." I've heard this trope again and again, and it falls flat under serious scrutiny. Besides, Jesus claimed that his Spirit would guide his people into all truth, and that the world would hate us for it. So why do so many Christians think the church got sexuality and gender roles wrong for nearly 2000 years and had to be guided into the truth not by the Spirit, not by the Word, but by the world? More could be said on this, and more will be said in the future, but let's suffice to say that the Bible does speak on these subjects, it is clear, and if Christians are to love and obey God, they need to take Him at His Word.
Many Christians have bent over backwards to pander to Black Lives Matter. They've marched in the streets with placards, they've gotten down on one knee to apologize for things they didn't do, they've bought T-shirts and 'blacked out' their Facebook pages. Black Lives Matter has become the poster child for opposition to racism, and to oppose Black Lives Matter - even to question it - has been tantamount to admitting your own racism. Can a Christian oppose Black Lives Matter and simultaneously oppose racism in all its forms? Absolutely. But the movement has made its motto so pervasive that to oppose the movement is made out to be denying that black lives matter, and thus you become - at least in some peoples' eyes - a racist (or at least a racist collaborator).
Let's just get this out of the way: all Christians, if they live by the Word of God, affirm that black lives matter. Galatians 3.26-28 says, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." While some argue that this implies that gender distinctions, class distinctions, and ethnic distinctions are eradicated under Jesus, that's not what Paul is saying at all. Distinctions do exist. Of course there were Jews and Greeks; of course there were slaves and free men; of course there were males and females. Paul's point is that these distinctions don't matter. No, they're not done away with; but they don't carry the same power a godless culture wants to give them. In Christ, everyone is on equal footing with God. All are equally worthy and valuable. All have equal access to God the Father. All are loved the same by God. These distinctions are evident in God's throne room, as seen in Revelation 7.9: in the throne room of God, there are white people and black people and all shades between. God has a purpose for every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. These distinctions aren't eradicated even in heaven. If being white or black somehow made one inferior, then this passage doesn't make sense.
(As an aside, this is also why it's wrong to believe or preach inherent evil or inferiority in being white; if you've been racist, then you need to apologize, make restitution, and repent; but if you haven't, then don't. Apologizing for things you haven't done is nothing more than virtue signalling and pandering, a way to tell people you're 'woke.' I am white, and God made me white. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that. If I have more blessings or privileges, then my response is to thank God for that - not all are blessed the same; God isn't a Marxist - and to seek how to use that blessing and privilege to glorify God. End sidebar.)
So of course Christians agree that black lives matter. It's for that reason that Christians need to oppose racist-driven injustices done to people of any race. Racism in any form - whether institutional (part of the fabric of government institutions), societal (embedded in the social fabric and psyche and manifested in behaviors), and personal (on an individual basis) - is an affront to God and a crime against human beings made in His image.
(Okay, another sidebar. Guess what? Racism isn't mentioned anywhere in scripture. It's a modern prejudice. Does this mean that it's made-up and of no consequence? Nope, not at all. Racism is a new manifestation of an old sin, that of showing partiality. Racism's underlying sin, whether institutional or societal or personal, is partiality. Showing partiality - in essence treating one person better than another, or one person worse than another, for any reason whatsoever - is sinful. Racism is showing partiality based on skin color; classism is showing partiality based upon one's social standing; favoring people from higher income neighborhood over lower income neighborhoods is partiality; favoring people because of where they come from, or who their parents were, is partiality - and the list goes on and on. This is where the idea of 'reverse racism' falls apart. There's no such thing as 'reverse racism'; it's simply just another form of racism. Condemning whites for being white, and holding them accountable for sins not their own, is no more or less racist than condemning blacks for being black, and holding them accountable for sins not their own. 'Woke' racism against 'the privileged whites' is still racism. End sidebar.)
As for police brutality, which Black Lives Matter vehemently opposes, it's quite evident that reform is needed in the United States (and, no, 'defunding the police' isn't abolishing police; can we get over that already?). Christians - who are God's imagers and tasked with extending His rule and fatherhood through the world - need to pursue justice, even it makes us uncomfortable - and for many of us, it is uncomfortable. This is because Christians have a tendency, in our volatile culture, to dig in their heels with their political brethren. As the left has swung far to the left, the right has entrenched themselves like Vicksburg under siege. This entrenching has happened along party lines, so that we (and I speak for moderate Republicans, such as myself) have confused the gospel with Republicanism (and many Democratic Christians have confused the gospel with the Democratic agenda). We Republicans like to share memes disparaging the Democrats without checking them (ironically playing into Russian hands), and we oppose anything regardless of merit that comes from the mouth of a Democrat. This trend is absolutely nauseating. The Black Lives Matter movement, and the attendant protests, have been rejected out-of-hand without considering any of the grievances. Christians, regardless of their political party, need to look at the issues rationally, with wisdom and not as reactionaries, and respond from Christian convictions backed by scripture rather than parroting the talking heads of our favorite partisan news station. This goes for Christians of Republican and Democratic stripes. Our core identity isn't a political party but who we are in Christ and to whom we belong.
And this brings us full-circle to why Christians shouldn't support Black Lives Matter, even when we support combating racial injustices in all its forms. At the end of the day, Black Lives Matter is an anti-Christian organization, and to throw your weight behind them is to align yourself with them. That's simply how these things work. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. Scripture is very clear in its opposition to what Black Lives Matter stands for. There may come a day - and many fear it is rapidly approaching, thanks to the appeasement towards godless culture that has happened in the church - when one's stance towards the ideals of Black Lives Matter - towards 'progressive' ideals - will mark them in society. Those who oppose the tenets of progressivism, particularly as outlined and praised in the Black Lives Matter Manifesto quoted from above, may soon be labeled haters and bigots who are a stain on society. We can't be made that this is happening, because we've paved the way. We've reinterpreted scripture in light of culture, even praising and approving those things God condemns, and we've appeased culture by using soft words and dodgy theology, or staying silent when put in a corner. Of course, in this environment and with this modus operandi, the church could easily be steamrolled.
Our vulnerability to such an outcome is the natural outflow of how the church as taken 'seeker sensitivity' to an ungodly level (if being 'seeker sensitive' isn't a travesty in the first place). We've watered down literally everything in order to pander to others. We've aligned ourselves with culture to be hip, and instead of the church changing culture, the culture has changed the church. We've bent over backwards when it comes to God's designs for men and women, for heterosexuality, for patriarchy, for the value of life, and then we have the nerve to act surprised when no one takes us seriously! The reason so many Christian leaders are key-towing to Black Lives Matter is because they've replaced the gospel of Jesus Christ with the gospel of social justice. The church has been filled with so many Neville Chamberlains that we're being overrun and acting surprised about it.
This is why, now more than ever, Christians need to preach the gospel, especially where it is offensive. If the church is to change culture, then it needs to be willing to do the hard work of fighting against the sins that culture praises. We need to speak out against the delusion that gender is fluid and that gender roles are outdated opinions; we need to testify that homosexual and effeminate lifestyles make God want to vomit (that's what an abomination literally means); we need to embrace the patriarchy around which God has ordered creation and family life; and we need to reaffirm the beauty and purpose of the nuclear family, of the godly responsibility of being fruitful and multiplying by having children and raising them in the Lord rather than letting our government conform them to the popular norms, mores, and values of the current evil age. We need to affirm the role of fathers and husbands (which progressives loathe). These are the "hot points" of our culture, where the ways of God and the ways of the world and its philosophies violently intersect, and we need to be "violent" rather than meek in opposing them. We've tried being nice and soft-spoken, and this is where it's gotten us. We need the courage and determination of Moses:
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. [Hebrew 11.24-26]
Are we willing to be loathed by our worldly culture? Are we willing to be mistreated, to be slandered, to be hated by those who stand against their Creator? Are we willing to be disgraced for the sake of the gospel even if it costs us friendships and family? Are we willing to take a stand for the gospel even if it costs us our hopes, dreams, and ambitions? There used to be a time when a somewhat comfortable life and alignment with Christ were possible at the same time, but if the Overton window continues to shift, that time may be coming to an end. Christians will need to decide where they stand: with Christ or with the world? There may no longer be room for half-measures.
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