Black Lives Matters vs All Lives Matters

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Hello, I am new so bare with me. This comes from Social media below. Is this what the Catholic Church teaches? I don’t care what color your skin is because we are ALL God’s children, but I do realize there is a lot of evil in the world.

From Social Media: If you are a Christian, and can’t hear Black Lives Matter without feeling the need to respond with a criticism that “All Lives Matter”, then crack open your Bible and hit up Luke 15.
Don’t have it handy? Let me summarize.
There are 100 sheep, but one goes missing. Jesus leaves the 99 and goes after the one. The 99: “But…what about us? Don’t we matter?” Of course, the 99 still matter, but they’re not the ones in danger. The one is. I’ll say it again, Black lives matter.
 
I personally say black lives matter. I think in some instances, people say “All lives matter” without realizing that it is undermining black people. Of course all lives matter, but right now, some lives are not being treated like they matter. So saying “all lives matter” can be said with perfectly good intent, but it is a phrase used in opposition to black lives matter.

I saw a few good examples explaining this. One example is: someone’s house in on fire. So people try to help put it out. Their neighbor says, “what about my house? Doesn’t my house matter?” Even though their house isn’t on fire!
 
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MeganCecilia said:
Black lives matter! I think in some instances, people say “All lives matter” without realizing that it is undermining black people.
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It was in some ways an unfortunate choice of words. Black lives matter, too, is the meaning but as a poster pointed out it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.
 
Yes. Exactly. When people say “black lives matter” they definitely mean “black lives matter too.” Thanks for adding that.
 
Black lives also matter would have been a better name but BLAM would be a silly acronym.
 
SusieQ57 said:
Hello, I am new so bare with me. This comes from Social media below. Is this what the Catholic Church teaches? I don’t care what color your skin is because we are ALL God’s children, but I do realize there is a lot of evil in the world.

From Social Media: If you are a Christian, and can’t hear Black Lives Matter without feeling the need to respond with a criticism that “All Lives Matter”, then crack open your Bible and hit up Luke 15.
Don’t have it handy? Let me summarize.
There are 100 sheep, but one goes missing. Jesus leaves the 99 and goes after the one. The 99: “But…what about us? Don’t we matter?” Of course, the 99 still matter, but they’re not the ones in danger. The one is. I’ll say it again, Black lives matter.
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It’s pointing out that saying “Black lives matter” does not imply that other lives don’t. It’s saying that black lives are treated with particular disregard in our society and we should work on that.

To illustrate the point, imagine you heard of a group raising money for breast cancer. You wouldn’t go “how dare you, lung cancer also matters!”
 
Thanks,for explaining that to me, I totally understand now for the first time, but I only wish all people would have, that strong of feelings for our unborn innocent babies that die everyday.
 
I personally think the slogan would have been more clear if they had made it “Black Lives Matter Too”, but I wasn’t in charge of creating it.

The slogan is coming from a position of “You treat black lives like they don’t matter, but they do.”
Whereas some who disagree with the slogan interpret it as meaning, “Black lives matter more than other people’s lives.”

In addition, there are a lot of people who get very angry if the slogan is changed to refer to anything else, such as “Blue Lives Matter” for police or, in connection with an animal rescue initiative pointing out that black cats are often not adopted in USA and are more frequently euthanized, “Black Cats’ Lives Matter”. I have seen people have a meltdown over both of those in the past week.

The Church’s teaching is really that “All Lives Matter” (which would include all races, rich and poor alike, the elderly, children, babies in utero, prisoners, the terminally ill, the disabled etc) and I have occasionally heard that straight from a pulpit over the last few years. But that usually causes someone to respond with, “If one house on the block was on fire, would you say “All Houses Matter” or would you rush the fire department to help the one that was burning?”

In order to appreciate the slogan “Black Lives Matter”, you have to understand the viewpoint that many black people have somehow gotten a message over time that their lives don’t matter and they are reacting against that.
 
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I’m not even 100% for the full Black Lives Matters agenda, as posted on their website. There are so many groups and agendas trying to co-opt the real issue and make this a leftist free for all. That said, as a black woman this is what I understand and many non-black people do not. When you say All Lives Matter or even imply it should be Black Lives Matter Too you are basically making the statement relevant to yourself in a tone deaf way. Black people often live most of their experience as relative to the fairer in society within a caste system in which they are the lowest. So to try to universalize (All) or make black people an in addition to (Too) concern, is really cringe.
 
catholiclala said:
When you say All Lives Matter or even imply it should be Black Lives Matter Too you are basically making the statement relevant to yourself in a tone deaf way.
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That’s your right to believe that. I disagree. I’ve seen people confused by the slogan myself and think ‘too’ would have been a welcome addition. Or BLAM.
 
If you are confused maybe try to learn and understand instead of rebranding it for your comfort level.
 
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catholiclala said:
If you are confused maybe try to learn and understand instead of branding it for your comfort level.
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I didn’t say I was confused. I said I’ve seen people confused by it. If you don’t want to encounter people and have them understand your message by my guest, just don’t get mad when they retort ‘all lives matter.’
 
StudentMI said:
I didn’t say I was confused. I said I’ve seen people confused by it. If you don’t want to encounter people and have them understand your message by my guest, just don’t get mad when they retort ‘all lives matter.’
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Ok, well whoever is confused may want to take the time to understand before rebranding it. I feel like when an explanation is offered on why these re-brands aren’t appropriate people get defensive because it’s uncomfortable instead of taking the time to remove their confusion from the equation and trying to really listen instead.

It’s really not that complicated a message to get.
 
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catholiclala said:
Ok, well whoever is confused may want to take the time to understand before rebranding it. I feel like when an explanation is offered on why these re-brands aren’t appropriate people get defensive because it’s uncomfortable instead of taking the time to remove their confusion from the equation and trying to really listen instead.
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If you have to explain what’s supposed to be a pithy message, odds are you need to rebrand it.
 
I’ll leave it at this and not go further. Thanks for your opinion.
 
It amazes me how all lives matter only when one set of lives try to find justice and respect for themselves.

As long as those who aren’t being respected stay quiet everything is okay in the world… but try to get a little respect then everyone wants to scream how they too are being disrespected.

go figure.
 
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I’m sorry, I respectfully think Catholics should take issue with pushing the phrase “black lives matter.”

Please allow me to explain. I am aware this will be unpopular.

First, it is axiomatic that many people really don’t like the response “all lives matter.” That is, in fact, the actual thrust of this thread. The purpose of this thread seems to be, “Don’t say ‘all lives matter.’ Say ‘black lives matter!’”

The problem is that “black lives matter” is not just a saying. It is an organization. Its own website calls itself a “global organization.” That organization has a whole series of core beliefs that are detailed on that website. What do those core beliefs include?

–“We foster a queer-affirming network…”

–“We disrupt…the nuclear family structure…”

Just as to those 2 items: Are those consistent with Catholic teachings? No, they are not.

The organization has also supported all sort of other things: Abortion rights; illegal immigration (their site boasts that they want to affirm the “humanity of undocumented folks”) and, historically, reparations for slavery:


In a newspaper today, I saw the headline “Black Lives Matter group holds rally to defund police.”

When there is a push to make people say, “black lives matter,” there is an implied push to make people support the organization and its planks, even if not deliberate (and I think it often is deliberate) - but that organization’s planks, and actions, are either 1) things faithful Catholics are supposed to oppose (dismantling the family; support for abortion) or 2) things many, many faithful Catholics permissibly oppose, even if not required to (i.e. illegal immigration; reparations for slavery; defunding police).

So, with due respect, I do not support use of the phrase “black lives matter.”
 
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