How Church Teaching Can Help Explain Why 'Black Lives Matter'

[vz71]

Would those that believe they can parse out the word from the political movement think they could freely where a MAGA hat at one of the riots?

Don’t think so. But the same logic applies.
They are just words, not a political movement. So what’s the big deal.

 

[Maximian]

Black lives don’t matter because they are black. They matter because they are lives.

 

[libbeylu]

In my heart I believe that ALM=all lives matter…I believe in God and He Loves us All…all humans and creatures of the Earth…Amen!

 

[Nepperhan]

I just don’t understand why all the gyrations to get people to say “black lives matter.”

Why is the phrase so difficult to utter? Or the concept so difficult to accept or promote?

It reminds me of “We Shall Overcome” – conservatives had a field day with that one, too. Then when “Black Power” came along, they had a conniption fit!

 

[KMC]

posts #30 and #32 should answer your questions

 

[Lea101]

What is interesting is that many of the people that insist on repeating “black lives matter,” really don’t agree with “all black lives matter,” because they are quite pro-abortion rights.

Do you have any proof that this is the reason why? The word all seems redundant. Otherwise they would have said ‘born black lives matter’ or something similar. I highly doubt you will get into trouble if you say all black lives matter, unless you use that phrase to co-opt that movement and make it about abortion, as their focus is particularly on the lack of accountability for police brutality.

Pro choices rarely admit that fetuses are ‘lives’ anyway.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

Just because someone refuses to admit that they are lives I the womb is irrelevant. For as much as the left likes to paint the right as anti-science, they go off the rails on one of the most basic concepts - the existence of life.

So you somehow excuse the fact many don’t believe a black life in the womb is a life, but have issues when others disavow what the BLM movement believes?

People who refuses to understand why the phrase is now poisoned simply don’t care, and want everyone to knuckle under and bow their heads. Even when achieved, have you then actually convinced anyone of the worthiness of the message?

 

[Nepperhan]

For as much as the left likes to paint the right as anti-science, they go off the rails on one of the most basic concepts - the existence of life.

So you somehow excuse the fact many don’t believe a black life in the womb is a life, but have issues when others disavow what the BLM movement believes?

1. I’m not sure people disagree as to life existing in the womb. That sounds like your judgment. The disagreement is about ending that life. I’m pro-life, by the way.
2. You set up a false dichotomy between those who disagree with you as to abortion and ‘black lives matter’ as a statement and a belief.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

I was responding to the statement Lea made, not creating one of my own. You’ll have to ask her what “they” believe. My point is anyone who does believe that is wrong, and people who refuse to accept immutable facts are not to be simply excused for their misdeeds.

There is no false dichotomy. My objection to the BLM motto is the goals of the group that shares its name. The abortion concept was raised by others, and addressed by Lea, so you should take your objections there.

 

[OddBird]

But the words, have been coopted and poisoned by a group with some fundamentally wrong goals.

Honestly, I can’t be judge of that.

I’m not American, and to me “Black lives matter” mean nothing else than the plain meaning of the words. I am well aware that the issue is much more complex than that on your side of the pond.

As a European who hasn’t lived through months of civil unrest as you have, whose country never had the segregation history the US have, and who has seen the slogan taken up by teenagers simply as a protest against racism and ongoing discriminations based on skin color, this phrase is completely free for me of the negative associations is has for you.

I have no problem, as far as I’m concerned, with using it in order to promote Catholic values. I understand it is different for you. But “Black lives matter” hasn’t been poisoned for the whole world.

 

[blackforest]

But the words, have been coopted and poisoned by a group with some fundamentally wrong goals.

But I and other Catholics are co-opting them with some wonderful goals . . . holy, even.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

And when you succeed, let me know. Let’s also work on getting the stigma out of Nazi, KKK, and liverwurst too, while are at it.

It isn’t that simple. But again, there should be no pressure to say it any more than there is pressure to not say it. If it works for you and Oddbird, great. I don’t see why anyone else would care if lots of people choose not to say it.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

Honestly, I can’t be judge of that.

Sure you can, unless you refuse to.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.

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.

We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.

We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.

We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.

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.

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).

 

[blackforest]

Let’s also work on getting the stigma out of Nazi, KKK, and liverwurst too, while are at it.

The stigma on BLM is one that you and too much of the Right insist on super-imposing.

Sure you can, unless you refuse to.

I believe we already discussed the difference between an organization and movement . . . in multiple threads, in fact. This thread is about theology, not politics.

 

[OddBird]

Sure you can, unless you refuse to.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

I’m not sure why you absolutely want me to understand that phrase inside the specific ideological framework it was ascribed by an organisation which doesn’t even exist where I live.

Actually, I’m not sure why you think this ideological framework should be the one and only way of understanding the sentence “Black lives matter”.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

I’m not sure why you absolutely want me to understand that phrase inside the specific ideological framework it was ascribed by an organisation which doesn’t even exist where I live.

Great, chant it all you want in your country.

Actually, I’m not sure why you think this ideological framework should be the one and only way of understanding the sentence “Black lives matter”.

A) Scandal exists.

B) Folks choose not to utter something that is synonymous with something that is antithetical in some of stated goals to catholic teachings. Not hard to grasp. I find chanting “Black Lives Matter, but I mean that generally, not the org itself which is a Marxist front for bad societal change” to be too cumbersome.

I still don’t see why ANYONE would care whether or not Catholics utter the phrase. We agree with many of the same principles. That should be enough. the heavy-handed insistence on using a certain phrase makes little sense, is frankly no one’s business, and gets a bit authoritarian. Why is it any business of yours whether other Catholics (or non-Catholics) feel comfortable with using the phrase?

I guess when I basically said “you chant what you want, and I’ll chant what I want” that wasn’t good enough.

 

[blackforest]

Folks choose not to utter something that is synonymous with something that is antithetical in some of stated goals to catholic teachings. Not hard to grasp. I find chanting “ Black Lives Matter, but I mean that generally, not the org itself which is a Marxist front for bad societal change ” to be too cumbersome.

Again, the politicization of this phrase comes only on your own insistence.

I still don’t see why ANYONE would care whether or not Catholics utter the phrase.

Then why do so many of my fellow/sister Catholics keep hen-pecking me for uttering it? I mean, you just told me that it’s:

antithetical in some of stated goals to catholic teachings.

So it’s not like you don’t care that I say it. Or that you just stated likewise of Church hierarchy.

Why is it any business of yours whether other Catholics (or non-Catholics) feel comfortable with using the phrase?

Nobody said you have to. Did you read the article?

 

[Neithan]

Would you wave a rainbow flag to show the theological meaning that God loves all humanity, despite our many sins? The rainbow as a symbol was biblical before it was political, but it’s obvious which message it conveys now. “Black lives matter” is now the political slogan of an overtly Marxist movement, so the same difficulty applies.

 

[OddBird]

Folks choose not to utter something that is synonymous with something that is antithetical in some of stated goals to catholic teachings.

I still don’t see why ANYONE would care whether or not Catholics utter the phrase. We agree with many of the same principles.

I’m a bit confused. Do you think Catholics should refrain from using the slogan because it’s synonymous with goals not compatible with the Catholic faith, or do you think it doesn’t matter ?

Why is it any business of yours whether other Catholics (or non-Catholics) feel comfortable with using the phrase?

It’s not any particular business of mine, but I thought you were concerned that Catholics (or other Christians) were comfortable using it, since you said :

the words, have been coopted and poisoned by a group with some fundamentally wrong goals.

So I was just explaining why I’m comfortable with them – namely, that these words do not mean the same thing to me as they do to you, due to cultural and contextual differences.

I think one of the inevitable consequences of authorship is that the things that were created by a particular individual tend to take a life of their own, one their author would never have foreseen. So, why not let the slogan “Black Lives Matter” take a new, Christian sense, instead of letting an apparently controversial organisation occupy the field on their own ?

After all, reinvesting non-Christian words and concepts and giving them a wholly new meaning, which transcends the previous one, is something our theological tradition does particularly well.

But of course, that’s just my two cents.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

I’m a bit confused. Do you think Catholics should refrain from using the slogan because it’s synonymous with goals not compatible with the Catholic faith, or do you think it doesn’t matter ?

I personally have no interest in using the slogan, just like I have no interest in joining a knitting group called the KKK.

I haven’t see too many topics started in an effort to chide Catholics for not shouting the phrase. I have seen a number questioning why folks pivot to “All Lives Matter”, or decrying the Vice President for refusing to say it. That’s were I get lost. If you support a consistent Catholic ethos, I don’t see why there is this seeming insistence that people utter the phrase. Surely there are numerous other ways to promote Catholic social views…

In short, I believe Catholic who embrace the terms are being naïve and short-sighted. I choose not to. I also haven’t started any topics on the matter since I have more important things in my life to concern myself with. I also have little interest in defending myself and others from those who DO choose to embrace the phrase. The questioning tends to come from one direction only.