Month: December 2014

The following is a virtual conversation with Charles E. Blake, Bishop of the Church of God in Christ.  Bishop Blake sent out a call to all Christians to join his denomination in observing Black Lives Matters Sunday.  He also spoke to heads of denominations, including George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, who agreed to honor BLMS.  Had we actually conversed about BLMS, the following is how it might have gone.  I searched news articles and listened to his speech on BLMS to his congregation.  This virtual conversation includes his statements and the statements of supporters.

Blake: “Mr. Fisher, I respectfully request that your church join with the Church of God in Christ as we sponsor a day of prayer throughout our 12,000 congregations around the world, in honor of Eric Garner and Michael Brown that were killed by police.”

Me: “Mr. Blake, I find that an amazing and disturbing request. You really want me to join your church in honoring two criminals that were killed in the process of resisting arrest? Why these two men? Couldn’t you find a couple of incidents where truly innocent black men were gunned down by rogue cops?  Also, Black Lives Matter Movement is an organization Christians ought not to be associated with.”

(The conversation may have ended at this point? But for the sake of extrapolation, we will go on.)

Blake: “Well, you see, the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the Grand Jury verdicts takes us back years in the struggle for equal justice. As a result, many black people feel that their lives are not highly valued by many in white America. We need to speak with one voice that police forces are to abide by the laws they are called to enforce. They should not bring fear to our citizens, but rather confidence.”

Me: “White America? Really? I am struggling to understand that term in this multi-colored nation with a black President, Attorney General, and Supreme Court Justice.  There are more African Americans employed by the Government than all other races combined.

“Additionally, I do not believe you suddenly feel that your life does not matter as the result of a criminal’s death.  White criminals have been killed by black police officers. I seldom hear about those cases since they do not make it into the news. However, it never crossed my mind that my life does not matter as a result of a white criminal’s death. No matter what happens in the world, I know that my life matters because Christ Jesus paid the ultimate price for me. He is the only reason anyone’s life is ‘highly valued.’  I will not ignore that fact because of what occurs in the world or else I would be unstable in my Christian walk.

“Further, please explain how it will make you feel better to join forces with the world system and protest on Sunday.  That’s the day when we should be feeding God’s people the milk and meat of the Word. If that is all it takes, then your feelings of worthlessness must not be very deep. May I suggest that prayer is a better balm than protesting in God’s house?”

Blake: “We must find a way, through God’s help, to continue the work of emphatically telling everyone that will listen that black lives matter! We need to unite and remind the nation how important the lives of African Americans are. We also must insist that the federal, state, and local governments install some measure to police the police.  Are you refusing to join us in this show of unity?”

Me: “If it were about racial unity, there would be no question about joining you. It is not about racial unity.  It is about what you are really asking us to do. You are asking us to join the world spirit.  You are not asking us to affirm our love and support for you; that we will do and as often as occasion presents.  And our love extends to the Michael Brown and Eric Garner families. But we also love the people whose livelihoods were destroyed in Ferguson, Missouri. We love law enforcement personnel who risk their lives daily to protect citizens and enforce the law. We love the other races that are adversely affected by the lawless rioting and looting as the result of race-baiting.

“We cannot ignore them to join you in what appears to be an effort to ignore the rule of law, shame and ostracize police officers many of whom are your Christian brothers and sisters.   We cannot accept the conclusion of race-baiters that have created this present facade of racial injustice. What you are attempting to do on Sunday is wrong. It is supporting the wrath of the world system. It is not grounded in truth. It will cause much harm, division, mistrust, and bring disgrace upon Christianity. I counsel you to abandon your plan.”

Blake: So you are choosing to agree with the murderers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. You agree with the Grand Jury that black lives do not matter. Black men are being tried on the sidewalk, gunned down simply because of the color of their skin and you are not concerned. You do not want racial reconciliation and healing over the ugly history of slavery and Jim Crow, the spirits of which live on with the mass incarceration of black Americans in this nation. You are unwilling to support healing and unity that God’s word declares all true Christians must believe and practice. We are admonished in God’s word to “mourn with those who mourn.” How dwells the love of God in you? If Spirit-filled Christians cannot find a way to work together to heal these divisions, what hope is there for the rest of the country?”

Me: “But you say one thing and mean another. You say “unity,” but you mean “division.”  You say “justice,” but you mean “special treatment.”  You say “honor”, but you mean “shame” and “intimidation” of law enforcement.  You say “reconciliation” and “healing”, but you mean “kowtow to race-baiters and the grievance industry.”  You say “end racism”, but you mean “support black racism.”  Under those terms there will be no healing in observing BLMS, but only more division and strife.  You cannot generate respect and honor for black people by promoting shame and dishonor for white people.

“Further, just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a racist.  Every negative experience involving a white person is not racism.  You asked your congregation how many had a negative experience with the police, and 99% raised their hands.  A speeding ticket is a negative experience with the police.  Why didn’t you ask them how many had been shot or choked unjustly by the police?  That’s what you claim to be protesting.  And since most black people are killed by other black people, why didn’t you ask how many had a negative experience with another black person?”

“The critical and most pressing need of the black community is to strengthen and support black families.  There are also the issues of black unemployment, gangs, influence of rap, hip-hop and the drug culture, lack of proper education, abortion, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.  These are serious issues that any Christian would join you in solving.  But I will not join you in ignoring truth, rejecting the Rule of Law, and joining the race-baiting spirit of the world.  I might add that when the church fails to influence and change the culture of a generation, it is a bit hypocritical to blame the police and judicial system, or any other entity for the consequences.”

Blake:  “I find your remarks rather offensive.”

Me.  “The truth offends some people.  With all due respect, there is a way to solve that.  One only has to cover the distance of about 2 feet.  That’s approximately how far it is from our knees to the floor.  Prayer removes all the offense of truth.  If you want to pray now, I will join you.

(At this point, the conversation ends. “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”  Amos 3:3)

Now that Black Lives Matter Sunday has passed, what has been accomplished?  The supporters will declare that their show of unity with the Church of God in Christ has produced a healing in the racial divide. However, BLMS was not about unity.  It was (According to the COGIC statement on their website) about honoring criminals Michael Brown and Eric Garner.  As such, it was about dishonoring, shaming, and insulting Law Enforcement personnel across the nation.  It was about demeaning and insinuating that the lives of those who lost their businesses in Ferguson, Missouri do not matter.  It was about sending a message to highly impressionable young black men that Michael Brown and Eric Garner were heroes, and as such are good role models.  Finally, it was about unity with a diabolical entity, the Black Lives Matter Movement.  That unity joins Christianity (the religion) to the “sons of disobedience” who are “by nature children of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Therefore, the fruit of BLMS was to forge a bond between light and darkness that results in shadows that God does not dwell in.  John wrote that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)  James calls God the “Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)  While it may enhance the credibility of the secular element of the bond, it denigrates the religious part.

Fruit of the bond is also contention, division, despair, and deep angst among adherents, ministers, and other leaders of the Christian denominations involved in BLMS.  They are outraged that their leaders compromised to mingle with the world spirit.  There was a loss of confidence and respect for leadership, especially concerning George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God.  Not only did Mr. Wood not bring forth the matter for full discussion by the ministers and adherents that would be affected, but he made his proclamation of BLMS a couple of days before the date, giving them very little time to gather facts or protest his decision.  It says a lot about a leader that would treat such a delicate matter with the guile of a political operative.

We can only conclude that BLMS was a huge failure.  While it may have some appearance of racial unity, it was about division and shame.  Innumerable individuals; that did not wish to be associated with anarchy, worldly wrath, and rejection of the Rule of Law, are now irreparably severed from not only their religious leadership, but from many black people that they would otherwise be in fellowship with.  Thousands of Law Enforcement personnel feel disenfranchised by the church and isolated from the comfort of communion and blessing.

Another damaging result of BLMS is the line of demarcation between Christianity and the world system has been compromised and blurred for the younger generations.  Nothing short of repentance by those involved in this most destructive fiasco can turn that around for the good.  I don’t expect a turn around to occur for a couple of reasons.  First, the leaders who contrived this failure were spiritual weak, diabolical, or incompetent.  None of those characteristics are likely to disappear quickly or easily.  Further, individuals with such characteristics commonly do not come to recognition of their sins, much less repent of them.  Second, it is much easier to cause damage than to correct or heal it.  Ask any professing Christian who has cheated on his or her spouse.  What has occurred is a type of spiritual adultery.  The wound of it goes deep.  While true Christians can forgive Mr. Wood and his accomplices, they cannot heal themselves.  Only God and time can do that.  However, a giant step toward that healing would be for George Wood and the other leaders involved to repent, ask forgiveness, and resign their offices.  I call upon George Wood to be the first to take that step.  If he is the “good and godly” man that his associates claim that he is, he will accept responsibility for the failure of his actions and resign.

Another “good and godly” man 2000 years ago declared that there would be wolves arriving in sheep’s clothing.  He declared that the only way to know them was by their fruit.  In other words, they appear gregarious, kind, honest, good and godly, just as sheep, but their fruit would be diabolical.  If a sheep sows strife and discord among the brethren, is he or she not a wolf?

Finally, every true Christian ought to pray daily for the individuals involved in this very traumatic and destructive situation.  We should pray, not only for the ones who created this crisis, but for the many thousands of pastors, police officers, and church members that were adversely affected.  Let us pray for healing and a godly solution.  We cannot turn back the clock and make the damage go away, but we can pray that God will intervene.  Otherwise, we can hope that the damage will be contained and that true Christians will remain focused on doing God’s will.

George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, is standing in solidarity with the Church of God in Christ, the nation’s largest black, Pentecostal denomination, to honor Black Lives Matter Sunday. Many AoG pastors are very distraught by Wood’s position, and for good reasons. His actions and words are an insult to the many black people that disagree with race-baiters such as Al Sharpton. It is an insult to law enforcement personnel whose lives are already at risk because of false claims of racial injustice. Wood also becomes complicit in supporting Michael brown and Eric Garner, two criminals who lost their lives resisting arrest. Finally, he links the denomination to the Black Lives Matter Movement, which supports race-baiting and is indicative of all that is wrong with race relations in our society. The BLM also supports LGBT, a position that no true Christian can accept. It is another decision in a long list of bad decisions by Wood failed leadership that widens the division in AoG members and brings the denomination closer to Emergent status. What a tragedy!

Black Lives Matter Sunday