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.