Any serious consideration of racism in America needs to recognize several important distinctions.

Black Lives Matter vs black lives matter

The first is to distinguish between Black Lives Matter as an organization and black lives matter as a conviction. BLACK LIVES MATTER^TM is an international advocacy organization focused primarily on the lives of young black men who have been killed by white cops. “Black lives matter” is a conviction that all black lives matter and should be treated with dignity and justice.

The ideologues behind the BLM organization and movement are directly opposed to the first principle, established at creation, that all black lives matter because, as human beings, they are made Imago Dei. They are offended when you say “All lives matter!” This statement is branded racism.

Pushers vs users

A second needed distinction can be pictured by the difference between drug pushers and drug users. Users need our love, compassion and care; pushers need to be brought to justice because of the death, broken lives and families in their wake. Similarly, we need to distinguish between sincere people protesting real racism, abuse on black lives and communities, and those who lead the organization and movement BLM. The former need to be identified with. The latter need to be brought to justice for the chaos, havoc and poverty they are intentionally bringing to the society (including the black community).

Revolution vs Reformation

Third, we need to distinguish between a revolutionary movement and a reformation movement, two ways of dealing with racism. The former is a revolt, a turning against the old order and the foundations, the first principles that established that order. (For instance the founding principles of Europe and the United States, among others, acknowledging the Creator God, the universe as moral and intelligible, man made in the image of God.) A revolution wants to sever the tree from its roots, kill the tree, and destroy the institutions and culture born from those roots. The French and Communist revolutions are examples. Their intentions were to overthrow the foundations of Western Civilization and replace them with counterfeit first principles: denial of the Creator, human life arises from chance, the universe as amoral and purposeless. Human beings are, at best, highly evolved animals and, at worst, machines.

BLM, like its Marxist parents, is a revolutionary movement seeking to destroy the old Judeo-Christian foundations and the “unjust” Western civilization.

Contrast that with a reformation movement. Instead of revolting against first principles, a reformation wants to return to the principles that gave birth to a civilization, to restore the foundations and reform the society based on the old truths. The reformer’s task is to nurture the roots so the tree will flourish again. The Protestant Reformation in Europe was a return to the Bible, to biblical principles and the biblical worldview. This return to the foundations allowed the Reformers to restore the institutions and structure in Europe, to bring educational reform, and to see social, economic and political transformation to the continent. The founding of the United States was a reformation, the formation of a new nation based on sacred first principles.

• Darrow Miller

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