Though it took a terrible and public tragedy, I am thankful to see that our nation has gone on high alert concerning the reality that black lives matter.
However, what I am not hearing is why black lives matter.
And the irony of this is that in our pent-up angst and anger over centuries of abuse and racism towards our black citizens, Americans are subjecting many of the very people they are trying to help to wanton violence, destruction, and even death.
The reason this is happening is that our national outcry for justice and equality is not anchored to anything more transcendent than party politics and personal agendas.
The result is we do not have a “why” big enough and transcendent enough to propel us peacefully and constructively towards true justice and equality for all the citizens and residents of our great nation.
Let me give you a “why” that is big enough.
The reason why black lives matter are that black people are made in the image of God.
And thus, when we disrespect, dishonor, abuse, and treat a black person in an unjust and inequitable way, we are, in reality, attacking the God who created them in His image. Thus, racism is a high crime against heaven, an abominable blasphemy and should be avoided at all costs.
To their credit, our founding fathers tried, when they affirmed in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
But then they began to make exceptions.
They decided to unmoor the word “man” from it’s sacred meaning (all people/male and female), and so “all men” began to mean, in practice, “all people of my party, my persuasion, my color, my language, my culture, etc.”
In other words, the “why” kept getting smaller, and it’s been getting smaller ever since.
I can only hope that in this crucial moment in our history we can somehow make the connection again. The only reason that black lives matter is that all human lives matter and the reason all human lives matter is because they are made in the image of God.
I hope we have the stomach to face this transcendent truth. If not, the only recourse will be to continue to resort to the law of the animals, which means: The strongest survive by hook and crook, and the weak—whatever their gender, age, and color—pay the price.
The ONE THING 