Yes, Black Lives Matter

Be Strong, Be Well — Friday, June 5

I read an article this week from Steve Higginbotham, a preacher in Knoxville, about the current protests and a phrase we’ve been hearing for many years, "Black Lives Matter."

He made a great point. Something I’ve never considered before and I confess, I’ve been guilty. When we hear "Black Lives Matter," we want to stand up and say, but "All Lives Matter."

Steve pointed out, just because someone says, "Black Lives Matter," doesn’t mean they don’t believe "All Lives Matter." It doesn’t mean they are being racist by singling out black lives. They are trying to draw attention to mistreatment and injustices toward black people.

Here’s an important observation. We don’t need to qualify every statement in order to confirm their validity.

Brother Higginbotham gave some illustrations. If someone speaks of "salvation by faith," why are we so quick to say, “Yes, but you need to be baptized.” Both are true. One can be spoken without the other and still be true.

Someone preaches on the "the role of women." Someone else chimes in to remind everyone that women cannot teach or usurp authority over a man. Couldn’t we preach a whole sermon on the role of women and never mention what women cannot do? Of course we could.

I appreciate what Steve wrote. It made me examine myself. I need to accept truths when I hear them. There may be a time and place to add more. But I don’t need to qualify them to make them more truthful. —Chris