I have been to roughly 30 churches over a lifetime and maybe 20 of those were visited after I became a bible believer.

I am sharing my observation of the BLM movement in relation to the Churches I’ve visited and what I’ve seen over a lifetime. Keep in mind, this is just my personal observation.

• Segregation Is The Status Quo:
  • It’s clear from the churches I have visited that there is a practice of segregation happening. Almost all the churches I’ve visited were 95 to 100 percent of one race. There is a concerted effort (fear for some, agenda for others) to keep communities divided, which in turn, has increased distrust between the races.
    • Matthew 12:25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

• Drain Of Revenue And Tax Oppression:
  • Poor areas of cities, that I have visited directly, with a concentrated population of black people are inundated with an over abundance of churches on the main streets. These churches take the place of businesses which would have provided jobs and tax revenue for those areas. Instead they have a tax deficit tenant that also drains additional revenue from the community. The main streets are needed for business revenue in a consumer based economy and tax supported system. There is a concerted effort to keep those communities poor and it’s plain as day from where I stand.
    • Proverbs 14:31 “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”

• Hate Against Race:
  • I have directly seen and heard hateful things in churches. You don’t have to use a strong derogatory term to be part of the problem, even small inaccurate or uneducated comments about people of color lead to discrimination and hate. There is a concerted effort to keep congregations free from blame on anything hateful said in church.
    • 1 John 2:11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

• Abandoned Children:
  • I have watched churches servicing areas with a large concentration of poor black children (many fatherless due to death or long term incarceration over minor charges) pressure them into giving what little money they have to support opulence for church leaders or foreign missions. Poor communities here in the United States struggle to survive, find decent education, and keep safe. It’s counter intuitive to take from the poor and give to the rich. There is a concerted effort to keep children impoverished in certain communities that are mostly of color. With the amount of money raised by churches it’s almost impossible to reconcile lip service with reality.
    • James 1:27 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
    • Deuteronomy 15:7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.”

• An Absence Of Truth On Church History And Race:
  • Most churches I have visited either do not know their history in relation to people of color or are in denial. The history is ugly and not talking about it or pretending it’s something that it wasn’t has exacerbated the situation. The absence of truth is not love.
    • Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

• Silence In The Face Of Oppression:
  • The churches I have visited were aware of the discrimination against fellow members of color when it comes to equal pay for equal work, distribution of public education for a better life, and police policies that abuse members based on skin color, yet I have not seen an effort to stand up for them. Silence is what I have seen and, in some cases, even excuses for why people of color are oppressed. There is a concerted effort to ignore the reality we live in while at the same time blaming the victims who need our help the most.
    • Philippians 2:3-4 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
• False Images:
  • Most churches I have attended try to display the Lord in their own image. The reason for this is Pride, Idolatry, and Superiority. No one knows what Jesus looks like. Constantly trying to create an image of Jesus and then force it on poor communities of color is immoral. Wouldn’t it be something if the images put on display were from a biblical description of Jesus?
    • Revelation 1:14-15 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
    • Isaiah 53:2 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

From my personal observation churches have been called out:

James 2:4
4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

How many decades do the oppressed have to ask for help before the righteous step up and do something?

Just a thought