A New Normal
I admit I was disappointed when on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. However, I held out hope that maybe this first African-American chief executive of the United States would use his bully pulpit to help heal the racial divide in our nation.
In his victory speech, President Obama remarks that “change has come to America.” Little did many of us know what kind of change was to come. Instead of words of hope during the eight years of Obama we were told “that the greatness of America was not justified, that it was indefensible, that all of the great economic prosperity the American people have enjoyed was not really legitimate because it was so ill-gotten in so many ways.”
For the Obama administration this was “the new normal.” This was a declaration that “Americans’ expectations need to be lowered, that the central ingredient of the American dream, that children will do better than their parents, is over.”
Lowering expectations meant the Democrat Party needed to devalue the white working class and instead try to put together what they saw as a massive majority built on what they deemed to be groups of minorities. In other words, for this attempt to be successful, it was to their benefit to combine together all the minorities they could. This “minority majority” needed to be comprised of anyone who they felt were the victims of America’s unjust founding. These so called victims “would become the constituency of the Democrat Party.” Somehow America’s “unjust founding” was also blamed for all groups of alleged victims of American society. These included “illegal immigrants, African-Americans, Hispanics, women, lesbians, gays, sexual, bisexual, transgender, and anyone else that fit into this confusing constituency.
The left strives to have all these “victims” newly designated and integrated as “people of color.” People of color are no longer just Blacks. They have now come to include all people with darker skin regardless of their ethnic background. I cannot make sense of the phrase, “no lives matter until Black lives matter.” Does that mean that presently no one’s life matters. What do we do then with the verse in the Book of Colossians that reminds us that, “Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11 NASB) To me “in all” means everyone – equally. This tells me that my life, your life, indeed everyone’s life matters – at all times. “So if you’ve been getting all caught up in the movements of whose life matters, then you’re part of the problem. You’re actually fueling the division. You see, we all matter.”
The worth of each life is not contingent on any one person or race. Your nationality, race, education, social position are not to be exalted above mine. Nor is mine to be exalted above you. Believing that no lives matter until black lives matter implies that one is placing God as secondary to His very own creation. In Revelation 7:9, John relates, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;” (NASB). All lives, all races, all groups were represented. There was no mention of being separated by ethnic groups. Why? Because all lives matter to God.
Would Jesus say black lives matter? Of course He would. But He would never proclaim that truth by saying that no lives matter until black lives matter. All lives matter in the eyes of God. It is not up for debate. He loves all of us – unconditionally. This phrase does not reflect that truth.