I want to respond to some of our readers who have been critical of the things I have said in regard to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement that has risen to fame in the USA following the death of a black man in police custody.

Footage of a white policeman kneeling on his neck was caught on camera and shown on news broadcasts throughout the world. It sparked violence and rioting in many cities in the USA and demonstrations in many cities in other nations, including Britain.

The protests over the death of George Floyd had barely subsided when another black man was shot in the back seven times this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparking another wave of protests in that city in which white vigilantes armed with guns came out onto the street to defend their property from rioters.

Three men were shot, two fatally, during the troubles in Kenosha, which also sparked demonstrations in many other cities. It seems that there is no end to the troubles in the USA - and all at a time when there is deep division between Republicans and Democrats ahead of the November presidential election.

Mountaintop to Valley

Protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Graeme Sloan/SIPA USA/PA ImagesIt was in August 1963 that Martin Luther King delivered his famous ‘I have a Dream’ speech, in which he declared his dream that his children and grandchildren would not have to suffer the inequalities that he and his contemporaries had endured. He hoped that the day would come when the great divide between black and white would be healed and men and women of all colours and races would be treated as equals.

I also remember a speech he made five years later, in April 1968, a few days before his assassination, entitled ‘I have been to the mountaintop’. In it, he described the vision for love and equality that he had on a ‘mountaintop’ spiritual experience with Jesus his Lord. This was much the same experience that Peter and John enjoyed on the mountaintop with Jesus (Matt 17). But they then had to come down into the valley, where Jesus faced the hostility of the crowd, who were giving his disciples a difficult time because they could not deal with a boy suffering from fits. Jesus had to step in and heal the child and deal with the unbelief he encountered.

In his memorable speech, Martin Luther King described how he had to come down from the mountain to the valley below and face all the problems of humanity in the same way as most of us do; only he had the additional problem of being black.

I have lived and worked among people of colour for much of my life. My first book, Black and White in Harmony, was published in September 1958 at the same time as the Notting Hill riots in London, near where I lived and worked. Many of my closest friends today are black. I love and respect them and have grown to understand the indignities, inhumanities, and injustices that they suffer daily.

Of course, I support the cause of racial equality, although that does not mean that I support everything Black Lives Matter stands for.

Learning from Wilberforce

Of course, I support the cause of racial equality, although that does not mean that I support everything Black Lives Matter stands for. I am well aware that the movement was started by two lesbians and has many social values that I do not share. But I remember how William Wilberforce was faced with a similar situation when people whose politics and spiritual values he hated, publicly declared their support for the abolition of slavery.

Wilberforce resolved this problem by regarding them as ‘co-belligerents’ in the battle to achieve the great victory of giving freedom to millions of Africans suffering the unspeakable cruelty of slavery in the British Caribbean colonies. He did not have to agree with all the differing policies of those who supported abolition and he was glad to see their support even if they were atheists.

Of course, he did not agree with all the things they represented, but he was prepared to walk alongside them in order to achieve one of the great objectives of his life.

His second objective was the preaching of the gospel of Jesus – that there is salvation in no other name. This was his passion. He only wrote one book – a copy of which sits proudly upon the shelves beside my desk. It is entitled A Practical View of The Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in this Country Contrasted with Real Christianity. They had very long titles in those days! But this title certainly made clear what he wanted to say in the book!

I like the principle that Wilberforce followed of working alongside people with whom he fundamentally disagreed on some issues. If we only associate with people with whom we agree on everything, we are in grave danger of learning nothing. It is the ‘Homogeneous Unit Principle’¹ that shields us from anything controversial that might offer a different perspective on life or faith. The Homogeneous Unit Principle may be easier, but it is incestuous and leads to death – not to life.

I never regret the time I spent at the London School of Economics, where I was the only non-Marxist in my department. I had to listen to them – but they also had to listen to me! And far from my Christian faith being weakened, it was undoubtedly strengthened as I learnt how to deal with opposing views and how to use the thrust of the gospel to expose their weaknesses.

We need Christians today who are prepared to get out amongst those who have no understanding of the gospel - to walk alongside the atheists and Marxists while declaring the truth that will set them free. This was the missionary emphasis of the early Church that enabled the spread of the gospel around the world, giving us in the West the faith we have today.

I believe we are witnessing the beginning of an immense battle for Western culture and society.

Immense Battle

I believe we are witnessing the beginning of an immense battle for Western culture and society, tearing away the old order based upon white supremacy that has dominated the world for hundreds of years. Unless Christians get creatively involved in this battle, the churches, which are seen as bastions of the establishment instead of the conscience of the nation, will be swept aside and our Judeo-Christian heritage will be lost.

Since May this year more than $5 billion has been pledged to various causes like The Equal Justice Initiative, the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund, and Black Lives Matter.² Major gifts have come from high-tech firms like Google and Microsoft, finance firms like Morgan Stanley and entertainment giants like Netflix and YouTube, as well as from billionaire philanthropists like George Soros. The secular humanist forces of the world are mobilising for the battle of the centuries and they are using race relations as their Trojan Horse.

It is essential that Christians understand the spiritual nature of this battle, which is not just for social change – it is far more fundamental than that! We need to be like William Wilberforce, playing a leading role in seeking justice in the Name of God the Creator, for whom both love and justice are in his very nature.

I believe God himself is taking to the battlefield and we need to be out there in his Name declaring the truth to lost humanity. It is God who declares:

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isa 55:9-11)

The day will come when every knee will bow – not to Black Lives Matter. They will bow to the Name of Jesus!

References

1 The ‘Homogeneous Unit Principle’ is a sociological term denoting social groups sharing values and beliefs. It is widely used by missiologists in the church growth sector.

2 BBC World Service, 28 August 2020