The Movement for Black Lives vs. the Black Church

Abstract

Several times over the past three years, the Black Church and the Movement for Black Lives have clashed, revealing a peculiar incongruence. Movement for Black Lives activists, advocates, and agitators are not only pushing to hold police officers and officials in the criminal justice system accountable for deaths of Black victims; they have been pushing the Black Church and Black clergy as well. Why have activists, advocates, and aggrieved agitators in the Movement for Black Lives protested against prominent figures in the Black Church so vociferously and boldly? Hasn’t the Black Church been a stalwart presence in the Black Freedom Movement historically? Should such disruptive behavior be condoned? Is it behavior that Jesus himself would condone?