A Working Credo – All Lives Matter!

September 10, 2015 Roland Kuhl 0 Comments

As I continue to reflect on what I believe, here is a second statement of my working credo:

Every human being is created in God’s image – therefore, all lives matter, your life matters!

As I listen to people talk, it has come to my attention that some people are frustrated by the “Black Lives Matter” movement – that it is accentuates African Americans as a group of people over other groups of people – as if other lives don’t matter, that only black lives matter.

Can they be missing what’s going on?  I think so. “Black Lives Matter,” is a movement that is creating necessary awareness of how black lives have been marginalized, discriminated against, especially in the face of all the violence that we witness in the news and in our neighborhoods.  Black Lives Matters focuses on systemic racism that exists in our society, within our institutions, within our police departments.

Yet, in response, those who are frustrated, especially in light of an increase in targeted shootings of police officers, there is a movement to express that “Police Lives Matter.” And so now what is being expressed to raise awareness has been misunderstood and is now fostering further division rather than bringing healing. What was meant to create awareness, exposing racism, empathy and a road to conciliation and reconciliation is now creating more separateness.

To be fair, it is not movements that cause divisions, it is people who minimize causes, unwilling to hear what is being expressed.  In advocating for a particular cause – “Black Lives Matter,” “Police Lives Matter” – if we really cared about all lives we would carefully listen to what is being expressed by those who are raising their voices to expose injustice, so that we might hear, to hear and see from their perspective as to what is all going on.  Refusing to listen, refusing to walk with and alongside further divides us.

The point in all this in drawing our attention to which lives matter is that, indeed “all lives matter.” All human beings matter because they are human and deserve to be treated with dignity.  When they experience injustice, we need to give them voice and hear them, make space for them.  To treat one another humanely is not to hide their voices in a crowd, but to give attention to what they have to express – we can only do that as we walk alongside, listening, engaging.  A consistent life ethic expresses that every life matters – Black lives, children’s lives, women’s lives, refugee lives, immigrant lives, every human life, especially when they experience racism, suffering, injustice, discrimination, being marginalized – from the moment of conception, through whatever life circumstances people endure, to the end of life. All human life matters, all human beings deserve to be regarded and treated with dignity, because we are all created in God’s image.

Because of the injustices we perpetrate upon one another, the one suffering cries out, “I matter,” “my life matters.” When we experience discrimination or marginalization, we cry out to be noticed. The problem is that we are all crying out for ourselves – we need to begin crying out for one another. We need to not just say, “my life matters,” but we need to find the courage and strength to express to one another, “your life matters!” And because your life matters, I will listen to you.

So, what is the point I am trying to make?

I have been reading in Philippians this month and I see Jesus’ life modeling a way of being with one another that may help us hear one another – to hear those expressing, “black lives matter,” to hear those expressing, “police lives matter,” to hear those expressing, “my life matters.”

Paul in addressing the church in Philippi expresses that we are not just to think about ourselves and our own rights (though I do not see a marginalizing of our rights by this statement of his). Paul specially expresses, “look out for the interest of others, not just your own” (Php. 2:4).

So, what’s the point?

It seems that in responding to those who are trying to raise awareness regarding injustice being perpetrated, a people group being marginalized, too many of us respond with not really hearing what is being brought to our attention. Rather, we get defensive, we confront – we say, “what about my rights?” “what about my life?” It’s so easy for us to think merely about our own interests – with the result being an “eye for an eye” policy, which as Gandhi mused, “only ends up making the whole world blind.”

So, what is the way of Jesus in this so that we express and live in ways which all lives matter?

As we read in Philippians 2, we are to be champions of one another’s interests, of one another’s rights. Our top priority is to add our voices to the voices of those being oppressed and marginalized. We add our voices to the voices of others in support of what matters to them – we make it a point to hear what matters to them, see what matters from their perspective, walk with them.

The consequence of this is that it helps us not be defensive when we are around others and they are around us because we are already with them. So, in believing that all lives matter, we take the time to listen to those expressing, “Black Lives Matter.” For as we do, we walk together, listening, supporting, encouraging, seeking justice.  As we give support to their lives, we discover that not only do their lives matter to us, but our lives matter to them as well. In this way, we express solidarity for one another – we support each other, we are a voice for one another, we matter to each other.

A definition of “sin,” is a “preoccupation with ourselves.” If we want to have our lives matter, then we need to take the radical step of caring about other lives before we care about our own. I know this is counterintuitive to what we have come to understand of what it means to be human, but as I understand what it means to be human in light of what God is doing in the world, being human begins with being humane with one another – stopping being so preoccupied with ourselves, and beginning to be preoccupied with the lives and rights of our neighbors – “loving our neighbors as ourselves” as an expression of “loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.”

The challenge is that we’ve tried and we keep making a mess of it. Perhaps it is time we in mutually submitting to one another, we do it in reverence for Christ Jesus. It seems the only one who enables us to be humane with one another is to let the Spirit of God to take hold of our lives, to transform us and shape us. In yielding ourselves to God’s ways in us, we will be able to live with one another in ways that all lives matter.

Every human being matters!  Every life matters!