At #UFCVegas3 back in June, African American #UFC light-heavyweight fighter #BobbyGreen brought his father onto a post-fight interview telling the interviewer how important his father is to him. He states that his father has been with him “since the beginning” and would “lay his life down for him”. On the surface, It’s a truly kind and meaningful “Awe. That’s sweet.” moment from a hardened, hand-combating fighter, but I was more than that. When watching the interview, when he calls his dad over, the viewer immediately realizes that Bobby Green’s dad is white. Green went on to say:
He’s been there since the beginning. He’s done everything. He’d lay his life down for me and I’d lay my life down for him. I don’t judge any man by the color of their skin but the content of their character. We’re here. We love. It doesn’t matter what color, it’s all about love. You can’t beat hate with hate. You beat hate with love. So everyone out there, please stop fighting. Please come together. We can’t beat it [by fighting].
Mr. Green is directing his words towards the controversial (some may even say evil) tactics of the recent rise of #BLM (Black Lives Matter). For those who are not familiar with “BLM”, it’s a #Marxist organization that has been funded by shady contributors and is lead by self-proclaimed Marxist Patrisse Cullors along with co-founders Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
Under the guise of “Racial Equality”, BLM has endorsed riots and looting with a bit of protesting sprinkled in. Most of the media will tell you that the “Protests” are mostly peaceful although I think that they must be categorizing protests and rioting/looting into separate columns, so they aren’t technically lying (just being extremely misleading).
The racial divide in this nation hasn’t been this bad since the late sixties, specifically, ’69. I wasn’t alive at that time but there are a few “Boomers” that I have confided in me at the extreme tension back in those days and the similarities of what’s going on today. They go on to tell me that the racial tension that plagued this nation back in 1969 was justifiable due to blatant racial discrepancies between the white and black communities. #WhitesOnly stores and restaurants were only a small sample of #JimCrow laws that was established sometime after the end of the #WarBetweenTheStates (1877). With such heroes as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Maude Ballou, Rose Parks and Malcom X’s influence in his later life, the outrage was not only merited, but in my opinion, #Divine.
These days (2020 particularly), there seems to be an outrage where people are parroting what they’re hearing or reading in the news without any kind of independent research by the reader/watcher. There seems to be a conscious effort by outside forces to try and divide this nation through racial and economic disparities for the sake of scattering the flock. There are two questions we should ask ourselves before we go out and support these “protests”:
1) Does racism still exist?
2) Does systematic racism exist?
The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. Humans are individuals and have the ability (and right) to speak for themselves. Many of the citizens here in #America are not and don’t support racism of any kind. Unfortunately, there are people who hate other people only because of the color of their skin.
The second question is what the BLM organization is hanging its hat on by claiming that systematic racism is alive and well here in the U.S. NCAAP’s President Derrick Johnson defines #SystematicRacism as "systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantages African Americans." But if you look at the available data, there just isn’t any clear evidence of this happening without taking it out of context. When including economic status, family breakdown in the home and cultural differences, you’d see its less about the COLOR of someone’s skin and the CONTENT of someone’s character.
The #DailyWire recently put out an article about systematic racism in the area of law enforcement (which is the flavor of the year to BLM) and points out 7 statistics that show the “Systematic Racism” doesn’t exist in policing. These seven statistics, according to The Daily Wire are:
1) Police are more likely to shoot whites than blacks.
2) Police are also less likely to shoot at unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects.
3) According to American Free Press’s Peter Papaherakles, “For every black killed by a white police officer in the U.S. every year, there are about 71 blacks killed by other blacks.”
4) Blacks do get pulled over for traffic stops more often than whites, but that’s because blacks commit a disproportionate amount of traffic offenses.
5) Racial activists accuse stop-and-frisk of being racist, and yet the percentage of blacks stopped is actually underrepresented when compared to the percentage of blacks that commit crimes.
6) Blacks are not over-arrested and are actually “underrepresented in prison.”
7) By a margin of 50 percent to 46 percent, black voters support New York City’s “Broken Windows” policing, according to a Quinnipiac poll.
Of course, I will post a link to this article so you can actually look at the breakdown of each claim. But we need to practice a little more due diligence when it comes to these charged claims. Its important to ask questions and not cower to the mob of #SocialJustice and suppress the truth because of the fear of being labeled, marginalized or even assaulted. As John MacArthur said,
“The most loving thing in the world is the truth.”
Which brings me back to UFC fighter, Bobby Green. Being a black man, it would have been very easy for him to go with he mob and claim racial injustice and be held up as a hero with the likes of #LebronJames, #ColinKaepernick and #MichelleObama amongst others. But he didn’t do that. He came with the truth and the truth is that the great majority of Americans today have no problem with the color of someone’s skin. As I have said before, I see color, but all that matters to me is not the color of someone’s skin, but the color of their heart. I’ve met some great white skinned people but also met a few horrible white skinned people. The same goes for black, brown, yellow, green, magenta (I know, its ridiculous).
Its important to note that Bobby Green said something more than just talking about his father who adopted him out of foster care but painted a great picture of our #HeavenlyFather and His love for us, no matter what color we are.
In the #Bible, one of the first verses in the #OldTestament says that in the beginning, God was there (Genesis 1:1). He has always been here and, before He formed us in the womb, He knew us (Jeremiah 1:12). God has done everything for us. He created this world and everything in it just for us. Even when we disobeyed him and ate from the “tree of good and evil”, not only did #TheLord fashion clothes for Adam and Eve and protect him from the elements, but He promised a #Redeemer for our disobedience to use as an ultimate sacrifice so that we could become clean from sin once again (Genesis 3). Now, this isn’t without the consequences of our disobedience, but the endgame is victory in the repentance and relationship in #JesusChrist. Bobby Green says his dad would die for him. But his father in Heaven did just that; died for him. Bobby’s last words in the interview states that you can’t beat hate with hate, you beat hate with love. And he could not be more correct. Its very easy for us, as a fallen warrior people, to think that we can beat any stick with a bigger stick. It is in our nature, and our first thought is to retaliate with equal or greater force. The only thing this does is cause a boomerang effect that is never ending.
As you may well know by now, Ravi Zacharias is one of my dear heroes. He’s one of this world’s greatest #Christian apologists and philosophical minds in our modern age. He was called home a few months ago and is dearly missed, not just by me, but many around the world. In a few of his forums, Ravi talks about this boomerang effect by telling a story about his meeting of the leader of #Hamas. I won’t get into details at this time, but he ends the discussion about the turmoil in the #MiddleEast and the deaths of their sons on both sides. He says that when we feel wronged or a great sin has been carried out on us, we retaliate in kind. Your son dies so you kill your enemy’s son and so on. This action goes back and forth repeatedly. But when an evil is let loose on God’s Son, it doesn’t boomerang back, but it STICKS!
The only answer to these tensions we are facing today is the love and pursuit of our #Savior, #JesusChrist. If we don’t have Jesus in our lives, are lives are lost already (1 John 5:12). If we don’t #Repent and #Confess our sins in this lifetime, we will never find peace and #Unity in this world and we will live in eternal death when we leave this world.
Something spectacular happened on that cross over 2,000 years ago. A man, who was sinless and blameless, voluntarily was nailed to a cross and as spotless as He was, spilled His blood, covering our spots so that we can become clean. With Him, we have life. Without Him, we have no life. Let us pray today that we stop this boomerang effect and cast our anxieties on God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
I want to close with a story in John, chapter 11. These two sisters are shaken up by the death of their brother and are waiting for Jesus to come and they are saying to Him that if He would only have been here, this would not have happened. And finally He says to Martha,
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever believes in Me will never die. Martha, do you believe this?”
She says yes and their brother was raised from the dead. This is the kind of power our #Lord has in our lives. We are called to a higher standard and its our job, as #FollowersOfJesusChrist, to look beyond the lie of skin color and racial disparities and focus our eyes on the #Truth of God’s Word and the promise that is given to us by our Creator. As #CSLewis said,
“We don’t HAVE a soul, we ARE a soul, we HAVE a body.”
We can make this difference. We can make this change. If we do all we can to love the hearts of men only then, can God change these hearts, not only the hearts of these men, but the heart within ourselves.
References:
“7 Statistics Show Systematic Racism Doesn’t Exist”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/7-statistics-show-systemic-racism-doesnt-exist-aaron-bandler