Neither. I get the issue. I’ve heard the arguments on both sides. Those who are zealous to affirm that all lives matter seem to hear in “Black lives matter” that non-black lives don’t matter. They in turn seem to hear, “In order to be a decent human being you have to embrace the rhetoric and the tactics of that organization known as “Black Lives Matter.” Those who are zealous to affirm that black lives matter, on the other hand, seem to hear when others retort that “All lives matter” a denial not only that black lives matter, but a denial of the pain and fear they have experienced as a mistreated minority.
The good news is that everyone on all sides of this struggle is wrong. Black lives don’t matter, not because the lives are black, but because no lives matter. Which means all lives don’t matter. More good news- this, no lives matter- is not just true, but is a conclusion that is inescapable whether you are a Christian or an atheist.
First, the atheist. Why must the atheist conclude that no lives matter? Because matter can’t matter. If all there is is a physical universe that came to pass by random and meaningless forces then all that is is meaningless. If humans, whatever skin tone, are the result of the intersection of time, energy and chance, and will end in nothingness, from whence comes this meaning? How could we possibly matter if all we are is matter? There is, if there is no God, no moral injustice in people of one skin tone oppressing people of another, no moral injustice of some people stealing or destroying the property of other people, no moral injustice of any kind if there is no transcendent moral standard. If there is no transcendent anything, there can be no transcendent moral standard, no law we are all beholden too. There is just meaningless, individual preference.
The Christian, however, affirms such a standard. The Christian acknowledges that there is a transcendent God who has revealed to us a transcendent law, a law we are all obligated to obey. That law requires of us that we treat all men with dignity. It forbids racial vainglory. It commands equality before the law. So then why must the Christian say no lives matter? Because we are commanded to treat all men with dignity not because men have dignity in themselves, but because they have been gifted with dignity. We, all of us, have had it bestowed on us, stamped upon us. It is His image in us, the imago dei where the real value lies. His image is what matters.
And His image has been given to George Floyd. It’s been given to Derek Chauvin. It’s been given to David Dorn, Ahmaud Arbery, Greg and Travis McMichael, and to Breonna Taylor. It was given to every person killed in the midst of our civil unrest and every person killed by Covid-19. And God’s image was given to the more than 60 million unborn babies that have been legally executed in this country in less than fifty years.
Our value, our dignity is not grounded in us. Apart from His grace we are the kind of people who chase down people and shoot them, the kind of people to kneel on a man’s neck for over eight minutes, the kind of people who break into a woman’s home and shoot her. We’re the kind of people who loot and murder. We’re the kind of people who hire assassins to kill our own unborn children. Our lives don’t matter. They are, before the heavenly tribunal, forfeit from before we were born. What matters is the life of the one innocent Man who was put to death. But death could not hold Him. Apart from His perfect life, atoning death, vindicating resurrection and ongoing reign, nothing matters.
I have often benefitted from your writing that has a different slant on things being considered, a perspective that often inspires me as I see things about God and life in a new way. When you wrote for Tabletalk, your articles were always the first thing I read! I think, though, that it is rather misleading to state that neither black nor white lives matter, even though you qualify it later in your essay. From God’s perspective, don’t they always matter? When I first became a Christian, I remember hearing that we are terrible sinners yet our lives are of inestimable value to God–the contradiction that God resolved in Christ has made all human beings “matter” all the time.
Linda,
Thank you for your thoughtful response.It is certainly true that the affirmation that our lives don’t matter is jarring, arresting, but it is designed to be such. Kind of like when my father would insist loudly and clearly that we are justified by works, only to finally remind us that it is His works, not ours. In the same way, it is His image, not ours. Hope that helps.