We addressed in the last part of our series how Christians can talk about the “war on children” in private and public conversations. One the more challenging aspects of presenting a Christian response to the war is that many people have a specific agenda that includes a war on the family. How do we respond to people with an obvious agenda?
The Agenda
I mentioned the war-on-children agenda in a previous part of this series:
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise). Black Lives Matter – What We Believe
Even though BLM removed this from their website, I recognized the agenda as soon as I read it. I was familiar with it from my time as a news reporter beginning in the 1960s. I covered many protests from the 60s, 70s and 80s and met many people who said they were trained Marxists. Two important steps in investigative reporting are to “follow the money” and “follow the people.” How are people in your story connected to people in other stories? Does that connection have relevance to your investigation? It was no surprise to me that one of the co-founders of BLM, Patrisse Cullors, admitted in a 2015 Real News Network interview that she, along with BLM co-founder Alicia Garza, had trained with violent Marxists.
The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk. Patrisse Cullors, The Real News
It was also no surprise that Cullors said her mentor was Eric Mann. I remember Mann as one of the leaders in the violent Weather Underground that bombed government buildings and police stations. I was a young radio news reporter and anchor at the time. In 1969, Mann was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit murder after firing two bullets through a window of a police headquarters. Mann was also a leader of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS New England coordinator) and continued as a community, civil rights and labor organizer after release from prison. Mann also became involved in the environmental justice movement and wrote several books. One of them is titled Playbook for Progressives: The 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer (2011).
Mann founded the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) in 1989 with Rudy Acuna, Rev. Frank Higgins and Father Luis Olivares. They trained people to organize civil rights, labor, mass transportation and environmental justice campaigns. That’s where Cullors met and trained with Mann. She called LCSC her “first political home.” Her determination to disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure and foster a “queer-affirming network” to free themselves from “heteronormative” thinking is a large part of the Marxist agenda, which goes to her training with Mann and others.
Understanding the War
It’s important as Christians that we understand the “war” God has called us to fight. It should not surprise any Christian that BLM and other similar groups oppose God’s design for the family. Unfortunately, many Christians have bought into the BLM movement possibly missing the fact that they have admitted to being a Marxist organization. Here’s why that’s an important distinctive to notice.
Marxists are not followers of God. They are opposed to what Christians believe. Karl Marx was a German (Prussian) philosopher who was born into a Jewish family. However, he disavowed religion. Marx famously said “Die Religion ist das Opium des Volkesis” (Religion is the opium of the Masses). Marx wrote that “The first requisite of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion” (A Criticism of the Hegelian Philosophy of Right, 1844).
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1847 and published it the following year. One of their stated goals was the abolition of the family:
Such fantastic pictures of future society, painted at a time when the proletariat is still in a very undeveloped state and has but a fantastic conception of its own position, correspond with the first instinctive yearnings of that class for a general reconstruction of society. But these Socialist and Communist publications contain also a critical element. They attack every principle of existing society. Hence, they are full of the most valuable materials for the enlightenment of the working class. The practical measures proposed in them – such as the abolition of the distinction between town and country, of the family, of the carrying on of industries for the account of private individuals, and of the wage system, the proclamation of social harmony, the conversion of the function of the state into a more superintendence of production – all these proposals point solely to the disappearance of class antagonisms which were, at that time, only just cropping up, and which, in these publications, are recognised in their earliest indistinct and undefined forms only. These proposals, therefore, are of a purely Utopian character.
Abolition [Aufhebung] of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists. On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution. The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital. Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. But, you say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we replace home education by social. And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention direct or indirect, of society, by means of schools, &c.? The Communists have not invented the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the ruling class. The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all the family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labour.
Marx and Engels’ desire to see the abolition of the family is strikingly familiar to BLM’s desire to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” Again, no surprise since the founders of BLM are, in their own words, trained Marxists. Engels, who was an atheist, believed the monogamous nuclear family emerged with Capitalism. He believed in a classless society where there were tribal groups that practiced unrestrictive sexual relationships rather than the nuclear, traditional family of the Bible.
The Christian Response
It would seem reasonable (logical) to respond to a Marxist view of children and family by assuring that everyone involved in the discussion understood the view. Christianity is a particular “worldview” even as Marxism, Communism, and Atheism are particular “worldviews.” Each has its on view of and belief about the world and those who live in it. Children and family are the subject of this series, so Christians should want to know as much as they can about the Christian view of children and family and how non-Christians view children and family.
First, let me address something I mentioned a little earlier in this post. Many Christians have “bought into the BLM movement possibly missing the fact that they have admitted to being a Marxist organization.” That means some of your responses may be to members of your own church, possibly even pastors and leaders. You may have conversations with Christian neighbors and friends, possibly members of your own family. That does not change how you will respond, but it does raise a different kind of challenge when Christians are not in agreement about the war on children. Your response should always be reasoned (logical), informed (fact-based), and thoughtful (loving and kind).
It’s most helpful to be informed. That’s where reading the writings of other viewpoints is helpful. Listening or watching interviews with people opposed to the Christian view of children and family is also helpful. I prefer to quote and respond to the actual quotes of people rather than what someone said they said. That’s a basic communication skill. Our opponents are very good at building straw men and committing other logical fallacies. We don’t want to do that. We want to address issues logically and lovingly.
Remember to be loving and kind when responding to people who are opposed to the Bible’s view about children and family. Emotions often run deep when people talk about children. It’s important to ask good questions, listen carefully, pray silently for God’s wisdom, and share the truth in love.
If someone with an opposing view raises a good point, acknowledge it. People with different views often have insights that are helpful to hear. Christians should want to have a dialogue with people rather than a stage upon which to stand and preach from a megaphone. There are times for preaching, and times for listening and talking. Look at how Jesus dialogued with people as He answered their questions and taught them His truth. We have much to learn from our Lord.
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16
Next Time
One of the early decisions for parents to make is the education of their children. Christians should take their view on eduction from the Bible. Non-Christians normally don’t do that because they don’t look to the Bible for guidance on how to live life. So, how should Christians respond to the wide diversity in how children should be educated? We’ll look at that in the next part of our series.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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