I'm not sure if this goes in General Politics or not, but I wanted to put this in a place that is Christians-Only (if you put it anywhere else, you get atheists, agnostics, etc trolling).
Feminism, Black Lives Matter, etc are kinda-sorta "politics", and "ethics" both, but the other thread says "Christian Ethics" and I wasn't sure which forum to put it in, so it's going here.
While musing at work yesterday, I had some thoughts come to me about all of this feminism, black lives matter, etc stuff come to me, and you know what I came down to the conclusion of?
It is my personal belief that no Christian should ever touch either of these movements (or any others like them) with a 50 foot pole. I'm not saying to attack them, or speak out against them, but I don't think that Christians should be supporting them instead, and this is why:
1). All Three Movements are Hypocritical.We know from the Gospels that Christ has a rather low view of hypocrites, and I seem to remember God saying elsewhere in the Bible that He doesn't like hypocrites either. It's right there in the name of the movements, to be honest. The feminist movement claims they are tired of sexism and gender inequality, Black Lives Matter says they hate racism and want it to stop.
So, quick, tell me: If someone claims to hate Thing A, that means they probably want Thing B which is basically the opposite, right? If you're going to claim you hate gender inequality, then that must mean you want gender equality, right? Is that a fair statement? If you're going to claim you hate racism, then that means you want racial equality, right?
My problem is this: Instead of "Black Lives Matter" -- which implies that Black Lives are more important than other lives -- shouldn't be All Lives Matter? Saying "Black Lives Matter" kinda implies that others don't matter as much. What about the Hispanics? The Orientals? Middle-Eastern? If you're going to claim to be against racism, shouldn't you be supporting all races instead of just one? And then, with the Feminist Movement and the MRA, if you're going to claim you want Gender Equality, then why are you choosing a name that focuses on the male or female gender? Shouldn't your movement be named "Anti-Sexism Movement" or something else neutral? But yet it isn't, because...
2). All Three Movements Appear to be Superiority Movements Instead. Please note I said "Appear to be" in the title of this section. The Feminist Movement very much stinks of this. And don't get me wrong, I have the exact same thoughts against MRA (Mens' Rights Activists): They appear to not be looking for gender equality, they seem to instead be looking for feminine superiority, much in the same way that Affirmative Action was seeking superiority for minorities seeking jobs. Eventually we did away with AA and instead introduced Equal Opportunity, which is what it should have been from the start.
People who associate themselves with the Feminist Movement appear to go a bit too far past the Equal line, into wanting extra favors for women over men, and when you do that, you stop being sexist against women, and start being sexist against men (which is how the MRA came to be). I'm just as much against MRA as I am against the Feminist Movement. I believe in Gender Equality, but I refuse to touch either of them because they are simply seeking superiority for their own genders.
Now, for Black Lives Matter... they want Black History Month, they want us to pay attention to Blacks, they want us to punish white cops who treat blacks "unfairly" (a lot of these cases they bring up, the cops were following S.O.P.), etc etc. Meanwhile, I don't see them asking for Oriental History Month, or Hispanic History Month, I don't see them agreeing to White History Month, or anything of the sort. I don't see their bleeding hearts for Hispanics (which often end up in the very same boat that blacks do).
As a Christian, shouldn't we be asking God what He wants? Well, when I look at the Bible, I realize that...
3). God Loves Diversity. Do you think it was an accident that He made several groups of people that look much different from each other? Do you think it was an accident that there are Black People, that there are Hispanic People, that there are Caucasians? Orientals? Do you think that God somehow had an accident when He created these people? Of course not. God wants there to be a diverse people, because He loves diversity (just look at snowflakes: it's been theorized that no two snowflakes are ever the same). Now, even though there is diversity, there is the truth that Christ shed His Blood on the Cross for each and every person who has ever lived. This means that we are all worth the same: the price He paid. This is very much in support of Racial Equality, which is what I support.
Now, over to the Feminist/MRA side, this is something people just don't seem to understand: God wanted Males and Females to be different. We are meant to be a 2-piece jigsaw puzzle, and no person is complete without their counterpart that He has in mind for each of us. Sadly, society is so damaged by sin, that many end up single and alone, or they end up divorced and re-married (many times because the marriage was founded upon lust rather than love), and all of the other things that goes on in today's society. The Bible outlines the fact that God intended for men and women to be of equal worth, but be different that they would compliment one another.
Humans are one of THE most sexually dimorphic land mammals on the planet. I can't think of any other land mammal (or even non-mammal) that is so easy to tell the genders apart, not even other primates are that sexually dimorphic, other than perhaps lions. It doesn't matter what part of the body you look at, you can see differences between a man and a woman. Whether it is the head, arms, legs, torso, even the feet of your average woman vs your average man are quite different. It seems to me that God made it pretty clear here, that He wanted there to be a strong distinction between the two genders, but yet again: He paid the same price for All, which supports the "Equal but Different" idea.
So in light of this... I cannot support MRA, Feminist Movement, BLM, or any other group of similar nature and I believe that no Christian should be supporting any such groups/movements/etc.
What I would support, however, is something like Gender Equality (as long as they recognize that the Genders are Different but Equal in worth), Racial Equality, and similar.
Feminism, Black Lives Matter, etc are kinda-sorta "politics", and "ethics" both, but the other thread says "Christian Ethics" and I wasn't sure which forum to put it in, so it's going here.
While musing at work yesterday, I had some thoughts come to me about all of this feminism, black lives matter, etc stuff come to me, and you know what I came down to the conclusion of?
It is my personal belief that no Christian should ever touch either of these movements (or any others like them) with a 50 foot pole. I'm not saying to attack them, or speak out against them, but I don't think that Christians should be supporting them instead, and this is why:
1). All Three Movements are Hypocritical.We know from the Gospels that Christ has a rather low view of hypocrites, and I seem to remember God saying elsewhere in the Bible that He doesn't like hypocrites either. It's right there in the name of the movements, to be honest. The feminist movement claims they are tired of sexism and gender inequality, Black Lives Matter says they hate racism and want it to stop.
So, quick, tell me: If someone claims to hate Thing A, that means they probably want Thing B which is basically the opposite, right? If you're going to claim you hate gender inequality, then that must mean you want gender equality, right? Is that a fair statement? If you're going to claim you hate racism, then that means you want racial equality, right?
My problem is this: Instead of "Black Lives Matter" -- which implies that Black Lives are more important than other lives -- shouldn't be All Lives Matter? Saying "Black Lives Matter" kinda implies that others don't matter as much. What about the Hispanics? The Orientals? Middle-Eastern? If you're going to claim to be against racism, shouldn't you be supporting all races instead of just one? And then, with the Feminist Movement and the MRA, if you're going to claim you want Gender Equality, then why are you choosing a name that focuses on the male or female gender? Shouldn't your movement be named "Anti-Sexism Movement" or something else neutral? But yet it isn't, because...
2). All Three Movements Appear to be Superiority Movements Instead. Please note I said "Appear to be" in the title of this section. The Feminist Movement very much stinks of this. And don't get me wrong, I have the exact same thoughts against MRA (Mens' Rights Activists): They appear to not be looking for gender equality, they seem to instead be looking for feminine superiority, much in the same way that Affirmative Action was seeking superiority for minorities seeking jobs. Eventually we did away with AA and instead introduced Equal Opportunity, which is what it should have been from the start.
People who associate themselves with the Feminist Movement appear to go a bit too far past the Equal line, into wanting extra favors for women over men, and when you do that, you stop being sexist against women, and start being sexist against men (which is how the MRA came to be). I'm just as much against MRA as I am against the Feminist Movement. I believe in Gender Equality, but I refuse to touch either of them because they are simply seeking superiority for their own genders.
Now, for Black Lives Matter... they want Black History Month, they want us to pay attention to Blacks, they want us to punish white cops who treat blacks "unfairly" (a lot of these cases they bring up, the cops were following S.O.P.), etc etc. Meanwhile, I don't see them asking for Oriental History Month, or Hispanic History Month, I don't see them agreeing to White History Month, or anything of the sort. I don't see their bleeding hearts for Hispanics (which often end up in the very same boat that blacks do).
As a Christian, shouldn't we be asking God what He wants? Well, when I look at the Bible, I realize that...
3). God Loves Diversity. Do you think it was an accident that He made several groups of people that look much different from each other? Do you think it was an accident that there are Black People, that there are Hispanic People, that there are Caucasians? Orientals? Do you think that God somehow had an accident when He created these people? Of course not. God wants there to be a diverse people, because He loves diversity (just look at snowflakes: it's been theorized that no two snowflakes are ever the same). Now, even though there is diversity, there is the truth that Christ shed His Blood on the Cross for each and every person who has ever lived. This means that we are all worth the same: the price He paid. This is very much in support of Racial Equality, which is what I support.
Now, over to the Feminist/MRA side, this is something people just don't seem to understand: God wanted Males and Females to be different. We are meant to be a 2-piece jigsaw puzzle, and no person is complete without their counterpart that He has in mind for each of us. Sadly, society is so damaged by sin, that many end up single and alone, or they end up divorced and re-married (many times because the marriage was founded upon lust rather than love), and all of the other things that goes on in today's society. The Bible outlines the fact that God intended for men and women to be of equal worth, but be different that they would compliment one another.
Humans are one of THE most sexually dimorphic land mammals on the planet. I can't think of any other land mammal (or even non-mammal) that is so easy to tell the genders apart, not even other primates are that sexually dimorphic, other than perhaps lions. It doesn't matter what part of the body you look at, you can see differences between a man and a woman. Whether it is the head, arms, legs, torso, even the feet of your average woman vs your average man are quite different. It seems to me that God made it pretty clear here, that He wanted there to be a strong distinction between the two genders, but yet again: He paid the same price for All, which supports the "Equal but Different" idea.
So in light of this... I cannot support MRA, Feminist Movement, BLM, or any other group of similar nature and I believe that no Christian should be supporting any such groups/movements/etc.
What I would support, however, is something like Gender Equality (as long as they recognize that the Genders are Different but Equal in worth), Racial Equality, and similar.