SHOULD “BLACK LIVES MATTER” BE PUT ON TERRORIST LIST?

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By Jerry Guiltner

Following the recent outbreaks of violence brought on by perceived police mishandling of confrontations with citizens that ended in black men’s lives being taken, some believe the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement should be placed on the nation’s terrorist list.

Writing for the Internet website, Nation on July 10, Kara Pendleton, says the idea is gaining traction across America. At the same time, BLM itself seems to be gaining more followers.

Her article reads, in part, “While there is a lot talk about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, one thing that stands out in the aftermath of the Dallas shooting is the large number of people now associating the group with domestic terrorism.”

Pendleton includes an interesting twitter and perhaps a most appropriate message from someone named Steph. Of all the twitter rants, it may sum up the prevailing attitudes that are coming from citizens that think in terms of BLM being a terror organization. Steph wrote, “#blacklivesmatter is nothing more than a terrorist group without a ‘religion.’” If those who identify with BLM are in large part terrorists (and we cannot be certain they are), there is no religious basis for their actions as we see in the Muslim originated ISIS, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc. BLM adherents do not appear to have a god centered bent to their activities at all, but rather react as humans often do to what they consider injustice.
Pendleton’s story continues. “Someone identified as Y.S. went a step beyond calling the BLM organization a terrorist group to create a petition officially recognizing it as such.

“The description on the White House petitions page is as follows:

‘[T]errorism is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims.’ This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations. Black Lives Matter has earned this title due to its actions in Ferguson, Baltimore, and even at a Bernie Sanders rally, as well as all over the United State and Canada.
“It is time for the pentagon to be consistent in its actions – and just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terrorist group, they must declare Black Lives Matter a terror group – on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety.”

It is doubtful that those espousing allegiance to BLM have even thought of themselves as a terrorist group. Probably the motivation for what they do comes more from anger than any other reason.

Yet, there remains a degree of doubt about the killings that fuel that anger. Neither they nor the general populace know the full facts. The video accounts are helpful, but not infallible. The calm talk of the young woman in the video after her boyfriend had been shot is suspect. We hear the right words and the matter of fact attitude during a time that normally would produce fear and maybe even outrage. Would you be that calm in such a situation?

We know from what the Bible says that anger causes people to react in ungodly ways. We read: “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression” (Prov. 29:22).

BLM a terrorist group, or angry men and women? You decide.