“Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.”  (Matthew 7:15-16)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;”   (John 10:10)

There are a lot of sheep loose right now, running rampant in so many places. From a distance they appear white and woolly, wholly harmless.  But if you get too close, you will find among them, a wolf, waiting to take your life at the opportune moment.  Like the thief, the wolf comes only to steal, kill and destroy.  But because the wolf masquerades as a sheep, no one notices the damage they are doing until it is done and then it is too late.

That could explain why something doesn’t feel quite right, something just doesn’t seem to make sense to me but I can’t quite say exactly what it is.  I feel uneasy about it. Things don’t add up.  If black lives matter, why is BLM burning down and looting black owned and other minority businesses?  If black lives matter, why would they destroy memorials and statues honoring those that fought to free slaves, such as Ulysses S. Grant?  Lincoln lost his life because he was hated for what he did, but he signed the Emancipation Proclamation nonetheless.  Why would that act of courage not be worthy of remembering?

I confess – I am easily deceived, I am easily led astray.  If something seems good to me, if something sounds right to me, if something appears to be the correct way to go – I’m in.  Following my own wisdom or the ways of others however, does not always turn out as I had intended that it would.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  (Proverbs 14:12)

Some things sound so right.  “Black lives matter” is one of those phrases, which seems right and true and good and obviously correct.  And those words are true. But those three words are also the name of an organization that doesn’t seem to act in a way that says they believe what their name says they believe, namely that black lives matter.

You can imagine my confusion and concern upon learning that two black men, ages sixteen and nineteen had been shot and killed in Seattle’s CHOP zone, a safe space created and run by Black Lives Matter.  I didn’t see their names or pictures all over the news, or in the news at all.  Didn’t their lives matter?  Where was the outcry and the outrage over the loss of those two black lives?

Where is the protest over David Dorn’s death?  He is a black retired police captain who was killed in St. Louis by BLM protesters/rioters as he attempted to protect a local black owned business.  Doesn’t his black life matter?  There has been no outcry from BLM.  Why not?  Do only some black lives matter?  And if so, which ones?

Why isn’t BLM protesting outside of Planned Parenthood clinics?  According to the Wall Street Journal, “In 2014, 36% of all abortions were performed on black women, who are just 13% of the female population.”  The 2010 Census revealed that “79% of the Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of minority communities.  In some cities, such as New York, black abortions outnumber black live births by thousands every year.”

Don’t those black unborn lives matter to BLM?  What about the black lives lost to gun violence on the streets of Chicago (and other cities) every day?  Do those black lives matter to BLM protesters?  I haven’t seen any media coverage with the names and the faces of any of those black lives lost during this past month, or any month for that matter.

It is difficult to distinguish the wolf when he is hidden among the sheep, dressed in their likeness.  You can’t tell just by looking.  You have to watch what he does and you have to pay attention to what he says.

Brad Polumbo recently wrote this concerning the organization, BLM.  “No doubt, the organization itself was quite radical from the very beginning.  Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors described herself and fellow co-founder Alicia Garza as ‘trained Marxists’  . . .  ‘We actually do have an ideological framework,’ Cullors said of her organization.  ‘We are trained Marxists.  We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories.’ ”

Polumbo goes on to say that BLM chapters use racial justice as a way to advance their own ideologies stating that BLM DC “openly dedicates itself to ‘creating the conditions for Black Liberation through the abolition of systems and institutions of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.’ ”

The national organization of BLM’s official platform published in 2015, contains a call to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”

BLM has been talking, telling us who they are and what their agenda is.  Has anyone been listening?  Their goals are pretty clear.  Destroy democracy.  Destroy the family.  Abolish capitalism.  No private property.  The state owns everything collectively.  And there is much more on their website about what they do and what they intend to do.

As I have watched BLM in action across our country over the past month, as I have witnessed buildings burning, books banned, a statue thrown into the harbor, vandalism and violence – I find myself wondering if this is how the people of China felt during the Cultural Revolution of Mao, which took place in their country from 1966-1976 in order to usher in Communism.  By many accounts,

“Nothing related to traditional Chinese culture was safe.  Libraries were ransacked, monuments destroyed or severely damaged, and religious sites and tombs of historical figures were looted and desecrated.  Chinese literature, scrolls, and other classics were burned, paintings torn apart, and murals defaced.”

I think I know a little of how they must have felt as they watched their entire history being wiped away with the destruction of their written records, genealogies, literature, art, artifacts, tombs, and temples – all connections to their past, containing their history and carrying it forward into their present – reminders of their identity – now gone forever.

Suddenly, it is all too familiar.  Will history be rewritten for us once every reminder of our past is destroyed?  With every painting, every memorial, every statue, (every church) every book not deemed acceptable gone – who will we be then?  A free people?  The people of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation, or no?

Will we follow like sheep or will we recognize the wolf in sheep’s clothing for who he really is, before it is too late?

“Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.    . . .  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”   (Matthew 7:17-20)

Today being “woke” is what we are told to be.  The question is, will we wake up in time?

“Arise, (wake up) cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.  Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children, (your family, your friends, your country) who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”   (Lamentations 2:19)

sincerely,       Grace Day