Thread by @PaulDMiller2

Black lives matter.

That there is any kind of debate about this phrase is sadly telling about the state of American democracy.

Some organizations using the phrase "Black Lives Matter" advocate remedies I don't agree with.

But I don't have to agree with every org and every advocate to affirm the important and obvious truth that Black lives matter.

Don't "defund the police." That's unrealistic and dumb and counterproductive.

Retrain the police, and possibly disarm the police of lethal weapons.

But also recognize that police are necessary for law and order.

"Law and order" is a phrase that has often been used in racially coded ways.

Law and order are, nonetheless, necessary and good.

We can and should uphold law-- *equal justice under law*.

Racist law enforcement is no law at all, but racial privileges wearing a uniform.

All lives matter.

Saying "all lives matter" doesn't mean I don't recognize the unique threat to nonwhite lives. It means I have a prior theological foundation for recognizing that Black lives matter. Nonwhite lives face inequality, systematic injustice, and structural racism.

Structural racism is real. It doesn't mean every American is maximally evil and full of personal animus all the time. It means our institutions, without reform, replicate racial inequalities originally created by slavery and other forms of de jure racism.

The effects of racism are generational. They require conscious effort to counteract. They don't just go away once we change laws. (None of which eliminates individual agency). This is actually a very obvious point. See this thread here.

https://twitter.com/andrewtwalk/status/1269993510004023297

I think progressive solutions are generally counterproductive. Most forms of identity politics are counterproductive. The culture of political correctness is bad. Working for diversity is good but too often deteriorates into tokenism, quotas, and demographic essentialism.

The left (and the right, for that matter) can be profoundly illiberal in its hectoring moral authoritarianism and righteous certainty in its causes; and its style alienates so many who would otherwise happily affirm parts of its agenda while disagreeing with others.

Disagreeing with progressive solutions does not mean I disbelieve in the problems they are trying to solve. Conservatives, in their often justified suspicion of progressivism, throw the baby out with the bathwater and pretend there is no problem in the first place.

American public discourse is exhausting. I say "I believe X" and you say "Bigot! If you believe X you must agree with everything that everyone who has ever believed X has said!" or "X inevitably leads to Y and Z!"

That's not thinking or debating. That's thoughtless tribalism.

That's treating words and beliefs less as purveyors of ideas than as markers of identity, signalers of tribal loyalties and affiliations. That makes rational communication literally impossible and dooms democracy.

Try taking people at their word. If they say "Black lives matter," try believing that they just mean Black lives matter. Reading into people's words, trying to deconstruct, decode, or interpret them to mean something else, is uncharitable and untrusting.

People think it is smart and sophisticated to try to figure out what others "really" mean when they say something. But a reflexive and constant stance of suspicion and distrust is not smart or sophisticated. It is hard-hearted, nihilistic, cynical sophistry.

An educated mind is one that is open, that listens, that seeks to learn. The tribal mind is one that is closed, that is always suspicious, that seeks to rebut. Tribalism is almost the perfect enemy of reason, dialogue, growth, and freedom.

If I don't say something about an important issue or cause, it is often because I fear this dynamic and also because social media posting about important issues often comes off as trivial, cheap, and easy. But I'm also cognizant that speaking up is an important first step.

A second and more important step is educating yourself. This is hard because, frankly, it is often tedious, boring, and technical. It is easier and more emotionally satisfying to shout slogans. There is no thrill to learning policy minutiae, but that's what leads to actual change

If you want a place to start, follow @greg_doucette. I don't know him, but reading his feed is like going to grad school on police reform.

If you're a white evangelical and you're nervous about all the talk about structural racism, go read Michael Emerson's "Divided By Faith," or listen to my conversation with him here.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/19-…

I could go on, but you get the point. I've nearly deleted this thread several times because I'm almost certain it will offend someone and will be more trouble than it's worth. If speaking out is important, I'll speak, but I'm going to speak to all sides.

If you are offended, here's my plea: tell me, tell me directly, tell me by DM or email or face-to-face. Don't subtweet. Don't shout or insult or name-call or impute motives. Please argue with me, point out where you think I'm wrong or how I could have said it better. That's all.