Ryan Ries, formerly Circa TM who has a lot of influence over the philanthropy/social/political side of skateboarding has a co-host saying and him endorsing that a Christian cannot support Black Lives Matter in good conscience. #skatetwitter
I strongly believe that certain organizations providing social services in action sports are being used to usher in a conservative agenda to sanitize skate culture. I know because I wanted to do the same while working for the Tea Party.
Now with skaters strongly supporting Black Lives Matter, they are trying to use their role in providing these services as a way to say that if you support BLM, your help for addiction or mental health from our church will be void.
They have clarified that they are not racist and for diversity, but are minimizing the prevalence of racism. Co-host Sean McKeehan says “black people’s lives matter” but cannot support “the organization.”
Some of the opposition seems to be centered around social issues like LGBTQ and abortion, which is pretty much how the church gets itself in trouble by over-prioritizing these issues over all others, which I don’t believe the Bible itself supports. Then attributing to “demonic.”
They are saying that people have lost the ability to dialogue and emphasizing bringing people to the Gospel. I can agree with that last point. Ries says that we need to focus on “Jesus’ agenda” instead of a political agenda. Classic dismissal tactic and these are our leaders.
I agree with McKeehan’s point that we should have more dialogue and engage with others peacefully while respecting others. We need people to have that discussion and represent the true culture intelligently, though.
Ryan mentions the newscasters who were all saying the same thing to say that the narrative is controlled. They are referring, ironically, to pro-Trump station owner Sinclair. (also the initial unnamed cohost appears to be Wade O’Neill)
@ryanries_ @thewhosoevers @KWVE is saying to “get on a call” rather than post on social media because it is “misinterpreted.” I would love to see Ryan discuss racial inclusion and systemic racism with black leaders in the culture like @Neftalie @selema or @bobbyhundreds
@threadreaderapp unroll
@seanmckeehan09 is the voice of reason of the group and is open to police reform but not defunding the police. (He supports more funding for training.) He is also saying that churches need to realize that parishioners have many different political viewpoints.
