From the Editor - September 2020

1. I’ve never endorsed the Black Lives Matter Global Network, and I reject any of its beliefs that contradict Catholic teaching. The organization simply does not have a monopoly on the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

2. It’s good to believe all lives matter. It’s bad to use the slogan “All Lives Matter” as a rebuttal to “Black Lives Matter” and a refusal to confront the (yes, systemic and institutional) injustices that have prompted that cry — including centuries of chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining, a racialized war on drugs and mass incarceration.

3. If one’s response to “Black Lives Matter” is, “What about Black-on-Black crime? What about absentee fathers? What about abortion rates?” — what is the implication? One set of problems does not exempt us from caring about another.

To be clear, I accuse myself. To a shameful degree, I am guilty of complacent indifference to injustice.

Jesus calls all of us to more.

Northwest Catholic - September 2020