It’s Thursday, It Must Be the Stockholm Syndrome
Did you notice during the protests the large number of white people kneeling before their self-appointed moral superiors taking oaths written for them? Unlike prisoners of war reading scripts written for them after days or weeks of torture, these repentant sinners seemed to be doing this of their own free will. It called up memories of the Stockholm Syndrome. The term was first used by the media in 1973 when four hostages were taken during a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostages defended their captors after release and would not testify against them in court.
The Stockholm Syndrome has four components:
1. A hostage develops a positive feeling toward the captor
2. No previous relationship existed between the hostage and the captor
3. Refusal by hostages to cooperate with police
4. A hostage’s belief in the cause of the captor because they ceased to perceive the captor as a threat, the victim holds the same values as the hostage taker
What is it that causes the young white protester in particular, who has no previous relationship to a black protester with a bull horn, to submit to the dictates of the stranger leading the rally? It could be that they agree that the murder of George Floyd was so heinous that such injustice needs to stop, right now! Good, 90%+ of the United States agrees with that. In that way, we all have a bit of Swedish blood in our veins. It could be that they agree that police brutality is wrong, and it needs to be reformed. Good, a large portion of America agrees with that as well. But what got them on their knees, confessing their collective white sins, apologizing for 400 years of slavery, and paying homage to Black Lives Matter? Bad, not many Americans agree with that. Who is guilty for what has happened in our country to our black citizens?
One approach should be considered in this video:
Before I answer that question, let me tell you whose hands are not clean, yet think their hands are clean, and they don’t plan to repent of any sins anytime soon.
ONE: The 1619 Project
I will refrain from calling out people by name or even political parties if I can avoid it. As many of you know the 1619 Project is an alternative view of history that proposes America started and is largely built on the foundation of slavery. It is sponsored by the New York Times and its leading spokesperson is Nikole Hannah-Jones.
It proposes that the country started in 1619 with the arrival of the first slaves, rather than 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. Several states and many school districts intend to implement a curriculum presenting this false history to its students. Two things can be true at the same time, America was founded in 1776 as an idea that a people could govern itself and it could flourish in liberty and justice for all. It is also true that slavery came to America in 1619. You can learn more about the 1619 Project here.
America is the most free and forgiving and least racially biased country in the world. That is why so many want to live here. It is also true that America has done evil and continues to do some evil. One of those evils is to rewrite history and lie to our children. What was our country built on, slavery or liberty? The correct answer is liberty. As a nation, did we sin? Yes, we did, and we paid for our sins in the Civil War. The black community has also suffered. However, the young white protestors were not on their knees to ask God for forgiveness of actual sins they committed, but because they were intimidated by bullies who told them they were guilty. They were trying to say, “Hey, we’re sorry, but we are not racist, we are innocent.” Yet the bullies with the bull horn had no plans to confess their own sins.
TWO: A Government That Created the Black Underclass
In 1863, Fredrick Douglass, an African American leader, in response to the Emancipation Proclamation proposed that the best thing the government could do for black Americans was nothing. Yes, nothing. Leave them alone and allow them to build their own lives. The government did not listen. Several states instituted racist policies which were later known as Jim Crow laws. They were not outlawed until the Civil Rights Act in 1964 along with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Americans repented and began to change.
During this period, the government took a more active role in trying to fix and compensate for past mistakes. Yes, I know this is too simplistic, there were some things needed that only the government could do. The courts had to rule, and congress had to write legislation in order to make racism and discrimination illegal in the United States. And yes, refinements had to be made.
Allow me to make a larger point…
The 1964 Civil Rights Bill was vital and pivotal, but what came on its heels created a black underclass that is the source of the majority of the racial injustices our nation faces today. The problem is so big and complex right now that it does seem hopeless. I will stipulate that racism does exist in America. It is in the air we breathe. It is present in passive forms and in some active forms. I notice it in my attitudes and responses, but it is not malicious, nor do I intend to do harm to anyone. Now, many want us to repent again, all of us, and by rules written not in scripture, but found in their organization’s manifesto.
The government has wanted to help. I can’t know the motives of politicians, I can’t say that I would have been wise enough to do any different, but they created a welfare system, and an entire culture of black dependence among African Americans. I suppose that Fredrick Douglass would have said, “You didn’t listen to me and you did way too much.”
We rewarded children being born out of wedlock and today, 75% of black babies are born out of wedlock. This is a national crisis because these children are often forced to grow up without fathers. I think this is the biggest problem in the black family. Until that is fixed (and this is a long-term fix), you won’t fix the schools, the communities, the prison problem, the educational crisis, the violence in the streets that is black America. It is all linked together.
The government has trained black America to believe they couldn’t make it on their own and that they needed the white man’s help. The white man was wrong and black Americans need to say stop, in the spirit of Fredrick Douglass and say, “We can do it.”
Will young black men marry the mothers of their children? Will they raise their children, read to them at night, pray with them, take them to church, keep them out of gangs, teach them to work, and to take care of themselves and others? It won’t just happen. The welfare state is not the answer. In fact, it is the black man’s enemy.
I agree with much of what Bryan Stevenson did and has written about in Just Mercy. Best movie I have seen in ten years. I agree with Tim Keller’s theological arguments regarding race and justice. Proximity and giving to others in concrete ways is part of our discipleship. If we don’t act proactively, our discipleship is greatly diminished. This could very well be the reason we have made disciples for the past fifty years and have lost the culture at the same time.
THREE: Black Lives Matter, The Organization
Black lives don’t matter to Black Lives Matter. If they did care about black lives, they would not support Planned Parenthood and the abortion rights movement which is the number one killer of black children in America. They would march through the south side of Chicago because black on black crime is the bigger killer of black men in America. As to the organization, its true name should be Black Leftist Lives Matter. If you go on the website and click the donate button, you will be introduced to Act Blue Charities. It would be another way of saying, Democratic Party, and other related causes. Black Lives Matter is anti-Christian and seeks to exploit both white guilt and the African American community in the United States in order to implement their radical agenda. My purpose is not to smear the democratic party and all its members, but to point out that their racial policies reinforce grievance. They enable and perpetuate dependency.
Permissiveness, appeasement, deconstruction, and revenge will not help.
We are all susceptible to Stockholm Syndrome, to sympathize with all things black - am I allowed to say this in the cancel culture? The tables have turned, white guilt reigns supreme. Whites live under the constant threat of being stigmatized racist. The judge and jury are institutions, black and white who have granted themselves the moral authority. They manipulate white guilt and they hold your public reputation in their hands.
I entreat you to think, to read, to study, and to listen. Figure out before God what you should do. The first thing I did was pray. Then I researched and confessed my sins before God. Now, I want to do what I know to do, write about it and then find ways to “do the right thing” (shout out to Spike Lee). Knicks fans need all the sympathy they can get.
To be continued…
