Many misguided Adventists think “Black Lives Matter” is a slogan, an ideal, or a grassroots movement they can participate in. In their naivete’ they don’t understand that Black Lives Matter is both a marxist political movement and a religion.
Write it down: BLM’s Marxist ideology includes leftist “liberation” politics, transgenderism and violence that far exceeds criticizing excessive use of force by police officers. Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of BLM, is on record speaking for all three key founders: “We are trained Marxists. We are super versed on ideological theories.” But Black Lives Matter is also a spiritual(ism) movement, begging the question “What spirit is it?” Let’s take a look.
On June 13, Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah participated in a special Zoom meeting online. The topic was social justice and Black Lives matter.
Patrisse Cullors is one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, devising the BLM slogan in July of 2013. Patrisse Cullors identifies as a queer activist and also teaches Social Justice and Community Organizing at Prescott College in Arizona.
Melina Abdullah teaches pan-African studies at Cal State in Los Angeles, and is a self described womanist (black feminist) activist single mother of three children. She is the leader of the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter chapter.
During the June 13 Zoom meeting, Cullors conducted a ‘religious’ ceremony where she shredded sheets of paper with the words “police” and “white racism.” In the background, a pair of wings hung against a wall as candles lit up the room. Cullors stood in the middle of the wings, shredding.
Now, the ceremony aimed to mourn the lives of the three victims and others, as well as “honor the power of an uprising” that has denounced police brutality and called on cities nationwide to defund their police departments.
After the ritual, Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, joined Cullors in a discussion that touched on the role that spirituality and prayer has played in the movement.
"Part of our calling as people who do this work for Black lives is to lift our people up, both in their living, but also in their death,” Cullors said. "The need to lift our folks up feels so incredibly spirit-driven for me."
Abdullah and Cullors explained the practice of calling out the names of the victims that they advocate for in protests and demonstrations. “It's a way to invoke their spirits” Abdullah said.
“Uplifting the names of victims goes beyond creating hashtags”, Cullors said. “It is literally almost resurrecting a spirit so they can work through us to get the work that we need to get done,” she said.
By highlighting their names, Cullors said she feels "personally connected and responsible and accountable to them, both from a deeply political place but also from a deeply spiritual place.”
Cullors touched on West African traditions that center on remembering ancestors. Cullors, who grew up Jehovah's Witness, said she "was always someone who almost obsessed about our (Black) ancestors."
"I wasn’t raised with honoring ancestors. ... As I got older and started to feel like I was missing something, ancestral worship became really important," she said.
The women also touched on their tradition of praying and pouring libations during demonstrations.
In a June 9 article,"The Fight for Black Lives is a Spiritual Movement," Hebah Farrag — assistant director of research at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture — examined how Abdullah led a group of demonstrators in a ritual at a recent protest outside of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's home.
As part of the ritual, people recited the names of "those taken by state violence before their time — ancestors now being called back to animate their own justice," Farrag wrote.
After each name, Abdullah poured libations on the ground as the group in return chanted "Asé." The Yoruba term is "often used by practitioners of Ifa, a faith and divination system that originated in West Africa," Farrag wrote.
Fresno, CA SDA pastor Alvin Maragh preached a sermon on this topic last Sabbath, earnestly warning Seventh-day Adventists to stay away from Black Lives Matter (his warning begins at the 46:00 mark)..
Abdullah on Saturday said it took her almost a year before she realized Black Lives Matter was much more than a racial and social justice movement. "At its core, it's [BLM] a spiritual movement, she said. I wouldn't be able to do this work without spiritual practice.” Siren, bells and warning whistles! Stay away from this movement.
But, Adventists won’t fall for that nonsense. We’re too enlightened, right?
On May 19, Sandrew King Jr. hosted a Zoom meeting that was live-streamed on Facebook. The eight —seven black, and one hispanic—participants in the meeting were Seventh-day Adventist proponents of racial social justice. The theme of this meeting was:
Does the [SDA] Church have a Responsibility to Adopt Social justice?
The meeting opened with the two sisters complaining that church members say they should leave politics out of their life. They objected to that suggestion. What captivated our attention in this meeting were statements by Michael Polite (lower left) that he had been called to rediscover the mystical spirituality of his [black] ancestors, thereby “tapping into the cosmic power” that resides within himself. Notice the similarity between Polite and Patrisse Cullors’ fascination with the ‘ancestors’. Here is a transcript of some of Polite’s comments:
11:46 Mike polite “Our ancestors, when they came onto American shores, they were mystics. They were spiritualists. As we have disconnected ourselves from the mystic journey of transcendence, we have robbed ourselves of the great truth of the universe which is interconnectedness (oneism). It is the mysticism of our religion that we have lost.. I have personally been called back to visit the spirituality of my ancestors, recognizing that my ancestors are of the lineage of Abraham. We have separated ourselves from the mysterious spirituality of Yeshua. As we connect with that spiritualist root – that many were taught to demonize -- our slave masters taught us to demonize our spiritualism. But it’s that spiritualism that holds the core truth of the gospel.
14:20 JA Rourke. “Jesus was a person of color and He was sent to people of color (the lost sheep of the house of Israel). He did a lot of social ministry. Jesus came to upend both the religious and political hierarchy.
104:30—1:14 Mike Polite “What am I missing? I had to revisit the spiritualism of our ancestors. One thing that the medicine man of the Congo understood was that you cannot defeat darkness without until you defeat darkness within. What the medicine man was telling us is that you cannot have authority over things outside of you, until you master what is underneath you skin. This is a spiritual principle that all of our [black] ancestors understood. [Apostle] Paul had the secrets of the African mystics, a lot of people don’t recognize that.
Where do you think Apollos came from? Alexandria. These brothers aren’t just talking about Western Christianity—which has been drained of its spiritualism roots. No, Paul understood spiritualism, that’s why he said “I pour out myself. Like a libation” [a drink poured out as an offering to a deity.] Where did he get that from? Where did this whole idea of libations come from? That brother studied in Arabia for three years. Arabia back then was where my ancestors lived. Paul wen to study with my ancestors, the spiritual mystics of his day, and that’s where he found transcendence and that where he came back talking about “the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, lives inside of me.” Where did Paul get these concepts? From the stories of the griots.
[Griots were the storytellers and entertainers in Ancient Africa. In the Western African culture of the Mande people, most villages had their own griot who was usually a man. Griots were an important part of the culture and social life of the village. The main job of the griot was to entertain the villagers with stories. They would tell mythical stories of the gods and spirits of the region. They would also tell stories of kings and famous heroes from past battles. Although griots were well-respected (and sometimes feared for their magical powers), they were considered a low-ranking caste in the hierarchy of African social life.]
Why is it during Jesus first sermon in Mark 1, they say this man teaches with authority. Where did He get this authority? Because the transcendent mystic Yeshua tapped into some type of knowledge to where he was not just preaching about insight but He was preaching about His own internal universe. And that internal universe was in alignment with what He was saying which generates mystic power and authority. And that is the stuff that our [SDA] members aren’t tapping into. We have not tapped into the mystical transcendence of our ancestors, therefore we do a lot of picketing but we have no spiritual authority.
This rhetoric [that I am using] was demonized because it was a power that our slave master could not tap into. You see, the liberator Harriet Tubman prayed for her master’s death—and it happened. That is what we call manifestation. Harriet Tubman prayed to the God of Abraham for this manifestation. So yahweh honors the mystic journey, just as much as you think some other entity does. Some say this is paganism. But who taught you that these things were pagan? I’ve had to go on my own personal journey to unlearn some of these things.
The very things I have been told, are trying to keep me from things that will liberate me and allow me to tap into the cosmic power that resides within me. And then use that power for the healing of the nations. Could it be that my slave masters knew there was more in me than I thought? And could it be that the mystic journey is the journey that unveils that beautiful cosmic power within.”
Some of this stuff is right out of Patrisse Cullors’ Black Lives Matter, friends. The remainder is a mixture of raw spiritualism and pantheism.
Who is Mike Polite?
In 2014 Michael Polite was chosen to be Andrews University’s associate chaplain. He is currently listed as Youth Director of the South-Central Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He also writes for Message SDA youth magazine. He has been promoted to positions of influence in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pray that he turns from this course, and if not, that he is terminated from his position of influence in the Southern Conference. Yes, it is that serious.
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“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds” (2 Corinthians 11: 14-16).