Life Examined: Black Lives Matter as a spiritual movement

A recent episode of “Life Examined” looks at how Black Lives Matter began as a secular movement, but spirituality informed its fight for justice.

Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, says the civil rights movement holds roots in spirituality and religion, and today, the organization sees spirituality as foundational and a way to ground and energize its members.

“We’re there for a reckoning. We’re there because spirit commands that we be there. Black Lives Matter is run through the love of people, and this is the conscious reclamation of Black Lives Matter as a spiritual movement. We call this our sacred duty. … It’s what we are summoned in to do,” Abdullah says.

Hebah Farrag, an assistant director of research at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, says that progressive social movements like BLM are an interplay between personal politics and spiritual beliefs, which can fall in line with the values of organized religion.

“[It’s] the inherent nature of human dignity, and the duty to fight against injustice. … Those are spiritual values that lie at the heart of almost all faith traditions,” Farrang says.