Introduction to Church Views and #BLM
The church as an institution, originally thought of in the early centuries such as 3rd century BCE, was made to incite a sense of security of a higher power to those in need of a “leader”, meant to include a worship of some sort. This is a simplified overall meaning of the purpose of a church and why it is important to others to have. The church is a public sphere that allows people to express however they would like pertaining to the specific religion that they coincide with. In James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" he expresses his viewpoint of the church and how it has affected him as a person. In this piece for example, he speaks of the "safety" that seems to be synonymous with the idea of the church. That, which will be discussed as you navigate your way through this chapter.
On another hand Social Media has a strong effect on people's view of the public sphere. Specifically in this chapter the social media factor that will be focused on is the hashtag Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a movement that was initially started to highlight the tragic murders or mistreatment conducted to people of color. With such a strong purpose for being created there will automatically be a negative connotation added to it due to the many people that are uneducated on the events happening also racists people that due not see the dehumanization of African Americans worldwide, but most importantly in America. In the #Blacklivesmatter piece by Bijan Stephen the article explains how the hashtag is being used to bring attention to a national problem that has been ignored for years.. The hashtag's organizer mentions that the phenomenon had to have a name to make it a movement. Same as the church view, this will be talked about more in depth later in the chapter.