It was Karl Marx who famously penned "religion is the opiate of the masses." Not a big fan of religion was he. You might expect the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement to have the same view, but you'd be wrong.
Co-founder Patrisse Cullors is not only a follower of Ifá, a West African religious system of divination and ancestral worship, she is a priestess in the cult. Here she is offering a "prayer" to other departed w̶i̶t̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ female practitioners of magic:
Did I guess your reaction?
"Yeah, but this is just her personal view." Think again. BLM works toward not only racial justice, but what they call "healing justice." Los Angeles BLM leader Dr. Melina Abdullah clarifies that BLM is "first and foremost, a spiritual movement, as she offers chants and offerings while reciting the names of African-Americans killed by law enforcement.
Others like Dr. James Thomas, pastor of Living Word Community Church, form a syncretistic view that "aims to integrate elements of African spirituality like pouring libations and invoking the presence of deceased relatives into Black Christianity."
Remember when BLM emphasized saying the names of the victims? Thought that was just emphasizing their humanity?
Wrong.
Necromancer Cullors explicitly states:
"When we say the names, right, so we speak their names, we say her name, say their names, we do that all the time that, you kind of invoke that spirit, and then those spirits actually become present with you… Spirituality is at the center of Black Lives Matter, and I think that's not just for us, I feel like so many, um, leaders and so many organizers, um, are deeply engaged and in a pretty, um, important spiritual practice."
