WOKE CULTURE – THE PRICE OF APPROVAL

 

 

Yesterday, during a meeting with people of color, it was reported that the deputy socialist mayor of Paris, Audrey Pulvar, said white people should “be asked to keep quiet” when race issues are discussed:

 

·       “People who suffer discrimination for the same reasons and in the same way feel the need to meet among themselves to discuss it,” Audrey Pulvar, who is black, said.

 

·       She added that white people should be allowed to attend the meetings discussing race but added: "They can, however, be asked to keep quiet and be silent spectators." https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/paris-deputy-mayor-race-white-people-asked-be-quiet?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=msn_feed

 

I am concerned because Pulvar’s sentiments presently represent the nature of racial discourse, where it is only permissible to express one set of opinions, those of the “oppressed.” While people are free to congregate according to their common characteristics or interests, the requirement that others must “keep quiet” and just absorb a one-sided presentation is not. Meanwhile, shame, white privilege, and charges of racism are used to divide and silence.

 

Elevating some based on race and to degrade others is not only a betrayal of our democratic principles, but it is also a betrayal of our God who forbids favoritism based upon such superficial characteristics:

·       So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34–35; Romans 2:11; 1 Peter 1:17)

 

If God shows no partiality, we too must not!

 

·       In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. (1 Timothy 5:21)

 

There is no place in the Church for such principles as intersectionality and Critical Race Theory, which privilege those deemed to have been “oppressed” by virtue of sexuality and skin color and degrades those deemed “oppressors” by virtue of these same categories. The latter group is subsequently degraded and held to a higher standard by shaming seminars and is required to remain silent apart from confessing their “sins” of maleness and skin color. Only they must confess their sins. However, we are all sinners, all in need of confession.

 

Instead, the Church is to be governed by the equality and brotherhood:

 

·       My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory…But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:1, 9)

 

Woke and intersectionality divide the church instead of unifying it, contrary to the prayer of our Lord:

 

·       “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20–23; 13:35)

 

We are One. To divide the Church according to race goes directly against the prayer of our Lord. This had also been Paul’s concern about factions within the Church, which elevated one group above another:

 

·       I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:10–12)

 

Today, divisions are entering the Church based upon race and whether we believe in systemic racism and white guilt. And it goes much further – Whether principles of affirmative action should be implemented in the Church in favor of Biblical principles for choosing Church leadership. However, it is only when we unite around Biblical principles that unity can be established (Ephesians 4:1-5). Everything else breeds division and resentment. More importantly, it offends our Savior.

Justice must be based upon the conduct of the individual and not the class or skin color or even the sins of our predecessors:

 

·       “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge.” (Deuteronomy 24:16–17; 2 Kings 14:6; Ezekiel 18:20)

 

In the Church, justice should depend upon witnesses and credible testimony regarding a specific sin, not on racial or sexual identity:

·       Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. (1 Timothy 5:19–21)

 

Justice should not depend on partiality. Excommunication is to be based upon the refusal to repent of a sin and not skin color or other unbiblical standards:

 

·       From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:16–17)

 

We are new creations. Whatever sins we might have committed in the past is covered by the blood of Christ and should not be held against us in the Church.Therefore, we should not be silenced or shunned because of the past. Instead, our Lord offers us equality, an equal place and voice within the Body of Christ:

 

·       There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:28–29)

 

Therefore, we must not cower and take-a-knee because of skin color or the sins of our ancestors. (BTW, all our ancestors have sinned). Instead, we must clothe ourselves with our forgiven and beloved identity in Jesus and reach out to all with His love.