THE AUTHORITY OF THE VOICES OF THE “OPPRESSED”

 

 

In Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe, https://a.co/1CLFiHn, Voddie Baucham, a preacher, professor, cultural apologist, and devoted follower of Christ explains how the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory (CRT)—revealing how it already has infiltrated many Christian institutions and churches, leading to internal denominational conflict, canceled careers, and lost livelihoods.

 

Baucham writes that “the cult of antiracism [CRT] roots every aspect of its worldview in the assertion that everything begins with the creation of whiteness. More specifically, the creation of whiteness with the express purpose of establishing white people as the dominant, hegemonic oppressors and all non-white people as the objects of that oppression”:

 

·       “Without confession to the sin of white racism, white supremacy, white privilege,” contends Sojourners magazine founder Jim Wallis, “people who call themselves white Christians will never be free… from the bondage of a lie, a myth, an ideology, and an idol.” This sentiment is an affront to the Gospel. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). And again, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). But this is the gospel of antiracism, where there is no freedom—at least, not for white people.

 

Baucham cites the author and CRT luminary, Robin DiAngelo, who expands the definition of racism in include any white denials of being racist:

 

·       “Given the dominant conceptualization of racism as individual acts of cruelty, it follows that only terrible people who consciously don’t like people of color can enact racism. Though this conceptualization is misinformed, it is not benign. In fact, it functions beautifully to make it nearly impossible to engage in the necessary dialogue and self-reflection that can lead to change. Outrage at the suggestion of racism is often followed by righteous indignation about the manner in which the feedback was given.”

 

Consequently, whites are now damned if they admit being a racist and damned if they deny it. DiAngelo leaves them no way to escape from their “guilt.” It boils down to this:

 

·       All white people benefit from racism, regardless of intentions; intentions are irrelevant.

 

Guilty until proven innocent – an impossibility! What then is relevant? Guilt by skin color and the alleged “white privilege!” However, this is a matter of wrongly accusing the innocent:

·       “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)

 

Therefore, the insistence that all whites confess to their sin of racism is not Biblical.

Baucham cites Aaron Preston that there is a more sinister purpose behind such allegations – the incitement to violence:

 

·       “Hurling the damning label ‘racist’ at people and systems that don’t deserve it in order to incite revolutionary outrage is exactly the kind of subversive linguistic manipulation prescribed in [the grievance studies] playbook.”

 

What evidence do CRTs have for their inflammatory allegations? None now that all of the laws supporting segregation have been struck down! Instead, according to Baucham:

 

·       antiracists also cry foul when issues like out-of-wedlock birthrates, criminality, and cultural norms enter into the discussion. Furthermore, as we will see, it also explains why the mere reliance on things like facts, statistics, or the scientific method are actually seen as racist.

 

However, CRTs gladly make use of stats to demonstrate the black/white disparities as evidence for systemic racism. However, Baucham points out that disparities, by themselves, fail to argue in favor of racism, any more than the predominance of blacks in the NBA argues in favor of systematic racism against whites and Asians.

 

What then is authoritative for the CRT “antiracist?” What should form our opinions? It is the stories of the “oppressed.” Baucham cites CRT Thabiti Anyabwile who wrote:

 

·       Don’t “whitesplain.” Do not explain racism to a POC. Do not explain how the microaggression they just experienced was actually just someone being nice. Do not explain how a particular injustice is more about class than race. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but you can avoid it by maintaining a posture of active listening.

 

Listening can serve as an expression of Christian love and caring. Relationships depend on listening. However, for the CRT, listening and learning is a one-way street, a planned role-reversal, where the whites now must learn from the “oppressed.” Whites are not entitled to speak. This means that the “oppressed” are entitled to correct their “white oppressors,” but not the other way around. As one angry POC explained to me, “It’s now time for a role-reversal.” Christian forgiveness has been replaced by paying penance.

 

However, the Bible does require us to correct one another, but it is not according to skin color or belonging those deemed “oppressed”:

 

·       Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

However, an individual transgressor is to be restored “in a spirit of gentleness,” not in a spirit of moral superiority. Besides, to establish that a transgression has taken place requires witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15).

The Church is now adopting this strategy without realizing or acknowledging its Marxist source:

 

·       “CRT recognizes that the experiential knowledge of People of Color is legitimate, appropriate, and critical to understanding, analyzing and teaching about racial subordination,” wrote University of California scholar Tara J. Yosso in Race Ethnicity and Education. “Of course, the knowledge yielded by the standpoint of the proletariat stands on a higher scientific plane objectively,” wrote Georg Lukács of the [neo-Marxist] Frankfurt School. (Baucham)

 

Certainly, there is much we can learn about oppression from those who have genuinely been oppressed:

 

·       “The voice-of-color thesis,” writes CRT Richard Delgado, “holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, American Indian, Asian, and Latino writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know.” (Baucham)

 

While this is true, CRT proponents will not acknowledge that there is anything that the “oppressed” can learn from whites. However, they are just as subject to sin as their “oppressors” (Romans 3:10-16). Baucham also observes that the CRT’s groupings of “oppressed’ and “oppressors” are far from homogenous, as CRT presupposes:

 

·       it assumes there is a black perspective all black people...Of course, no one will admit this since it is obviously racist...it argues that white people’s only access to this perspective comes from elevating and heeding black voices.

 

According to CRTs Sensoy and DiAngelo, truth is “socially constructed.” In “Is Everyone Really Equal?” They question whether true objectivity is “desirable, or even possible”:

 

·       “When we refer to knowledge as socially constructed, we mean that knowledge is reflective of the values and interests of those who produce it. This term captures the understanding that all content and all means of knowing are connected to a social context.”

 

While they are correct about many values, beliefs, and even laws, there is no way that this can pertain to all values and beliefs. If so, then even the CRT would lack any objective standard to critique what is wrong with this world. From their perspective, Sensoy and DiAngelo are expressing nothing more than their own personal values and preferences. Therefore, Baucham concludes:

 

·       This is why critical theorists believe that the quest for objectivity is tantamount to a quest for white supremacy...

 

How then are racial divisions within the Church to be handled? According to CRT, it takes place by listening to the feelings and experiences of the “oppressed,” who speak from a morally superior position. However, we all must speak the truth in love (Romans 4:15):

·       If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:8–9)

 

Consequently, lacking any objective peace-making truth, for CRT, everything is a self-interested struggle for power. This analysis can only lead to counter-struggle to gain supremacy. However, this does not accord to the wisdom of God:

·       Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. (James 3:13–17)

 

We know wisdom by the fruit it bears. The more CRT and antiracism programs have entered into both society and into the Church, the more conflict they have borne – bitterness and division. However, our Biblical answers pertain more than ever:

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:7–9)

MELCHIZEDEK: A CHRISTOPHANY OR ANOTHER GOD-LIKE BEING

 

 

The study of Christ’s appearances (Christophanies) in the Hebrew Scriptures (OT) is a faith builder. They demonstrate the intricate design of the Bible as the one unified plan of God.

 

For example, Abraham had a mysterious and perhaps supernatural encounter with a priest named Melchizedek, whose name means " King of Righteousness." 

 

Supernatural? Abraham had been having a discussion with the King of Sodom, and it seems to have been interrupted by the appearance of Melchizedek, who then disappeared without any indication that the King of Sodom had been aware of his coming or going.

 

Melchizedek is also described as the “priest of the Most High God” and the “King of Salem,” meaning "peace," in Hebrew.

 

·       For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:1–3)

 

If “Melchizedek” is more than a name but also his description – “" King of Righteousness," then perhaps also his designation as the “King of Salem,” meaning “peace” is also a description of his identity. Stated another way:

“Melchizedek” = " King of Righteousness"

“King of Salem” = “King of Peace”

 

Perhaps then Melchizedek wasn’t an actual king, but as written, “a priest forever.” Instead, “peace” is reminiscent of one of the descriptions of the Messiah:

 

·       For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

 

Could Melchizedek be a Christophany? Abraham recognized His authority and gave tithes to Him (Genesis 14:20; see also Psalm 110). Melchizedek seems to be more than human. We are told that he had no parents:

 

·       He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:3)

 

Only God has no parents or beginning and end. Therefore, Melchizedek must have been a Christophany – an appearance of Jesus. Judging from Abraham’s subsequent actions, this encounter seems to have been transformative for the patriarch. He gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had won when he rescued Lot. Why? Perhaps it was because Melchizedek had convincingly revealed to him that his victory over the marauders had been a gift from God:

 

·       After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:17-20)

 

Right after this, the often cowardly Abraham (Genesis 20:13), based on the revelation he received from Melchizedek, confidently declared to the King of Sodom that he would take none of the plunder that had been won. Why? Perhaps, Abraham had been convinced about the Personhood of the Priest Melchizedek.

 

Hebrews even gives us a hint that the Priesthood of Melchizedek could bring perfection:

·       Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? (Hebrews 7:11)

 

Only God can bring perfection. Why then do some doubt that Melchizedek is an appearance of Jesus? The answer is based upon a single word – “another.” They argue that Jesus is another and not Melchizedek:

 

·       This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. (Hebrews 7:15–16)

 

Is Melchizedek is distinct from Jesus or Another? Both are described here as having “an indestructible life.” Both them must be God and still functioning as king and priest. To avoid the idea of a fourth Person of the Trinity, it is far more consistent with the Scriptures to regard Melchizedek as a Christophany, as another appearance of Jesus.

 

MARXISM DESIGNED FOR THE CHURCH

 

 

My wife and I had visited a church hosting racial reconciliation meetings, something very close to our heart and also to Jesus’. He had prayed:

 

·       “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)

 

We were informed that we were required to read their document containing operational definitions. (WWW.RACIALEQUITYTOOLS.ORG) We assumed that this would provide a helpful orientation and gladly read it.

 

The first term we encountered was “ally”:

 

“An “ally” is defined as “Someone who makes the commitment and effort to recognize their privilege (based on gender, class, race, sexual identity, etc.) and work in solidarity with oppressed groups in the struggle for justice…Allies commit to reducing their own complicity or collusion in oppression of those groups and invest in strengthening their own knowledge and awareness of oppression.”

 

I was surprised to find that the document didn’t include  a biblical analysis of sin or a teaching to achieve reconciliation. Instead, sin had been redefined as “complicity or collusion in oppression of those groups and invest in strengthening their own knowledge and awareness of oppression.” Besides, to be accepted in this group, we’d first have to become an “ally” and adopt their understanding.

 

Well, what if I didn’t see my “collusion in oppression?” What if I didn’t see that I had benefitted from my “privileged” position? Was this a sin? Would I then be an “unrepentant sinner?” According to this definition, I was sinning by failing to acknowledge my complicity. This made me wonder that if we bought something at the supermarket or paid taxes, we are also sinfully “colluding” with a sinful economic system.

 

Was Jesus in sin because He benefited (colluded with) from the evil Roman rule to preach for three years against the Jewish establishment. The Apostles benefitted from Pax Romana to travel an empire without borders to preach the Gospel. Did taking advantage of this cruel empire constitute sinful collusion? Were Nehemiah and Joseph sinfully colluding with their sinful kings as they served directly under them? It did not seem likely.

 

Paul took it one step further and privileged himself by claiming the privilege of Roman citizenship, something available to only a chosen few. Clearly, this too was not a sin. However, these “progressive” solutions indict whites for having been “privileged” by a “racist, sexist, and homophobic system.” However, this isn’t the way that the Bible defines sin:

 

• ·       For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)

 

I certainly could love my neighbor even if I refused to sign on as an “ally.” But we are all sinners. Therefore, every system is also tarnished by sin:

 

• ·       as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12)

 

I later discovered that Critical Race Theorists (CRTs), who had constructed the “Equity” document, would have us believe that some are exempt from at least the sin of racism and collusion, because of their status as powerless “oppressed.”

 

However, it became apparent that if I am not an “ally,” I would also be deemed guilty of the next term:

 

 “Collusion” is ‘When people act to perpetuate oppression or prevent others from working to eliminate oppression.’”

 

Since I do not see any present systemic oppression – yes, I do see racism but manifested within all classes of people – I could not honestly be “working to eliminate oppression.” But what oppressive laws do we now have? If anything, our laws have been readjusted to favor those deemed as “oppressed” or “disadvantaged.”

 

Collusion? Christians are a favorite target of the Left, since we willingly “collude” with the government:

• ·       Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. (1 Peter 2:13–15)

 

If this were a matter with colluding with a Hitler or a Stalin in mass genocide, it would be one thing, but colluding with a government seeking the welfare of its citizens is another thing. Is our government significantly more evil than Marxist governments? If so, this must be established by witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15) who can testify according to tangible evidences. However, justice does not seem to be the goal of CRT but the destruction of the existing powers.

 

According to the “Bible-Believing” church that had sponsored the racial reconciliation group, I was also guilty of preventing others from “working to eliminate oppression.” I had sent them a list of my reservations about their program, which they forwarded to their pastor. Several parties wrote to tell me I was not welcome at both their church or their group.

 

Does skin colors make us guilty of collusion as part of the group deemed “oppressors?” If this group takes the Bible seriously, they would know that we cannot judge according to color or ancestry:

 

• ·       “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.” (Deuteronomy 24:16)

 

The next term demonstrated that collusion was a matter of having the wrong beliefs:

 

“Cultural Racism…refers to representations, messages and stories conveying the idea that behaviors and values associated with white people or “whiteness” are automatically “better” or more “normal” than those associated with other racially defined groups. Cultural racism shows up in advertising, movies, history books, definitions of patriotism, and in policies and laws. Cultural racism is also a powerful force in maintaining systems of internalized supremacy and internalized racism. It does that by influencing collective beliefs about what constitutes appropriate behavior, what is seen as beautiful, and the value placed on various forms of expression.”

 

Although there still must be whites who look down on blacks, there are also blacks who look down on whites as morally inferior and as “oppressors.” Indicting entire groups of people is sinful but is endemic to our sinful human condition. Thankfully, Biblical law doesn’t require us to judge the heart and its motives, something that we are incapable of doing, as the Lord had warned His Prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 16:7).

 

However, CRT denigrates and devalues whites for their alleged beliefs and motives – guilty until proven innocent. Instead, it is the system and its elites who are doing all they can to denigrate straight, white, Christian males.

 

This is racism. In contrast, the Bible forbids judgment based on skin color, wealth, national origin, or even according to our beliefs but according to our behaviors:

 

• ·       “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.” (Exodus 23:2-3)

 

Instead, it is plainly evident that CRT’s remedy divides, inflames, and breeds hatred, and violence. It wrongly tells their “oppressed” groups that the system is still racist and still oppresses. No wonder the crime rate is soaring and hatred abounds. In contrast, the Bible offers equality, brotherhood, forgiveness, and love. Nevertheless, CRT deconstructs, in every way possible, this culture as corrupt and, therefore, needs to be overturned:

 

“Implicit Bias” is “Also known as unconscious or hidden bias, implicit biases are negative associations that people unknowingly hold. They are expressed automatically, without conscious awareness. Many studies have indicated that implicit biases affect individuals’ attitudes and actions, thus creating real-world implications, even though individuals may not even be aware that those biases exist within themselves.”

 

Perhaps it is CRT that harbors the bulk of “implicit bias?” Even if we are genuinely ignorant of “implicit bias,” we are still the guilty “oppressors,” who must be re-educated by the “oppressed,” who are assumed to be free of any such biases and who can better appraise the “implicit bias” of the system. Jesus warned against such unbiblical judging:

• ·       “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you…You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1–2, 5)

 

Have the CRTs examined themselves to remove areas of their blindness? They simply assume that the “oppressors” are blind while they, who claim to be woke, can see.

However, for CRT, racism seems to run deeper than anything Christian confession can touch or correct:

 

 “Individual Racism… refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can be deliberate, or the individual may act to perpetuate or support racism without knowing that is what he or she is doing.”

 

It seems that only whites can be guilty of racism, while non-whites are exempt and are justified in saying any demeaning words against white males.  They cannot be racist. The group leader wrote me that “reverse racism…is NOT real and doesn't exist.” The good guys – the “oppressed” – are not capable of wrong, while the whites must be re-educated or else. This is a double-standard that will surely embitter and further divide the Church. However, Jesus had warned:

• ·       “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

 

Critical Theorists just criticize the prevailing culture and those associated with it. No mention of the equality and mutual love we are to share in Christ:

 

• ·       “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

 

Instead, the Marxist program hypocritically uses racism to counteract racism. This is like using gasoline to counteract a fire. CRT’s multiple degrading definitions pour out racist allegations:

 

 “Institutional Racism…refers specifically to the ways in which institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different racial groups…” “Internalized Racism…is the situation that occurs in a racist system when a racial group oppressed by racism supports the supremacy and dominance of the dominating group by maintaining or participating in the set of attitudes.”

 

“People of color” are no more than victims of a “racist system.” They are so oppressed that they have been programmed to support “the supremacy and dominance of the dominating group.” Therefore, if you are a person of color who supports this “racist system,” you have fallen prey to its deception and are blind and pathetic.

 

Consequently, since people of color are blinded by the system, they are pawns and no longer responsible for their behavior. What a demeaning characterization! Only Whites are responsible and guilty. The only alternative is to overthrow this white system.

 

By now RACIAL EQUITY TOOLS’ purpose should be clear. Whites are the bad guys, who need re-education, not just confession, and people-of-color are the oppressed, and anyone who disagrees with their assessment is a racist and must be silenced.

 

Does this sound like racial reconciliation or polarization, division, and antagonism, the very increase we have observed over this past decade? More importantly, the above does not represent the wisdom of the Bible. Brotherhood requires Biblical equality:

 

• ·       For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on 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. (Galatians 3:27-28)

 

Christ is the equalizer. We are required to maintain His unity:

 

• ·       I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3)

 

If there are real grievances, they must be addressed. Instead, jealousy and bitterness over class distinctions reign. Christian unity is our hope and the model for peace and human thriving:

 

• ·       If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:26)

 

• ·       Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:9-10)

 

Instead of attempting to overthrow the repressive Roman system, Jesus taught us to render unto the oppressive Caesar the things that are Caesars. What did the life of Jesus look like:

 

• ·       Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)

 

Although we are counseled to “turn the other cheek,” this doesn’t mean that offenses within the Church are to be overlooked. Instead, Jesus had given us a pattern for intervention:

 

• ·       “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

 

With repentance, there should be immediate reconciliation and healing. However, repentance is not possible where the offense consists of alleged ideas or even the sins of our forefathers:

 

• ·       Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:19-20)

 

However, according to CRT, whites are incurably sinful. However, all of us are taught to examine ourselves:

 

• ·       Let a person examine himself…But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:28–31)

 

The condition of the “oppressed” will not be improved by blaming others for their problems. Nor will it please our Lord. Pastor and founder of a seminary in Zambia, Voddie Baucham Jr, refers to CRT as an alternative religion although:

 

• ·       Antiracism [CRT] offers no salvation—only perpetual penance in an effort to battle an incurable disease. And all of it begins with pouring new meaning into well-known words (Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe; https://a.co/fnR8AGz)

 

• ·       the cult of antiracism [CRT] roots every aspect of its worldview in the assertion that everything begins with the creation of whiteness. More specifically, the creation of whiteness with the express purpose of establishing white people as the dominant, hegemonic oppressors and all non-white people as the objects of that oppression.

 

Shelby Steele is a columnist, documentary film maker, and a Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, Steele argues that the black community now suffers more through paternalistic programs and the victimization narrative than they do from their Jim Crow legacy:

 

• ·       What I've encountered in my life, most often in the white world, is good will, is people have who have wanted to help me. When I was younger and starting a career, people who mentored me, who really felt it was important to give me the best opportunity to pursue my dreams. And my sense is that that's really been an experience for most blacks who have tried to venture out and develop themselves.

 

• ·       One of the most remarkable things in all of human history is the degree of moral evolution, that white Americans have made from the mid-60s to this day. No group of people in history have morally evolved away from a social evil that quickly and to that degree in this sort of short span of time. And very often, in our calculations in thinking about race, we don't give whites credit for that.

 

While there is always room for criticism, there should also be a place for credit and praise. However, CRT has never found room for the latter two.