Christians are required to pursue justice and to expose it
(Ephesians 5:11). However, the definition of “injustice” has been expanded
beyond recognition and is accompanied by threats like, “No Justice, No Peace,”
or “White Silence is White Violence.” Translated, it means, “If you are
unwilling to acknowledge the injustice, you are guilty of the violence.”
This is some of the reasoning that arises out of Critical
Theory (CT), specifically Critical Race Theory (CRT). CT criticizes and
deconstructs everything in the culture that it seeks to replace.
But what if we do not see their alleged “injustices?) This
means that we are simply blinded by our “racist” society and need to be
re-educated by reading prescribed books and listening to stories of the
“oppressed.” In other words, the “oppressor” needs to be indoctrinated. Without
a change in their worldview, the “oppressor” is guilty of supporting “oppression”
even if unaware of their role: “White Silence is White Violence!”
Contrary to Scripture, this divisive and militant mindset
has entered the Church where it demands conformity. “No Conformity, No Peace”
has replaced our essential unity and brotherhood in Christ. No longer are we to
be judged by our behavior but by our color and group designation. Instead, if
you belong to an “oppressed” group, you are to be privileged. This is
“affirmative action” repackaged for church consumption. However, we already
have Biblical principles for choosing church leadership (Titus 1; 1Timothy 3).
Faithfulness to God through the Bible and its truths cannot be replaced by any
other considerations without displeasing God. Racial favoritism will not only
undermine our unity in Christ (Ephesians 4:1-5), but also violates Jesus’
prayer for oneness:
·
“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)
Admittedly, any injustice in the Church will undermine our
oneness in Jesus. However, “injustice,” “sin,” and “crime” have become redefined
and politicized to now extend beyond the criminal act and its perpetrator. Instead,
guilt is now arbitrarily attributed to groupings of people, the “oppressors.”
For example, the abuse of women no longer simply focuses on the guilt of the
abuser but has extended to the guilt of males, maleness, and male dominance who
has “caused” these offenses:
◦ ...violence against women is a tremendous injustice,
contemporary critical theory [CT] would define oppression to include not only
these gross manifestations of misogyny, but the entire system of ostensible
male supremacy and social dominance. As long as men still impose their “male”
norms and values on culture, women are an oppressed group that needs to be
liberated. (Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer; “Engaging Critical Theory and the
Social Justice Movement,” pdf)
According to Shenvi and Sawyer, CT’s Marxist-based social
justice/social change goals have replaced and even demonized Biblical and
traditional values:
◦ Moreover, there are cases in which virtues like marital
fidelity, modesty, or civility will be problematized as constructs of oppressor
groups that need to be challenged rather than obligations that need to be
honored. (Shenvi)
Why are such previously unchallenged values now regarded as
tools of control and oppression? CT and CRT have left out any consideration of
objective concepts of truth and justice. They have been ignored in favor of
CT’s critique of how the “oppressors” use their power to maintain control.
Shenvi writes:
◦ Robin DiAngelo states, “Whites also produce and reinforce
the dominant narratives of society – such as individualism and meritocracy –
and use these narratives to explain the positions of other racial groups.” Critical
pedagogue, Paulo Freire, contends, “The oppressors do not perceive their
monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves,
they cannot see that...for them, having more is an inalienable right...More and
more, the oppressors are using science and technology as unquestionable
powerful instruments for their purpose: the maintenance of the oppressive
order.”
Guilt, therefore, is a matter of allegedly partaking in the “dominant
narratives of society,” even if only unconscious. According to CT, even science
(and every other discipline) is used for the sake of maintaining their
privilege, even if they are not aware of it. Therefore, the stories of the
“oppressed” must be heeded instead of the prevailing social narratives, as if
they are free from their own sinful motives. However, the Bible places us all
in the same camp - sinners who need the Savior:
◦ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)
Therefore, as brethren in Christ, cannot live according to
two separate standards - a favorable standard for the “oppressed” and another
for the white “oppressor.” This is blatant racist favoritism. Scripture refuses
to sanction this:
◦ 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)
From the CT perspective, everything is a matter of power and
control, even if the power is wielded subconsciously. Consequently, this means
that all our laws are the products of the ruling class to protect their own
interests, without any consideration if they are just and the God-given laws
inscribed upon the conscience of humanity. Consequently, everything is
subjective and the cynical “will to power.”
However, for the CTs, these are simply Western biases
maintained for the purpose of control:
“The idea that objectivity is best reached only through
rational thought is a specifically Western and masculine way of thinking...”
(Shenvi)
Hence, CT criticism of the alleged motives of the “oppressors”
has replaced any common language by which we had once been able to resolve
disputes. If rational thought is rejected, how then does CTs defend their
claims? Rationally? No, but by the stories of the “oppressed,” the new orthodoxy!
But is there any rational reason to choose their experiences over those of
others?
Instead, CT thrives on denigrating the motives of whites. CRT
advocate Ibram Kendi tweeted out:
◦ you know, many White people adopt Black kids -- because
Amy Coney Barrett has two adopted Black children -- many White people adopt
Black children to use them as props. It doesn’t mean they’re not racist.
https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/john-cooper-skillet-critical-theory
If you are white, there is no way you can prove that you are
not a racist, not even with the most self-sacrificial acts. Instead, you are
condemned along with your “racist society” for your alleged racist motives and beliefs.
In contrast, the teachings on Christian love requires that we give others the
benefit of the doubt:
◦ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it
is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable
or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
Instead, witnesses are required to establish guilt
(Deuteronomy 19:15), not empty allegations. CT and Christianity agree regarding
their opposition to oppression. However, their means of countering it differ.
Shenvi explains CT’s thrust:
◦ “We are members of social groups locked in a struggle for
power. Our primary identity comes from our relationship to other groups.
Suffering is caused by systems of oppression. Our purpose in life is to fight
against the subjugation of dominant groups, so that we can eventually achieve a
state of equity.”
This is a prescription for eternal conflict. It uses racism
to hypocritically promote “anti-racism.” What happens when the “oppressed” assume
power and become the “oppressors,” as we observe today? In contrast, the
Christian approach is one of peace and love:
◦ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse
them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony
with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be
wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what
is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live
peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath
of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
(Romans 12:14-19)
Journalist Christopher F. Rufo, founder and director of Battlefront,
has compiled over 1000 examples of how CT exercises its influence:
·
The Department of Homeland Security was telling
white employees they were committing “microinequities” and had been “socialized
into oppressor roles.” The Treasury Department held a training session telling
staff members that “virtually all white people contribute to racism” and that
they must convert “everyone in the federal government” to the ideology of
“antiracism.” And the Sandia National Laboratories, which designs America’s
nuclear arsenal, sent white male executives to a three-day reeducation camp,
where they were told that “white male culture” was analogous to the “KKK,”
“white supremacists,” and “mass killings.” The executives were then forced to
renounce their “white male privilege” and write letters of apology to
fictitious women and people of color. (Imprimis; March 2021; Volume 50;
Number 3; pg.3)
“Re-education” has become the new Gulag:
·
In Cupertino, California, an elementary school
forced first-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, and
rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” In Springfield,
Missouri, a middle school forced teachers to locate themselves on an
“oppression matrix,” based on the idea that straight, white, English-speaking, Christian
males are members of the oppressor class and must atone for their privilege and
“covert white supremacy.” In Philadelphia, an elementary school forced
fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate a Black Power rally
to free 1960s radical Angela Davis from prison, where she had once been held on
charges of murder. And in Seattle, the school district told white teachers that
they are guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and must “bankrupt
[their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.” (Rufo)
Our children are increasingly being consigned to the new
Gulag, without any concern for their welfare. They are being confused by adult
encouragement to explore and to even choose their own sexuality to add new
numbers to the “oppressed” classes. There is no reason to believe that once
Marxist CT has the power to silence all their critics, it will do so using
whatever methods necessary. What had started with the deconstruction of
American and Western history, enforced
conformity to “political correctness,” enforced by threats and indiscriminate
charges of racism, has already advanced to the “cancel culture,” with no sign
of stopping. The Church must raise its voice, even for its own survival.
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