Many of us are wondering how the racism inherent in Woke and
Critical Race Theory (CRT) could ever have found a welcome in the Church. What
has made these racist theories palatable?
Dr. Michelle Reyes is a speaker, author, CRT activist, and
the Vice President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative who has
written for TGC and the ERLC. In her website, she has written appealingly in
favor of CRT:
· White
privilege relies on racialization, a system of values that says one group of
people is superior to all others because of the color of their skin. This
system has been weaponized to justify the cruel treatment of and discrimination
toward non-white people throughout American history. White privilege is both a
cause and legacy of racism. It is a conscious act rooted in historic
inequities, and it continues to reinforce systemic racism today. When it comes
to racial trauma, displacement, the cruel treatment and discrimination of people
of color, or the country’s history of slavery, we have to acknowledge the role
of white privilege.
Historically, of course, slavery has been a blight upon our
USA history and a good example of white privilege. It had served as a useful
way to justify the brutalities of slavery and segregation.
However, slavery has been a stain upon all peoples and
civilizations, upon people of color and whites. The CRT narrative conveniently
forgets that fact that it had been black people who had kidnapped other blacks
to sell them into slavery to both whites and people of color. Even today,
Muslims carry on black slavery. Native Americans had also done so with other
Native Americans. Why then simply denigrate whites based upon this practice!
Reyes insists that whites are still trying to hold on
to their “privilege,” but where is the evidence for this? Instead, whites seem
to be so motivated by guilt and/or compassion that they are desperately trying
to make amends for the sins of this nation. This has impelled them to implement
many programs with the intentions of helping, even though they had inadvertently
harmed the black community. Corporate America has even helped to fund the
racist BLM. Reyes continues:
· But
if we aren’t willing to sit with the weight of guilt when it comes to the sins
of racism, we will never understand that we are the problem. Unless we
acknowledge the existence of white privilege, we can’t understand our own
complicity in it.
Instead, white America has done much to acknowledge its sinful
past. 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.
Instead of the continual denigration of an already guilt-ridden
white America, we need some Biblical perspective. We are all sinners who need
to confess and to turn from our sins (Romans 3:23). To place guilt on the backs
of only one skin color is racist, and its fruit is mutual destruction.
While it is true that whites, on the average, fare better
economically and educationally than blacks, Reyes and CRT believe that these
disparities are the result of systemic racism (SR), even if unintentional. Even
if they cannot prove this, they can still dogmatically claim that racism lurks
in the heart of every white:
· Each
of us needs to do the hard work of examining our own biases and actions. We
cannot separate the past from our present. They are interconnected. Repenting
for the sins of historic slavery and its current iterations in our society is a
necessary step in beginning to work toward a more equitable and just future,
both inside and outside the church. (Reyes)
When does repentance for the same sin cease? For how long
must the nation punish itself for its racist sins? Will there ever be
forgiveness. Will we ever be able to move on?
Sin continues to claw at each one of us, whether in the form
of selfishness, covetousness, or unforgiveness. We are all in the same boat. Consequently,
we all need to examine ourselves. This is the road to brotherhood,
equality, and dignity rather than to bearing false witness and growing racial
divisions. But have we instead embraced hatred?
Reyes wrongly assumes that once racist, always racist. This
is clearly untrue. Every law that had maintained SR has been struck from the
books, sometimes replaced by laws that favor those deemed to be “oppressed.”
Does SR still clandestinely exist? Racist temptations
dangerously abound across the color spectrum. However, this nation has already
eliminated all forms of SR from the books. We must give credit where credit is
due!
I am encouraged by my many black brethren who courageously
acknowledge that change must begin in our own hearts and then to extend to our
own communities.
Voddie Baucham (“Fault Lines”), has been willing to subject
himself to abuse by challenging the SR narrative. According to Baucham, the
evidence against systemic racism is impressive:
·
According to federal Bureau of Justice Statistics,
in interracial violence involving blacks and whites, white perpetrators account
for 15 percent of the cases while black perpetrators account for 85 percent. In
other words, far from there being an epidemic of whites “hunting down innocent,
unarmed black men,” when it comes to interracial violence, black people are
overwhelmingly more likely to victimize white people than the other way around.
(Baucham, 166)
·
A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be
killed by a black assailant than an unarmed black man is to be killed by a cop.
(Baucham, 166)
Baucham has even written:
·
I reject the idea that America is “characterized
by racism,” or that racism is an unavoidable byproduct of our national DNA. In
fact, I believe America is one of the least racist countries in the world.
(201)
Ironically, the way up is the way down, by humbling
ourselves to acknowledge our sins and need before a God, who is waiting for us
to turn to Him:
·
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
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