notes on CRT

 

CRT AND WOKE (Reclaiming the Narrative)

John 17:21–23 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.

•    Tim Keller: under secular critical theory, “reality is at bottom nothing but power.”

•    its proponents reject objective truth, reason, and empirical evidence. Instead, critical theorists assert that only identity and oppression matter.

•    Critical theory [arbitrarily] divides society according to whether one is a member of an oppressor or oppressed group or groups. (No concern for individual distinctions or justice)

Romans 3:23–24 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,

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

•    WHITES DON’T CARE? Derrick Bell argued in his article about Brown v. Board of Education [1954, Segregation unanimously rejected] critical race theory asserts that the majority will only secure civil rights for minorities when it serves the majority’s self-interest. In other words, any concept of altruism or truth is thrown out the window.

•    As a theory with intellectual roots in Marxism, it’s not surprising that CRT and other critical theories view all Western values—including religious freedom, the importance of the nuclear family, and Judeo-Christian conceptions of morality—as inherently oppressive. For example, CRT proponents reject American ideals such as hard work or equal treatment under the law because they view them as rooted in [white] oppression. https://adflegal.org/article/what-critical-race-theory

Exodus 23:2–3 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. [Oppressed vs. Oppressor]

CRT will resort to violence and coercion. Even the cultural Marxist of the Frankfort School, Max Horkheimer, had written “It is not economics that creates oppression but rather the nuclear family, traditional institutions,     and concepts of race, gender and sexual identity. These are the chains of tyranny which must be broken by revolution.”

FORGIVENESS or PAYBACK? Jeremiah 29:4–7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

REVOLUTION? 1 Peter 2:13–15 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.

Documentary, “Better Left Unsaid,”  Curt Jaimungal—tenants of Woke Ideology (CRT):
 
1.     “Evidence of oppression is the inequality between groups” If the designated “oppressed” group does on average worse in some regard than the designated “oppressor” group, that is taken as virtually unassailable proof of “oppression.” (Maybe its proof of how entitlement programs have destroyed the families who have “benefitted”? Justice must be based upon wrongdoing!) (NBA, NFL?)
 
2.     “Oppressed” have a uniquely valuable perspective on reality unavailable to the “oppressors.” Consequently, the white “oppressor” must learn in silence. (Punishment?)

Matthew 18:16 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.
 
Luke 17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”

3.     “Peaceful dialog and understanding between the groups is impossible since the dominant group’s strategy is to retain its power.” Any challenge to the ideology is labeled as self-serving or even as an assault on the “oppressed.”
 
“Oppressed” and “Oppressors?” Romans 3:10–12 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 10:12–13 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

4.     “Violence is justified to eradicate the inequities.”
 
Romans 12:19–21 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.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Ibram X. Kendi, the author of the best-seller, How to Be an Anti-Racist, has written that:
 
•    “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

However, Discrimination is Prohibited in the Bible:
•    Leviticus 19:15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”

•    James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Reverse Racism)

Denial of Justice. A Critical Race Theory (CRT) founder, Derrick Bell, wrote, "The whole liberal worldview of private rights and public sovereignty mediated by the rule of law needed to be exploded." https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2021/06/23/the-movement-against-critical-race-theory-is-deeply-necessary-n2591397

CRT placards cry out “No Justice, No Peace,” “White Silence is White Violence” = Justice according to the mob!

Romans 13:1–2 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
 
NO TRUTH: In “The Key Writings that Formed the Movement”—Kimberlé Crenshaw has written: “Scholarship about race in America can never be written from a distance of detachment or with an attitude of objectivity. . . . Scholarship—the formal production, identification, and organization of what will be called ‘knowledge’—is inevitably political.”

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
 
According to CRT, everything is merely a struggle for power. In Fault Lines, Voddie Baucham, gives an accurate portrait of CRT’s strategy to vilify the “oppressors”:

•    “Systemic racism is the cause of disparities. If you doubt that, it is because you are a racist who wants to protect your power and keep those disparities in place. This has to be true because, if you were not racist, you would know that the cause of disparities is… racism.” (NBA? Entertainment)

Pastor Emeritus Erwin Lutzer—CRT unrelenting criticism (deconstructionism) w/o reconciliation:
•    “What people must understand is that we're living at a time when the conflict and the racial accusations that are being made are intentional, with no hope or desire of any reconciliation or mutual understanding.” (Why?)
 
Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

According to the Marxist, it is all about the struggle for power, and they are determined to seize the power, even at the destruction of their host nation.
 
•    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)

•    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. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13–18)

INEQUALITY? Shelby Steele is 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 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.