CRT – POWER, CONTROL, AND CONFLICT

 

 

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a founding critical race theorist (CRT) and law professor has written:

 

·       "Critical race theory is a practice. It's an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it.”

https://www.christianpost.com/books/owen-strachan-says-critical-race-theory-is-threat-to-the-church.html

 

CRT is an approach to analyze humanity’s quest for power and control. However, it is a limited and one-sided analysis. It leaves out any consideration of truth and evidence. How? The history of humankind is the history of the selfish and sinful exercise of power, not just of white people but of all people, not just of white slave- traders and slave-masters but also of the black kidnappers who sold their people to whites.

 

However, CRT is also a weapon used to specifically divide and denigrate whites. It has elevated those it deems as “oppressed” and aware (Woke or awake), while the white “oppressors” are regarded as ignorant, at best. Therefore, the “oppressed” are to become the leaders and teachers, while the white “oppressors” are to learn in abject silence. Forget considerations of justice and equality! It’s a racist role reversal.

 

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.”

 

Interestingly, racism has become a key ingredient of CRT’s “anti-racism” program!

 

Marxists use CRT and Woke to destroy and replace the prevailing system. Pastor Emeritus Erwin Lutzer perceptively has written:

 

·       “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 not? According to the Marxist, it is all about the struggle for power, and they are determined to seize the power, even at the expense of their host nation.

 

In Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel - and the Way to Stop It, Owen Strachan wrote that CRT include the concept of “wokeness”:

 

·       "The term itself means that one is ‘awake’ to the true nature of the world when so many are asleep," the book reads. "In the most specific terms, this means one sees the comprehensive inequity of our social order and strives to highlight power structures in society that stem from racial privilege. In intellectual terms, wokeness occurs when one embraces … Critical Race Theory.”

 

According to Woke, the oppressed are those who are awake. Consequently, if we want to understand “systemic racism” and “white privilege,” the Woke are the ones who can educate the ignorant “oppressors,” even if they are shooting one another in the streets of urban America. In order for the “oppressors” to redeem themselves, they must take a knee and acknowledge that they have been the “oppressors” even if only in ignorance. Nevertheless, if white, they remain, by nature, oppressors. This is a recipe of division and continual conflict.

 

It is divisive, unbiblical, racist, an endless struggle to maintain power, and creates a new form of oppression of those “awake” against the “ignorant racists.”

 

In contrast, the Bible preaches love and peace:

 

·       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.” 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. (Romans 12:14-21)

 

It is these truths that had once built the West. It is the rejection of these truths that is once again plunging the world into chaos, destruction, and genocide. Why? CRT and its Marxist parent are the antithesis of wisdom and peace:

·       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)

THE BOOK OF HOSEA

 

 

The Prophet Hosea’s service extended from King Uzziah to King Hezekiah. It is a book about unfaithfulness - Israel’s unfaithfulness and Gomer’s unfaithfulness to her husband Hosea. However, both instances end in messages of hope.

 

Both illustrate a problem that we have with our God: “Why aren’t our lives easier? While we have been promised the world, we live in despair. Where are your promised blessings?”

 

There are many possible reasons why our Lord withholds His blessings until His return - to kindle within us a hatred of sin, a hunger for the next life, and teaching us Christlikeness and dependence on Him alone! However, the Book of Hosea also focuses on another reason for a blessing-lean diet. We do not profit from a blessings-rich diet. When God would bless Israel, they would become proud and seek greater pleasures:

 

·       “The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.” (Hosea 4:7)

 

When Israel became unaware of their need, they also departed from God in favor of pagan practice and their desires:

 

·       “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more [pagan] altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his [pagan] pillars.” (Hosea 10:1)

 

When needs are satisfied, we turn to pleasures, and pride jumps in to tell us, “You are entitled to your pleasures. You have worked hard for them. Don’t let your conscience tell you otherwise.”

 

·       “but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.” (Hosea 13:6)

 

When things are going too well for us, we become proud, self-satisfied, and forget the Lord. God had revealed to the Apostle Paul that even his revelations would produce pride. Therefore, He allowed Satan to afflict Paul to teach him that depending upon God would be his protection:

 

·       But he [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I [Paul] will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

 

When we are hurting and humbled, we want to stay close to our Savior. We examine ourselves lest the slightest sin might be blocking us from the Lord. However, Israel was too well-fed, and had little appetite for their Lover:

 

·       “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.” (Hosea 5:15)

 

However, Israel’s cries for mercy would only last as long as her distress. God would have to intervene unilaterally:

 

·       “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.” (Hosea 14:4-7; 2:18-19)

 

This is Israel’s only hope. It is also ours.

SELF-DESPAIR AND MY MELTDOWNS

 

I still have periodic meltdowns and self-despair. Mine are due primarily from fears of failure and actual personal failures and weaknesses. Yours might stem from other causes, but, in any case, experiencing painful bouts of self-despair are needful (2 Corinthians 1:8-10; 4:7-11) and common to all Christians.

 

Let me share with you the positive things that come forth from these times of self-despair (SD). It teaches us:

 

To Trust in the Lord: 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

 

We love to be in control and to be convinced that we have whatever it takes to “make it.” Paul had to learn that he was unable to cope without the help of the Lord. If we are to trust in the Lord, we need to learn this same lesson.

 

To Open our Eyes to the Words of God, as nothing else can: Psalm 119:71-72 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”

 

I know that I would never have submitted my heart and mind to God’s Word unless I desperately need to. Instead, I would have trusted in my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 

 

To More Deeply Appreciate God’s Love for Unworthy Me: Psalm 34:18-19

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

 

His love and acceptance of me has enabled me to accept myself, warts and all. Knowing that I am beloved has freed from the life-controlling need to always have to prove I am worthy. His love has enabled me to be authentic and to even boast in my infirmities and failures (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

 

 

To Teach a Greater Gratitude: Psalm 71:23-24 “My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.”

 

The more that SD teaches me that I cannot trust in my own righteousness, the more I love Him. The more I perceive that I cannot make it without Him, the more I adore Him for being there for me. This also pertains to my wife. The more I despair of myself, the more grateful I am to have her. When I thought more highly of myself, the more discontent I had been with her.

 

When I perceive, as the Psalmist had, that Jesus has delivered me from despair and threat on so many occasions, I now trust He will continue to deliver me. I am grateful for this.

 

My God has always rescued me from my meltdowns when all hope was lost and only doom stood in my path. Therefore, I gladly praise Him.

 

However, in my earlier years as a Christian, I went through such hard times that I had despaired of life. However, when the time was right, He put an end to this unbearable suffering:

 

·       And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10)