As of late, there has been much talk within the Evangelical Christian community here in the US regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its impact not only on our society but also our churches. School board meetings across the country are filled with the buzzacronym ‘CRT’ and there have even been outbursts of anger, causing some meetings to adjourn early. Many Christians are leaving churches because the church is supposedly supportive of CRT. Whole denominations are splitting over CRT and there have been harsh words thrown on every side but what I keep wondering is, how many Christians truly understand the depth of CRT? When CRT is brought up in a school board or church meeting and angry words are shared, how many people really even understand the teaching of CRT to have enough evidence to disown or embrace its teaching? Additionally, have Christians who speak out against or for CRT really taken the time to think biblically about CRT?
As you will read below, I am personally not a fan of CRT and feel it contradicts biblical principles at several levels but I also want to openly acknowledge that I am not an expert. With that said, through my post-graduate studies at several local universities, I have encountered many advocates of not only CRT but of the many other Postmodern Theories. I know enough that CRT is not an isolated phenomenon and it is connected with a history of theories and ideologies that are being taught within universities across the world. These postmodern theories create a new ‘worldview’ so to speak. It is wise for Christians to research the history of CRT before speaking against it or for it on social media or at a school board meeting. However, if Christians take the time to research this complicated theory that wants to and is shaking the foundations (epistemology) of our society, then by all means, speak up and speak out!
Below, I will first provide a brief overview of some of the principles of CRT, mostly taken from Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay’s book, Cynical Theories. I will then provide a biblical response to CRT. Being such a short article, I acknowledge that all the issues concerning CRT cannot be provided in detail here nor will I explore every possible biblical response. These are the issues that have stood out the most as I have thought through CRT and its encounter with a biblical worldview.
An Overview of CRT[1]
Critical Race Theory (CRT) claims that categories of ‘race’ like ‘white’ and ‘black’ are socially constructed by society. In other words, ‘race’ and racial categories are not biologically or scientifically determined but were created by societies to give one group, or one race (i.e., the white race), the ability to hold power over other races (i.e., black, brown). CRT originated out of the American context and the racial tension between ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’ and seeks to prove that white people hold privileged positions of power within many sectors of US society, particularly to the detriment of minorities and black people.
On the one hand, there is some truth to this theory in that ‘race’ historically has not always been used within society to distinguish between people. For example, the Bible does not refer to people according to their ‘race’ (i.e., skin color) but according to their ethnic place of origin such as Arabians from Arabia, Parthians from Parthia, or Samaritans from Samaria. On the other hand, CRT dismissably advocates that all of society is infected with racism at every level and that all white people, especially white males, are racist whether they believe themselves to be or not. According to CRT, white people are blind to their systemic racism and domination over minority groups. CRT seeks to dismantle and destroy ‘white power’ within US society in order to deliver minority groups.
Supposedly, because white people are blind to inherent positions of power and their continual desire for supremacy within society, they are not allowed to ‘authoritatively’ speak publicly (or privately) about the problem of racism in America. In fact, according to CRT, only minority groups who are black and brown truly understand racism as they have lived as ‘victims’ in a white supremacist society. Therefore, in order to break the power-hungry system of white domination within US society, only minority voices hold the ‘authority’ to speak on the problems of race. White people, per CRT, should not speak on the topic of racial injustice but only ‘listen’ as they are blind to their own racism. Of course, such a claim becomes very complicated in the American context where many families are racially and ethnically mixed through marriage and adoption.
CRT advocates primarily seek to fight white supremacy through activism and education. CRT has infiltrated education curriculums across the country in order to critically deconstruct social systems of white power and many educators are proponents of CRT. Through activism, CRT advocates rename institutional buildings named after people who owned slaves and rip down confederate monuments across the Southern US. By erasing the monuments and relics of the past which supposedly promoted white supremacy across the US, it is believed that society can move toward a more equal, just society for all races and genders. According to CRT, it seems that we must not ‘learn’ from the past to create a better future but ‘destroy’ it to make a brighter tomorrow without the complicated parasites of past sins.
In closing this section, it is important to understand that CRT is not a stand-alone theory but is under the umbrella of many ‘Postmodern Theories’ such as Postcolonial Theory, Queer Theory, Intersectionality, Feminism and Gender Studies, Disability and Fat Studies, and many forms of Social Justice (excluding forms of biblically based Social Justice). Studying the implications of CRT also requires having some knowledge of these other theories and particularly, the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault.
A Biblical Response to CRT
Biblically, it should be acknowledged that CRT does hold some truth but its framework and authority structure make its conclusions contradict biblical principles regarding its understanding of humanity and its condemnation of racism.
Similar to CRT, the Bible recognizes that racial, ethnic, and social superiority by one group of people over another is wrong, and biblically it is sin. The biblical parable of Luke 10 often referred to as the “Good Samaritan” tells how a Samaritan man helped a man who was beaten, stripped, and robbed as he traveled along a road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jesus told this parable to a group of Jews who hated Samaritans and who thought them to be of a lower religious and social class. This parable was also a response to a lawyer’s question about the commandment to love one’s neighbor. The story tells how a Jewish priest first passed by the helpless man on the road to Jericho, then how another Jewish religious leader called a Levite also passed by the poor man on the road without helping the man. When the Samaritan came, not only did he help the man, but took him to a hospital/hotel and paid for his medical bills. Jesus asks the Jewish lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers.” The lawyer had to concede that the ‘terrible’ Samaritan who showed the helpless man mercy, was the only one who truly fulfilled the command to love his neighbor. This is just one example in the Bible of where prejudice and racism are condemned as sin.
Dissimilarly to CRT, the Bible paints the picture that all people, of every social class and ethnicity, have the propensity to be prideful and racist. While CRT itself seems to be ‘racist’ toward white people and ascribes racism primarily as a white problem, the Bible claims that white, black, brown, and all people have a propensity to be prideful and to think of themselves as superior to other groups of people. As Romans 3 says, all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” and “none is righteous, no not one…. all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When one group of people are compared to another group of people, there may be ‘some’ justification to claim that one group is more racist than another group but when all humans, all social classes, and all ethnicities are compared to God as the ethical standard of righteousness, all fall short. It should also be noted that racism is certainly not an American phenomenon and can be found across the world and among every period of world history.
Another dissimilarity between CRT and the Bible is that CRT ascribes more importance and authority to minority groups than to people who are white while the bible values all people, no matter their social class or ethnicity, as being equal and made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Biblically, all people, no matter what they have done, no matter how they claim to identify, or who they claim to be are valuable and have an intrinsic worth in the sight of God because they are made in God’s image and reflect, if only partially, God’s attributes (Jas. 2:1-13). While CRT makes a worthy point that minority voices must be heard and listened to concerning racial discrimination, it is not true that non-minority groups have nothing valuable to contribute to the conversation. It is especially true that any Christian, regardless of race, has the right, even the responsibility, to contribute to the conversation on race through understanding and teaching the principles found in the Word of God. Additionally, while biblically it is true that all white people have a proclivity to be racist it is also true that black and brown people also have the same tendencies to be racist and, in the judgment, God will hold every person accountable regardless of their race or social class (Rom. 3:19).
On the other hand, the Bible does have another similarity with CRT in that it focuses on ‘oppressed’ groups of people while opposing superior groups of people. God has a special place in His heart for the poor, the widow, and the orphan who are often oppressed by societies’ upper classes (Js. 1:27). God is against prideful people who seek to take advantage of those who are weak and think themselves to be superior. He makes no room for partiality, particularly within the Church (Js. 2:1-13). The parable often referred to as the “Prodigal Son” in Luke 15 tells the story of how two brothers took two different paths. Jesus tells the parable to a group of prideful religious leaders called Pharisees. In the parable, the younger brother takes his inheritance from his father early in life and then goes out and wastes it. All the while, the older brother (the prideful Pharisee in the story) stays at home, supposedly dedicated to caring for the ageing father. After the younger brother runs out of cash, he comes straggling back home to dad expecting to work as a slave. To his surprise, dad not only forgives the son, he reinstitutes his sonship and throws a party for him; celebrating the son’s return to the family. When the older brother finds out about this special, undeserved treatment of the the younger son by his father, he is enraged and would not go into the house. Even though the father comes out to the older son, entreating him to come in to celebrate the younger brother’s safe return home, the older brother, in pride, remains outside the blessing of salvation.
Biblically, the Father in heaven is always patient, holding out his arms, waiting for sinners to repent so they can be restored. Such is the case with those who take part in the sin of racism. This is quite different than the destructive remedy of CRT that has no option for restoration to offer to those who have fallen from their high, Pharisee like standard of perfection.
Conclusion
In closing, the method by which CRT seeks to correct what it believes is the greatest problem of society (racism) is destructive and not constructive. It is certainly not redemptive. Helen Pluckrose points out that early postmodern theories were very destructive and critical and though CRT has in some ways provided a more productive approach to change society through activism than its predecessors, it inherently still carries many destructive principles within it. One such destructive principle is grimly claiming that all white people are ‘racist’ and part of a social system of domination where they are to be considered ‘enemies’ to be fought.
Biblically, though people have heart issues of pride, superiority, and racism, people can and do change as they are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, reborn, and made into new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). While CRT seeks to create a new humanity by destroying and critically tearing apart one group of people in order to lift up another group(s) of people, the Bible tells the story of how God is making a new humanity, not through repeating the destructive “Fall” of Genesis 1-2 which separated people and brought the seeds of racism into the world, but by building a new humanity through love. This new humanity is composed of people who imitate and follow the ultimate display of love and what it means to be human, Jesus Christ. Through the ‘new birth’ (Jn 3:16) people of all races and social classes who were born into systems of power and racism or who were victims of dominant oppressive groups are delivered from their former ways of destructive thinking and lifestyles as they repent of their racism and sin, are given new hearts and new desires, and seek to obey the commands of Jesus which require them to love all people, including their enemies (Acts 17:30, Matt. 5).
Ultimately, racism is not socially constructed but is present in the heart of every human and then manifests itself in society. Jesus says that what is present on the ‘inside’ always makes its way outside and distorts and destroys the world in which we live (Matt. 15:19). The good news is there is a remedy and the only way to rid racism from our midst is for individuals of all races and social classes to be born again. When individuals are born again, there is an opportunity for society to be transformed and reconstructed by love.
[1] Much of the information in this section was taken from Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay’s book, Cynical Theories.
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