When it comes to Critical Race Theory (CRT), I have observed that most Christians who claim it as “an unbiblical worldview” rarely begin their discussion with the Bible. They begin by refuting certain aspects of the theory.
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And few of them refute CRT with scripture.
We’ll get into more of this as we progress throughout the series, but I believe that if we are going to say CRT is an “unbiblical worldview” we must first establish what a “biblical worldview” is. That’s why I will begin this series with a biblical theology of creation, sin, and justice.
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This article is a part of a series of articles addressing the question, “How should Christians process Critical Race Theory?”
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Before we dive into even that, however, I think it would be prudent to clarify some things about my approach to this series.
First of all, many of you will probably be frustrated by my seemingly cryptic position on CRT. In our day of outrage mentality and cancel culture, if someone does not wholly condemn CRT, people think it means they are wholly promoting it.
Let me make this clear: I do not promote CRT.
I will not be teaching CRT in this series. My goal is not to convince Christians to apply CRT in their practices.
I find certain elements of CRT to be problematic and potentially quite dangerous if followed to their logical conclusion.
However, I cannot “wholly condemn” CRT any more than I can wholly condemn capitalism.
Many American Christians assume that capitalism somehow perfectly aligns with a biblical worldview. While there are many aspects of capitalism that overlap with biblical principles, there are elements of it (to a certain degree, elements of its foundation) that are quite at odds with scripture.
For instance, capitalism assumes a primary end result of one’s life’s work is the building of wealth. Yet, Jesus Himself called this pursuit foolishness (see Lk. 12:13-21).
So while I certainly do not promote or teach CRT, neither am I here to condemn it. I’m here to help us think Christianly about the issues it seeks to address.
Quite frankly, I’m frustrated by CRT. It has distracted Christians from having the conversations we need to have. Instead of learning to empathize with others, we are fighting over whether systemic racism is really a thing. Rather than exploring how we can better love our neighbor, we are campaigning to get CRT outlawed from schools.
Through this series, I am going to attempt to bring us back to the conversations we need to be having and avoid getting too far into the weeds of specific tenants of CRT. If you are upset about how little I am refuting particular aspects of CRT, you are missing the point: to have a biblical worldview about life we must be focused on Jesus and His Message, not secular theories about the world.
Speaking of worldview—what is a “worldview”?
What does it mean to have a particular “worldview”? Are there a set number of worldviews we have to choose from? Who created these worldviews and how do we know whose worldview is right? After all, even Christians hold different worldviews amongst themselves. Who decides which one is right and which ones are wrong?
We’ll get into this more in a later article, but I posit these questions now because I think we often throw around this language without thinking about what we mean.
The second thing I would like to clarify is that Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo are not “authorities” on CRT. They were not a part of the early development of CRT.
They are activists applying CRT to their work. It’s somewhat like a pastor or missionary applying Arminianism or Calvinism to his ministry with people. Just because a pastor in Pennsylvania explains Arminianism one way doesn’t mean Arminian pastors in Minnesota or Oregon explain it in quite the same way. Just because the Arminian pastor in PA handles people in a certain way doesn’t mean all other Arminian pastors handle people the exact same way.
To understand more foundational aspects of CRT, it would be better to read people like Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic as they are actual professors teaching and philosophizing about CRT.
Even then, CRT is complex and has a variety of applications that lead to many different practices. Some of these practices are quite dangerous—and I’ll get into that. Other practices have overlap with practices we learn about in scripture. So a question we need to sort through is how to handle the overlapping practices.
This leads me to my third clarification.
If our posture is that we need to reject CRT outright without thinking through it biblically, we will reject fellow Christians when they begin to talk about things taught in scripture that sound to us like CRT. This is not only a serious problem—it is sinning against our brothers and sisters.
Because this sort of condemnation has already been happening, it is important that we process CRT as Christians. It is important that we accurately represent those we disagree with and work with the things they are actually saying and not assume where they are going with it.
Critical Race Theory is dividing the church, and that’s a tragedy. Our unity is not in how we perceive the world or grapple with problems. Our unity is in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit He has given to comfort and guide us into Truth while we wait for His return.
Is it too late to refocus on Him?
Can we hold our presuppositions at bay and get clear about what He has called us to, and see how that should then affect the way we interact in the world?
I hope so.
If you hope so too and want to see what scripture has to say about injustice, disparities, and the way Christians participate in God’s work to restore this broken world, join me in the next article as we gain an overview of a biblical theology of creation, sin, and justice.
Feel free to share your responses to this article in the comments below. Please be respectful to each other as you do. Grace and peace.
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