Pastor Albert Tate says that Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become an excuse for people not to listen to their brother or sister next to them talk about the pain they experienced in our story. I tend to agree.
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Conversations about CRT are really quite futile because people rarely actually talk about CRT. Most people who are anti-CRT are actually simply against the idea that racial prejudice exists at a systemic level within America.
This article is a part of a series of articles addressing the question, “How should Christians process Critical Race Theory?”
They aren’t working with the specifics of the theory and demonstrating the danger in its suggested solutions. Rather, they simply write off any acknowledgement of racial injustice as coming from CRT.
They don’t want to be confronted with any responsibility for racial reconciliation.
But just like if we are going to refute CRT as being an “unbiblical worldview” we better make sure we have a “biblical” one, if we’re going to insist the problems CRT addresses don’t actually exist we better make sure no one actually experiences the problems.
And I know, some of you are saying, “But CRT has dangerous origins!” Again, it’s as if people think the only reason we are talking about racial justice today is because of CRT.
That’s not why people are wanting to address racial injustice. There are lived experiences that have caused people to theorize about why such experiences happen.
The place to start with current events is conversations with real-life people, not debates about academic theories or their origins.
We can have a profitable conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of CRT if we acknowledge that racial disparities exist and that Jesus addresses prejudices toward each other in the Gospel.
No one woke up one day, read a book by a CRT theorist, and realized that this painful thing they’ve been experiencing is actually called racism (systemic or individual). They had firsthand experience—that’s why they talk about it.
As Carlos Whittaker puts it,“God doesn’t call us to stand on issues; He calls us to walk with people.”
CRT did not create the problems it seeks to address, such as inequality based on race. So don’t stand on the issue of CRT.
Real people have been impacted directly and indirectly from racial prejudice throughout American culture and structure. Instead of staking your ground on being anti-CRT, talk with real-life people. Be willing to walk with those who experienced pain in a story where you experienced something good.
You will find that there are experiences of injustice that need some kind of Yahweh-embodying advocacy.
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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