We are looking at Voddie Baucham’s take on Critical Race Theory (CRT) outlined in his book Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe. In the last article, I pointed out where Baucham gets it right. In this article, I’m going to bring perspective to some places where I think he gets it wrong.
If you prefer an audio version of this article, you can listen to it here:
The purpose of including these two articles in this series on how to process CRT as Christians is to demonstrate how many Christians misunderstand the issue being addressed and conflate CRT with any desire for racial justice/ethnic diversity.
This article is the eleventh of a series of articles addressing the question, “How should Christians process Critical Race Theory?”
–FREE BLOG SERIES–
How Christians Should Process Critical Race TheoryREAD NOW!
Baucham not only embodies the the basic posture of anti-CRT Christians, he is a leading face of the anti-social justice movement today. What keeps me from joining him in this cause? How come I don’t abandon the current take I hold on this issue and embrace his? Here are some reasons:
CRT as a Worldview
Baucham immediately frames critical social justice as a worldview without any discussion on what makes up a worldview and before interacting with what a biblical worldview might look like.
He begins everything by instilling a resilient fear of Karl Marx within his readers. This sets the tone for the rest of the book: it’s less about establishing a biblical theology of justice and more a work to discredit the social justice movement.
A person does not choose from a smorgasbord of worldview options which one he or she is going to see through. One’s worldview is shaped by the family upbringing they have, the cultural setting they live in, the place in history they were born into, the national narratives told them, the direct and indirect messages presented to them through various cultural elements such as movies, music, books, sermons, public speeches, and so forth. A person’s worldview is further shaped by their core values, their religious beliefs, and their understanding of how knowledge is acquired.
Ask Me Anything: “What Is Racism?”
In this article, I respond to this question and other related questions readers have asked over the last few months as it concerns the racial conflicts of our day.
Worldviews are complex. Even Christians who hold to the same theological doctrines differ in their worldviews. Why? Because many more things than one’s theological beliefs and one’s framework for grappling with injustice in the world shape a worldview.
Baucham fails to interact at all with the much larger conversation around what makes up a worldview. Just saying it is one doesn’t make it one.
False Equivalency between “Philosophy” and “Worldview”
He equates “philosophy” with “worldview.” They are not equivalents. Philosophies shape worldviews, for sure. But they are not in and of themselves worldviews.
He’s correct in saying CRT is a “philosophy.” It has the potential to shape one’s worldview. But CRT as a philosophy is not necessarily a “worldview.”
Can we acknowledge how much Greek philosophy has influenced Western Christianity? Does that mean we are living out a Greek “worldview”? Of course not.
The philosophy has influence on, but does not solely shape one’s worldview.
For a more comprehensive understanding of what a worldview is, check out:
- Culture Making
- Total Truth
- Engaging God’s World
- Discipling the Nations
- Life’s Ultimate Questions (Academic read)
- The Universe Next Door (Academic read)
- Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (Academic read)
Misrepresents Critical Theorists
Baucham begins his discourse by misrepresenting critical theorists, themselves. He is facing allegations of both false attribution and plagiarism as a result. To me, it mostly seemed like sloppy work. Unfortunately, it is emblematic of the way he represents his opponents throughout the book.
It’s hard to take seriously someone who claims to care about truth while simultaneously misrepresenting others. This manifests anywhere from making value statements about what someone is meaning when they say something to borderline lying about what someone even said.
Uses Straw-man Examples
Baucham highlights the most dramatic claims made by people who embrace CRT. Then he lumps Christian leaders like Tim Keller, David Platt, Thabiti Anyabwile, Jemar Tisby, Russell Moore and others in as if they teach the same thing. But they don’t. He claims they have “embraced CRT,” but doesn’t fairly represent what these leaders are saying on the subject. Doing so would force him to acknowledge the overlapping elements between CRT and a biblical theology of justice.
Fails to Establish a Biblical Theology of Justice
I cannot emphasize this enough: Fault Lines is less about establishing a biblical theology of justice and more about discrediting the social justice movement. He uses scripture to counter points within CRT, but never once lays out a biblical theology of justice from the beginning of scripture to the end. He ought to have started there so we can more accurately compare whether CRT is an “unbiblical worldview.”
Divorces Current-Day Data from Historical Data
Baucham makes a good point about the media’s representation of conflict between black men and police, but neglects to interact at all with the historical difference. The past is not separated from the present. It doesn’t have to dictate the present, but to have an honest understanding of the present we must understand the past. We’d say that in every other regard—like church history. Why not when it comes to racial injustice?
There is a reason emotions escalate so quickly between black men and cops. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with current-day data. The reason is embedded in the past.
What He Says about Police Violence
Baucham is correct about police violence being far more complex than the mainstream media portrays. But as mentioned above, police violence against black people must include the history and not just current data in order to understand the tensions.
When discussing police violence, he quotes but doesn’t stop to consider Shai Linne‘s observation that “for black people it is never about just one case.” The unfinished thought is that for black people, it’s about a history.
Furthermore, systemic racism is best understood from a look at a variety of aspects, not merely data on police violence. Police violence is a moving target and it’s not the disparity CRT theorists themselves point to. It’s just the one the media points to. To better understand systemic racism, consider things like university enrollment, job acceptance, redlining, death row, common ways of speaking about or thinking of black people.
Other examples of where I think Baucham gets it wrong include:
- He warns about jumping to conclusions based on one person’s story while simultaneously emphasizing his story as proof systemic racism doesn’t exist. Why doesn’t he interact with the many other kinds of stories? Why does he completely ignore works from other Christian leaders of color such as Bryan Stevenson, Justin Gibonny, Dr. Anthony Bradley, Benjamin Watson and others?
- He’s right that the progressive left has an agenda. But he tends to use that reality as a way of saying social justice is unbiblical/wrong. What about the fact that many homeschoolers have been abusive and neglectful of their children? Does that mean homeschooling is unbiblical and wrong? The reality is that they are separate conversations. Worth having, but separate nonetheless.
- Tony Timpa’s case does not disprove systemic racism, but serves as evidence of a much larger problem of the militant and calloused nature of too many in law enforcement.
Baucham drips with Calvinism. 😏
- The fact that forgiveness is part of the process of healing our wounds and is also a part of justice does not mean we do not also deal with the things that perpetuate injustice.
- He understands the death of Jesus to be primarily about making a legal transaction between us and God. So he says, “the death of Jesus is justice.” However, scripture suggests that while the death of Jesus is a part of making us right with God, the whole process of justice involves us as humans being conformed into the image of Christ. Learning to rule and reign as Jesus rules and reigns (live according to the likeness of the image of God) is when justice is made fully manifest in human society.
- As mentioned before, I don’t think Baucham fairly represents other Christians who care about social justice. He conflates them with critical theorists who do not work through a Gospel/Jesus centric lens. I wish he would have more robustly interacted with other Christian perspectives on justice. Again, I wish he would have established a truly biblical theology of justice and evaluated CRT from there. But he didn’t. So, I think his work functions more as a sort of propaganda than a fair critique of CRT. Samuel Sey, Neil Shenvi, and Kimi Katiti do a better job, in my opinion.
Conclusion
It was hard for me to read Fault Lines. It seemed as if Baucham used cases of police violence against white people as a way of exonerating the George Floyd incident or proving systemic racism does not exist. And maybe it’s that we have two different starting places for understanding what systemic racism is.
I do not understand systemic racism to be about the idea that the police system is inherently racist. There are many problems within the police system along with many things it does well. Rather, I understand systemic racism as the idea that the American system has a bias in favor of European white people and against black people and other people of color.
Thinking Through the Black Lives Matter Movement
Is BLM Marxist? Do they want to overthrow America? Does BLM have connections with witchcraft? Should Christians use #blacklivesmatter?
This bias seeps into many areas of society. It permeates the air we breathe: our media, our entertainment, our news, our jokes, our understanding of ethics, our remembering of history, and on and on.
Violence against either Tony Timpa and George Floyd is wrong! But the violence against Floyd garners much more backlash and gets more attention because it fueled an ongoing conflict of bias. Police killings in and of themselves in 2020 may not prove this bias exist, but the fact that they happened to white people as much as black people doesn’t prove a racial bias doesn’t exist.
In short, I expected to be presented with a strong explanation for what biblical justice is as I read Fault Lines. But I wasn’t. The book felt like it was quickly brought to print and did a sloppy job of interacting with the basic tenants of CRT. Furthermore, Fault Lines does not at all give a fair representation of what other respectable, godly, Bible teachers and church leaders who recognize a need for racial justice are saying on the topic.
Go ahead and read Baucham, but be sure and do so alongside others.
For another, more comprehensive review of Fault Lines, see this one by Mere Orthodoxy.
For a robust conversation about CRT from two black Christians, check out this episode of Theology in the Raw between Rasool Berry and Samuel Sey.
Other helpful resources for processing CRT as Christians include:
- UnCritical Race Theory (article)
- Critical [G]race Theory: the Promise & Perils of CRT (article)
- How Should Christians Engage Critical Race Theory? (article)
- Critical Theorists Help Us Understand History (article)
- Critical Theorists Draw Inaccurate Conclusions from the Facts (article)
- Conclusion: Six Ways to Engage Critical Race Theory (article)
- Is Critical Race Theory a Religion? Responding to Carl Trueman (article)
We asked pastors how to have conversations about racism without causing unnecessary division, and put their responses into a free guide called, How to Talk about Racial Issues as a Church without Destroying It in the Process. Click here to access your own copy.
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.
Like this? Gain access to even more in-depth articles reconciling human experiences with God and His Word when you become a member of Unfeigned Christianity on Patreon.
