Critical Race Theory and the Bible

The man on the left is named John. The man on the right is named John. These two guys became good friends and as close as brothers this year. John and I both have laughed at how much alike we are in our beliefs, values, personalities and in even our obsessions and perfectionistic behaviors that most certainly drive our loved ones nuts. Among what we share in common, most importantly, is that we both fervently love the Lord our God with all our heart and we try hard to love our neighbor as ourselves. What’s so interesting about our similarities as we’ve matured in the Lord and become the men He’s destined us to be is that our life experiences are so completely different. One of us was born and raised in Virginia and is just a few generations from family members who were slaves. The other one of us was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. But based not on our past experiences, but on our current similarities, I call John my “doppelgänger” meaning a person who is a near clone of another. By strict definition, a “doppelgänger” means that the other looks like you do and if you look closely at the above photo you’ll see that there’s a difference between the two of us in our physical appearance. And there’s the problem... 

Because elite liberals who make the decisions about what our American culture needs to believe, tell us that the man on the right, because of his skin color, is the “oppressor” of the man on the left who is the “oppressed.” If you live in California, that concept will be taught to your children or grandchildren if they attend public schools. In order to appear “woke,” companies across America are rushing to send employees to training seminars on this philosophy and if you attend a liberal mainline church, that may be preached from the pulpit. It’s called “Critical Race Theory.”

CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT) tells me that any similarities between these two men are insignificant and trivial because John with the darker colored skin tone will always be the victim of John with the lighter colored skin. CRT also tells me that because I believe and preach the Word of God that John and I are equal, that’s “hate speech” and absolute proof that I’m a white supremacist. CRT tells me that there is nothing equal about John and me. The Bible tells me that we are equal in every way. The Law of Non-Contradiction tells us that Critical Race Theory and the Word of God cannot both be correct. Only one can be true.

CRT teaches that America is a fundamentally flawed and racist country and all our institutions are inherently systemically racist. That includes the Christian church because its doctrine was determined by white European males and therefore the church is rooted in systemic racism. All schools are rooted in white supremacy. The goal of CRT is to liberate the oppressed by removing power from Whites in order to dismantle structural racism. The tool used is Social Justice activism that replaces Biblical equality with Marxist equity meaning that Whites must now be intentionally discriminated against in order to transfer their power and privilege to non-Whites.

CRT does help us to think about
the complexities of racism,

acknowledge our Country’s part in it

and perhaps our own

more personal sins of racism. 

But what is dividing and creating tension, anger and hatred in our Country today is the fundamentally divisive CRT teaching that there are only two groups in society, the oppressors and the oppressed. Those born White have an embedded White Privilege that is all pervasive and permanent and, as such, all Whites are racists. 

What is most disturbing about CRT is that we are regressing back to the earlier days of racial segregation in our Nation’s history by being taught to hate one another according to our skin coloring. Because of the shameful era of slavery in our Nation, it might be considered normal and natural for Blacks who are  descendant from slaves, to hate white supremacists and racists. And today, CRT tells us all that everyone who is born white, is a racist – it doesn’t matter what you believe, say or how you act, if your skin color is “white,” you’re a racist. If, however, you are born with a skin color other than white, you are not a racist. According to CRT, a Black person cannot be a racist no matter how much he or she hates White people. There are some on both the right and the left who are fearful that as hate increases, America is on the verge of another race war. 

Do you see CRT as being

unifying or divisive

for our Country today?

Hand-in-hand with Critical Race Theory is the concept of INTERSECTIONALITY (IS) that was introduced in 1989 as a tool for determining your personal level as oppressor or oppressed. For example, I am number one at the top of the “oppressor category” because I am White, male, Christian, heterosexual, able-bodied and a native born American. According to CRT, if you’re in the oppressed category, it’s understandable and even permissible for you to hate, attack and “cancel” me for who I am because I am your oppressor. Who are the oppressed? If you are Black, you may be a billionaire and CEO of a large corporation but you are the “oppressed.” If you are a Black woman you are even more oppressed. If you are Black, transgender and disabled, you are the most oppressed of all.

But when we divide people into these two categories by skin color alone, does it make sense to us that a White single mom in a minimum wage job and struggling to feed her two children is the oppressor of a male Black billionaire CEO because her skin color is “white” and his is “black”? It does makes sense when we remember that the goal of CRT is to convince all Whites of their systemic racism and to compel them to surrender their “power and privilege” to those oppressed in order to achieve the desired equity.

CRT is rooted in the teachings of atheists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who were anti-Semitic racists and who saw the family and Christianity as impediments to their socialist ideology. Both CRT and our Bible recognize that our world is broken by the evils of racism and injustice but CRT teaches a very different version of humanity, sin and redemption than what the Word of God teaches. CRT makes it clear that I am responsible for every sin that every White person has ever committed against a person of color. The Bible makes it clear that God holds each individual responsible only for his or her own sins. Ezekiel 18:1-4; Ezekiel 18:30

Intersectionality is based upon an atheistic world-view that disbelieves and ignores what God and His Word tells us about the human race – that we are all created in God’s image Genesis 1:27 and we are all of One Blood. CRT and IS are incompatible with the Bible and with Christian beliefs, values and doctrine. Our Bible tells us that we must no longer conform to this world Romans 12:2 and yet that’s exactly what some church denominations have chosen to do. The liberal church denominations that are adopting CRT and IS as co-existent with Christianity do so through their Social Justice worldview but our authority for how to live our lives must come from God alone through His Word alone and not from atheistic Marxist ideology. The good news of the Gospel is that we are all equal and we are called to love God and love others. How can the church overcome the growing influence of CRT? By turning to the Word of God and the science of DNA.

Look again at the above photo and you’d be forgiven for thinking, “Thank God I’m nothing like those two old geezers in the photo!” but according to God’s design and creation of you, you’re more like John and me than you’d think! According to the science of DNA, those of us in the human species are 99.9% genetically similar. (The percentage of 99.5 in last week’s Amen Corner was incorrect) Let’s look at my biological sister and me to see how that plays out. Because of that one tenth of a percent difference, she’s female and I’m a male. I have hazel eyes and hers are a grayish blue. Our facial features are very different. When she was young, people said she looked like actress Farrah Fawcett and people said I looked like a young Orson Welles. My sister and I are grateful to God that it wasn’t the other way around, but aside from the obvious differences, my sister and I are 99.9% the same. The way God created you, you’re 99.9% similar to both the John on the right and the John on the left.

"..He gives to all life, breath and all things.

And He has made from one blood

every nation of men to dwell

on all the face of the earth.."

Acts 17:25-26

For many centuries God’s children have hated each other and treated others horribly and shamefully  because of that one tenth of one percent difference in their DNA that resulted in a dark colored (Black) or light colored (White) skin tone. What unifies us as one people group – the way God created us – is to understand how similar we are to each other – that’s why the church needs to teach the truth of God’s Creation, that we are One Race. One Blood. 

If you have ever made assumptions about another person, based upon that one tenth of one percent difference in their DNA, because the color tone of their skin was darker or lighter than yours, you need to repent and receive God’s forgiveness. The next thing we all need to do as believers is to speak up when we see injustice and hatred. Churches have too often gone down one of two opposite paths. Churches that focus on Social Justice to the degree that they have replaced the Word of God with liberal socialist messages or churches with pastors and priests who have stayed silent to avoid conflict and confrontation.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rebuked Christians for their silence during the racial injustice of the 50's and 60's. From his jail cell in Birmingham Alabama, King wrote, “I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.”

As the body of Christ, we must collectively no longer remain silent. We need to speak up for the Word of God and speak against increasingly popular atheist teachings that will divide and could possibly irreparably harm our Country. Yes we do have a shameful history of racism in America, but we have a God who redeems and restores.

A church cannot change the past,

but we can change the future.

Let’s pray that it does.

♰ ♰ ♰