The amount of information on Critical Race Theory, Critical Theory, Social Justice, Social Justice Gospel, and so many other false teachings that sound good is overwhelming. I decided to put this page together to list the information that I feel is useful after I have sorted through it. I hope it is useful for everyone.
What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)
What is CRT in a nutshell? For a Christian the concerns should be that it is based in Marxist thought, and as a result, rejects truth and God. It seeks only power.
This Standford article does well in outlining CRT and clearly shows that CRT is Marxist in origin. What views of eternal truths do we get from Marx, the one upon whose philosophy CRT is based? In the Communist Manifesto he writes that “Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experiences” (Marx and Engels, 2019).
Ibram X. Kendi is an author lauded by CRT adherents in evangelical circles today. His book, “How to Be an Anti-Racist” refers to capitalism and racism as “conjoined twins” as shown in this tweet (containing a photo of several pages) by Samuel Sey, blogger at Slow To Write.
Claudio Coraddetti writes that critical theorists “firmly reject” ideas that view reality and knowledge as being determined through scientific and empirical methods. Objective truth is commonly rejected as well.
Dr. James Lindsay describes the essence of CRTs goals. He says, “Critical theory revolutionaries that we have today believe power is tied up in how we think, how we communicate. So step one is to seize the means of cultural production, like education, media, art, language, and religion. Including the limits of free exercise for these. Put another way, social justice is just another, in a long historical line, of ugly and self-serving power grabs. Allegedly designed for our own good.”
He is associated with the website New Discourses and manages that site’s page “Translations from the Wokish: A Plain Language Encyclopedia of Social Justice Terminology.” This page is useful for understanding what Social Justice types mean when they use common words that they have changed the meaning of, such as “white supremacy,” and for terms that they alone use like “cisgender.”
For Teachers n' Preachers
Neil Shenvi, a theoretical chemist turned Christian Apologist, offers some of the more intellectual discussion I’ve come across regarding Christianity and CRT. Neil is clear that CRT is incompatible with Christianity. His article, “How to Preach Against Critical Race Theory,” offers some great pointers on how to avoid traps when preaching on the topic.
Specific to the Southern Baptist Convention and Affiliated Organizations/Churches
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. As such it holds a position of leadership. Like all human organizations, it is subject to human sin. That CRT is causing division in the SBC is evident. Christianity Today briefly covers the strife experienced in the denomination.
Rumor has it that Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), is considering a shot at SBC President. Al and his Provost and Senior Vice-President President for Academic Administration, Matt Hall, both have a history of talking out of both sides of their mouths on the matter. Hence, Jon Harris, of the Conversations That Matter podcast was able to put this together:
This same podcast has some other informative episodes specific to the SBTS:
- Panel Discussion with Three SBC Whistleblowers – video discussing concerns with people who are directly involved in seminary that have tried to express their concerns to no avail.
- Problems with the International Mission Board – video highlighting some concerns voiced after Paul Chitwood, IMB President, sent out and email discussing (among other things), training in the IMB for “Unconscious Bias and Sensitivity” etc.
- “SBC Keeps Importing New Leftist Ideas” – video that show SBTS Professors definitively supporting critical race theory despite continuous public denials that it is in the seminaries. It also covers the need to spread the Gospel in urban areas using “Thebonics” according to the IMB.
Virgil Walker has written an excellent article on 3 Reasons Why the SBC Should Reject CRT. Recommended.
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states in Section VI that, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” Despite this, we see Saddleback Church, a huge, highly visible SBC affiliated church proudly proclaiming their ordination of female pastors on Instagram.
Baptist Seminary professors are embracing a false gospel as well. See my article on that here.