“And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” – Ephesians 2:16 NKJV
*As a friend and I were discussing the latest news over lunch, she mentioned Critical Race Theory (CRT) and asked if I could explain it to her. Before last summer [2020] I’d never heard of CRT, but I’ve read quite a few articles about it since then, and the Lord helped me put it all together. This is the simple explanation I gave my friend, and I share it in the hope that it will be helpful for others who might be wondering, and because I think we all need to educate ourselves in order to better understand what’s going on in our country.
CRT 101: The worldview that all people fall into 2 categories–the Oppressed and the Oppressors. Which category you’re in is based solely on your “race”. If you’re White, you are an Oppressor. If you’re a “Person of Color”, you are Oppressed. (See diagram below.) Marxism uses these same categories, but places people in them based on class, rather than race.
I use the term “worldview” deliberately because a worldview is the foundation from which you form your perceptions, which in turn motivate your actions. If you hold a CRT worldview, you would naturally believe racism is systemic because it’s built into the system of how you perceive the world.
So what’s the solution? From what I’ve observed and read, the only way to redeem yourself if you’re an Oppressor is to do the following:
- Acknowledge “systemic racism” and admit to being “racist”
- Confess to and denounce your “white privilege”
- Commit to “social justice” for the Oppressed and protest against the Oppressors because “Silence is compliance”
- Make “reparations” to the Oppressed for the suffering your race has inflicted on them
- Begin “really listening” to the experiential stories of the Oppressed which only they can truly know
- “Defund the police” since they serve as the enforcement arm of the Oppressors
- “Reframe” history to show how the society is rooted in Oppression/racism (e.g. the “1619 Project”)
The way out for the Oppressed is not salvation . . . it’s revolution! The Oppressed must fight to overthrow the Oppressors by destroying, neutralizing and/or re-educating them . . . which actually turns the Oppressed into oppressors, but we won’t go there. (Marxism posits that as the Oppressed become the new Oppressors, they will be less oppressive, and if society goes through this cycle enough times, we will eventually reach an ideal human society aka utopia.) By the way, the Oppressed cannot be “racist” because, well . . . they’re oppressed!
CRT 201: Intersectionality. This is the idea that “gender orientation” intersects with race to define just how oppressive or oppressed a person is. So, if you’re white and male, you’re doubly “privileged” which makes you a super-oppressor. If you’re a person-of-color and female, you’re doubly oppressed, and if you’re a person-of-color and transgender, you’re the most oppressed of all.
I would be remiss if I didn’t contrast the CRT/I worldview with what I’ll call a Gospel worldview that’s based on the Bible.
GOSPEL 101: Systemic sin and salvation (see diagram above).
There is only one race–the human race. We may look different on the outside and have different ethnicities, but we’re all the same on the inside. It’s why blood transfusions and organ transplants aren’t limited by skin color or ethnicity.
- God created human beings in His image, so every human being is inherently valuable.
- All human beings are sinful (disobedient to God) because we’re all descendants of the first human who sinned, & because of our own sins.
- The Bible never mentions racism, but it does talk about hatred, bitterness, factions, discord, envy, etc. as sins that are common to all humans. As humans we all suffer from systemic sin!
So what’s the solution? Jesus Christ, the sinless God-man, made a way for us to be saved. He paid for our sins by sacrificing His life for ours. Then He rose from the dead to offer us a new, eternal life in Him.
GOSPEL 201: Identity. Being saved is not just a “fire escape” to eternal life. When we are in Christ, we are given a completely new identity. We are no longer defined by who others say we are or how they treat us, or even how we think of ourselves. Instead, we’re defined by who God says we are: loved, forgiven, justified, accepted, blameless, righteous, etc. That’s why Jesus could say He was sent to “to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Those of us who have been saved, are compelled by Jesus’ love to be His ambassadors and share this truly good news with the world. Let’s face it, CRT is antithetical to the gospel. It’s bad news for the Oppressors and bad news for the Oppressed, so it’s bad news for everyone. We need to get the entirely different message of good news–that’s what the word “gospel” means–to the world!
Researching CRT helped me realize what amazingly good news the gospel is. We hear so much today about identity and identifying with/as something. When we’re saved, we receive the identity of Jesus. And when we understand Who Jesus is, identifying with Him is truly transformational!
*This article was written by Valerie Anderson Wynalda who is a family friend of GFM.
