“Critical race theory (CRT) categorizes people. One’s gender, race, or sexual orientation posits you as the oppressed or an oppressor—a status from which you are freed only when all existing societal structures, which are inherently racist, are overthrown” (“How Leftists’ Critical Race Theory Poisons Our Discussion of Racism,” The Daily Signal, June 28, 2020). The following is excerpted from “4 Main Things Christians Need to Know about Critical Race Theory,” Pulpit & Pen, Aug. 6, 2019: “As the Southern Baptist Convention approved Resolution 9 in June 2019, which promotes Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool, we need to know why it’s dangerous. CRT rejects most of the things that the 1960s Civil Rights Movement fought for, like treating people equally in institutions and under the law. Instead, CRT teaches that if power is to be properly redistributed from the ‘haves’ to ‘have-nots’ (which in their eyes includes minority identity groups), the law may actually need to be biased in favor of minority identity groups. CRT is a system that rejects both human biology and Biblical doctrine and teaches that mankind should be separated into various ethnic minority groups. With CRT, people are encouraged to identify with their ethnicity (which CRT thought-leaders inaccurately label ‘race’), rather than with greater and more significant distinguishing factors, like Jesus, their nation, or their community. Critical Race Theory doesn’t just deal with race. CRT promotes division between ‘identity groups,’ dividing people into either the ‘oppressor class’ (usually, White and ‘straight’ men holding to the majority religion) versus ‘victim identity groups’ which can include so-called ‘sexual minorities,’ the disabled, abuse victims, women, the ‘transgender,’ as well as ethnic groups. CRT is used by homosexuals, the transgender, and women as much as it is used by ethnic minorities. In CRT, ‘whiteness’ refers to anything identifying with power or privilege as it relates to the ‘majority class’ (usually, those who hold ethnic or religious majority). For CRT theorists, to be white is to have privilege, and to have privilege is to be white. CRT views race as a pure social construct, anyone who enjoys social, political, racial, economic, or cultural standing that is better than the average can be classified as a part of the ‘White Identity Class’ whether or not they are Caucasian, have light skin, or are of European descent. Likewise in CRT, being ‘black’ means one’s identification with oppression (much of this is from the work of James Cone who founded Black Liberation Theology and went so far as to say Jesus was black because he identified with the oppressed). In this sense, one can be ‘black’ even if they do not have dark skin or African or Islander ancestry, so long as they identify themselves with an oppressed people group. If there are homosexuals who are white, because they face bigotry, they have ‘blackness’ and are not considered to have oppressive ‘whiteness.’ CRT teaches that all white people (unless they can identify with another minority group like the disabled, homosexual, transgender, or victims) suffer from racism, because they have power and exhibit ‘micro-aggressions’ (invisible or unperceivable slights of language and behavior that indicate the person is secretly a racist) that demonstrate bigotry” (Pulpit & Pen, Aug. 6, 2019).
(Friday Church News Notes, March 18, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)