I wrote the book Christ Above Culture in 2005 as a theological framework for racial unity in the church. Today, I believe that book is helpful in formulating another CRT: Christian Race Theology. I state this point in the light of the current tensions that are existing in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
The SBC - my convention - finds itself in, well, some of the same trouble it's been plagued with from almost its inception: racially divisive rhetoric that is stirring the pot. This time from the hands of men who serve as leaders of the seminaries of the convention. In short, the controversy surrounds critical worldview known as Critical Race Theory-CRT for short.
I will not bore you with what this entails but what I will say is this: as a philosophy and ideology it opposes the gospel. It endorses relativistic pluralism that embraces seemingly any group that it deems could be characterize under the category of victimology. I will say this and will seek to do so with as much intensity as can be mustered in writing: black pastors of the Southern Baptist Convention do not endorse CRT. Truthfully, I cannot speak for all black pastors, but I can speak for at least 173 pastors who are affiliated with NAAF - National African American Fellowship. These pastors met on last week to discuss the issues and I can say that the gospel is in safe hands with these men.
Now, here is my only objection with how we are handling this matter. While these black pastors do not endorse CRT's philosophy it has been stated that CRT can be useful in identifying systemic racism. This may well be true, but I wish to add this word of caution from the words of the Apostle Paul:
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,”
but I will not be dominated by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12 -ESV).
The lawfulness (usefulness) of something does not make it appropriate. Just because we can find help in CRT to identify systemic racism does not mean that we should use it, especially when we place ourselves in a position of seemingly needing to defend aspects of the philosophy because of usefulness. The sad reality in this entire ordeal is that we are being positioned in such a way to appear to be arguing for something that we, in principle reject!
The seminary presidents are right! We do not need to use CRT. We do not need a worldview that, in even a small way, dishonors the gospel in an effort to defend what is clearly gospel. Please understand what I just said: We don't need to appeal to another philosophy in order to defend what is clearly stated as a rule and command in the Bible. Racial exclusion within the Body of Christ is not simply forbidden, it is sinful!
The presidents are right. Let us all reject CRT in totality and truly embrace and live out a Christ-Centered worldview. We don’t need CTR. What we need are men and women (and seminary presidents) who are as strongly committed to the principles of love in the Bible as they are antagonistic about a social-cultural theory such as CRT.
If we are honest, CRT would not even be an issue for us if many in our convention would not close their eyes to the realities of the challenged that are facing their brothers and sisters who are people of color in this country. Yes, we do not need CRT. We need the gospel, lived out and executed in the Spirit so that the issues that confront a segment of our convention are dealt with in biblical-theological integrity. We don't need CRT. We need love on display!
By love I mean biblical love. The love demonstrated on the cross by the Messiah. I mean the love that is a demonstrated love and not mere rhetoric. Not a love that is mushy sentimentalism, but the love that causes one to be broken for the healing of others. We need cross-like love; Golgotha, hill climbing, love! Yet, in a redemptive historical way, I mean a love that is fleshed out a bit differently. Yes, we need to carry the cross of love but that love, that broken and spilled out love, was love that was demonstrated by the Lord towards those who were opposing the Father in heart, life and affection.
The version of love I am speaking of is the love of affection for brothers and sisters in the Faith Family - not enemies. Not those who are opposing the will of the Father but those whose lives are as moved and devoted to the glory of God as any; those for whom the Father died to saved and who have been transformed by radical conversion. I am not speaking of dying for an outsider. I am talking about loving your family, those whose situation and plight in life demand your defense, protection and loyalty against the antagonizes of sinful oppression.
Here is the reality. The issue is not CRT. The issue is with respect to the heart. Black pastors and churches should not claim a defense for something that puts us at odds with the gospel, regardless of how useful it is. Why? Because the gospel itself is beyond social usefulness. It is authoritatively useful, and, because of that, it is useful not only for our faith but our practice as well. If we argue for the usefulness of CRT we are minimizing the commanding ethic of the Bible. We do not need CRT to prove systemic racism! We need the Bible, clearly preached and understood to prove that. Eyes closed can only be opened by the gospel of Christ.
What we are seeing in the historical present of the American church is what we see in the book of Judges: cycles of sin. When there is peace, the church retreats from full devotion to the Lord to the pursuit of social, cultural and political power. When this pursuit proves to be empty, we cry out to the Lord and the Lord grants a measure of relief, but only for the cycle to repeat itself.
We don't need to speak about CRT or speak to its usefulness. We need to speak to the cycle of sin that we have and are witnessing in racial exclusion. We speak powerfully to the cycle only when we argue the commanding ethic of the Bible and the implications of gospel confession. Racial division and the excluding of brothers and sisters is a sin. Any system or institution that systematically isolates is on the verge of being reprobate and so too are those who occupy and sustain those institutions.
So, we do not need CRT. We do not need to siphon any of its language or its ideas to prove what the Bible, honestly understood and lived out, would show us. I appeal to my black brothers and sisters to see only the gospel as useful in changing minds and hearts. I appeal to my white brothers and sisters to help shoulder the cross others in your family shoulder. If the Lord Himself needed Simon the Cyrene to help shoulder His cross, do you not understand how your black and brown Faith Family members could use your help?
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