Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism's Looming Catastrophe

by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.

hegemony is what takes place when a dominant group imposes its ideology on the rest of society:

In the social sciences, “critical” is “geared toward identifying and exposing problems in order to facilitate revolutionary political change.”7 In other words, it implies revolution. It is not interested in reform. Hence, we do not “reform” the police; we “defund” the police or abolish them.

This is complicated by the fact that Critical Theory denies objective truth.

In other words, Critical Theory is not just an analytical tool, as some have suggested; it is a philosophy, a worldview.

CRT recognizes that racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the American society.

According to Richard Delgado, the worldview of CRT is based on four key presuppositions:

Knowledge is Socially Constructed: Storytelling/Narrative Reading is the way black people forward knowledge vs. the Science/reason method of white people.

Intersectionality is about the multiple layers of oppression minorities suffer.

I believe the current concept of social justice is incompatible with biblical Christianity.

Our problem is a lack of clarity and charity in our debate over the place, priority, practice, and definition of justice.

I knew I was in trouble. There was no way out. If I fumbled through the book, my mother would know I was playing dumb at school. However, if I read it, my teacher would know I had been, well, playing dumb at school. Either way, I knew I would be toast when I got home. So I did the only thing I could; I began to read the book.

Mom: This is not about how dumb your other players are, this is about what I expect from my son.

Years later, he would say, “I wish every one of my players had a mother like Frances Baucham.” And he would tell the story often of the time he lost his best player for a week, not because he was flunking a class, but because his mother would not tolerate a C on a progress report. I was performing below my ability and below my mother’s expectations. And in my house, that was simply unacceptable.

I grew up poor, without a father, and surrounded by drugs, gangs, violence, and disfunction in one of the toughest urban environments imaginable. Yet through all of that, I didn’t just survive; I thrived! Not because of government programs or white people “doing the work of anti-racism”; I thrived in large part because, by God’s grace, my mother protected me, sacrificed for me, advocated for me, and disciplined me.

Moreover, the SBC lags far behind other Christian groups in advocating for or providing Christian education alternatives. In fact, among Christian government-school teachers, the SBC has the highest representation of any denomination.

And here is the key: People are ignoring these principles because the standard of justice upon which their pleas are built does not come from the God of the Scriptures. While that may be fine for others, those of us who claim to know Christ are held to a different standard.

This asserts that the only way to judge whether or not police killings of black people are acts of racism is to look at them through the lens of… racism.

The antiracist movement has many of the hallmarks of a cult, including staying close enough to the Bible to avoid immediate detection and hiding the fact that it has a new theology and a new glossary of terms that diverge ever-so-slightly from Christian orthodoxy.

Critical race theory (CRT), the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour.

Finally, it essentially argues that narrative is an alternative, and ultimately superior, truth.

This is not the state of white men; it is the state of all men. As such, the idea that there is special knowledge or revelation available to some and hidden from others by virtue of their race or position in the oppressor/oppressed scheme is unthinkable—and unbiblical.

It is worth noting that—since the SBC is technically not a denomination but a voluntary association of confessing, free churches—the resolutions are not binding. Nevertheless, they represent the collective voice of the Convention and have great influence among the churches.

This one takes the cake! To say that CRT/I “have been appropriated by individuals with worldviews that are contrary to the Christian faith” is like saying heat has been appropriated by the sun. Intersectionality, according to its founder, is inseparable from feminist ideology and identity politics.

Today, any preacher who intends to make a statement to a black audience or about the black community from a biblical text that addresses personal responsibility will have to spend the lion’s share of his message doing so much apologizing and explaining that the force of his admonitions will die the death of a thousand qualifications. Gone are the days when a preacher can assume his audience will give him the benefit of the doubt.

We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child—it’s the courage to raise one.

Whether it is Platt, Dever, Wallis, Seitz, Keller, Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, or Pope Francis, my big problem with this entire line of argumentation is that “single-issue voting” is a straw man. I am not, nor have I ever met, a single-issue voter. Issues like same-sex marriage, school choice, and religious freedom, to name a few, are all very serious issues to Christian voters.

However, even if abortion were an example of single-issue voting, I reject the idea that murdering the unborn can be subjugated in favor of social issues that are being promoted through the lens of Critical Social Justice. In other words, if I were going to be a single-issue voter, that single issue would be the murder of the unborn.

I don’t believe He called me to use the government as a proxy. God calls His people to be His hands and feet in this regard.

I believe there is racism. I believe there are racists. However, I reject the idea that America is “characterized by racism,” or that racism is an unavoidable byproduct of our national DNA. In fact, I believe America is one of the least racist countries in the world.

There are most assuredly issues in the culture that are broken, and we should strive to repair them. However, the mission of the Church begins with and works through the hearts of men.

Consequently, the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is not calling for reparations: it is forgiveness. Antiracism knows nothing of forgiveness because it knows nothing of the Gospel. Instead, antiracism offers endless penance, judgment, and fear. What an opportunity we have to shine the light of Christ in the midst of darkness!