Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel - and the Way to Stop It

by Owen Strachan

George Floyd wasn't shot. And Qualified Immunity makes the courtroom a difficult place to have these discussions.

In Floyd’s case, fentanyl was at the least affecting him physically even before a Minneapolis police officer knelt on him to subdue him.51 I concur with what Voddie Baucham Jr. said in his overview of this sad story: “The George Floyd case was indeed tragic. However, it was not unique. Nor does it represent clear evidence of a particular pattern of police brutality regarding black men.”52 In Blake’s case, police officers first tried to subdue him by brute strength, then used tasers on him, and then—as he went for a knife in his car—shot him multiple times.53 In Taylor’s case, police fired into the apartment where Taylor slept only after being fired upon.54 There is more to each case than what I have covered, yet even these details show that the popular narrative around each of these shootings was more complicated than it initially seemed.

Owen misses the point here.

Whether affiliated with Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or no group at all, rioters set this country ablaze with few public forces to stop them.

No mention of the white supremacists arrested for some of the crimes here in Minneapolis.

Similarly, the 1619 Project, a historical collaborative overseen by the New York Times (released in 2019), also views capitalism as an inherently racist economic system.

This is a bold claim without citation.

At this point, Eve had taken the leadership role in the marriage, betraying God’s design.

Just no.

(for sin is always personal, committed by people against God and man),

Strong statement with no support.

We face disunity and commit partiality of many kinds for one reason and one reason alone: our sin. It is not that society is flawed, and we are innocent. It is that we are sinful, and so our world is polluted with our sin. This does not mean that Christ died (see Chapter 6) for society in general; it means that if things are to be made right here, we must be made right. We are the issue at hand. We are not victims, though we may have suffered due to the sin of others. We ourselves are criminals. We have no rescue in ourselves. We have no hope of self-rehabilitation. We cannot focus our bitterness on others and so make our own problems vanish. We are the problem. Christ, as we shall see, is the only solution.

So why fight against CRT and not use it to show the depravity of humanity?

While Jews and Gentiles each have their own background, Christ has become their primary identity, their ultimate identity.

But their ultimate identity does not negate their other identities.

However, in my brief time on this earth, I have seen God’s Gospel bring people together in the Church. I’ve shared membership with people who have nothing in common with me in terms of background. I’ve watched as marriages across skin color are forged out of common love for Christ. I’ve met people from all across the world in the context of the local church and learned much about cultures distinct from my own. I know of many couples who adopted children out of desperate circumstances and have done so because God gave them love for fellow image-bearers—not from any evil motive. My experience is not uncommon; it is not unique. It is what God has been doing for a long time in too many local churches to count.

Owen feels personally attacked by Wokeness.

In the end, unless clear proof of actual measures to inhibit and harm short people emerges, then we should avoid the claim of “systemic injustice.”

Strong disagree. Bias consistently in the system can be evidence that the system biased.

It is surely true that the presence of such blasphemy would affect the environment in which the Corinthians lived, but that is a different matter altogether than holding the Corinthian church guilty for such evil.

The stark differenced hered is that Owen would say tgose outside the church were guilty. They fell victim to thed culture. Is it possible that much of American Christianity has fallen victim to the culture around it? Owen seems to think this is not possible, while I think it is likely.

For example, our pro-abortion culture puts great pressure on us all to affirm a pro-death worldview over a pro-life one. But are we Christians guilty for living amidst such a culture?

Would we be guilty if we did nothing about it? This is the question Owen is not answering.

Though these two brothers shared so much in natural terms, their paths diverged sharply even unto eternity itself.

What?

One issue that is often framed in these terms today is complementarity—male and female relationships and roles. Some evangelical leaders now commonly speak of male headship in the home and the Church as a “justice” issue and nuance their statements about such leadership by noting that complementarity can “oppress” women.29 While we must always be honest about the failings of the Church, we should not frame issues in this way. If we do, we let an intersectional slant color people’s thinking on the subject. We destabilize the goodness of the doctrines of God’s Word by connecting them to “power dynamics.” It is true that men are called by God to have authority in the home and Church.30 It is also true that even the godliest men must regularly repent of sin. But intersectionality’s critique of power is not a helpful one; it is a destructive one. It encourages us to read any power or authority distinction as a matter of oppression on the part of leadership. That is an unsound approach to biblical authority.

There's the real issue. CRT impacts comp theology, and wes can't have that.