The conversation around Critical Race Theory (CRT) has sparked interest among Christians.  However, a more pertinent question for Christians to ponder is centered on race, injustice and fostering racial unity within the body of Christ.  While exploring CRT and Marxism may have valid purposes, fixating on these aspects is often unproductive and can even be detrimental.

Let’s look at some of the possible common reasons we fixate on CRT and Marxism.

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It’s a Deflection from An Uncomfortable Topic

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Whenever discussing building multiethnic unity in the local church or addressing racial disparities in the community, some Christians may deflect by associating Critical Race Theory (CRT) with Marxist principles.  This diversion often stems from discomfort in addressing racial issues.

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It’s crucial to equip ourselves for conversations about race and foster genuine multiethnic unity within the body of Christ.  To facilitate this, we introduced Embracing Unity Academy.  Our goal is to equip Christians to talk race, pursue church unity, and put things right in our communities.

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For Christians, the discomfort around discussing race can also be influenced by the notion of Colorblind Christianity.   Our essay The Myth of Colorblind Christianity highlights Jesse Curtis’ research on how evangelicals sacralized not being race conscious to protect the racial status quo.

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We Genuinely Want to Pursue Biblical Solutions

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Perhaps some Christians fixate on CRT and Marxism to assess if proposed solutions align with Biblical principles.  Asking if solutions are Biblical is crucial.  However, analyzing CRT and Marxism might not offer clear guidance.  Voddie Baucham emphasizes the importance of Scripture’s sufficiency.  Voddie says, “I believe the Bible is absolutely sufficient for all matters of faith and practice.  And how we deal with one another across ethnicities is a matter of faith and practice.”  Voddie asserts that if Scripture is sufficient, studying secular philosophies like CRT is unnecessary.  Our ultimate guide should be Scripture.  We should invest our time understanding the Biblical principles for addressing issues of injustice, racial disparities, and building unity in the body of Christ.

 

Our Faith Easily Gets Subordinated to Our Political Ideology

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In an interview, Tim Keller explained that “most Christians are just nowhere nearly as deeply immersed in the scripture and in theology as they are in their respective social-media bubbles and News Feed bubbles. To be honest, I think the ‘woke’ evangelicals are just much more influenced by MSNBC and liberal Twitter. The conservative Christians are much more influenced by Fox News and their particular loops.  And they’re [both] living in those things eight to 10 hours a day. They go to church once a week, and they’re just not immersed in the kind of biblical theological study that would nuance that stuff.” 

“The way I have put it is that faith is often subordinated to partisan politics and political ideology, with the latter being the prism through which too many Christians interpret the former.  Too many Christians are characterized by their tribal commitments, rather than an understanding of justice and human teleology.”

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We Want to Save America from Marxism

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Perhaps some Christians feel compelled to save America from Marxism.  As Christians we are certainly called to address injustice, to hunger and thirst to put things right.  But as Christ followers we are not called to align ourselves with or against political philosophies of the world.  It reminds me of the days immediately after 9/11/2001, when Christians friends would forward emails calling for Americans to repent so that we could save America from judgment and destruction.  While we should certainly repent and pray for revival, Christians are not called to save America from destruction.  That is not our fight.  A quick reflection on world history reminds us that when Rome destroyed Jerusalem Christians scattered to the ends of the earth spreading the Gospel as they went.   Rome then persecuted Christians, resulting in Christianity exploding and in AD 380 the empire’s adoption of Nicene Christianity as the state religion.   Then when pagan Gaul destroyed western Rome, Gaul received the Gospel and all of Europe became Christianized.  The Vikings raided Continental Europe returning home with gold and young girls, ultimately leading to the Vikings converting to Christianity.  After Communism took over China, Christians were persecuted, and the church exploded in China.  The mission of the church and the calling on us as Christians, isn’t dependent on a specific political system surviving in America.

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Our Focus on CRT Impacts Church Unity

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My primary concern with Christians putting a strong focus on CRT is that it destroys our ability to build genuine multiethnic unity within the body of Christ.  Our primary calling as Christians is to come together in local bodies of believers that include natural enemies, i.e. people of different races, cultures, and political views, and build such unity that the world takes notice.  Jesus says that when we are one, it will point the world to Jesus. 

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It's not possible to build unity with other Christians while derisively labeling each other in the public square as Marxist, Nazis, cultists, insurrectionists, etc.  If we are going to build unity with other Christians, and if we are going to be winsome with the world, we must be respectful of others, including their political affiliations.  We dig into this in detail in our essay Unity Requires Civility.

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But unity requires more than just civility.  As Christians, we are called to express solidarity with our black brothers and sisters in Christ, as outlined In Romans 12:5 and 1 Corinthians 12:16.  It’s crucial to empathize with those who believe they are victims of racial injustice, even if we have doubts about systemic racism.  Before delving into discussions about CRT let’s prioritize building solidarity across racial and ethnic lines.  By fostering understanding and empathy, we can engage in conversations about CRT without compromising the unity we are called to live into.

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The world thinks the church is irrelevant.  And for good reason.  We have become silent on what the Bible has to say about race and injustice.  We tell researchers that we believe the church has the tools to solve America’s enduring racial division, but we tell the same researchers that we don’t see solving those issues to be a priority.  We seem to be oblivious to the fact that the lack of racial unity within the church, including segregated worship, is a central issue facing the American church today.

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Pastor Bryan Loritts, of The Summit Church, says it best: “Critical Race Theory only exists because the church has abdicated her duty of pursuing multiethnic unity and addressing racial injustice.”  It’s time to lean into our calling of pursuing multiethnic unity and addressing racial injustice.  And doing so will require us to set aside our compulsion to fight partisan battles that lack kingdom consequences.