Critical Race Theory and Christianity
Standing with anti racists without needing 100% agreement on politics
The England football (soccer) team’s decision to take the knee in the recent Euro 2020 (in 2021!) championship proved controversial. The England team were keen to clarify they were not making a political statement. They only wanted to affirm their opposition to racism.
But the team was booed by some of their supporters, and received disapproving comments from the UK’s Home Secretary. The controversy mirrors discussions going on within Christianity in the past few years. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, have argued Christianity is incompatible with critical race theory.
Can Christians stand together with anti-racist movements sharing their opposition of racial injustice? Or must they reject movements that do not agree with them on other political issues?
Christ and culture in paradox
Let’s start by thinking through some approaches to Christian engagement with culture. Ronald Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture remains influential(for a more detailed summary see here).
Many of the critics of CRT are closer to Niebuhr’s ‘Christ and Culture in Paradox’. The emphasis is on conflict between God and us. Classic examples of this approach include Martin Luther and Soren Kierkegaard. Sin tarnishes all attempts by humans to build culture:
These thoughts lead to the idea that in all temporal work in culture men are dealing only with the transitory and the dying. Hence, however important cultural duties are for Christians their life is not in them: it is hidden with Christ in God. (Nieburhr, R. Christ and Culture, p188)
From this perspective, although Christians and advocates of CRT may share concern with tackling the evil of racism, they offer competing solutions. Therefore, Christians should focus on the deficiencies of CRT, since the only solution is the Gospel.
Epistemology while I’m bleeding!
There is an important potential weakness to the ‘Christ and culture in paradox’ view. We can all remember how the killing of George Floyd in 2020 led to protests across the world. Rasool Berry, in a debate with Neil Shenvi, pointed out many Christians were more eager to critique the ideological roots of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement than discuss the injustices of racism.
Many Christians view their critiques of BLM and CRT as a step towards preaching the Gospel — the only solution to racism. But we can be perceived as callous:
The church is being brought ethical concerns and is responding with epistemological critique. That’s like a man telling you he’s bleeding and you ask him, “How did you come to that conclusion?”
(Berry,R. Is Critical Race Theory compatible with Christianity? Debate between Neil Shenvi & Rasool Berry)
Christ as Transformer of Culture
Those who take the ‘Christ as Transformer of Culture’ view agree culture is under the judgment of God but also under the sovereign rule of God. Examples of this approach are Augustine of Hippo and Herman Bavinck:
Augustine not only describes, but illuminates in his own person, the work of Christ as converter of culture. The Roman rhetorician becomes a Christian preacher, who not only puts into the service of Christ the training in language and literature given him by his society, but, by virtue of the freedom and illumination received from the gospel, uses that language with a new brilliance and brings a new liberty into that literary tradition. (Niebuhr, R. Christ and Culture)
They are keen to engage with epistemological differences between Christianity and other worldviews. However, there is an optimism that real cultural change is possible in this life.
Defining CRT
CRT is focused on the relationship between race, racism, and power. While traditional civil rights movements sought incremental change over time, CRT’s goals are more radical. Advocates of CRT seek to challenge the foundations of ‘the liberal order’ and Enlightenment rationalism.
I discuss some of the key elements of CRT below based on the influential Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (leading proponents of CRT).
Ordinariness of racism
The first key element proposed by Delgado and Stefancic is the ordinariness of racism:
“the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country [US]” (Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction)
There are a few assumptions of the Christian worldview that overlap with this assumption:
- sin affects every aspect of our lives (Genesis 3, Romans 5)
- people with power tend to exploit those with less influence (Mark 10:41–45)
For Christians, it’s not an unreasonable assumption to expect given historical power differences in Western societies and inherent human sinfulness, that racism will be a common experience for people of colour.
Unconscious bias
CRT also assumes the widespread nature of racism means it’s difficult to change:
“ordinariness, means that racism is difficult to address or cure because it is not acknowledged.” (Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. Ibid.)
There is an analogous position within Christianity:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21–22, NIV)
Jesus pointed out we may avoid the act of killing, but we are often unaware of how we can be gripped with unrighteous anger, the root cause of many murders.
Jesus also taught that the powerful are often more susceptible to these biases (Matthew 19:22–24). So it is not unreasonable to expect White Christians may be unaware of their biases. We can find it difficult to detect these biases when nurtured in societies with a long history of unbiblical assumptions about race.
Risk of group attribution bias
However, when tackling unconscious biases, we need to avoid going in unhelpful directions. A Biblical worldview asserts we are all biased. We are acutely aware of the biases of others but we often downplay our own (Matthew 7:3–5).
Psychological research confirms these Christian assumptions. The group attribution error describes our tendency to judge the causes of the negative behaviours of an outgroup as inherent to that group.
Conversely, we’re more likely to judge positive behaviours of the outgroup to be because of the situation rather than the inherent nature of that group. The process, of course, works in the opposite direction when evaluating our own ingroup. We need humility when deconstructing the motives and biases of others.
Race as a social construction
Another key element of CRT is that race is a social construct:
…race and races are products of social thought and relations. Not objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient. (Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. Ibid.)
There are good reasons for Christians to accept this conclusion. Decades of genetic research shows that our folk understanding of race has very little basis in genetics. On average, any genetic differences between races are much smaller than genetic differences between individuals of any given “race”. The Bible, of course, also confirms that we are all of one race — the human race (Acts 17:26).
Intersectionality and the book of Ruth
One of the most controversial elements of CRT is its embrace of intersectionality:
“No person has a single, easily stated, unitary identity. A white feminist may also be Jewish or working class or a single mother. An African American activist may be male or female, gay or straight” (Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. Ibid)
At the basic level, this is undeniable. Our lives and identities are multidimensional. For example, the Book of Ruth revolves around the intersection of the main character’s identities. Ruth was a Moabite woman who had just lost her Israelite husband.
The book is about how God provided for a poor, immigrant, widow and her mother-in-law (Naomi) in a foreign land (Israel). Ruth learnt from Naomi about the various Israelite laws designed to protect the poor such as gleaning (harvesting the left-over grain from farmers’ fields).
Source of identity
Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer point out that critical race theory and Christianity are worldviews. They answer fundamental questions about reality, morality, and identity. For example:
Is our identity primarily defined in terms of our vertical relationship to God? Or primarily in terms of horizontal power dynamics between groups of people? (Shenvi, N. & Sawyer, P. The Incompatibility of Critical Theory and Christianity)
The book of Ruth wrestles with the multiple identities of the two main characters in the book (Naomi and Ruth). However, God is their ultimate hope who rescues and redeems them.
Whereas in critical race theory we find our identity in being a member of a marginalised or dominant group:
…we either need to divest ourselves of power and seek to liberate others, or we need to acquire power and liberate ourselves by dismantling all structures and institutions that subjugate and oppress.(Shenvi, N. & Sawyer, P. Ibid.)
Lived experience and objectivity
The last element of critical race theory we will look at is lived experience:
the voice- of- color thesis holds that because of their different histories and experiences with oppression, black, American Indian, Asian, and Latino writers and thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are unlikely to know. (Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. Ibid.)
Again, on face value, this is hard to disagree with. As a White man from the UK, I don’t know what it’s like to live as an ethnic minority. To love those who experience racial injustice, I need to listen to the experiences of people who differ from me.
However, Christians are often concerned with the weight that critical race theorists give to lived experience. For example:
This stance is particularly dangerous because it undermines the function of Scripture as the final arbiter of truth, accessible to all people regardless of their demographics (Ps. 119:130, 160; 2 Tim. 3:16–17; 1 Cor. 2:12–14; Heb. 8:10–12) (Shenvi, N. & Sawyer, P.)
I don’t think these concerns are necessarily justified. It is possible to affirm the importance of lived experience without relativizing all truth.
As a Bible believer, Edwards affirmed that Africans and White Americans are equally made in the image of God. Yet, Edwards was not only a slave owner, he also wrote in defence of a local Pastor condemned for owning African slaves (Marsden, G. Jonathan Edwards: a life).
Despite being passionately devoted to serving God, Edwards was still a man shaped by his time and place — his lived experience. If we want to avoid the blind spots of our time, White Christians need to listen to people with colour.
However, again, there is a balance. Shenvi and Sawyer are right that Christians’ belief in the Bible as the Word of God is at odds with many critical race theorists:
If a person from an oppressor group appeals to Scripture, his concerns can be dismissed as a veiled attempt to protect his privilege. (Shenvi, N. & Sawyer, P. Ibid.)
I think it’s too simplistic to speak of whether or not critical race theory is incompatible with Christianity. There are important worldview differences. Yet there are also overlaps — including opposition to racism.
Returning to the England football team, there are signs the UK government’s stance may have back-fired. Racial abuse over social media, of three black players who missed penalties in the final of Euro 2020, turned the tide of public opinion. In response, England footballer Tyrone Mings called out the British Home Secretary (Priti Patel) on Twitter:
You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens
We need to stand with people who oppose racism even if we do not agree with all their politics. If we cannot even do that, it should not surprise us when people respond with cynicism when we claim to be anti racist.
