Why Critical Race Theory is an existential threat to Christianity, a theory — Part 2
Is Critical Race Theory a Threat to Christianity?
First off a disclaimer, not all minorities are poor, just as not all whites are rich in America. It is true however that caucasians own the lion’s share of wealth in America, so my discussion today will be approaching the topic on the intersection of Critical Race Theory and Christianity, how one affects the other. If you are a Christian and are willing to read this paper know that I am a believer to. Please keep an open mind about issues of race and injustice, we can always be better as a society.
Sometimes during the pandimonium of cable news it is easy to forget what Critical Race Theory is. Critical Race Theory in a gross simplification is basically a legal framework that says racism is systemically embedded into the legal systems of America, and it works to correct these systems to ensure that minorities and people of color enjoy the same privileges as caucasians. Its not about bringing whites down a peg, its about bringing everyone else up to the same level.
The issue of racism being systemic is one that is very easy to prove: For the first 300 years of European colonization of this continent, people of color were forcibly brought over as slaves. The American constitution counted them as 3/5ths of a person (not fully human), but some may argue that in the 1860’s we had a civil war and slavery was abolished. Then Jim Crowe policies were enacted to strip African Americans of their voting rights, leadership, equal education, property, prosperity and all too often their lives. But then the civil rights movement happened 60 years ago and fixed all that. But did racism stop there or did it go underground? Ronald Reagan’s campaign consultant Lee Atwater, and architect of the religous right Paul Weyrich thought otherwise.
The lasting damage from racist Federal policies like red lining were used to zone people of color into poor neighborhoods, excessively lethal police brutality proven by the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others continue prove people of color are unfairly treated and targeted by authorities. Black Americans routinely find their property devalued, denied loans that gate them out of suburbs that further forces their children into underfunded, overcrowded inner city schools, that make college and access to higher wage jobs extremely difficult to obtain. The education disparity, only begins to explain the legal and financial discrimination people of color are routinely subjected to. The cherry on top of all of this is the myth that these things can be overcome by a person’s merit, that is if I live right, work and study hard, I will karmically earn my way into the middle class and the American dream. I say myth because reality is sobering, if everything about a person’s culture is deemed inferior to white culture, seen as untrustworthy until they can prove otherwise, denied access to equal education, that obstructs them from good paying jobs, which denies them loans, which keeps them out of suburbs, which prevents their kids from getting into good schools, then it becomes painfully obvious that without some form of external help like charity or socialism it is nearly impossible to escape poverty.
But all of these things are social issues. What I want to write about today is to discuss an aspect of why Christians like myself are so deathly afraid of Critical Race Theory and it comes back to the crux of the debate - is racism in America a systemic issue baked into every political, legal, and economical facet of society, or is racism a personal choice? Is racism the exception to the norm? Is the system fair to all people regardless of their skin color? If the system is fair then the disparities in grades, incarceration rates, college acceptance rates, income rates, and so on can all be chalked up to either a lack of effort or moral defect. In other words its an issue of merit. My focus today is on how the evangelical focus on merit is specifically anti-Christian, and counter intuitive to the Gospel of Jesus. Specifically, I want to look at how issues of merit affects American Christian prosperity and excellence. How welfare became a sin and conditioned Christians to hate their government. Lastly, how merit obstructs Christian benevolence to the poor which prevents them from addressing the underlying causes that fuel injustice. But first we need to address the elephant in the room–socialism.
Karl Marx, Christianity, and Critical Race
Critical Race Theory is part of a family of critical theories that can trace their ideation back to Karl Marx. And while there is roughly 85 years of separation between the death of Marx in 1883 to the beginnings of Critical Race Theory in 1970s, the atheistic bent of Marx has disparaged most Christians from even discussing any branch of thought that can trace its roots back to the communist manifesto. To have any meaningful conversation on Critical Race Theory by Christians a large dose of nuance and context is needed to understand how we can use this theory in a productive way.
The first issue to address is that even though Marx was an atheist and called out the injustices of the wealthy class on the lower classes, it is important to remember the context to which Marx lived. Karl Marx lived in Europe at a time of industrialization. Even though wealth was changing from the aristocratic land owners to the merchant class, society was still very rigidly fixed. A person born into poverty had almost no hope of being able to change their situation. Socialist ideas such as public education, minimum wage, work safety, welfare, and social security hadn’t infected the pure unregulated capitalistic systems of the day. He lived at a time where we cannot imagine the poverty and oppression he and other people in the lower classes faced. For example, working conditions in common factories were dangerous, inhumane, grueling, and insufferably long. If you got injured or died at a factory as a result from the work you did there, the company owed you and your family nothing. As a result of these injustices, Karl called for a violent revolution that is not the answer and would solve little. At the risk of giving him some humanity, violence was probably the only way he could have imagined fixing the issues and injustices of his time.
Which brings up the second issue. While calls for violence are inexcusable to a Christian, the philosophies that have evolved out of Marxism like Critical Race, Feminism, and Queer Theory have drastically softened their approach. Instead of being a Marxist Revolutionary deadset on burning Capitalism to the ground, to a force set on evolving capitalism into a system that treats people more humanely. As capitalistic societies have evolved and adapted some aspects of socialism such as public education, universal health care, unemployment, retirement, workplace safety, minimum wage, and more. These socialist initiatives have helped expand the middle class out of poverty. The need for violence and revolution has vanished from the rhetoric of mainstream socialists. You will not find calls for violence, or discrimination in mainstream socialistic theories like Critical Race, Feminism, and or Queer Theory. Likewise, as it relates to this article Critical Race Theory is purely secular. It does not deal with issues of God or religion. It’s focus is on human injustice baked into human systems of governance, power, and commerce. That is something all can agree on since all have fallen short. Therefore constructive criticism can be useful to build a more perfect union.
Thirdly, it is important to remember that while Marx was an atheist, not everyone who believes in or advocates for socialism today is also one. There are a great many aspects of socialism that Christians can get behind if we set asside our assumptions for a moment and listen to what is actually being advocated for. As an example, in the book of Acts the efforts by the first Christians to expand the Gospel was funneled through generosity to the poor, orphans, and widows. By making sure they had food, shelter, money and support. Thats what the office of Deacon was created for. What is an orphan if not poor? What is a widow if not a single parent? What is taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves if it isn’t a social safety net? These are things Christians and socialists can agree on.
Fourthly, is the admission to be fair. While Capitalism can be a brutally competitive winner take all system, it is also true that Socialism can also be oppressive. This is true because as Christians know, all have fallen short. So any political or economic system run by humans will inevitably fall into corruption, because we flawed humans are the ones that carried it out. In America there exists a tension between these two systems. Too much unregulated Capitalism and Socialism, and we fall into systems with no way to change the status quo. A balance between the two, could give us the best of both. That balance is fluid, we need to be able to shift one way or another to address corporate greed or even government overreach. Balancing these two forces could mean a country where poverty is at its absolute minimum and livable for those in it. Where people of any social class have every opportunity to reach for their dreams and grab them in a realistic and attainable way.
Let’s discuss next Critical Race Theory and why Christians are afraid of it.
Christians merit their Prosperity
To say that conservatives and evangelicals are deathly afraid of Critical Race Theory is an understatement. Parents shout and raise fists at school board members at the thought of their schools adopting CRT curriculum. They fear that Critical Race Theory will teach their children that Caucasians are inherently racist and that people of color have suffered unjustly because of the color of their skin not the because of their individual actions. I believe these are surface issues. I think many Christians don’t want to believe Critical Race Theory because we are proud. Proud to be Americans. We see themselves as the defenders of democracy, justice, and capitalism. All forces for good in the world. Another way of looking at this would be to say, because Christians believe that we are right about God, Salvation, and Truth. That we know what sin is, and live by Grace to be as sinless as possible. That because God loves us, and blesses us that our prosperity is a reflection of our rightousness. In truth, we can also be arrogant. Where an admission of fault or guilt would mean Christians are flawed. And that drives to the heart of the problem, that Christian salvation is not based on merit. Prosperity has no basis for measuring how sinless a person is or God’s approval of their actions.
Going deeper, I think we Christians are afraid to admit that life is hard and we are not doing as well as we let on. The (predominantly white) middle class is shrinking, health care, education, and housing costs are inflating far faster than wages. And our employers know it. Prior to the pandemic they often demanded more work and longer hours on tighter deadlines to justify even modest increases in income. The American Dream is getting harder and harder to achieve. To those who achived adulthood in the early 2000’s our (white) parents and grandparents had a far easier time at getting a home, college degree and pension. A $300,000 home today would more than likely cost the equivolent of $60,000 to our grandparents. The average college costs in 1960 were about $12,000 per year, when it is now at least that per semester. It wasn’t uncommon for them to spend 20 to 30 years at the same job. Nowadays the average employment stint is 4 years just to keep the payscale at the rate of inflation. That is no way to earn a pension even if one is offered.
In this context to admit that whites are privileged is to add insult to injury. It means to white Christians that life will get harder after the advantages we enjoy are optimistically neutralized as everyone gains access to the same privileges, or pessimistically taken away — meaning we get brought down to everyone else. If it was hard getting a loan, or a home, or accepted into college before, now there is more competition which would mean Christians need to work even harder, and it’s getting nearly impossible as it is. Conversations over reparations to decendants of slaves would mean that what little spare money Christians have accumulated would need to be shared with people that (if Christians were honest) they believe are undeserving of it. Which comes back to merit and that deserves to be unpacked just a little bit more.
God bless the USA — American Idolatry and merit
If you were to ask a me as a child “what is America?,” my answer would most likely be that America is the greatest country on earth. Furthermore, that America is a Christian nation, as my parents raised me to believe. Weren’t the founding fathers Christians after all? Don’t we pledge alliegance to the flag under God? Doesn’t our money say “In God We Trust.” And don’t we place our hands on the Bible when under oath? If America is a Christian nation then isn’t partiotism the Christian thing to do? If America and Christianity are synonymous, and if racism in America is systemic, then logically Christianity is racist. And that is something that doesn’t get enough press time in the news, when talking about why evangelicals oppose Critical Race Theory. They see America and Christianity as one and the same.
This false equivolence of Christianity, with American Capitalism and Patriotism have made them idols in the American Church. The sad reality is that this statement is tragically true American Christianity is systemically racist. 11 am on Sunday morning is the most segregated time period between blacks and whites. From personal experience at predominantly white protestant churches, they will not tolerate “black music” or black leadership in their churches. I even once heard my pastor say that “If you play black music, then the whites will leave!”
During my short stint as a member of a Southern Baptist church, my pastor told our congregation that the reasons why our church is predominantly white, was because of issues beyond their control (red lining for example) and were therefore unfixable so why try. This pastor would barely mention George Floyd and others during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement because — in my opinion — he knew the congregation (and its high tithers) had little tolerance for such things. This pastor was a coward who gave his congregation a pass at dealing with the ugly realities his congregation reflected. He let his congregation think that “the problems that resulted in a nearly all white church were not their fault, and unfixable anyways, so why feel guilty about it… so lets move on.”
This happens all too often in predominantly white churches. When simple fixes like intentionally making sure the elder board is 50% people of color, would be a major step in righting the ship. A person of color only needs to look at the leadership page to know if they will be welcome in a church. An all-white staff or one with that lone token person of color speaks volumes about what a church values just like how an all black staff would turn off a white parishioner. For a person to think critically of America, Capitalism, Conservatism, and Patriotism is attacking Christianity in the eyes of most Evangelicals. These elements have co-opted the Gospel, and pay wall its messages of peace, generosity, and Grace behind issues of sin and merit.
The sin of Welfare —rewards a lack of merit
Recently while visiting friends one of the few role models I have left in my life made a startling announcement when discussing why employers were having a hard time finding workers to fill low income positions, they believed that socialism was the cause (and not that the wages were too low to make the job worth it, or that a global pandemic is still raging) but rather because people are lazy and don’t want to work if they can just receive a check that meets their basic needs. Out of no-where they defiantly claimed as proof of their point that “welfare destroyed the Black family.” Now this insidious lie was something I was regrettably familiar with growing up in the South. My high school economics professor told my class back in 2001, “that welfare did in three generations what slavery couldn’t do in 30 generations.” I was sadly naive enough to accept that lie as a truth back then and had parroted it to others in the years following. And even though in 2021 this pillar in my life vehemently insisted and believes their statement isn’t racist, it is, and sadly they are, in my eyes at least. But that lie “welfare destroyed the Black family” highlights many of the regrettable flaws that stumble many of my brothers and sisters in American Christianity.
To understand this misconception there are 2 Bible verses get cherry picked and used out of context as jsutification. The first is 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and the other is Mathew 26:11. Lets take a look at each.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The problem with using only this verse is the context in which it is used is missing. The context is found in verses 11–13 “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” So what is 2 Thessalonians chapter three about? Chapter 3: 6–15 is a warning to the Church of Thessaloniaca against fellow Christians who were hypocritical and lazy busybodies that spent their time disparaging other Christians from doing good works with their gossip. Verse 6: “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” Verse 15 supplies the prescription on how to deal with them, “Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” This puts some desperately needed context and nuance to how this verse should be applied. It should not be used in such a way that says only be generous to those who work. Verse 10 is talking about freeloading Christians, who gossip over lover lunch about the choices and actions of other believers, who cause them to “grow weary in doing good” out of fear of being criticized.
The second verse is Matthew 26:11 “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” In this chapter Jesus was stopping his disciples from disparaging a woman for doing the following in verses 6–8 “Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?” A key point of Jesus’s rebuke of the disciples was to remind them of Deuteronomy 15:11 “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’” Which in essence Jesus pointed out the disciples hypocrisy that this woman who was vastly pourer than them, had been exceptionally generous with what little she had. And the disciples were criticizing her for how she chose to be generous.
Notice the irony in these two passages, both Matthew 26:11 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 get used by believers as excuses for with holding generosity, when those verses are in fact rebukes against believers who disparage other Christians for how they choose to be generous and do good in their communities.
There is a saying in Christian circles Scripture enterprits Scripture. That for one interpretation of a verse to be true it must be inline with the rest of the Bible. Using a verse, without knowing what the paragraph, section, chapter, and book/letter are about is a recipie for misuing the word of God. To use 2 Thessalonians 3:10 or Matthew 26:11 as excuses to not be generous because you don’t see a person working, or you think that the person does not deserve generousity, or that poverty is unsolvable so why try misses the point of Christianity. There will always be pour so we should always be generous if we can. That we should never disparage one another from doing good works something that both of these verses point out for those who choose to read them in context. And while some Christians proof-text the Bible as a reason to withhold their generousity, other believers actively seek out to stop non-Christian institutions from doing so, out of a fear of competition - that it is doing the job that Christians are failing to do, institutions like the government for example.
Government Intrusion negates the need for Christianity
If Evangelicals are honest with ourselves, American Christianity largely distrusts and even hates the government, regardless of what our sacred text tells us. But what is most germane here is that socialism is often seen as an existential threat to American Christianity. If Critical Race Theory is correct and racism is systemic in our country, then the solutions will need to go beyond individuals. The solutions will be to change the system, usually by adding more socialism. And this is a percieved threat to Christianity. The logic flows like this. If the government, provides for the poor, and guarantees income, housing, healthcare, and education then what do we need the Church for? We used to rely on the Church for all or most of these things. Christians furthermore take a lot of pride in an assumed fact that we are the most generous people on the earth. We credit the spread of our faith across the globe in large part to the generosity of the Church during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries, eventually consuming the Roman empire with Emperor Constantine the 1st. If other American Christians are like me they see Socialism and Government Welfare as an intrusion on Christianity’s turf. “The government shouldn’t be taking care of the poor, Christians should be taking care of the poor” and that thought is worth a closer look.
In truth Christians can be a very generous people, if we feel those people are deserving of that generosity. The government on the other hand gives out indiscriminently. It will give to the pagan, the adulterer and the addict just as readily as the saint if they fall within similar tax brackets, at least in theory. The government doesn’t care how the money is spent, squandered, or wasted. It all returns as taxes anyways. Which fuels why most Christians prefer the Government to not use their money to help the poor without some measure of discernment as to how the money is going to get used. Its seen as poor stewardship to give money to those who are irresponsible with money. Phrases like “They did this to themselves” or “What do you think they are going to do with that money… (buy alcohol and drugs)?” These sentiments are often uttered as reasons to withhold generosity.
To back these thoughts up believers often like to quote part of Matthew 7:6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs” using this verse fragment in this way is perverse for a few reasons. First off the context is wrong, Matthew 7 covers the last part of the Sermon on the mount, it doesn’t talk about the poor, or money, or stewardship. Matthew 7:1–6 is a section titled “Judging others” and is a warning for believers to not be judgmental while we commit the same sins ourselves. Verse 6 is not a warning about being fiscally responsible with Christian resources. Its a warning to believers to be responsible in withholding their judgements about other believers who commit the same sins as they do lest you find that fellow believers attacking you. This can be very easily deduced by reading verses 5–6 together in their entirety “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Why would pigs attack a person who gives them something valuable, especially if the passage is talking about judgement? They wouldn’t but a fellow believer will attack you for casting verbal judgements at them. But the issue at hand is the idea that Christians can take care of the poor in a discerning way that is vastly superior to a cold indiscriminant secular government that lacks any concept of the love of Jesus. But conversations about merit hypocricially and habitually blocks Christians from actually take care of the poor.
Merit blocks Christian benevolence to the poor.
Christians largely do not help the poor, for a few reasons. 1) Not every poor person is a believer. Do we give more money to believer’s who are poor or to non-believers who are poor? Most Christians will only want to give money if the person is a believer or (genuinely) promises to convert, thus advancing the kingdom. Which if being honest is an abuse of power that drives false conversions. Giving money to a non-believer would not be seen as showing the love of the creator, but rather perceived as a waste of resources. Why save the sinner, when we can give money to save the saints? 2) If racism/sin in America is a personal choice, then the poor are poor because of a moral defect or lack of merit. If they are poor for those reasons, then charity therefore rewards sin and perpetuates the behavior. Under this logic the only way for the “sinner” to realize the error of their ways is to suffer for those choices to eventually force them to come to their senses, only once they correct their behavior can they begin to climb out.
I say this from personal experience, in more than one benevolence ministry in which generosity to the poor or single mothers is considered, a consistent debate is waged “are we rewarding sinful behavior?” Again, why save the sinner, when we can give money to help the saints? 3) Jesus said there will always be poor in Matthew 26:11 therefore the problem is unfixable so why try? Except as already discussed this is a misleading proof-texting that ignores the true meaning of this text. Never the less Evangelicals largely distrust and even demonize any aspect of Socialism even if it does do some good.
Grace versus Socialism
Going back to the lie “welfare destroyed the Black family” the underlying logic is that accepting welfare is sinful or at a minimum encourages sinful behavior. After all what is Welfare? Giving money to people who didn’t earn it. If they didn’t earn it then they will not know how valuable it is, or know how to be responsible with it. The irony is this fallacy as a Christian is almost too hard to bear. Because what is greater to a Christian; receiving money you didn’t earn, or being forgiven for sins you committed, and granted eternal life without the need to pay for either? And unlike welfare sin by its very definition is a moral failure. Christian Grace at its very core is described as un-merited favor by God. We did not and cannot earn it. Romans 12 “All have fallen short.” To the Christian, Grace is worth far more than money. Viewed in this way it is unfathomable socialism, welfare on an untold scale. Furthermore, Grace freely forgives a person for their moral failures.
So the irony is this, if Grace is worth far more than welfare, then why hasn’t Grace destroyed the Christian family far more thoroughly than welfare has destroyed the Black family? The answer is on all accounts is — it didn’t. To say “welfare destroyed the Black family” is to say the Black family has a moral defect or is more defective than other (white) families and does not deserve to be helped. When the Christian has by contrast received far more help spiritually for its moral defects in a way that specifically negates merit. Romans 3:22–30 “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, … Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”For a Christian to focus on or require merit as a prerequisite for generosity; is a most perverse form of hypocrisy, pride in oneself, and contempt for others, all of which denies the love and need for the Savior. The focus on merit in a uniquely American context has one other aspect, there is an American obsession with justice and punishment.
Let the punishment fit the crime — merit
Justice and punishment are two concepts that go hand in hand. You do not have true justice if the crime goes un-punished. If the wrongs do not get righted what is the point. The dark-side of an obsession with justice and punishment is that it can be fueled by bloodlust and revenge. There is a euphoric validation when we see karmic justice punishing the wicked for their crimes. But seeking justice can be antithetical to the Gospel, if the Christian is called in all things to forgive freely. Romans 12:17–20 “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink…” These are hard verses for Americans to digest, it’s not fun, or sexy and there is no validation or satisfaction in seeing someone who has done great wrong against you to not get their deserved comeuppance.
Abortion is the main justification as to why Christians vehemently oppose government run universal healthcare, because it allows for abortions. Rather than supporting initiatives that negate the need for unnecessary abortions like making childcare, housing, healthcare, education, and basic income universal to all people would enable single mothers to have their children more easily and prepare to re-enter the workforce once those children enter public school. Instead, this is perceived as rewarding lazyness, addiction, and sinful behavior, in other words their actions do not justify access to such resources, or another way they do not merit it. From my own personal experience, Christians I know would rather cast judgment on single Mothers shaming them for their choices, and ultimately be rejected by the Christian community, before offering them money to help the child eat, sleep, go to school, and basically live.
How valuable is human life worth in dollars? How much is saving a life worth? To the American Christian apparently not much if it means a raise in personal taxes. I hated the Affordable Care Act when it first came out. My blood boiled when I saw the monthly premium I was forced to pay. I continued to hate the Affordable care act, that is until I saw and heard the testimonies from the peoples lives it saved. People who were on the verge of losing their health insurance because the medical bills that capping out what their insurance policy would cover, or pre-existing conditions gated them out of getting coverage that could make the life saving but astronomically expensive healthcare accessible. Most of these issues were not the result of personal choices but solving/fixing life threatening birth defects in infants. After watching a child struggling to live, and having to undergo multiple surgeries before the age of 3, and knowing the only reason that child will continue to survive is because their health insurance will continue to pay for the expensive surgeries they still need, am I finally ok with my healthcare premiums going up. Again if the affordable care act saves lives should I complain that my premiums went up a little? How much is one human life worth?
The counter point to this notion is that allowing for universal healthcare enables women to have abortions thus taking lives. To which the question again comes. How much is a human life worth? Passing laws does not stop sinful behavior, if it did we would still be under the mosaic covenant. But if an extra 10% out of my paycheck could prevent an abortion somewhere else would that be worth it? If most of the causes around unnecessary abortions are for reasons like, women can’t have a career and maintain a family, or families simply do not have enough resources or support to even hope to be able to raise the child, or single mothers in low income jobs who cant make enough as it is to survive let alone take on more burden. If basic health care, day care, and guaranteed basic income for families with children stopped even a few women from choosing to abort a child — would that not be money well spent? How much is one life worth.
If socialist ideas like basic income, helped minorities climb out of poverty, put food on kids tables, placed their families into safe homes in suburbs, and moved the children into good schools, allowing them to get a better education, to get better paying jobs, to one day negate the needs of basic income. Wouldn’t that be money well spent? Most Conservatives believe there just isn’t enough money in existence for everyone to live a decent life regardless of the job they have. The problem is unfixable and therefore there is no reason to try and solve or at least minimize it. These sentiments have been uttered time and again by the Christian men in my life, I never realized how small their Faith in an all-powerful God was. But I do not put my Faith in men.
Where do we go from here
The issues put forth by Critical Race Theory is a profound attack on the pride and ego of American Christians for all the wrong reasons. It is however not an attack on Christianity — if all have fallen short, then sin is systemic even in Christian societies, and if sin is systemic then so is racism. If racism is not just a personal choice but systemically woven into every fabric of American life, then not only have Christians failed to address these issues in a society we claim as our own, but we wove the racism in ourselves. That means all whites, and Christians in particular even if we never owned slaves, or never consciously acted on a racist feelings, benefited and perpetuated systems of racism that keep minorities in poverty, incarserated, and disenfranchised. Being passive about these problems that whites excessively benefit from only serves to perpetuate the injustices baked into the system. To fix these issues Christians and especially white Christians need to be humble in our complicity in these injustices, listen to those when they say they are hurting and actively work to amend them. Here are 3 tidbits individuals can do to help fix systemic racism in our country.
1) In all things give people of color the benefit of the doubt.
To begin this process it is important to remember what it means to have White priveledge. It means that as a white person, I recieve the benefit of the doubt when I make a claim, or an excuse when I fail to live up to a standard, my claims and excuses are far more likely to be seen as credible. When a person of color makes a claim, or fails the same benefits and grace should be be given. Don’t assume they are cheating, lying, lazy or something else, caucasians/Christians are rarely treated such ways, so don’t assume others are being that way to you. If they say they are in pain, or that the system is unfair listen! This factor gets multiplied out across the ways people speak, dress, and style themselves. Wearing a hoodie, speaking in slang, or having dreadlocks has no bearing on the content of a person’s character. If you judge a person by their surface appearance, be prepared for God to judge You for your rotten heart.
2) Treat people as humans, not as threats.
It is a well known fact that in America, white Americans that do not often mix with people of color, and when these individuals do come across people of color they tend to view them as threats. Some textbook examples of this are locking your cardoors when a person of color passes by, or crossing a street to avoid passing near or interacting with a person of color. Or when a person of color enters a store, or a nieghborhood, do not assume they are up to no good. Do not follow them, shadow their every move. Do not give suspicious judgmental stares. Smile, say hello in a pleasant tone, be decent. A little trust speaks volumes. Being afraid of people because they look different only fuels the problem.
3) Be an advocate!
This is probably the most important way an individual can amend the problem is by intentionally addressing it. If you are hiring at your job, and your office is mostly white, hire a person of color, and keep hiring people of color when you can until the office is an even mix. One or two token hires is not enough. If you are an elder or deacon at a mostly white church offer to step asside from your position and demand a person of color takes your place. If your mostly white church is searching for a new pastor and all previous pastors were white, intentionally demand a person of color replaces them. If a person of color puts out an idea or proposal at the office, be a champion for them and advocate for their solution over your own. Furthermore when it comes to laws and elections if we know that minorities are disproportionately poor, vote for laws and initiatives that support and help the poor. Learn about racist dog-whistles and how politicians use it to clue their constituents into an agenda of racism. Homogenous white; Churches, offices, and communities are a red flag that a problem exists. These groups will not disperse on their own or else they would have after the 1960’s. It’s going to take intentional work on the part of whites to invite people of color in, over a long period of time before the situation is even marginally fixed.
Maybe far enough down the road such measures wont be necessary. But the latest predictions on the time table for when people of color will be finally able to offset the damages of slavery, Jim Crowe, and systemic racism is 200 years from now! As Christians we can do better to shorten this travesty. Going back to the original question, is Racism in America a systemic issue, or is racism a personal choice. Any disparity in grades, incarceration rates, college acceptance rates, income rates, loan rates between people groups and social classes should be a red flag that the system is prejudiced against one group over another. To say that an entire demographic of people by and large lags behind another group for a lack of effort or moral defect, is to say that in this instance the majority of black families are by and large more sinful than their white contemporaries and therefore morally inferior. In other words to think such things is to be racist. Christians can do better.
I hope this helps someone out there. Next week I will be looking at Critical Race theory and why it threatens the Church and its institutions.
