Jun
5
Evangelicalism’s Pending Catastrophe
I started a new book the other day, one which examines Critical Race Theory and “social justice” from a conservative biblical perspective and their part in the looming civil war (my words) threatening to split the Evangelical Church writ broad. The following excerpt comes from the Introduction…
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“[Recent years have born witness to several controversial deaths of Black individuals at the hands of police, along with the protests and rioting that followed throughout America.] Those events, combined with subsequent calls to ‘defund the police’ — some of which passed — showed many Christians for the first time the shakiness within our culture and underscored it for the rest.
But this fault line is not new. It has been quietly forming underneath our feet for a long time around the area of social justice, and the Church must be awake and aware of what it means and where it comes from. Otherwise, we will fall victim to it — as many leading Christian voices already have….
Growing ethnic tension is a problem — but it is not the main problem. While troubling, it is no match for the truth of the Gospel and the unity it creates among those who embrace it. [Eph. 2:13-16; see image below]
Ethnic tensions are only a problem for Christians who forget this truth or subordinate it to a competing ideology (whether that be on the left or the right). When that happens, a fault line appears: those on one side “press the text” of the Bible, while those on the other see that approach as short-sighted and insensitive. The problem is not ethnic tension, but the fundamental assumptions that drive our assessment of and subsequent approaches to it….
[When Barack Obama first ran for President,] I warned repeatedly of his culturally Marxist worldview. I also warned that an Obama presidency would not heal, but rather deepen ethnic tensions in America. I also warned much the same regarding both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016. But neither was ‘the problem.’…
Those belonging to the social-justice crowd present themselves as the only ones pursuing justice, to the exclusion of all who disagree with their assessments — who, by that definition, are pursuing injustice.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the current struggle is that it mischaracterizes Christians that way too. On one side are ‘compassionate’ Christians who are ‘concerned about justice.’ On the other are ‘insensitive’ Christians who are ‘not concerned about justice.’ This is wrong.
I have pursued justice my entire Christian life. Yet I am about as ‘anti-social justice’ as they come — not because I have abandoned my obligation to ‘strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14), but because I believe the current concept of social justice is incompatible with biblical Christianity.
This is the main fault line at the root of the current debate — the epicenter of the Big One that, when it finally shifts with all its force, threatens to split evangelicalism right down the middle. Our problem is a lack of clarity and charity in our debate over the place, priority, practice, and definition of justice.
The current cultural moment is precarious. The United States is on the verge of a race war, if not a complete cultural meltdown. And the rest of the Western world seems to be following suit. Tensions are rising in every place the African slave trade has left its indelible mark.
However, as much as I love and want the best for America, I am far more concerned about the precarious moment facing evangelicals. I am not a pessimist. I believe the Lord’s Church will survive until He comes, and this moment is no exception. God’s people have faced other — and I would argue more significant — obstacles in the past. I don’t think anyone would say that what we are dealing with here rises to the level of the Spanish Inquisition or the Protestant Reformation in terms of threatening our unity. There is nothing like the drowning of the Anabaptist martyr Felix Manz on our current radar screen. Nevertheless, there is trouble afoot.
The goal of this book is not to avoid the looming trouble. In fact, I believe that to be neither possible nor desirable. The trouble has arrived. It will not go away any time soon, and the division it is causing is necessary. I chose the fault line metaphor because I believe it not only describes the catastrophe, but also the aftermath.
There are two competing worldviews in this current cultural moment. One is the Critical Social Justice view — which assumes that the world is divided between the oppressors and the oppressed (white, heterosexual males are generally viewed as ‘the oppressor’). The other is what I will refer to in these pages as the biblical justice view in order to avoid what I accuse the social-justice crowd of doing, which is immediately casting its opponents as being opposed to justice. (In evangelical circles, that paints us as opposed to God Himself, since every effort has been made to demonstrate that ‘social justice is a Gospel issue.’) There are plenty of sincere, though perhaps naive Christians who, if they knew the ideology behind it, would run away from the term ‘social justice’ like rats from a burning ship….
The current moment is akin to two people standing on either side of a major fault line just before it shifts. When the shift comes, the ground will open up, a divide that was once invisible will become visible, and the two will find themselves on opposite sides of it. That is what is happening in our day. In some cases, the divide is happening already. Churches are splitting over this issue. Major ministries are losing donors, staff, and leadership. Denominations are in turmoil. Seminary faculties are divided with some professors being fired or ‘asked to leave.’ Families are at odds. Marriages are on the rocks. And I don’t believe the fracture in this fault line is yet even a fraction of what it will be.
No, I am not writing this book to stop the divide. I am writing to clearly identify the two sides of the fault line and to urge the reader to choose wisely.
Nonetheless, addressing this topic usually leaves me open to attacks from people who will accuse me of ‘being a sellout,’ ‘trying to curry favor with white people,’ not being informed about the struggles black Americans currently face, or just not understanding ‘the black perspective.’ Anyone who knows me will find those things laughable — so let me begin by telling you my story….”
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Just in case it wasn’t apparent from the text or the book cover image above, the book in question is Fault Lines (2021) by Voddie T. Baucham Jr., pastor and dean of the School of Divinity at African Christian University in Zambia. As you may guess, the first couple chapters are mostly autobiographical information, but they are relevant to the discussion and show why the accusations he mentions at the end of this excerpt are indeed laughable. From there, he goes on to explain various concepts and redefinitions of words as used by the proponents of Critical Race Theory / Intersectionality and Critical Social Justice, while touching on the dangers of that anti-biblical mindset which has crept into many Christian churches and organizations.
I am less than half-way through the book as of this writing, but it has my full recommendation.
