09.15.21
Critical Theory
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:2)
Have you heard of people being said to be ‘woke?’ What does that mean? Today we will find out, as we consider the topic of ‘Critical Theory.’
The word ‘woke’ is a slang form of to be ‘awake.’ It has become to mean to be ‘with it,’ up-to-date with the current ever-changing culture, to be socially aware.
Examples of ‘wokeness’ abound: men wishing to be women and vice versa; people insisting that we use their invented pronouns; the rejection of our founding fathers; the cancellation of anything that doesn’t agree with wokeness—Columbus, the Cleveland Indians.
What is Critical Theory (CT)? It is a philosophy that comes out of the Marxist playbook. It is a substitute for Biblical compassion, expressed as Critical Race or Gender Theory.
In the OT, God met the needs of several people whom today we would call oppressed or under-privileged: Elijah helped the widow of Zarephath, the children of Israel experienced being slaves in Egypt, provisions were made in the Law for widows, orphans and foreigners.
In the NT we see the Lord Jesus meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of many needy people: little children, widows, lepers, the blind and the lame.
The Bible treats everyone equally. We are all sinners in God’s sight. We are all in need of His mercy and grace, given freely to all who come to the Father by faith in the Son.
CT is one way to try to help those who are oppressed. Its practice puts all people into one of two groups—the oppressed or victims, and the oppressors.
How does one know if he is a victim? According to CT, this is based on what groups to which you belong: your race, gender, sexual preference, income status, immigration status, etc.
Someone may be part of an oppressed group in one way and an oppressor in another. For instance: a black male is a victim as black, but an oppressor as male.
Based on what groups you belong to determines your level of victim-hood. A black man is less oppressed than a black woman . A black woman is less oppressed than a lesbian black woman. You can see how this works—the more oppressed groups you belong to, the more of a victim you are supposed to be.
Then, the more levels of oppression you have, the more moral authority you have. And what is meant by ‘moral authority?’ The value of your experience, and thus the impact of what you have to say is all based on your level of victim-hood. So, the perspective and experience of a lesbian black female has far more authority than that of a straight white male.
If you have no experience as a blind, transgender, native American then you better just keep your mouth shut when it comes to any of these issues—you have no moral authority!
Oppressors are supposed to yield their authority and value to a victim. Schools, colleges, social media, the government, etc. all seem to focus on people they see as victims, and give them preference. Black Lives Matter and Antifa appear to be able to do whatever they want, and we are just supposed to turn a blind eye. Yet that doesn’t always work— Apple, who has caved to BLM over and over, had one of their stores burned down recently during one of the riots.
Yet, there are those who believe that ‘Christians’ should latch on to CT. The reasoning is, since Jesus cares about the oppressed, then CT should be embraced by Christianity.
Is this right? Next time we will take up that topic.