These are some of the thoughts that have run through my mind as I watched the Southern Baptist Convention over the last few months.
Social justice is not the enemy of the Gospel. When we allow the way the culture uses language to control the way we use language we risk giving over to culture the powers which the Word, Christ incarnate, entrusted to the Church. The power to speak to culture requires the power to rightly use the language that culture uses wrongly. The great danger and deepest sin of Critical Race Theory is that it does not want social justice. It is a self-defeating cultural ideology based on the propagation that we are slaves to the groups with which we intersect. Far from decrying the evil of this slavery as the result of man’s sin in Adam inherited and enacted, oppression is seen as the basis of reality and used to condemn some of humanity rather than all. They rightly assert that we as humans have often fallen into enmity because of partiality.
We know the sin of partiality is the denial of the image of God in our fellow image bearers. This acts as their own condemnation as they encourage a doctrine of suffering that treats all humans with partiality and prejudice, enslaving them to their suffering and giving them over to Satan’s powerful lies regarding human experience. Christian faith expressed in the Gospel speaks not only to the suffering due to the sin of others against us, but also the suffering and oppression of our own sinful natures and the guilt and shame we bear before a holy God. We must take care not to deny the experience of sin's oppression that they attempt to express, but rather, as Paul on Mars Hill, turn their own knowledge of the law written on their hearts against their own sinful nature and leave them without excuse.
If we attempt to focus on their sin and deny the sins against them we prove not the true Gospel but their own false Gospel--namely that they are only the victims of others prejudice. As the author of Hebrews writes, a priest “can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.” In this way we leave them truly without excuse. As Charles Spurgeon explained, “Men who are ignorant should not be met with scorn, nor fault-finding, nor neglect, for they need compassion. We should lay ourselves out to bear with such for their good. A disciple who has been taught all he knows by a gracious Savior should have compassion on ‘the ignorant.’ “*
We must be careful not to become “friends of the world. (James 4:4)” Often we fall into the trap of opposing the fruit of the world by extolling the fruit of the world. Rather than say things like “the threat of Marxism is a threat to the Gospel” our pastors and leaders have been heard saying “the threat of Marxism is a threat to democracy.” Spurgeon, speaking against Marxists and publicans alike warns “the apostle [James] does not neglect to extol the grace of God, as unevangelical preachers do in these times. We err if we commend the fruit regardless of the roots from which they spring. Every virtue should be traced to grace.”** It is for this reason that he, as a contemporary living in the same city as Marx, spends more time preaching against the failures of his own fellow baptists in their apathy towards prejudice, war-mongering, racism, and materialism than he did decrying the work of Marx--but address Marxism he did! We would do well to examine our overwhelming denominational allegiance to the Republican Party as we address the very few true proponents of Critical Race Theory.
We must not fail Christ’s words to remove the plank from our own eye before removing the splinter from our brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5). Some may wish to claim that CRT is the plank and our repeated failures to seek true reconciliation are the splinter, but the clear principle is that we must be always in a state of ready repentance and invite the inspection of our hearts before we press our brothers on sin. Did Christ not say in the very same sermon that many would come to him claiming to cast out devils yet His reply would be “l never knew you”? And make no mistake, Critical Race Theory is a devil to be cast out. So too is our love of democracy for our freedom’s sake rather than for the sake of the Gospel. We must follow the true witness of the Church by which saints have often eschewed their freedom for the sake of a pure and unadulterated Gospel.
If we are to correct errs in theology or action we must open ourselves not only to the failures of our hearts but also the failures of those we have called brothers. Has God not commanded us not to associate with those who are sexually immoral, slanderers, greedy, idolaters, drunkards, and swindlers? How then do we answer the charge that those among our denomination have throughout its history committed sins of racism, sexual immorality, slander, idolatry, and swindling? How the charge that even now these men and women are among us? Can we assure our brothers and sisters of any color that we see the image of God they bear when we have racists among our association? Can we assure women and children that we see the image of God they bear when they see misogyny and sexual abuse and sexual sin among us? Can we assure anyone that we value the image of God in them when we have continually hidden our sins, denied our associations, and spoken with ill will publicly and behind closed doors? If we do not acknowledge the failings of our leaders how can we speak with clear conscience to the sins of our brothers and sisters? How can we speak to the sins of the world? How can we testify to the Gospel?
* and ** were both taken from Spurgeon, C. H. (1968). Spurgeon's sermon notes : over 250 sermons including notes, commentary and illustrations. Hendrickson Publishers In. Normally I would add the page numbers but I wrote them down incorrectly while at the library.