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Voddie Baucham - Fault Lines_ Critical Race Theory · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to this session. We're going to look at this
0:08
Speaker 1: idea of fault lines. I use that metaphor just because,
0:17
Speaker 1: from my perspective, looking at what was happening with this
0:20
Speaker 1: issue of social justice, the critical social justice movement, it
0:25
Speaker 1: was obvious that things were lining out along a fault
0:32
Speaker 1: line with individuals on either side of that fault. And
0:37
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that had to do with miscommunication,
0:43
Speaker 1: or some of it had to do with miscommunication. Using
0:46
Speaker 1: the same terminology but meaning different things. But I believe
0:53
Speaker 1: upon digging deeper that a lot of it had to
0:56
Speaker 1: do with worldview issues. quite frankly, with some who had
1:07
Speaker 1: imbibed some ideas and ideologies that were faulty and that
1:13
Speaker 1: were foreign and that were alien to biblical thinking. And
1:18
Speaker 1: because of that, we're thinking about very real issues in
1:25
Speaker 1: ways that weren't biblical. And so what I want to
1:30
Speaker 1: do is I want to do a couple of things. One,
1:34
Speaker 1: deal with some of these issues of terminology. Just sort
1:39
Speaker 1: of explain what it is that we're dealing with. And
1:44
Speaker 1: then how it is that we need to respond. I
1:50
Speaker 1: want to start with this quote from the economist Friedrich Hayek.
1:56
Speaker 1: Hayek wrote, I have come to feel strongly that the
1:59
Speaker 1: greatest service I can still render to my fellow men
2:03
Speaker 1: would be that I could make the speakers and writers
2:06
Speaker 1: among them thoroughly ashamed ever again to employ the term
2:11
Speaker 1: social justice. Let me read that again. I've come to
2:19
Speaker 1: feel strongly that the greatest service I can still render
2:24
Speaker 1: to my fellow men would be that I could make
2:27
Speaker 1: the speakers and writers among them thoroughly ashamed ever to employ,
2:35
Speaker 1: ever again to employ the term social justice. Because Hayek
2:42
Speaker 1: understood what this term means and where this term comes from.
2:49
Speaker 1: Why is it an issue among us as Christians, as evangelicals?
2:57
Speaker 1: I think it's an issue among us because God demands justice.
3:03
Speaker 1: And we know that God demands justice. And we're committed
3:08
Speaker 1: to justice as those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
3:15
Speaker 1: And when a terminology or an ideology about justice creeps
3:20
Speaker 1: into the culture and then creeps into the church... that
3:25
Speaker 1: happens to be foreign to our understanding of justice, we
3:32
Speaker 1: can be swayed by that terminology. That is, until we
3:37
Speaker 1: understand what the terminology means. God does demand justice. Injustice
3:44
Speaker 1: is sin. So if social justice is truly justice, then
3:49
Speaker 1: anything that doesn't align with it would be sin. Micah
3:52
Speaker 1: chapter 6, beginning of verse 1. Hear what the Lord says. Arise,
3:57
Speaker 1: plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills
4:01
Speaker 1: hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: and you enduring foundations of the earth. For the Lord
4:10
Speaker 1: has an indictment against his people, and he will contend
4:14
Speaker 1: with Israel. O my people, what have I done to you?
4:18
Speaker 1: Have I wearied you? Answer me. For I brought you
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Speaker 1: up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from
4:26
Speaker 1: the house of slavery. And I sent before you Moses, Aaron,
4:31
Speaker 1: and Miriam. O people, remember what Balaam, king of Moab, devised,
4:37
Speaker 1: and what Balaam, the son of Baor, answered him. And
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Speaker 1: what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know
4:47
Speaker 1: the righteous acts of the Lord. With what shall I
4:52
Speaker 1: come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?
4:56
Speaker 1: Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves
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Speaker 1: of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with
5:02
Speaker 1: thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
5:07
Speaker 1: Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit
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Speaker 1: of my body for the sin of my soul? And
5:15
Speaker 1: then here it is. He has told you, O man,
5:18
Speaker 1: what is good. And what does the Lord require of
5:22
Speaker 1: you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to
5:28
Speaker 1: walk humbly with your God? God demands justice. But the
5:37
Speaker 1: question that we have to answer is, what is justice?
5:45
Speaker 1: And I'm going to argue that justice is the righteous
5:49
Speaker 1: application of the law of God. It is the righteous
5:55
Speaker 1: application of the law of God. We do not show
6:00
Speaker 1: favoritism to the rich or to the poor. It is
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Speaker 1: the righteous application of the law of God. But is
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Speaker 1: that what the term social justice means? Well, the answer
6:16
Speaker 1: to that question quite simply is no. That's not what
6:20
Speaker 1: the term social justice means. Listen to this from the
6:24
Speaker 1: Oxford Dictionary, the English language. Social justice, a noun. Chiefly,
6:30
Speaker 1: politics and philosophy. Justice at the level of a society
6:36
Speaker 1: or state as regards the possession of wealth, commodities, opportunities,
6:42
Speaker 1: and privileges. See also, distributive justice. So, social justice is
6:51
Speaker 1: about the distribution or redistribution of wealth, commodities, opportunities, and privileges.
7:02
Speaker 1: That's what social justice means. Let me say it again.
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Speaker 1: It's the distribution or redistribution of wealth, commodities, opportunities, and privileges.
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Speaker 1: That is very different than the idea of justice being
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Speaker 1: the righteous application of the law of God. One of
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Speaker 1: the words that is often used to describe social justice
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Speaker 1: is the word equity. Not equality, but equity. Equity is
7:39
Speaker 1: about equal outcomes. Equity is about equal distribution, which fits
7:46
Speaker 1: right along with this, right? And so when we see inequities,
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Speaker 1: we see injustice. And this is very important to note
7:58
Speaker 1: because this is oftentimes where we find ourselves missing each
8:02
Speaker 1: other in terms of discussions, conversations, disagreements about these issues.
8:08
Speaker 1: And so someone will say something about injustice or, for example,
8:13
Speaker 1: racial injustice, right? We'll hear that term, racial injustice. what
8:19
Speaker 1: in the world is racial injustice, right? What is racial injustice? Well,
8:26
Speaker 1: when somebody uses the term racial injustice, what they mean
8:29
Speaker 1: is a lack of inequity or a lack of equity
8:33
Speaker 1: between people of various racial groups. It can be in
8:39
Speaker 1: terms of income, right? If one group as a whole
8:46
Speaker 1: has less income than another group as a whole. And
8:51
Speaker 1: let's clarify this. If one group as a whole has
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Speaker 1: less income than another group as a whole, and if
9:01
Speaker 1: the group that has more income happens to be from
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Speaker 1: a group that is deemed to be an oppressor group.
9:12
Speaker 1: This is an important distinction, by the way. It can't
9:16
Speaker 1: just be one group has less income than another group.
9:20
Speaker 1: One racial group has less income than another racial group, right?
9:23
Speaker 1: Then that is racial injustice. Why? Because Asians make more
9:27
Speaker 1: money than white people. And we never refer to that
9:33
Speaker 1: as racial injustice against white people. Right? You got to
9:41
Speaker 1: be really careful with these terms. There are underlying assumptions
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Speaker 1: to these terms, and they are Marxist assumptions. The Marxist
9:51
Speaker 1: assumption of the oppressor-oppressed paradigm. If you do not get that,
9:56
Speaker 1: then you will not get these terms. So people talk
9:58
Speaker 1: about racial injustice. So now we're talking about, you know,
10:02
Speaker 1: if there's inequity between one racial group and another racial group,
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Speaker 1: and the racial group on the top of that inequity
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Speaker 1: has been deemed an oppressor group. So in income, if
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Speaker 1: this group has as a group less income than this group,
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Speaker 1: then that is racial injustice. In terms of incarceration, if
10:24
Speaker 1: this group is deemed to be overrepresented in incarceration compared
10:29
Speaker 1: to this group, then that is racial injustice. Again, only
10:33
Speaker 1: if this group is deemed to be an oppressor. Why?
10:40
Speaker 1: White folks are incarcerated at higher rates than Asians. But
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Speaker 1: we would never call it racial injustice. Right? By the way,
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Speaker 1: Nigerian immigrants have higher incomes than white folks. But we
11:01
Speaker 1: would never call that racial injustice. Okay? So that's what
11:08
Speaker 1: people are referring to when they talk about injustice. And
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Speaker 1: the underlying assumption is this assumption of And the underlying
11:19
Speaker 1: assumption is this Marxist assumption that inequity exists as a
11:26
Speaker 1: direct result of hegemonic power being exerted by the oppressor class.
11:38
Speaker 1: All inequities come from that. So you have to get that.
11:44
Speaker 1: And so I make the argument that that's sort of alien.
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Speaker 1: It's antithetical to biblical truth. And I like to use
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Speaker 1: this story as an illustration of that. How would the
12:02
Speaker 1: critical social justice movement interpret certain passages of scripture and
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Speaker 1: one in particular? So we know that there is a
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Speaker 1: man who leaves his servants with A number of talents, right?
12:21
Speaker 1: He leaves one with five talents. He leaves one. You
12:26
Speaker 1: know this? Two. Another one with one. Now, already, there's
12:38
Speaker 1: a problem. Because he didn't give everybody the same number
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Speaker 1: of talents. And who's telling this story? Who? Jesus. Jesus
12:53
Speaker 1: is telling this story. So this is hugely problematic for
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Speaker 1: social justice advocates already. Unless the rest of the story
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Speaker 1: tells about how this person is evil because he didn't
13:05
Speaker 1: give everybody the same number of talents. So now he
13:09
Speaker 1: goes away and he comes back. Five talent man, what
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Speaker 1: you got? Boss, I got 10. That's good. Two-talent man,
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Speaker 1: what you got? Boss, I invested too. I didn't have
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Speaker 1: as much to invest as he did, but I invested
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Speaker 1: what I had, and I turned your two into four.
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Speaker 1: Good for you. One-talent man, what you got? I still
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Speaker 1: got that one. I knew the kind of man you were,
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Speaker 1: and I just wanted to make sure when you came back,
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Speaker 1: I could give you that talent. Here's the social justice
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Speaker 1: ending to that story. You, you got ten. Give me five.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to give one to the guy with four,
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Speaker 1: and I'm going to give four to the guy with one,
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Speaker 1: and that way there will be equity because everybody ends
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Speaker 1: up with five. That's social justice. That's what the critical
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Speaker 1: social justice movement is arguing for. Again, remember... We talked
14:20
Speaker 1: about the fact that this comes from an ideology. But
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Speaker 1: what is that ideology? And I've alluded to it already.
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Speaker 1: That ideology that it comes from is this ideology of
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Speaker 1: critical theory. This Marxist ideology of critical theory and the
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Speaker 1: assumptions of the Marxist ideology of critical theory. That the
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Speaker 1: world is divided between oppressors and the oppressed. and that
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Speaker 1: oppressors establish the rules and fundamentals of the societies that
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Speaker 1: they dominate in order to benefit themselves and to the
15:02
Speaker 1: detriment of others. And so because of this, there's some
15:07
Speaker 1: other words that we need to understand. Whiteness doesn't mean
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Speaker 1: what you think it means. Whiteness is understood as a
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Speaker 1: set of normative privileges granted to white-skinned individuals and groups
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Speaker 1: which is invisible to those privileged by it. That's what
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Speaker 1: whiteness is. Well, what is white privilege? White privilege is
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Speaker 1: a series of unearned advantages that accrue to white people
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Speaker 1: by virtue of their whiteness. Then there's white supremacy. White supremacy.
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Speaker 1: White supremacy is any belief, behavior, or system that supports, promotes,
15:51
Speaker 1: or advances, watch this, white privilege. Then there's white complicity.
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Speaker 1: What is white complicity? White people, through the practices of
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Speaker 1: whiteness and by benefiting from white privilege, contribute to the
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Speaker 1: maintenance of systemic rights racial injustice. By the way, what
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Speaker 1: is systemic racial injustice? Systemic, we already talked about what
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Speaker 1: racial injustice is, right? Racial injustice is unequal outcomes between groups.
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Speaker 1: The idea of systemic racial injustice is the idea that
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Speaker 1: systems are established and exist in order to perpetuate those inequities.
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Speaker 1: Then there's white equilibrium. White equilibrium is a cocoon of
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Speaker 1: racial comfort, centrality, superiority, and entitlement, racial apathy, and obliviousness,
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Speaker 1: all rooted in an identity of being good people free
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Speaker 1: of racism. And then there's my favorite, white fragility. What
17:10
Speaker 1: is white fragility? White fragility. the inability and unwillingness of
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Speaker 1: white people to talk about race due to the grip
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Speaker 1: that whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege, white complicity, and white
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Speaker 1: equilibrium exerts on them knowingly or unknowingly. In other words,
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Speaker 1: white folks are doomed. So how is this then to
17:49
Speaker 1: be addressed? It is to be addressed through the process
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Speaker 1: of anti-racism. Now, anti-racism is not the same as not
18:02
Speaker 1: being racist. In fact, Ibram X. Kendi in his book,
18:05
Speaker 1: How to Be an Anti-Racist, makes it very clear that
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Speaker 1: not racist is racist. Direct quote. But here's what you
18:21
Speaker 1: have to understand. People who talk about not being racist
18:24
Speaker 1: are operating from a previous definition of racism. This previous
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Speaker 1: definition of racism saw racism as animosity, hatred towards individuals
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Speaker 1: because of their race or ethnicity. It was a sin
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Speaker 1: in the heart of men. But remember, we're not talking
18:45
Speaker 1: about that The new definition of racism is this idea
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Speaker 1: of privilege and inequity. So because of that, anti-racism is
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Speaker 1: about doing the work necessary to overcome and overturn these
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Speaker 1: privileges in order to bring about said equity. Now, how
19:11
Speaker 1: do you do that? Well, Ibram Gendi gave us a
19:15
Speaker 1: gift It's a gift that keeps on giving. It's like
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Speaker 1: the clearest example of what's wrong with the idea of anti-racism.
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Speaker 1: He proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. An anti-racist
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Speaker 1: amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And it tells you everything
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Speaker 1: that you need to know about this ideology and what
19:39
Speaker 1: it's working towards. He says, and I quote, to fix
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Speaker 1: the original sin of racism. Stop. It has often been said,
19:55
Speaker 1: and I have argued, that anti-racism is religious in nature.
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Speaker 1: And it absolutely is religious in nature. I make that
20:02
Speaker 1: argument in my book. I won't go through all of
20:05
Speaker 1: that right now. But the idea that he begins... Just imagine,
20:12
Speaker 1: if you will, a conservative proposing an amendment to the
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Speaker 1: United States Constitution, and the conservative begins with the concept
20:24
Speaker 1: of original sin. I mean, just, you know, people would
20:32
Speaker 1: be running around with their hair on fire, right? Separation
20:37
Speaker 1: of church and state. white Christian nationalism, right? But he
20:44
Speaker 1: says to fix the original sin of racism. Now, it's
20:47
Speaker 1: also important to recognize this idea, this concept is very
20:52
Speaker 1: common with those who hold to critical social justice, this
20:57
Speaker 1: idea of America's original sin, right? That's what the 1619
21:01
Speaker 1: Project is all about, right? How do you define America?
21:05
Speaker 1: How do you understand America? Is it the documents that
21:09
Speaker 1: we say define us? No, it's not 1776. It's not 1781.
21:13
Speaker 1: It's not 1787, right? It's not declaration. It's not constitution.
21:19
Speaker 1: It's not ratification. It's none of those things. It's 1619.
21:22
Speaker 1: Why 1619? Because 1619 is when slaves come to these
21:26
Speaker 1: shores and slavery is America's original sin. And if you
21:30
Speaker 1: want to understand what America is, If you want to
21:34
Speaker 1: understand everything that's wrong with America, you've got to go
21:38
Speaker 1: back to 1619 because slavery is America's original sin. That's
21:47
Speaker 1: what the 1619 Project is all about. To fix the
21:53
Speaker 1: original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment
21:58
Speaker 1: to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principles.
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Speaker 1: And then here he gives us those two principles. The
22:06
Speaker 1: first one, racial inequity is evidence of racist policy. That's
22:12
Speaker 1: principle number one. Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy.
22:19
Speaker 1: How do you know a policy is racist? Because it
22:24
Speaker 1: ends up with an inequity. And that's the only explanation
22:30
Speaker 1: of the inequity. Okay? Again, try... Try to translate this
22:36
Speaker 1: to other areas, right? Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy.
22:44
Speaker 1: The NFL and the NBA are racist. Because black folks
22:52
Speaker 1: are overrepresented in those leagues. And racial inequity is evidence
23:02
Speaker 1: of racist policy. Why do I make this point? Because
23:10
Speaker 1: of the caveat that I told you earlier. You have
23:13
Speaker 1: to assume the Marxist paradigm of oppressor-oppressed. So this would
23:21
Speaker 1: only be applied if the inequity is to the disadvantage
23:28
Speaker 1: of groups who are deemed oppressed. Anything where they are
23:35
Speaker 1: overrepresented would not fall under this category because of the
23:40
Speaker 1: assumptions of the Marxist paradigm. I mean, little things like
23:48
Speaker 1: that just make it crystal clear that we're dealing with
23:52
Speaker 1: another worldview. So that's personal number one. Racial inequity is
23:56
Speaker 1: evidence of racist policy. And the second one, different racial
23:59
Speaker 1: groups are equals. Different racial groups are equals. And he
24:04
Speaker 1: doesn't mean here ontologically. That's not what he's talking about, right?
24:09
Speaker 1: That's not what he means. He means that, you know,
24:17
Speaker 1: different racial groups are equal to the degree that if
24:21
Speaker 1: all things were equal, everybody would be equally represented everywhere,
24:27
Speaker 1: which has never been the case anywhere in the world
24:31
Speaker 1: in the history of mankind there are certain groups of
24:34
Speaker 1: people that excel at certain things. Amen? Austrians just make
24:41
Speaker 1: good violins. Wherever they move, wherever they go, right? Thomas
24:51
Speaker 1: Sowell has really done a magnificent job of demonstrating this
24:56
Speaker 1: in his writings with different groups of people who, regardless
24:59
Speaker 1: of where they end up, end up dominating certain fields.
25:05
Speaker 1: But those are the two principles. All right, we continue.
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Speaker 1: The amendment would make unconstitutional racial inequity over a certain threshold.
25:17
Speaker 1: So you'd set a certain threshold, right, of how different
25:21
Speaker 1: racial groups are to be represented. Anything over that would
25:25
Speaker 1: be unconstitutional, as well as racist ideas by public officials
25:30
Speaker 1: with racist ideas and public official clearly defined. it would
25:35
Speaker 1: establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-Racism, comprised of
25:41
Speaker 1: formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. Riddle
25:51
Speaker 1: me this, Batman. Who's going to train and certify? Kendi
25:58
Speaker 1: and D'Angelo and the like. They're the ones who are
26:01
Speaker 1: going to do that. The DOA... would be responsible for
26:05
Speaker 1: pre-clearing all local, state, and federal public policies to ensure
26:13
Speaker 1: they won't yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private
26:21
Speaker 1: racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials
26:27
Speaker 1: for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered
26:34
Speaker 1: with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and
26:39
Speaker 1: public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy
26:44
Speaker 1: and ideas. That's what this looks like. That's the end game.
27:04
Speaker 1: and the ultimate manifestation of this ideology. And, I mean,
27:12
Speaker 1: let me say this. I've been dealing with this and
27:15
Speaker 1: talking about this for a very long time, a decade
27:20
Speaker 1: and a half maybe, dealing with this and talking about this.
27:24
Speaker 1: And one of the charges that often comes is the
27:28
Speaker 1: charge of insensitivity, right? You're insensitive to the plight of,
27:37
Speaker 1: you know, fill in the blank. Which is ridiculous on
27:47
Speaker 1: its face. But what people tend to not understand from
27:55
Speaker 1: my perspective is that I think and operate as an
28:01
Speaker 1: apologist And I'm looking at these ideas and their consequences.
28:09
Speaker 1: And I can separate that from things that make my
28:13
Speaker 1: heart bleed. Does that make sense? So I can say
28:21
Speaker 1: on the one hand, wow, that was tragic. And we
28:26
Speaker 1: need to address that. While saying on the other hand,
28:29
Speaker 1: this ideology is poisoned. and it needs to be rooted out.
28:39
Speaker 1: I think one of the problems that we're having is
28:42
Speaker 1: that oftentimes we allow ourselves to be shamed into only
28:49
Speaker 1: doing the former and not doing the latter. But we
28:54
Speaker 1: have an obligation, and I think the Apostle Paul makes
28:56
Speaker 1: that clear in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. In those first
29:00
Speaker 1: six verses, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness
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Speaker 1: and gentleness of Christ, I, who am humble when face
29:10
Speaker 1: to face with you, but bold toward you when I
29:12
Speaker 1: am away, I beg of you that when I am present,
29:17
Speaker 1: I may not have to show boldness with such confidence
29:20
Speaker 1: as I count on showing against some who suspect us
29:24
Speaker 1: of walking according to the flesh. That's a threat, by
29:27
Speaker 1: the way. For though we walk in the flesh... We
29:32
Speaker 1: are not waging war according to the flesh. For the
29:36
Speaker 1: weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but
29:38
Speaker 1: have divine power. to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and
29:44
Speaker 1: every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and
29:47
Speaker 1: take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to
29:51
Speaker 1: punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. There's two
29:58
Speaker 1: fronts here. On the one hand, and again, what we
30:03
Speaker 1: like to do, we like the second part of this.
30:04
Speaker 1: Let's take every thought captive, right? Let's take every thought captive.
30:10
Speaker 1: We get that. In other words, we need to operate
30:11
Speaker 1: from a biblical worldview. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. When
30:15
Speaker 1: we think about these issues, issues of race and ethnicity
30:18
Speaker 1: and justice, we need to operate from a biblical worldview.
30:21
Speaker 1: And we all look at that and we shake our
30:23
Speaker 1: heads and we say yes and amen. But it's that
30:25
Speaker 1: first part that we don't like. We destroy arguments and
30:30
Speaker 1: every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And
30:33
Speaker 1: the reason that we don't like that is because of
30:35
Speaker 1: the 11th commandment. Thou shalt be nice. And we don't
30:41
Speaker 1: believe the other 10. And so because of that, you
30:50
Speaker 1: can say something about, for example, the LGBTQIA2S Plus, and
31:04
Speaker 1: people are more offended that you speak out against that
31:09
Speaker 1: than they are about those lifestyles. And I'm talking about
31:15
Speaker 1: Christian people, right? Same thing here. We get more offended
31:26
Speaker 1: about speaking out against ideologies, then we are offended by
31:31
Speaker 1: these destructive alien ideologies. And brothers, I'm saying that we
31:37
Speaker 1: have to be about both and. And let me address
31:42
Speaker 1: another issue. And that's the issue of tone. That's the
31:49
Speaker 1: issue of tone, right? Because, you know, I get that
31:52
Speaker 1: one a lot too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, fine.
31:56
Speaker 1: You know, I get that and I understand, but it's
32:00
Speaker 1: your tone. It's your tone. Whoa. What is it about
32:13
Speaker 1: my tone? I mean, let's go back and listen to
32:18
Speaker 1: what I said and when I said it, and you
32:20
Speaker 1: tell me what the problem is with my tone. And
32:23
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, here's what I've come
32:25
Speaker 1: to understand. The tone that they don't like is masculine.
32:40
Speaker 1: They don't like masculine, confident, direct. And instead, what they
32:48
Speaker 1: want us to do is make our arguments, but allow
32:53
Speaker 1: our arguments to die the death of a thousand qualifications.
33:04
Speaker 1: It's what makes pastors preach messages on homosexuality, for example,
33:09
Speaker 1: or racial issues in ways that they would never preach
33:13
Speaker 1: on other issues. For example, can you imagine You know, now,
33:18
Speaker 1: I'm going to be preaching on drunkenness today, but here's
33:21
Speaker 1: what I want you to know. I love drunkards. I
33:25
Speaker 1: have friends who are drunkards. I am not here to
33:30
Speaker 1: condemn drunkards. We laugh, right? Because that's ridiculous. Or adulterers. Listen,
33:38
Speaker 1: some of my best friends are adulterers. And I just
33:43
Speaker 1: want you to know that if you're here today and
33:45
Speaker 1: you are an adulterer, I love you. We laugh, but
33:54
Speaker 1: that's exactly how we start our sermons on homosexuality. Because
34:01
Speaker 1: we've allowed these individuals to make us cowards. Because here's
34:11
Speaker 1: what I've learned. It doesn't matter how hard I try
34:16
Speaker 1: to qualify statements. It's never going to be enough. Because
34:23
Speaker 1: their problem is not with my tone. It's with the
34:29
Speaker 1: position that I take. Now, let me just say quickly,
34:36
Speaker 1: if a brother who knows me, who I know, who
34:40
Speaker 1: I love, you know, Tom Buck is sitting here in
34:43
Speaker 1: the front row. Tom Buck and I are friends. And
34:45
Speaker 1: Tom and I have both, you know, sort of communicated
34:49
Speaker 1: to one another and said, hey, look at this. Am
34:53
Speaker 1: I off? Was this tone okay? So don't hear me
35:02
Speaker 1: saying that we just get to say whatever we want,
35:05
Speaker 1: however we want, and that, you know, there is no
35:08
Speaker 1: ever an issue with our tone. That's not what I'm saying.
35:12
Speaker 1: What I'm saying on these types of issues, more often
35:17
Speaker 1: than not, when people say tone, What they mean is
35:26
Speaker 1: your ideas. What they mean is that there's an assumption
35:33
Speaker 1: that anyone who would take the position that you take
35:36
Speaker 1: is an evil person. That's what they mean by tone.
35:48
Speaker 1: So let me quickly give you this and then we'll
35:52
Speaker 1: take some time for some questions. They wanted me to
35:57
Speaker 1: do like all of this in the time that we had.
36:02
Speaker 1: Critical race theory. Critical race theory is a part of this.
36:06
Speaker 1: It is an expression of this. It is one of
36:09
Speaker 1: the critical theories, and it is the critical theory that's
36:12
Speaker 1: being applied to this issue of race. There are several
36:16
Speaker 1: things that we've heard about critical race theory. One thing
36:19
Speaker 1: that we heard early on was critical race theory is
36:24
Speaker 1: a boogeyman. Nobody's doing critical race theory. Critical race theory
36:28
Speaker 1: is some obscure idea that they teach in law school.
36:32
Speaker 1: Then we heard, everybody's talking about critical race theory. It's
36:35
Speaker 1: a dog whistle, but nobody knows what it means, right?
36:40
Speaker 1: Then we heard, no, critical race theory is just about
36:45
Speaker 1: honest teaching on America's racist history, right? So we went
36:51
Speaker 1: from It's a boogeyman. It's not there to... Actually, people
36:58
Speaker 1: who oppose it just don't want people to... They just
37:03
Speaker 1: don't want to have discussions about race and racism. Critical
37:08
Speaker 1: race theory is an ideology that comes out of critical
37:11
Speaker 1: legal studies. There are four main tenets of critical race theory, okay?
37:17
Speaker 1: And you can... This comes from their literature. Premise number one,
37:23
Speaker 1: is that racism is normal. And when they say that
37:26
Speaker 1: racism is normal, we're talking about 1619 normal. We're talking
37:29
Speaker 1: about racism being America's original sin. We're talking about racism
37:34
Speaker 1: being the catch-all that explains all of the things that
37:38
Speaker 1: we're dealing with today. Everything is racist. America's racist to
37:44
Speaker 1: its core. It always has been. And everything that we're
37:48
Speaker 1: seeing is a result of this racist core. That's principle
37:51
Speaker 1: number one. Principle number two is interest conversions. And interest
37:57
Speaker 1: convergence argues this. White people benefit from racism. And because
38:02
Speaker 1: white people benefit from racism, they will not undo racism
38:07
Speaker 1: unless it is in their interest to do so. So
38:15
Speaker 1: anytime white people are doing something that appears to be
38:19
Speaker 1: undoing racism, it's because there's another benefit that they're going
38:23
Speaker 1: to derive from that, that they value more than whatever
38:27
Speaker 1: it is that they're undoing. That's the second premise, okay?
38:32
Speaker 1: That's the second premise, interest convergence. White people will not
38:38
Speaker 1: undo this for righteous reasons, right? In order for something
38:40
Speaker 1: to be righteous, it has to be the right thing
38:42
Speaker 1: done the right way for the right reason. And interest
38:45
Speaker 1: convergence is basically arguing that white people can't do that,
38:49
Speaker 1: which means that anybody who's teaching critical race theory is
38:52
Speaker 1: actually teaching that white people are irredeemable sinners in this area.
39:02
Speaker 1: The third premise is this premise of anti-liberalism. And when
39:06
Speaker 1: I say liberalism, I don't mean like liberal conservative. When
39:10
Speaker 1: I say liberalism, you know, I mean, you know, the...
39:14
Speaker 1: the heart of, you know, enlightenment rationality, right? Ideas like,
39:19
Speaker 1: you know, meritocracy and objective truth. And, you know, these things,
39:24
Speaker 1: come out of whiteness. And this last principle is that
39:36
Speaker 1: even knowledge is socially constructed. And because knowledge is socially constructed,
39:43
Speaker 1: there are other ways of knowing. And when it comes
39:48
Speaker 1: to issues of race... Those who are oppressed have access
39:56
Speaker 1: to knowledge about this that oppressors don't, which is why,
40:01
Speaker 1: in order to understand, we have to elevate minority voices.
40:06
Speaker 1: Have you heard that? And we come to truth through narratives.
40:14
Speaker 1: Narratives are everything, okay? So those are the four main
40:19
Speaker 1: premises of religion. critical race theory. So next time somebody says,
40:25
Speaker 1: you know, no, I mean, there's things that we can
40:28
Speaker 1: gain from critical race theory. There's things that we can
40:30
Speaker 1: learn from critical race theory. There's ways that we can
40:32
Speaker 1: benefit from critical race theory. Just understand that all four
40:37
Speaker 1: of those premises are antithetical to biblical truth. And those
40:46
Speaker 1: are the foundational underlying assumptions of critical race theory. Not mine, theirs. Theirs. Okay?
41:01
Speaker 1: All right. We got five minutes. Ask some of your questions. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
41:18
Speaker 1: the integration of CRT into the church. And it is,
41:21
Speaker 1: there is an integration of CRT into the church. And
41:24
Speaker 1: you see it even in the way that we talk, right?
41:27
Speaker 1: So when we start talking, so people will say, no,
41:30
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not for CRT. But then they'll start
41:34
Speaker 1: using language like systemic racism, structural racism. And that comes
41:38
Speaker 1: from the first premise of critical race theory, right? Racial injustice,
41:43
Speaker 1: you know, so on and so forth, right? So they're
41:47
Speaker 1: doing critical race theory while rejecting the term critical race theory.
41:52
Speaker 1: And that's what I see more of than anything else.
41:55
Speaker 1: Rarely are we seeing people, although we do sometimes, see
41:58
Speaker 1: people who say, no, we are going to incorporate critical
42:02
Speaker 1: race theory. Southern Baptist Convention did that a couple of
42:04
Speaker 1: years ago, right, with Resolution 9 on critical race theory,
42:07
Speaker 1: basically saying that it is an interpreter tool. And, you know,
42:11
Speaker 1: I talk about that in Fault Lines. I, you know, joke.
42:13
Speaker 1: a side-by-side analysis of, you know, that original resolution and
42:18
Speaker 1: the way that it was turned into a pro-CRT resolution. But,
42:21
Speaker 1: I mean, it's happening. It's happening. We're using the books of,
42:25
Speaker 1: you know, CRT leaders and so on and so forth. So,
42:27
Speaker 1: I mean, it's happening. Yep. Yes. Why are a lot
42:39
Speaker 1: of the people advocating for CRT white? Yeah, white guilt. Yeah. Here. Yeah.
42:58
Speaker 1: The question is, do I look for an explosion in
42:59
Speaker 1: the number of people who are attracted to the Nation
43:02
Speaker 1: of Islam as a result of that? No, but what's
43:04
Speaker 1: growing is the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. That's really growing
43:09
Speaker 1: in its popularity. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
43:51
Speaker 1: I think you just did. I think you should. Thank you.
43:56
Speaker 1: Thank you. Those things are concerning. Yeah, those things are concerning.
43:59
Speaker 1: But I will also say that I think, you know,
44:01
Speaker 1: 100 years from now, people are going to talk about
44:04
Speaker 1: us and how we tolerated abortion. Yeah, because see, here's
44:10
Speaker 1: the deal. Like slavery was awful. Jim Crow was awful.
44:14
Speaker 1: But I'm here. With abortion. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, absolutely.
44:24
Speaker 1: I think every generation has sin that they deal with
44:28
Speaker 1: and have to root out. And not just every generation,
44:31
Speaker 1: but every culture has sin that they deal with and
44:34
Speaker 1: have to root out. But none of those things are
44:38
Speaker 1: unique to America either. Yes? Yes. Right over here. Yes, sir. Yes, yes, yes.
44:53
Speaker 1: What is.
44:55
Speaker 2: It? What explains the racism?
45:15
Speaker 1: It's not critical racism. Critical race theory? No. I understand
45:23
Speaker 1: critical race theory. Yes. Okay. What I'm saying is, I'm
45:30
Speaker 1: not for it. Yeah. But what is going on today
45:41
Speaker 1: is racism and racism in the past. Yeah. What's going
45:45
Speaker 1: on today as far as racism and racism in the past?
45:48
Speaker 1: the sin that is in the heart of man. I mean,
45:50
Speaker 1: that's what's going on today and that's what's been going
45:52
Speaker 1: on in the past. That's what's going on in the
45:55
Speaker 1: history of mankind in every culture where people have seen
45:59
Speaker 1: themselves as other. That's what was going on in Rwanda
46:03
Speaker 1: between the Hutus and the Tutsis, right? It is the
46:07
Speaker 1: sin that is in the heart of man that wants
46:09
Speaker 1: to other people, right? And that's why this is so
46:13
Speaker 1: sinister because critical race theory and you know, critical social
46:19
Speaker 1: justice and anti-racism wants to get away from the heart
46:23
Speaker 1: of man and deal with policies. And you cannot legislate
46:28
Speaker 1: sin out of the heart of men. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
47:19
Speaker 1: And I think, and that's why I started with definitions
47:22
Speaker 1: and terminology. I think what we need to do is
47:25
Speaker 1: fight for definitions and terminology and use biblical definitions and
47:30
Speaker 1: biblical terminology, right? And expose unbiblical definitions and unbiblical terminologies, right?
47:39
Speaker 1: And I mean, the dictionary is literally being changed before
47:45
Speaker 1: our eyes. Like we've that we're now on our third
47:49
Speaker 1: iteration of the definition of racism. It's racism 3.0, right?
47:55
Speaker 1: And it's this critical race theory, critical theory ideology being promoted, right,
48:02
Speaker 1: through the way that we use language. And I think
48:08
Speaker 1: that's huge. That's important. But guess what hasn't changed? The
48:13
Speaker 1: biblical idea of partiality Right? That hasn't changed. And so
48:21
Speaker 1: if we're fighting for biblical terminologies and we're fighting against being,
48:27
Speaker 1: you know, sort of pulled away and sucked in by
48:30
Speaker 1: unbiblical terminologies, I mean, that will go a long way
48:34
Speaker 1: in all of this. Yes? Right. Yeah, the question is,
48:47
Speaker 1: do I find it more difficult to deal with these
48:49
Speaker 1: things inside the church than I do dealing with these
48:52
Speaker 1: things outside the church? You know, not necessarily, not necessarily,
48:58
Speaker 1: but I will say that a lot of, I have
49:03
Speaker 1: a lot of new friends outside of the church from,
49:08
Speaker 1: you know, dealing with this, from people who are dealing
49:10
Speaker 1: with this and who are seeing it and who've been,
49:13
Speaker 1: you know, seeing it and dealing with it for a while, right?
49:16
Speaker 1: um and so there are a lot of guys out
49:18
Speaker 1: there who've been dealing with this and who've been writing
49:21
Speaker 1: about this and now all of a sudden they look
49:24
Speaker 1: at what's happening in christianity and they're going wait it's
49:28
Speaker 1: it's jumped you know and now it's holding it's holding
49:32
Speaker 1: sway here and i i don't think these people you
49:34
Speaker 1: know these these people get it um And so, yeah,
49:39
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, I've even been criticized, you know, for that
49:42
Speaker 1: because of some of the friends that I have who
49:44
Speaker 1: are outside of the camp in terms of Christianity, but
49:48
Speaker 1: who get this and who are very helpful in the
49:51
Speaker 1: way that they get this. But, yeah, I mean, this
49:56
Speaker 1: battle is everywhere, and it's not new, right? And what's
50:00
Speaker 1: very interesting is, you know, you talk to people, and
50:02
Speaker 1: there are some people here who... you'll either live in
50:06
Speaker 1: or recently moved from Marxist, socialist, communist countries. And you
50:13
Speaker 1: talk to them and they're like, you guys need to
50:17
Speaker 1: fix this, right? Because they know the terminology, they know
50:22
Speaker 1: the ideology, they saw what it did, you know, and
50:26
Speaker 1: they're like, I cannot believe that this is being tolerated,
50:30
Speaker 1: especially among Christians, you know, in this country. And listen,
50:36
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I got, there's another session in here right after. Okay,
50:40
Speaker 1: we'll go, we'll last. Because, you know, you were, that
50:42
Speaker 1: was like, just, I just respect the way you put
50:44
Speaker 1: that hand up, brother. Go ahead. Last one. Yeah. Yeah,
51:03
Speaker 1: that's a great question. How do you address brothers, pastors,
51:09
Speaker 1: leaders who are addressing part of this but not the
51:12
Speaker 1: rest of it? For me, I go back to that
51:16
Speaker 1: idea of defining terms. I want people to understand that
51:20
Speaker 1: this is a worldview, that this is an ideology, that
51:23
Speaker 1: there are assumptions underlying this. And that's where I start
51:28
Speaker 1: in fault lines, right? with the assumptions that are underlying this.
51:31
Speaker 1: And once you understand the assumptions that are underlying it,
51:34
Speaker 1: and then you see how these assumptions are being applied,
51:38
Speaker 1: if you're honest, you know, then what you have to
51:41
Speaker 1: do is you have to get away from those assumptions.
51:44
Speaker 1: And I find that when I do that, unfortunately, there's
51:48
Speaker 1: two responses. Sometimes people just say, oh, yeah, I see that.
51:52
Speaker 1: And they'll try to find another way to express what
51:55
Speaker 1: they're trying to express. Other times... what I discover is
52:00
Speaker 1: brothers are actually holding to what they claim to deny.
52:07
Speaker 1: Thank you.