Critical Race Theory Is a ‘Religious Movement’, Voddie Baucham Warns
Noted preacher and author Dr. Voddie Baucham is speaking out against the philosophy known as Critical Race Theory (CRT) which he claims has permeated society as well as the church, Faithwire reports.
Baucham, the Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Zambia, was recently interviewed by Faithwire in a discussion of his new book, Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, which was released on Monday.
Baucham cites one definition of CRT from the UCLA School of Public Affairs, which says that CRT sees “racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the American society,” such as in “existing power structures.”
“CRT identifies that these power structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color,” the definition continues.
“This is a religious movement,” Baucham said of CRT. “It has all the trappings of a religion. It has its own cosmology, it has its own saints, it has its own liturgy, its own law. It has all of those elements. And a lot of those things are very subtle, which makes them rather attractive to religious people.”
While it’s good that Christians should condemn racism and injustice, Baucham warned using an approach like CRT is contradictory to Scripture because it’s ultimately a “worldview”.
CRT “has central tenets and everything that it does is seen through the lens of this worldview and these central tenets,” he explained.
Baucham added that CRT undermines Scripture’s sufficiency, particularly when it comes to the sin of partiality.
“I can understand if people want to say that we want to use scientific text, for example, that speaks to an issue that the Bible doesn’t speak to,” he said. “The Bible is not a mathematics textbook. There’s a whole lot of things that the Bible is not, but, when it comes to the relationships between people, when it comes to sins based on partiality, the Bible is absolutely a textbook on that.”
Baucham believes that CRT is also a distortion of objective truth, arguing that the objected truth is replaced by subjective storytelling from people who are considered to be marginalized in society.
“In critical race theory, if you want to know the truth when it comes to race and racism, you have to elevate black voices, you have to listen to the voice of the marginalized — and this is what people are talking about in church today, right?” he said. “[W]ith critical race theory, we do this because that’s the way you know truth. Not through knowing God, not through knowing God’s Word, but through listening to the voices and the experiences of the people who we determine to be marginalized.”
While some Christians and church leaders have embraced CRT, Baucham cautioned that the philosophy sees Christianity as a construct of oppression.
“So, just like people are told to check their whiteness, ultimately, social justice Christians need to check their Christian privilege as well,” he said.
Photo courtesy: ©Voddie Baucham Ministries Facebook
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the For Your Soul podcast, which seeks to equip the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
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