Part 2 of @JohnPiper message on CRT - like the 1st - contains & confusing combination of helpful & unhelpful statements which are worth commenting on. Helpful: he follows my lead in using a broad definition of CRT & affirms value in that definition. Unhelpful: 1/
https://twitter.com/JohnPiper/status/1331234872757805058
He fails to use the interdisciplinary analysis I have been trained in & which is needed to contextualize the complexity of race, racial injustice, & evangelicalism’s historic failure to adequately address these concerns Biblically. 2/
As a result, he misses the point by never asking WHY is the CRT issue being raised at all. It's a monster in the church w/o a Dr. Frankenstein claiming it. It’s a slander similar to ‘cultural Marxism’ which the church fails to understand bc you cant analyze what you demonize. 3/
Piper starts well in quoting the same definition from PurdueU I used in my debate: CRT scholars attempt to understand [1] how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural conceptions of race and [2] how they are able to represent themselves to counter prejudice. 4/
He comments “there are many Christians who would say, rightly, “Those are some of my big concerns!”
Tragically, instead of asking the key ?: "what do we do to combat systemic racism?" he leaps into discuss some of CRT proponents views on sexuality & biblical infallibility. 5/
Tragically, instead of asking the key ?: "what do we do to combat systemic racism?" he leaps into discuss some of CRT proponents views on sexuality & biblical infallibility. 5/
Ironically in doing so he overlooked the historic misuse of “orthodoxy” to shut down critique of injustice which I detail in my essay Uncritical Race Theory. This is the point that evangelicals repeatedly overlook. 6/ rasoolberry.medium.com/uncritical-rac…
CRT is a child without parents in evangelicalism. It is a stand-in for "talk about racial injustice." It's a label to silence those cry out against injustice which the church should challenge. But instead of showing up too often the church shuts down racial justice movements. 7/
Without explanation or clarification @JohnPiper asserts “mainstream exponents” mean more problematic things. Who are these mainstream exponents? How does this relate to Christian proponents of racial justice? These questions are left unanswered. 8/
He goes on to assert” “It helps us define critical race theory if we understand that it is an offshoot of critical theory.” Based on what? Derrick Bell the father of CRT was a Christian activist & legal scholar - wasn't influenced by CT but by Jesus. rasoolberry.medium.com/critical-g-rac…
Piper is dead-on here: “But inside that infallible word called the Bible, there is an absolutely explosive redemption, and blood-bought reconciliation, and Christ-exalting harmony. And the failures of the church, historically and today, cannot cancel it.” 9/
Unfortunately, those of us highlighting how the Bible’s “explosive redemption” applies to racism and injustice are being cancelled. His treatment of the topic was a major opportunity to defend us & reject this move to cancel us. Unfortunately, it was a missed opportunity. 10/10
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