I’ve thought a lot about this article since reading it yesterday. It’s hard to formulate an apt response because the author does not define what he means by racism, systemic or otherwise.
/1
If he means that Christians should fight against racial partiality or racial animus, then of course there can be no disagreement about that. It is our moral duty to love our neighbor and to treat them with equal weights and measures.
/2
But if he means that Christians must fight against “racism” defined as any racially disparate outcome, then there is no necessary moral obligation to do that. (More on that below)
/3
So that’s why the argument of an article like this one is so difficult to evaluate. The terms are undefined. But they need to be defined because of the prevalence of unbiblical ideologies that dominate discourse about race. Christians have to make clear distinctions.
/4
This is not to deny that racial partiality or racial animus can infect “systems.” It certainly has—with redlining and Jim Crow being two of the most obvious and uncontroversial examples. And there are others.
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But these uncontroversial examples are not the same as what is often put forth as “racism” in CRT. One doesn’t have to be a critical race theorist to have take onboard some of this baggage. That’s why clarity in terminology is key to engaging this discussion.
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“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
-1 John 2:4
The good news of the gospel, however, is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—including LGBTQ+ sinners! Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and he was raised three days later to give us eternal life.
/2
Any sinner—no matter what they’ve done—can be connected to Christ’s saving work by repenting from sin and believing in the gospel (Mark 1:15).
/3
No Christian’s ministry is so vital that they have transcended the need and the command to be vitally connected to a local church.
If you are not so connected, all is not well with you—no matter how successful you think your ministry is.
/1
“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
-Hebrews 10:24-25
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Being a member of a local church is not a cure-all. People sin in grievous ways even in the best of churches.
Nevertheless, real and vital connection to a local church should be a threshold requirement of any Christian’s ministry.
/3
“To see classics the way Padilla sees it means breaking the mirror; it means condemning the classical legacy as one of the most harmful stories we’ve told ourselves.”
/2
“Classics and whiteness are the bones and sinew of the same body; they grew strong together, and they may have to die together.”
/3
Just reading a biblical scholar arguing that God's command for Israel to destroy the Canaanites cannot be excused or justified. In other words, God was WRONG in Deut. 20:16, and the Israelites were WRONG to obey Him.
/1
I'm not going to explain the ethics of the conquest of the Holy Land in a twitter thread. Rest assured, however, that Christianity does account for it. Even though our understanding is often very difficult for modern readers, it is coherent. E.g., ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/ad-fon…
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One thing I will point out, however. Christian theology takes it as axiomatic that God is good. He never does anything wrong. If your explanation of the conquest of Canaan begins with "we cannot excuse or justify" what God has done, you are no longer doing CHRISTIAN theology.
/3