Thread by @JoshDaws

This is an excellent article by @brettmccracken, but I'm afraid he missed a step toward deconstruction that's all too common in many of these stories - becoming woke.
A thread on the connection between wokeness and deconstructing one's faith. 1/

https://twitter.com/TGC/status/1422642178476621830

Wokeness, at its most basic definition, simply means to be aware of and concerned about injustice. The problem is not with the concern about injustice, but with how injustice is identified and understood. 2/

In practice, that understanding of injustice is often (but not always) derived from Critical Theory. CT was introduced by German philosopher, Max Horkheimer in the 1930s. He explained CT by comparing it to what he called Traditional Theory. 3/

According to Horkheimer, Traditional Theory attempts to understand and explain the world as it is. Critical Theory, on the other hand, attempts to understand and explain WHY the world is not as it SHOULD be. 4/

Traditional Theory is directed toward the pursuit of knowledge and truth while Critical Theory is directed toward societal change. For Horkheimer and his colleagues in the Frankfurt School, that vision of what the world SHOULD be was provided by Marx. 5/

Frustrated that Marx's promised workers' revolution had not come to fruition in the west, the Frankfurt School began to apply Marxian analysis to areas of society beyond the economics that Marx focused on. 6/

Drawing from the work of Italian communist, Antonio Gramsci, the Frankfurt School theorists determined that everything we think we know about the world is actually the enforced ideology of the dominant culture designed to maintain power. 7/

They believed we should critically assess all established knowledge, systems, and institutions to identify this hegemonic power at work. 8/

"Okay, but what does this history lesson have to do with Church-goers deconstructing their faith?" Stick with me. We're getting there. 9/

Over the ensuing years, Critical Theory has mushroomed into a broad academic discipline with an ever-growing web of sub-disciplines; things like cultural studies, feminist theory, queer theory, and critical race theory. 10/

Drawing heavily from postmodern and post-structuralist schools of thought, critical theory has assembled a dizzying assortment of concepts and ideas with tremendous explanatory power. 11/

Modern Critical Theorists are no longer trying to understand and explain why the world isn’t as it should be. They believe they know. Their focus is now on praxis, or the practical application of theory to bring about their vision of social justice. 12/

These ideas have left academia and exploded into the mainstream. Whenever a tragic event like the death of George Floyd captures the world's attention, popular critical theorists like Kendi and DiAngelo are there to provide an explanation as to why those tragedies occur. 13/

According to CT analysis, the problem is always the larger systems and institutions that produce these injustices. CT shifts the focus from individual instances to systems of oppression. This is how the death of GF became a national reckoning with racism and white supremacy. 14/

This is not to deny that institutionalized or systemic racism has existed and may continue to in some areas of society. Critical Theory, however, precludes any other explanation. True to its Marxist roots, CT needs dominant systems dismantled to achieve social justice. /15

For many Christians who are sincerely grieved by these events and frustrated at what they perceive to be a lack of concern from other Christians, these explanations offered by CT are incredibly appealing. 16/

Critical Theory explains why other Christians don't seem to be as gung-ho for social justice as they are. It's not that they see things differently or invest their limited time, resources, and energy elsewhere. Nope. It's rampant white supremacy within the church (system). 17/

The world these newly woke Christians have been part of is transformed by CT into a sinister system that has been used by the dominant culture to oppress those without power and preserve it for themselves. 18/

Everything they once believed about the church must be re-examined to understand how it has been constructed in service of white supremacy. The deconstruction begins. 19/

At this point, the deconstruction can go one of two ways. If the Christian is grounded in the truth of scripture, this can be a beneficial process. We should examine ourselves and the systems we've created to make sure they are in alignment with scripture. 20/

This is Alisa Childers' story. She deconstructed her faith up to a point and then rebuilt it more firmly rooted in the truth of the gospel. That's a worthy endeavor. 21/

However, in order for deconstruction to be beneficial, a believer HAS to be committed to the truth. Critical Theory, you'll remember, is not committed to truth but to societal change. It sees all accepted knowledge and truth claims as tools of the dominant oppressors. 22/

A Christian who adopts this critical analysis of the world, will not just start to question how we do church but what we believe. Difficult teachings in scripture will be dismissed as the preferred interpretation of the dominant culture. 23/

Standpoint epistemology will encourage woke Christians to decenter historic interpretations of scripture that CT would categorize as white theology in favor of other ways of knowing and understanding scripture. This opens them up to liberation theology. 24/

Any appeal to scripture or caution against embracing an unbiblical theology will be interpreted as an attempt to preserve power. This thread will be accused of doing this. 25/

Intersectionality will broaden woke Christians’ social justice concerns to include other oppressed groups as they recognize how the dominant culture works to oppress other minority groups. This leads to an abandonment of the biblical understanding of sexuality. 26/

It should be acknowledged that not every Christian following this woke trajectory follows the path all the way down to apostasy. 27/

Some people are more comfortable living with inconsistencies and can keep from applying the critical gaze of CT to the historically understood truth of scripture. 28/

For others who apply this critical analysis consistently, it can’t help but lead to total deconstruction and apostasy. The Bible stands in contradiction to the Marxist vision of utopia that Critical Theory has been in service of from the beginning. 29/

Lastly, it should be noted that a Christian need not study Critical Theorists to adopt these ideas and explanations. They are pervasive throughout our culture. (See DiAngelo on Jimmy Fallon above). 30/

I first encountered these concepts and this trajectory in a Be the Bridge Facebook group dedicated to racial reconciliation. I’ve also seen many friends and loved ones walk this path. It’s been heartbreaking to watch. That's why I won't shut up about it. 31/

We all need to follow Colossians 2:8 and “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Let's be Bereans about this movement. 32/32