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Noah and co-host Chase Stancle respond to a mailbag question about Critical Race Theory. It’s a convo you won’t want to miss.
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More thoughts than I can share here, but I would pause before too eagerly writing off the hysteria as only hysteria.
I don’t think any Protestant is in a good position to levy a criticism against CRT. This is because the very real problems with CRT have origins in the Enlightenment project in which Protestantism has always been closely enmeshed. One might say that critical theories origins predate the trans-Atlantic slave trade. To borrow Noah’s phrase, some of the assumptions are baked into the milieu that we take for granted. Nevertheless, I think many white protestant concerns (though I think it is untrue that only white protestants are concerned), if inarticulate, are inspired by a correct sense that critical theories are fundamentally opposed to any teleological account of our existence.
You properly note that CRT is a philosophical standpoint and that it has to do with critiquing the various “constructions” of societies. Surely, the bible and religion as a whole have to do with communities and not just individuals. But this is a wholly different statement than assuming cultural realities are constructed. To make that kind of judgement about society is itself an indication that we are operating within and taking for granted the world the Enlightenment made in which we think we can act as objective, detached observers who by our rational powers can create a reductive account of the world. This kind of thinking is one that naturally rejects the “givenness” of any aspects of our cultural – or, at the risk of offending conservative brethren, our communal- existence.
I am not a Christian but the many theories that take for granted this view of the world concern me. Critical theory is the Enlightenment on steroids and its cynicism is indeed creeping into the culture. Why are doubt and authenticity granted values of the day while the defense of institutions and the things we loved are viewed as passe and naive? It only takes a little thought to realize this privileging of doubt and cynicism is an arbitrary set of values adopted by our culture. Yet, the milieu is such that it simply feels enlightened to accept without question the replacement of cultural achievements by an atmosphere marked by incessant critique of cultural achievements whose gifts we have inherited.
What you fairly acknowledge is that CRT has the advantage of having real historical grievances to attack. Slavery and Christian complicity in it are not easily forgotten. The segregation of the Church and the kind of inequalities it perpetuates today are real scars across humanity. But to suggest that the issue of critical theory is merely about telling these stories instead of other ones is to ignore the very important streams of intellectual history that have made certain modes of critique dominant. When the specifically critical/deconstructing mindset is adopted as the standard of redressing historical injustices, it’s anti-teleological and resentful account of reality sinks into everything around it. The critique does not stop with national institutions but is aimed at sacred institutions such as marriage and human embodiment.
Right-wing evangelicals may not be able to provide an account of their own concern but this doesn’t mean they are wrong. There’s a piece of art by Andres Serrano in which he photographed a crucifix in a jar of urine. It’s called “piss Christ.” What could possibly create a world in which this is eagerly accepted as high art? I would suggest it is art to the mind that assumes a constructed world that can be manipulated by power. Such art can be praised for its ability to mock sacred images that represent a culture or a transcendent purpose.