The claim is often made that Critical Race Theory is a new and helpful tool for analyzing racism and oppression in general.  Unfortunately, this claim is not true.  Critical Race Theory falls short both in locating the true nature of the problem and in offering any viable solution.  At the end of the day, it is too simplistic and too crude of a tool to offer a way forward.

Critical Race Theory fails to take seriously the depth of the problem.  Advocates of this theory sometimes offer dates such as 1619 for the beginning of racism in America.  The true date for the beginning of hatred, deception, and murder actually took place virtually at the beginning of human time in the biblical story of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel in Genesis 4.  This problem of evil continued to accelerate in these early generations until we read how in Genesis 6:5, “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (ESV).

It is important for us to note that these problems of social breakdown all took place in one extended family.  Different languages and what today we would call different ethnic groups did not emerge until many generations later, as recorded in Genesis 10 and 11.  The root problem we see in all forms of racism and oppression involves what the Bible describes as sin or a fatal bent toward evil.  Whereas Critical Race Theory assumes that there are ultimately two groups of people: those who oppress and those who suffer their oppression, a more careful analysis reveals that ultimately there is one only one group of people who all have an instinctive bent toward evil.

Jesus explains this phenomenon as a heart issue in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  The Apostle James explains it this way in James 4:1-2, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.”  Again, the problem is a heart issue where something is wrong deep, down inside each of us.

The lack of a proper analysis of the problem in Critical Race Theory is compounded by the lack of any viable solution for going forward.  Whenever wrongs have been committed, there needs to be ways to bring about healing and restoration through forgiveness and reconciliation.  Healing is never easy or cheap.  Proverbs warns us that, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city” (Proverbs 18:19, KJV).  Yet the goal of reconciliation needs to focus on restoring broken relationships.  And the key to restoring relationships involves changing people’s hearts.  At best, changing people’s hearts is spiritual work, requiring spiritual resources.  Ultimately, heart issues can never be resolved legally or politically.  It normally takes place only one person at a time as we all learn to reach out and befriend those who are different from us, and especially those whom we may have failed and sinned against in the past.

Published as a Letter to the Editor in our local newspaper, the Charlton Villager, in their July 9, 2021 issue.