This article contains sermon notes, prepared by Dr. Conrad Vine in early summer 2019. The sermon will be given in January at the Village Church in Berrien Springs. It is—in our opinion—an excellent treatment of the origins and impulses of social justice.
Oops! Last Friday, we published an incomplete version. That version was brought back in the shop for an oil change. This updated version is published with the author’s permission.
We are all having to learn a whole new vocabulary. SJWs. Snowflakes. De-platforming. Safe-spaces. Trigger warnings. Patriarchy. Privilege. White supremacy. White privilege. White fragility. Intersectionality. Identity politics. Conscious bias. Unconscious bias. Implicit bias. Systemic racism. Offended. Gender Studies. Woke. Critical Race Theory. Doxing. 4th Wave Feminism. Frankfurt School. Standpoint epistemology. Emancipatory politics. Privilege preserving epistemic pushback. So, where did this come from, and is SJ truly the Gospel as Christian progressives insist? First, a little history….
Karl Marx Started it all !
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a German economist, political theorist, and socialist revolutionary. He studied law and philosophy at university. Due to his political publications, Marx lived in exile with his family in London for decades. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, and the three-volume Das Kapital. Marx's theories about society, economics and politics, collectively known as Marxism, hold that human societies develop through class struggle. In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (the “bourgeoisie”) that control the means of production and the working classes (the “proletariat”) that enable these means by selling their labor in return for wages. Marx predicted that capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. Marx argued that the working class should carry out organized revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic emancipation, in which the government would control all resources and means of production to, in theory, ensure equality.
These theories were put into practice in the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the peasants and working class people of Russia revolted against the government of Tsar Nicholas II. They were led by Vladimir Lenin and a group of revolutionaries called the Bolsheviks. The new communist government was based on the writings of Karl Marx, leading to the USSR. Lenin was followed by Joseph Stalin, who ruled the USSR from the mid-1920s-1953. In order to impose Marxist theory, it is now estimated the between 1900-1987, over 110 million people were deliberately killed in mass deportations, concentration camps, re-education camps, labor camps, the killing fields of Cambodia, internal repressions, and man-made famines. Marxism was responsible for more deaths than any other ideology in human history.
According to Continetti (2017), “The beginnings of identity politics can be traced to 1973, the year the first volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago—a book that demolished any pretense of communism’s moral authority—was published in the West. The ideological challenge of socialism was fading, its fighting spirit dwindling. This presented a challenge for the Left: how to carry on the fight against capitalism when its major ideological alternative was no longer viable? The Left found its answer in an identity politics that grew out of anti-colonialism. Marx’s class struggle was reformulated into an ethno-racial struggle—a ceaseless competition between colonizer and colonized, victimizer and victim, oppressor and oppressed. Instead of presenting collectivism and central planning as the gateway to the realization of genuine freedom, the new multiculturalist Left turned to unmasking the supposed power relations that subordinated minorities and exploited third world nations.”
Critical Theory (CT)
Behind SJ & SJWs is CT. CT is a post-modern philosophical framework that divides the world into the oppressed and the oppressors via, among other things, gender studies, race studies and sexuality studies. The oppressors oppress through hegemonic power, and tell a narrative about how they deserve their positions of power vis a vis the oppressed, e.g. the oppressors appeal to reason, to logic, to history, to academic achievement etc. Yet, in CT, this is all just a pretense to preserve their power in society. Systems of logic, critical reasoning, scientific research and respectful dialogue are viewed in CT as tools by which the oppressors seek to maintain their hegemonic power in society and oppress the oppressed.
Standpoint epistemology is an important concept within CT. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, i.e. how you distinguish between justified belief and mere personal opinion. In CT, oppressors see the world from their own limited perspective. The oppressed however see the world from both their own experience of oppression, and from the perspective of the oppressed, i.e. they are blessed with special / double-insight. This overrides the possibility that someone or the methods of a dominant class may be speaking the truth.
The “Lived experience” of the oppressed overrides reason, dialogue, scientific research and critical reflection, because these are the oppressive tools of the dominant classes in society. Truth is subjective (or as Oprah Winfrey recently said, “your truth”). Thus, in CT, to discuss the nature and extent of racism with a white professor is in and of itself an act of oppression, for the students are being forced to play on the oppressor’s playing field using the logic, reason, research / natural advantages of the oppressive groups. Dialogue is not possible for SJWs. Likewise, for SJWs, examinations are a form of oppression, for they are an intellectual tool by which oppressed minorities are excluded from position, power, prestige and participation in society.
According to CT, oppressors / oppressed exist in social groupings on a social totem pole. Our identity as individuals is inseparable from our group identity, especially our categorization as ‘oppressor’ or ‘oppressed’ with respect to a particular identity marker. All oppressed groups find their fundamental unity in their common experience of oppression. The fundamental human project is liberation from all forms of oppression; consequently, the fundamental virtue is standing in solidarity against the oppressor. The current “Victimization Flow Chart” may be summarized as follows: white heterosexual cis-gender men / women; non-white heterosexual cis-gender men / women; gay white men; gay white women; gay non-white men; gay non-white women; transgenders; and last of all, Muslims.
Social Justice Warriors
For SJWs, oppression flows down from the top of society. Crucially, a group can only be oppressed by the groups above it. Think of victimhood like a waterfall. The laws of gravity dictate that the flow can never be reversed. Oppressor groups oppress everyone but cannot be victimized by anyone. Oppression always flows downward. By definition, a group with less power and privilege literally cannot be racist or sexist or bigoted against groups with more power and privilege. Thus, SJWs want to force young girls to share their bathrooms and locker rooms and battered women must share their shelters with gender-confused men. The “Victimhood Flow Chart” must always be followed!
CT has its own canonical writings that function in the same way as the Bible for Christians or the Koran for Muslims. “Race, Class & Gender: An Anthology” is a major anthology of writings from disciplines like gender studies, critical race theory and gender studies. The canon is avowedly secular-atheist. In this anthology, the following working definition of western cultural suicide and philosophical insanity is found: “Objectivity as found through rational thought is a western and masculine concept that we will challenge through this text” (p.14).
In CT ideological circles, the question may be raised, “what does it mean to be a “good atheist?” In the canon, a “good atheist” is a SJW. Those who stray from the current ideology are be destroyed socially. Thus CT and SJ is a fundamentalist religion for secular atheists. This then is CT, but how though we do evaluate CT from a biblical perspective?
Biblical Critique of CT
Regarding final authority, in the CT worldview, Jesus by definition cannot be “The Way, The Truth and The Life” (John 14.6). One’s own subjective “lived experience” is your final authority and ultimate determinant of truth, not the Word of God. A Christian can never appeal to the Word of God, for CT denies the possibility of external, objective sources of authority or truth.
Regarding justification, the Bible is clear.
“For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans 3:28). “Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
However, for SJWs, being good atheists, there is no eternal life. Rather, the more one is offended, the more one’s self-righteousness grows. A SJW is justified – declared righteous – by the SJW online mob. “They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die-- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them” (Rom. 1.32). This secular self-righteousness has no need for the Savior, effectively stripping the sinner of their sense of their own sinfulness and need for the Savior, and replacing this with a sense of self-righteousness.
Regarding forgiveness, the Bible is clear. Ps. 103.10-12; Ps. 130.3-4; Isa. 1.18; Isa. 43.25; Isa. 55.7; Ezek. 18.30-32; Luke 24.46-47; In the Word of God, forgiveness is an act of God’s grace to undeserving sinners (Eph. 2.8-9). Forgiveness does not depend on which social group you happen to be – Ezek. 18.4, 20, and it can be received by faith based on our personal response to Jesus Christ today (1 John 1.9). Forgiveness however does not exist in CT. CT has no mechanism for atonement.
In CT, based on the concepts of “white fragility” and “privilege preserving epistemic pushback” and “white ignorance,” if you disagree with what CT says, you are therefore complicit in white racism and white supremacy. The only way an oppressor can deflect their guilt is to become a “ally” of the oppressed – hence many of the most vocal SJWs are wealthy, white liberals who embrace the secular CT gospel of SJ because they have long drifted from their biblical worldview and prefer human applause to God’s approval.
Regarding truth claims, how do we evaluate one’s personal “lived experience” vs the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit? One’s inner conviction from the HS does not apply to all truths, but to the great truth claims of the Gospel, e.g. the deity of Jesus Christ, my personal sinfulness and irredeemable moral depravity, my final date and eternal destiny with death, and my forgiveness and cleansing and justification and promise of eternal life through faith in His atoning sacrifice on Calvary for me. If you ask, “how do I know water boils at 100C?” I would not say “Through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit,” but I would appeal to scientific, objective, reproducible and external evidence. In CT however, all truth claims outside of “lived experience”, including that water boils at 100C, are ultimately claims to power, and therefore are to be rejected. Every scientific scale – C or F – is really a tool to exclude the oppressed. What is needed is a personalized scale true to my “lived experience.” Hence, a SJW might say that “water boils when it is bubbly….but don’t take my word for it.”
Regarding apologetics, I enter the marketplace of ideas as a Christian, and I don’t demand that everyone accept and celebrate my own “lived experience” of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I may share my testimony, and I may appeal to objective evidence, e.g. the evidence for creation vs evolution, or to reason for the existence of God via rational discussion, or point to evidence of God in someone’s life. In CT however, everyone must accept my “lived experience” as objective truth, regardless of, and separate from, any other evidence. Absurdity is the outcome. Accept my identity as peanut butter!
Regarding the preaching of the Gospel, Jesus Christ commanded us to preach the Good News to the ends of the earth, as it is good news for every nation, tribe, language and people (Matt. 28.18-20). CT however argues that so-called logic, reason and argument are merely the product of privilege, bias and power. Thus, all knowledge is socially situated, and only the “lived experience” of the most oppressed of all groups is to be accepted as truth. SJWs must therefore reject the Gospel, because it is not only based on “lived experience” but it is also based on an appeal to an external source of authority – the Word of God – which in CT is merely an pretext for the one proclaiming the Gospel to maintain hegemonic power. The Gospel preacher can be ignored because in the appeal to the Word of God, the preacher is actually trying to maintain his hegemonic power in society and to perpetuate oppression.
Regarding temporal outcomes, SJWs seek equal social temporal outcomes in all areas. For Christians, in terms of temporal outcomes, while we are taught to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6.11), we are also taught that “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (2 Thess. 3.10).
However, for SJWs, there are no eternal outcomes, only temporal outcomes. CT’s commitment to earthly ‘liberation’ as the ultimate good denies the Bible’s claim that God’s moral commandments are universally binding on all human beings. Equality of outcome in terms of social power, economic power and socio-economic outcomes is the objective. This is based on “Emancipatory Politics.” EP understands the state to be the liberator of those who previously experienced political disenfranchisement. EP (and CT in general) views society through the prism of power relationships in society. CT activists are thus not actually seeking equality or justice but power – naked political power, to impose their secular, anti-Christian worldview on society. The Victimhood Flow Chart may be summarized thus (borrowing from Orwell’s insights that “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others:”
If a member of the most oppressed of all groups – the Muslim faith, preaches and appeals to the Koran and the hadeeth as the ultimate authority, this must be accepted according to SJWs. Why? In the CT worldview, when there is a conflict between these competing groups on the totem pole of oppression, the rights of the group that has experienced the most perceived oppression override the rights of all other groups. Hence, Muslim ideology always trumps LGBTQ rights. This dynamic is seen around the West whenever there is a conflict between members of the LGBTQ community and the Muslim community. Time and again, the LGBTQ community must bow the knee to the demands of the Muslim community. Thus, although SJWs argue for equal social outcomes, in reality it is a post-modern and post-Christian worldview that ends up destroying itself as the competing victim groups fight it out for priority.
Regarding eternal outcomes, there are none in CT. From a biblical perspective however, God wants an equal eternal outcome for all,
“The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3.9).
However, Jesus taught that some are saved for eternity, and some are lost for eternity – John 3.16, and that God does not impose these equal eternal outcomes on humanity.
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life….Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out-- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5.24, 28-29).
The Bible teaches equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome in both temporal and spiritual matters.
Finally, CT is self-destroying because it turns a blind eye to the power dynamics that CT itself creates and perpetuates. Power is context-dependent. Drop me in Saudi Arabia, and my western “Christian privilege” is a huge liability and I am now in an oppressed social group. Furthermore, if an evangelical Christian finds himself marginalized and excluded by those who embrace CT, then hasn’t ‘Critical Theory’ become a means of oppression? When applied universally, CT collapses on itself.
The key differences between the CT and a biblical worldview may be summarized as follows:
Conclusion
CT does remind of us some truths – power does corrupt, we are often blind to the impact of our actions on others, Christians have been complicit in oppression and in the wider sins of our societies, and the Church historically has been slow to take up the cause of the oppressed. Many progressive Adventists are embracing CT (consciously or unconsciously) because they are convinced that our Church does not care about racism, sexism, or poverty.
However, CT is a secular, atheist worldview antithetically opposed to the Bible that inevitably ends in the elimination of freedom of conscience, religious liberty and any Christian witness in society at all. Adventists who promote CT / SJW concepts are unwittingly introducing a militantly atheist worldview into the SDA Church. This tragedy is seen particularly in SDA colleges in which our young people are drinking at the well of diversity and inclusion, thereby imbibing cultural Marxism and being led (unintentionally but inevitably) away from Jesus Christ.
Here in the USA, we would do well to remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, at the close of his First Inaugural Address:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
And as disciples of Jesus Christ, while we utterly reject CT, its vocabulary and its underpinning atheist philosophy, we are called in each generation to articulate afresh a vibrant and distinctive Christian approach to biblical justice, not social justice….biblical justice grounded in a biblical worldview.
Let us therefore show with our lives that we follow a Savior who died for all people, regardless of who or where they are, who came to ‘set the oppressed free and break every yoke’ and who calls us to surrender our lives to bring hope and healing to a broken world.
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Born into a pastoral family, Elder Vine grew up with his twin brother and two sisters in homes across the UK. After graduating with a business management degree (1995), he served in the UK public healthcare system before God led him to ADRA (1996). Initially serving in Azerbaijan, Elder Vine served with ADRA through 2002 in a variety of roles worldwide. Following seminary training at Newbold College (2002-2004), he and Luda began their pastoral ministry in London, UK. After a stint in the Middle East Union, they served in pastoral ministry in Minnesota for four years before Elder Vine answered the call to serve as President of Adventist Frontier Missions.
Conrad and Luda were married in December 1999 and regard their marriage as a personal blessing from a loving Heavenly Father. They have two wonderful children, David and Christina.