One writer sheds light on the advice given by pastors during a conference on how Critical Race Theory "pushes us in a direction that is not Gospel."
An attendee at the final gathering of the Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference recently recounted the stories told during the conference, specifically on how pastors tackled the issue of Critical Race Theory or CRT in their own communities. At the conference, Mark Dever, senior pastor of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. asked Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor of Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, about how pastors can keep the Gospel central in engaging with CRT issues.
DeYoung argued that CRT presents a "revisionist view of American history" in which people have replaced a "hagiography of American history" for a "hamartiography of American history," the Christian Post reported. This means that people are no longer viewing America's past and seeing saints (hagiography), but rather looking at it and seeing "irredeemable sinners" (hamartiography).
DeYoung argued that CRT presents the "presumption that disparities by definition are the result of racism." Moreover, and "the most damaging of all," he said, was that CRT ""pushes us in a direction that is not Gospel...Rather than pushing us to see all the things that we most have in common with one another...CRT pushes an aggressive color-consciousness."
DeYoung then launched into a recollection of the moment a young couple came to his church on a Sunday and told him that "'Our church, a white pastor, has been telling us to repent of our whiteness.'" The couple was white and admitted that they had no idea how to "repent of their whiteness." They only presumed that they are just "white supremacists now." This is how CRT is infiltrating and affecting Christian communities across the U.S. today.
CP's William Wolfe, who wrote the op-ed detailing DeYoung's remarks at the T4G event, presented his own suggestions for Christians whose pastor tells them to "repent of your 'whiteness.'"
He simply wrote, "Run. It's time to find a new church."
The reason behind it is that "if any pastor is demanding that you repent of something that's not a sin - being white - as if it is a sin, then they clearly don't understand the Bible, the Gospel, or sin in the first place."
Wolfe pointed to Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28-29, in which Christ literally asks "ALL YOU who are weary and burdened." He added that Jesus "doesn't tie up impossible burdens on the backs of His sheep, demanding that they repent of how they were born."
While DeYoung said that Christians should be critical of CRT, Wolfe argued that Christians should reject it because it is "fundamentally at odds with biblical Christianity." This pushback is already seen in several conservative states, where legislators have drafted anti-CRT bills.
In February, Forbes made a "state by state guide" on how legislators are developing anti-CRT bills for their state. States such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee are just a few that already have anti-CRT bills in place.
