Responses to Racial Justice rhetoric

Our local group of churches had a meeting which featured a regionally appointed 'Racial Justice coordinator'.

As it happened I'd met this person when they visited our church for a morning service a few weeks before. When they said what they did, I asked a few questions and we had a friendly debate. We have people from all sorts of backgrounds in all sorts of roles in our local church.

'Racial Justice' is linked to 'Critical Race Theory' (CRT) which is a specific idea promoted by left-wing legal theorists in the 1970s-80s which says that racism is intrinsic to our legal and social systems even if we can't see it. As a result action must be taken to promote one group at the expense of others, equity of outcome not equality of opportunity. This invisibility is always a handy device, as it is with 'global warming', as we can't immediately gauge the credibility of it.

The US & UK have been caught up in this moral panic and in many places it has been debunked, but still persists, not least in central church administrations!

The Racial Justice coordinator's presentation did not make any positive observations and the general approach used 'Progressive' terms and seemed to have little Biblical input. 

Common criticisms of Progressive programmes are that they result in: 

• false-guilt
• unbalanced views of society & history
• political bias
• grievance elevated over resolution
• raised anxiety
• polarisation
• misallocation/waste of resources
• talent suppressed
• hypocrisy
• false-virtue!

I'm not saying anything new in this and some related practices like Unconscious Bias Training have been rightly dropped from Industry and government service. But it's worth thinking this through a bit more as even if some terms (like 'woke') are less widely used, the ideas have not gone away - in many ways they are being pushed even harder by ideologues in society, government and church hierarchy.

So here are some related general propositions and some pushback!

Racism

• how many races are there? (one from Adam as even geneticists agree, haplogroups etc)
• if a white person in an African country complained to the national media about "the problem of blackness" in schools and how much more must be done to counteract said blackness, what would the response be?
• would these campaigners commit to anti-white racist action?
• 'each and everyone has actually experienced injustice' - so what? Everyone encounters prejudice at some point but it only seems to count for certain people.
• its been shown that since BLM, racial tensions have increased not decreased (this is intentional!)

DEI

• equality of outcome (equity) or equality of opportunity?
• should someone be on a committee/in-leadership just because they are a 'minority' in Britain? (what about Christians, or conservatives, or does this only apply to selected approved groups?) Would this happen in Africa, eg if you were Asian or Caucasian?
• surely we don't want diversity we want unity in the Lord?
• which countries model inclusivity better than the West?

Unconscious bias

• does everyone have 'unconscious bias' whoever they are? Yes! we all are naturally more comfortable with people we know and trust - it's basic psychology. it's good also to explore new reciprocal friendships with discretion.
• 'Unconscious bias' training (UBT) can be used to create false-guilt to promote other DEI related programmes.
• even the leftist Government has stopped this!

Intersectionality

• quote: understand 'intersectionality [in] those schools' so 'they are capable of bringing their full self'  
• 'intersectionality' is a term invented by Kimberlé Crenshaw and is linked to Critical Race Theory. It asserts that the more differences you have from the majority the more oppressed you are and therefore the more rights you can demand. This comes from a neo-Marxist philosophy - we have enough in the Bible to guide us in this area.
• 'bringing your full self' sounds great but what about one religion's aggressive contempt for others, or a caste system or tribal/class rivalry or anti-British prejudice or anti-male or atheism etc that are inherited from parents or influencers - bring this? No, we need to learn tolerance and restraint within a Godly framework not elevating difference into grievance.

Colonialism

• would (sub-Saharan) Africa have been better off if Europeans never visited? (No, many reasons, but one is the Arab slavery that Livingstone et al suppressed)
• everywhere Christianity has taken hold the people are better off materially, democratically, spiritually
• why are few/no African countries better off today that they were when they received independence? (It's mostly corrupt government)
• what is the main thing holding back development in Africa? (Misgovernment, lack of land rights)
• why are white farmers in South Africa being murdered? (The 'white tribe' has been there longer than many non-white migrations, so it's as much their land as anyone else's)
• why are 3000 Christians a year being murdered in Nigeria?
• a number of African countries have very autocratic rulers. In Cameroon, Paul Biya is 97, in power since 1982, locks up opposition leaders.
• Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta's government, pursued "Africanisation" measures in the 1960s. What if we pursued 'Europeisation' measures? Suella Braverman's father was forced to leave Kenya for being of Indian descent.
• we've been colonised by German/Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, French, bombed and sunk by Germans & Japanese, enslaved by Algerians  but we're not seeking reparations from them - should we?
• we have also been massively colonised by Marxist and Secular-Humanist myths which we often don't perceive but have to be massively resisted.
• read 'Colonialism - A moral reckoning' by Prof Nigel Biggar - tells the truth about British history, much to be thankful for!

Perspectives

• we come together around the Bible not around Karl Marx, or Kimberlé Crenshaw
• isn't it the Devil who is the accuser of the brethren? Rev 12:10
• Ageism is one of the biggest biases, but is never spoken of because age represents reviled conservatism - thus the neo-Marxist roots of this movement are revealed.

Responses

I contacted our regional leader to ask for this programme to stop. The response was vague and dismissive.  There is also a programme for schools, which is worse as children have even less ability to judge these things. The person responsible for that area had little knowledge of the details and although aware of some challenges to wokeness, seemed anxious not to change the 'Racial Justice' messaging. In our church, opinion ranged from appalled to thinking we should be just be nice ('niceness' is not a biblical concept - be either hot or cold!).

A huge problem in our time (and before) is the minimisation of evil. We don't want to call it out. But Jesus talks of broad and narrow ways, sheep and goats, Rich man and Lazarus, whited sepulchres and dead men's bones. There is a reckoning. JC Ryle says: 

'there is a morbid tenderness among us which is not the tenderness of Christ, we have spoken of mercy but not of judgement ... we have been carried away by the wretched fear of being thought 'low, vulgar and fanatical.' We have forgotten that he who judges us is the Lord, and that the man who teaches the same doctrine that Christ taught cannot be wrong' Holiness ch 10.

We might ask how professing Christian leaders seem so reluctant follow the Lord in this. Is the influence of the world too strong, with its contempt of Jesus and his strong humility? Is the narcotic of 'virtue' (approval of man) too addictive? Having reached the top of administrations have they come to believe in their own infallibility? Have they lost that first-love and find foolish but endearing (or threatening) those who seem to have discovered it? Do they prefer the company of others who they feel are as clever as them in their rather dismissive view of man, God and his Word? Do they just, on principle, adopt the opposite to what they perceive the 'enthusiasts' believe? The ultimate fear is to be thought 'right wing'! But there is not left or right - just up or down!

In summary

A common approach in all this, is taking a valid ethical issue, adopting a partisan point of view and weaponising it strongly. Through 'shock and awe' judgmentalist tactics people are knocked off balance, stop using rational discernment and roll over to become 'allys'.  They are the 'useful idiots' who contribute to their own community's demise. Having given up respectful fear of God they will abjectly fear anything. We want God's justice not 'Racial Justice' because: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger." Mt 23:4

The real losers are those who really do need support, so this is not just an ideological annoyance. Real people, especially young people, are affected - and we have a righteous judge.

The necessary foundations of a strong flourishing society were laid long ago and the success of the Christianised West are the proof of it. As increasing numbers of people are realising, the 'Enlightenment' by itself did not do this, it was the Judaeo-Christian underpinning of respect for persons, hard work, good marriage and family relationships, promotion of talent not tribe, trust and truthfulness, respecting property and honouring a loving and merciful God.