Christianity and critical race theory

For some Christians critical race theory is part of a dangerous ‘woke’ agenda threatening the church; for others it holds valuable insights into biblical themes of justice and reconciliation. This paper takes a careful look at critical race theory through the work of Derrick Bell, one of its founders, before contrasting it to classical liberalism, which is often seen as the default alternative. It is argued that the biblical pattern of creation, fall, redemption and consummation stakes out a position on race, oppression and freedom that is different to both critical race theory and liberalism, from which they both borrow, which they both distort, and which alone offers concrete hope for the future of race relations. […]

Introduction

A woman stares down the lens of the camera and into our eyes. Her expression is weary, her tone angry. ‘How can you win?’ she cries, with the air of a question she has asked a thousand times before. The answer: ‘You can’t win. The game is fixed. So when they say, “Why do you burn down the community? Why do you burn down your own neighbourhood?” It’s not ours. We don’t own anything. We don’t own anything.’

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Kimberly Jones’s viral video ^[3] gave voice to the anger and anguish felt by many black men and women in the US and beyond in the face of a society pervaded by systemic racism. Like a Monopoly game in which one player has everything taken away from them round after round, Jones spoke of a society rigged so that black people cannot succeed, however hard they work and whatever the content of their character. Trying harder is not the answer; new initiatives are not the answer. The system is broken. It needs to be torn down and replaced.

The assumptions and commitments that inform this view of a systemically racist society go by multiple names: social justice, standpoint theory, intersectionality, critical race theory (CRT), ‘woke’ culture and identity politics among others. In this paper I will be using ‘critical race theory’ as a general term to capture this set of concerns.

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