22AR27-20
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AR 27:20 - "The influence of CRT on purely theological grounds"
In this issue:
CRAIG, WILLIAM LANE - "truths or merely truths-in-the-stories-of-Genesis"?
WOKEISM - how did the fight over CRT become "a religious war"?
Apologia Report 27:20 (1,573)
June 3, 2022
CRAIG, WILLIAM LANE
In AR 26:36 (Sep 9 '21) we noted Craig's recent book In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration. <www.bit.ly/3loOvT1> What we didn't know then was that a month later Craig would write on the same subject for First Things. In "The Historical Adam" (Oct '21 issue), Craig provides more detail.
In particular, he writes that "the artificial symmetry of ten antediluvian ancestors from Adam through Noah followed by ten postdiluvian ancestors from Shem though Abraham, together with the fantastic lifespans of the antediluvians, indicates that we are not dealing here with straightforward history. ...
"The historical Adam is the person, if such there be, who actually existed.... we want to know how closely the literary Adam of Genesis 2 - 3 resembles the historical Adam, if such there be — or more precisely, whether New Testament authors assert that the literary Adam of Genesis 2 - 3 closely resembles the historical Adam. ...
"The relevant question for us is whether New Testament passages referring to Adam are intended to assert truths or merely truths-in-the-stories-of-Genesis.
"These distinctions are not drawn in order to weasel out of commitments on the part of New Testament authors to the truth of the Genesis stories and, hence, of the historical Adam."
Craig reasons "we can see how naive it is to argue that merely because some New Testament author refers to a literary figure, whether found in the Old Testament or outside it, that figure is asserted to be a historical person. ...
"If the biblical Adam is, or was, a historical person who actually lived, then the obvious question arises: When did he live? Given the mythical nature of the primaeval history of Genesis 1 - 11, it is to modern science that we must turn in the attempt to answer this question.
"First, however, we must figure out exactly what we are looking for. It would be rash to assume that organisms classified as Homo are ipso facto human beings."
Nearing his conclusion, Craig suggests: "We may imagine an initial population of hominins - animals that were like human beings in many respects but lacked the capacity for rational thought. Out of this population, God selected two and furnished them with intellects by renovating their brains and endowing them with rational souls."
Craig concludes that "Adam plausibly lived sometime between around 1 million years ago to 750,000 years ago, a conclusion consistent with the evidence of population genetics." To connect the dots, you'll want to read the entire essay, if not his book. You'll find this First Things feature here: <www.bit.ly/3LuKtDb>
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WOKEISM
On April 10, David French (religious-liberty specialist, Harvard Law graduate, First Amendment expert, and lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund) blogged "How the Fight Over Critical Race Theory Became a Religious War." <www.bit.ly/3lfV0Yb> To this Neil Shenvi (homeschooling theoretical chemist and Christian apologist) responded with a few points of agreement and pushback with his "Friendly Response to David French."
Shenvi's reply is divided in to six sections, namely:
* - Issue #1. "The term 'Critical Race Theory' is sometimes used extremely broadly and carelessly."
Shenvi: "I agree. ...
"However, French writes that the label 'CRT' has been 'fundamentally and intentionally changed by conservative activists to encompass ... arguments and ideas that have nothing to do with CRT.' This statement is more questionable, mainly because the category of 'CRT' has evolved substantially over the last three decades." Examples are given, including something CRT cofounder Kimberle Crenshaw wrote: "Critical race theory originated in law schools, but over time, professional educators and activists in a host of settings - K-12 teachers, DEI advocates, racial justice and democracy activists, among others - applied CRT to help recognize and eliminate systemic racism." Consequently, [says Shenvi] suggesting that conservative activists like Chris Rufo were solely responsible for the broadening of the term 'CRT' is incorrect. ...
* - Issue #2. "CRT is not the best term for the ideology Christians are concerned about."
Shenvi would have us be "wary of playing an endless semantic shell-game: We can't critique 'cultural Marxism' ('a Neo-Nazi conspiracy theory!'); we can't critique 'wokeness' ('cultural appropriation of African-American vernacular!'); we can't critique 'postmodern Neomarxism' ("Jordan Peterson's made-up bogeyman!"); we can't critique 'critical race theory' ('it's just a legal discipline!'). And on and on. This strategy makes it impossible to offer any critique whatsoever because any term we use will be deemed 'problematic.'"
For Shenvi, "what matters is the ideas themselves, not the labels we use to describe them."
* - Issue #3. 'Anti-CRT" bills don't actually target CRT.
French writes "No critical race theorist worth his or her salt would read Tennessee's anti-CRT bill and think for a moment that the legislature captured the essence of the theory."
Shenvi: "First, French is correct that some manifestations of CRT are problematic, and these manifestations seem to be the target of the legislation in question."
* - Issue #4. "As long as we don't treat CRT as a worldview, it's compatible with Christianity.
"French and I agree that the 'woke' worldview being embraced by large swaths of our culture is corrosive to our nation's social cohesion and to Christian theology. However, people sometimes conclude that if we merely treat CRT as a tool and not as a worldview, then it is wholly unproblematic from a Christian perspective. However, that's not the case.
"Even if we look at the earliest iterations of CRT, when it was formulated almost exclusively as a legal discipline, it contained ideas that are incompatible with Christianity. Most relevant to contemporary discourse is the way that CRT has always seen racism, sexism, and heterosexism as 'interlocking systems of oppression.'"
The way critical race theory measures progress "suffuses the CRT literature and is regularly listed as one of CRT's central tenets." It's advocates "have never revised their fundamental assumption that racism, sexism, and heterosexism are all forms of systemic oppression. For a Christian who abhors racism but accepts a traditional Christian understanding of gender and sexuality, this assumption is a non-starter."
* - Issue #5. "CRT is not really making inroads within conservative evangelicalism."
Shenvi: "Unfortunately, that's not the case. Over the last 5 years, there has been a steady stream of articles, books, and conferences which have embraced the ideas of CRT. [And] the most obvious example is Dr. Christena Cleveland, a former professor at Duke Divinity School. Seven years ago, Cleveland was writing a regular column at Christianity Today and speaking at Intervarsity's Urbana missions conference and CRU's National Conference. She now worships a Being she calls 'the Sacred Black Feminine.' Her recent book God is a Black Woman <www.bit.ly/3t9U9ws> includes statements like:'toxic masculinity's idols of knowledge [are] logic, reason, tradition, certainty, and consensus' and 'more than anything, we must eradicate the transphobia within ourselves and our communities. For if God is a Black woman, then She's a Black trans woman. Obviously.' (This certainly helps us begin to comprehend how Cru's leadership was influenced - something that has not been very clear.)
"Of course, Cleveland is an outlier. But she's an example of what can happen when you wholeheartedly embrace CRT's outlook on race, class, gender, oppression, and justice."
* - Issue #6. "The furor over CRT is partisan culture-warring."
Shenvi: "Yes and no. Certainly, "CRT has become a political football, just like 'white supremacy' and 'Christian nationalism' and 'transwomen in sports' and dozens of other trending topics that have split our nation along predicable political lines. But my concern over CRT is almost entirely theological. ...
"One does not have to be a 'culture warrior' to grieve over a police shooting. One does not have to be captive to politics to want to protect children from indoctrination into Queer Theory. In the same way, we can be worried about the influence of CRT on purely theological grounds." <www.bit.ly/3wwdbOr>
Also see, "Get Woke, Go Broke: State Farm Exec Makes Panicked Promise as Trans Support Blows Up in Company's Face" by Jack Davis (Western Journal, May 25 '22) <www.bit.ly/3NKUM7L> -- and for an example of how the story broke, see "State Farm Launches Program to Distribute LGBTQ Books to Kindergartners" by Caroline Downey (National Review, May 23 '22) <www.bit.ly/3z7FSnN>
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