In this article for Themelios, non-SBC author Robert S. Smith explains, “While majoritarian systems always have the potential to become tyrannous, and the track-record of Western civilization is far from unblemished, to demonize the key elements and attainments of Western culture—e.g., Christian morality, family, hierarchy, loyalty, tradition, the rule of law, sexual restraint, universal suffrage, property rights, patriotism, capitalism, and technology—is both myopic and ungrateful. Furthermore, criticizing an imperfect system when you have no idea how to build a better one is more than idealistic; it is irresponsible.”
Tag: critique
In this article, non-SBC author Daniel Schrock comments at length on an objection raised when, “the 47th General Assembly opted (after a lengthy and impassioned debate) to ‘declare the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood’s ‘Nashville Statement’ on biblical sexuality as a biblically faithful declaration and refer the ‘Nashville Statement’ to the Committee on Discipleship Ministries for inclusion and promotion among its denominational teaching materials.'”
In this podcast episode, the hosts focus on, “Ideas like: intersectionality, whiteness, and privilege, among others. All of these ideas have their roots in something called Critical Theory. Today, we talk with Neil Shenvi and Matt Warner, who discuss whether Critical Theory is a threat or is something that can be edifying for Christians to employ.”
In this article, SBC author Bart Barber makes plain the contours of the complementarian discussion in relation to the issues of Scripture and abuse, writing, “Beth Moore asserted in her remarks that certain corruptions of complementarianism lead to or exacerbate the abuse problem that the Southern Baptist Convention faces. I think that perhaps I agree in part and that I disagree in part.”
Critical theory locates the sin of oppression in systems rather than in individual acts. Consequently, it argues that guilt accrues to all who belong to an oppressive class, regardless of their personal intentions or actions, due to the benefits they receive from the oppression of minorities. To take a prominent example, white men in America are to be regarded as stained from birth with the sins of racism and misogyny by virtue of their (involuntary) participation in the two privileged categories of “white” and “men.” In order to be imputed with the guilt of these two sins, a white male need not actually perform any racist or misogynistic actions. All he must do is exist in a society that grants him privileges for his ethnicity and gender. Therefore, he relates to members of other groups (minorities and women) with a vacuum of moral authority that requires him to humble himself, repent, and seek atonement and absolution from them. This is the basic framework by which sin, guilt, and justification are understood through the lens of critical theory.
In this article, Denny Burk writes in response to Sam Storms, “to defend the Baptist Faith & Message 2000—in particular, its teaching about the pastorate.”
In this video, Stephen Michael Feinstein explains how his California Southern Baptist Convention failed to guard against the threat of Critical Theory.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMKYgHPMSzM&w=560&h=315]
In this podcast interview, non-SBC speaker Rosaria Butterfield explains, “Gay Christianity is a different religion. I’m not standing in the same forest with Greg Johnson and Wes Hill and Nate Collins looking at different angles of the trees, I’m in a different forest altogether.”
In this article, non-SBC author Steven Wedgeworth reviews Beyond Authority and Submission: Woman and Men in Marriage, Church, and Society by Rachel Green Miller, which he claims, “represents a growing new voice in what might be called post-complementarian literature. In it, Miller affirms the biblical teaching of male-only ordination in the church and the husband’s leadership in the family, but she seeks to correct what she considers an intrusion of unbiblical and even pagan assumptions into the traditional Reformed and Evangelical discourse.”
In this article, non-SBC author S. Donald Fortson III, Professor of Church History and Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte, NC), reviews The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby, a past panel participant with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission on the topic of racism. Fortson writes,
Throughout the book, one gets the impression that the historical survey is politically motivated. A number of his sources (see endnotes) are ideologically driven books opposed to conservative political perspectives. This ideological bias explains why Tisby’s account is so one-sided – he’s attempting to make a political argument, and scholarship that doesn’t fit the narrative he’s creating is excluded.