Critical Theory and Christianity 2/3
Like it or not, power concedes nothing without confrontation.
People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Nietzsche
In the past several blogs we have been looking at a christian website called Abounding Joy and a blogger named Steve. We know that Steve is a heterosexual, white, christian male living in the South. Even though he is on top of his social totem pole, he exhibits characteristics of someone who is suffering from what we call Persecuted Persons of Privilege Complex. (PPPC)
In this week’s blog we’ll continue looking at Steve’s blog about Critical Theory and perhaps we’ll be able to discover why he believes he’s the one being persecuted.
Knowing Steve’s history of misrepresentation of secular humanists, it might be advantageous for the reader to look at the actual tenets of Critical Theory before reading Steve’s portrayal of CT.
Steve’s style of discussion is to ask and answer his own questions. By not asking tough questions he is able to control the conversation without having to address difficult and valid issues. He writes,
Q: What was the primary focus of Karl Marx? A: Economics
Marx did indeed write about Economics. His 944-page masterpiece book on economics, Das Kapital can still be found for sale on the internet. I guess that means it’s still somewhat relevant a century and a half later. However, economics wasn’t the only topic Marx focused on.
My go to source for anything related to philosophy is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Their 15,000-word article about Marx covers an array of Marxists ideas, in addition to economics, his writings included such topics as Alienation, Human Flourishing, Morality, Ideology, and Utopianism. Stanford’s 1,800-word brief explanation of Marx’s stance on economics did not mention either “Bourgeoisie” nor “Proletariat”. Steve’s simplistic summary of Marx’s writings on economy took only 24 words. And here they are.
Q: How did Marx try to bring about revolution? A: He pitted economic groups against each other (bourgeois property owners “oppressed” proletariat working class people). He urged the proletariat to “rise up” in revolution.
It’s true that Marx had a strong distaste for the bourgeoisie and believed that a capitalistic system, (where an upper class exploits the lower class for personal gain), would ultimately lead to a revolution where the proletariat class would “rise up” and overthrow of the bourgeoisie. Take note of Steve’s use of the phrase “rise up in revolution”. It will be a reoccurring theme for the remainder of his blog.
This kind of class exploitation is as old as humanity itself. For millennia this exploitation has played out not only as feudalism, indentured servitude but also with chattel slavery. Marx argued that all capitalist profit is ultimately derived from the exploitation of the worker. “Capitalism’s dirty secret is that it is not a realm of harmony and mutual benefit, but a system in which one class systematically extracts profit from another.” He asked, “How could this fail to be unjust?”
Marx was not the only writer of his time to write about the bourgeoisie’s oppression of the proletariat working class. It was also a major theme in many great novels, such as Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times, Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. There is even evidence of unjust exploitation of the poor in biblical times. The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah seems to be addressing an ancient manifestation of exploitation.
“Among my people are the wicked who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch people like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
By reading the next couple of verses we can see who an accessory to this ancient exploitation was.
“A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it so. But what will you do in the end?
“And my people love it so!” This is one of my favorite verses. It seems to also apply to modern times as well. The religious leaders of our day have put a godless man in a position of great power. His unjust policies are adding to the oppression of the poor and the alien living amongst us. If I’m not mistaken the bible speaks rather clearly on this issue.
Jeremiah 7:5-7, “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place… then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.…”
Proverbs 29:7, “The righteous cares about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”
It’s a mystery to those of us who aren’t a part of the Jesus club why so many christians ignore scripture and continue to support this godless leader and his oppressive agenda. Jeremiah 5 correctly describes these people. “My people love it so! But what will you do in the end”, when their injustice comes for you?
Now back to Steve. it’s important to note here that even though Steve is invested in maintaining the status quo of his privileged lifestyle, he is not a part of the bourgeoisie. He was a school teacher for 29 years making somewhere around $40-50 thousand a year. He was solid middle class and as far as we know, he never created wealth, never had employees, and therefore never had the opportunity to exploit workers. So why is Steve even bringing up Marxism? We’re about to find out.
Q: How do advocates of critical theory re-spin Marxism? A: They pit different groups against each other based on race, sexual preferences, gender identity, religion, etc.
Let me see if I have this right. According to Steve, the main objective of critical theorists is not to achieve a more just and equitable society, but rather, to pit different groups against each other. Perhaps his real concern is that these groups are pitted against him.
Q: What do critical theory advocates mean by “intersectionality?” A: People are always members of more than one group. If they happen to be part of two groups that are in the “oppressed” category, they have more at stake in the revolution
An example of intersectionality might be a woman of color, or better yet, a gay woman of color. Steve is saying that since they are part of two or more oppressed groups then they have a greater stake in the “revolution”.
What Steve seems unable to grasp is that intersectionality also applies to people who happen to be part of two groups that are in the “oppressive” category. Using Steve’s logic, we can conclude that they would have more at stake in “resisting” the revolution because they would have more to lose.
What does this mean for Steve?
We know that he is a white, heterosexual, evangelical christian male living in the South. He’s on the top of the social totem pole. He is bathed in white, male privilege in our society, yet he seems unwilling to acknowledge it.
What’s clear from his writings, is that he is a person of privilege who is fighting to keep his power and status by belittling those who have less social privilege. Apparently, Steve is under the impression that if some minority group (or groups) gain some measure of power, equality, or status, he will lose some of his. The idea that if one group gains power, another group loses theirs is something that causes a great deal of concern for him. We will cover this more in our next blog.
We will also see that Steve never mentions “equality” in his blog. According to him, the above-mentioned groups are not simply fighting for equality, but rather, their goal is to overthrow him and his white, male, christian privilege. This also is a symptom of Persecuted Person of Privilege Complex.
Steve’s claim that christians are being persecuted is not new. This perception of christians being victimized and “robbed of their christian heritage and religious freedoms” is deeply rooted in evangelical history. During the W. Bush administration, William Donahue, leader of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (1) claimed that “the left” had forced christians “to sit at the back of the bus” and then declared, “it’s time we moved to the front of the bus, and that we took command of the wheel.” (2) It’s not clear what Donahue’s stance was on the black civil rights movement, but it’s ironic that many of those white evangelicals who opposed the civil rights movement would embrace Donahue’s description of the plight of christianity.
It’s even more preposterous that a white man, the leader of an organization dedicated to preserving the “civil rights” of the most powerful institution in the history of the world, would compare Catholic’s plight to Rosa Parks and the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. In addition, can you imagine that Rosa Parks not only refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus, but then got up, commandeer the steering wheel of the bus, and drove it and its passengers directly to her destination?
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.
What we see in Donahue’s ludicrous comment is that Steve is not the only white evangelical infected with PPPC. It’s a systemic problem that still exists to this day. As I’ve said before, the first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. Steve is only one voice in a much larger chorus of white evangelicals who are claiming that they are the ones being discriminated against. But there is a cure to this malady. And surprisingly enough, that cure comes from the only place it could come… from other evangelicals.
Also, during the W. Bush administration a few courageous evangelicals took a stand against the Christian Right’s “aggressive intolerance, and unholy quest for power.” Rev. Gregory A Boyd in his book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, wrote, “What if we spent all that energy serving each other with Christ-like love. We could feed the hungry, house the homeless, bridge the ungodly racial gap, and side with those whose rights are routinely trampled.” In Boyd’s view christians, should bear witness to injustice, but they should not try to enforce ‘their righteous will on others.” (3)
Amen, Brother, Amen!
Another evangelical pastor, Rick Warren (whom I have criticized in previous blogs for his simplistic book The Purpose Driven Life) wrote, “I’ve had four years in Greek and Hebrew and I’ve got doctorates. How did I miss the 2,000 verses in the Bible where it talks about the poor?” (4)
Warren made millions from his book and used that money to help the poor and marginalized all over the world. Perhaps, I prematurely judged him.
I have come to realized that there is hope for evangelicals suffering from PPPC. That remedy can be found quite simply in the verse in Micah 6:8.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
End note:
- The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, often shortened to the Catholic League, is an American Catholic organization whose stated purpose is to “defend the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination.
- The Evangelicals, The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald, p. 526.
- ibid. p. 540
- ibid. p. 550
Coming next
In true evangelical fashion, Steve switches the argument of Critical Theory from the social arena (where it belongs) to the religious realm (where it does not). He proposes a series of questions and then answers each one from a christian point of view and then from a critical theorist point of view.
Knowing his history of egregiously misrepresenting his opponents, will he misrepresent Critical Theory as well? We shall see.
From Where I Stand
Dale Crum