How to Prepare for the Next Cultural Revolution
Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason explains how to prepare as Christians so we don’t get caught off guard by the next cultural revolution.
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I don't understand how Alan Shlemon can claim that a lack of training is the source of the Christian collapse before Critical Race Theory. Has the idea of liberating people from oppression as the solution to all human problems suddenly become new? Is tribalism a novel idea that has just come on the scene? Naturalism has been a dominant intellectual theme certainly since the end of the 18th century. Generations of Christians were born, lived, and then died before they were ready to take on that "cultural revolution." I wonder if even one in ten Christians could give an adequate definition of philosophical naturalism if they were polled. That is something you might try.
When I was an agnostic, I regarded most Christians as ignorant of intellectual history (even their own), confused about the nature and methods of science, and at sea about the philosophical questions that face them directly. But I became a Christian some years ago. Since then, I have had little reason to change these views. I have no joy in saying this, but it is true.
Certainly, knowledge of ideas and the historical contexts in which they emerge is most useful. Who on earth would disagree with that. But the problem here is one of logical analysis, not one of content. Critical Race Theory makes use of actual history to advance its ideas. Can anyone claim that New World slavery was a good thing? Does anyone not believe that an analysis of state statutes in Americal relevant to race would not provide a just cause for anger? Does anyone really not believe that racial prejudice was a cause of injustice in America up to the present day? These issues must be faced honestly, and the church has failed to do that. In fact, Sunday morning is still the most segregated time of the week. We must admit what is true.
After saying that, however, we must observe that Critical Race Theory is a method of achieving political power, not a method of understanding history. It is a tool designed for social conflict, not social understanding. A few logical observation should make this point. First, to claim that all members of a group are "guilty" of crimes on the basis of accidental qualities that they share with that group is both a genetic fallacy and a decomposition fallacy. The same is true of the claim that all members of a group are victims because of such accidental qualities. The attempt to attribute the guilt of progenitors to their descendants is at least the fallacy of guilt by association, an ad hominem fallacy. "White Privilege" is name-calling (an ad hominem employed both abusively and circumstantially) used to silence people from offering a defense. The claim that a minority cannot act with discriminatory intent, even against its own members, is simply foolish on its face, falsified by historical experience. The reason we have "color" as a reason for discrimination emerged from a case involving prejudice by lighter-skinned Cubans against darker-skinned Cubans.
Logical thinking is the issue here, not the content of Critical Race Theory. Those who embrace its content, I suspect, do not see the logical problems. That is why, I think, many Christians have embraced it. The notion of serving the oppressed and standing with them is not a bad thing. The bad thing here is the belief that Critical Race Theory identifies the oppressed and offers legitimate ways to assist. That is a failure of critical thinking.
The church, however, has shown little interest in teaching logic and apologetics–even to its young people going off to college. There are some exceptions, but this dismal response is generally the case. I would say that helping Christians to learn the informal fallacies, to acquire the skills for translating statements into propositions, to arrange these propositions into arguments, and then to learn how to test for validity, would prove more helpful for managing the next "cultural revolution" than learning about the last one.
Alan Shlemon should think out loud more, love these bits.
Excellent. Thank you.
I.) The simplistic reductionism of Critical Race Theory (which gave rise to Critical Race Theory) is laced with logical fallacies, posits claims of unfalsifiable special knowledge (or "Gnosis"), as Dr. Voddie Baucham describes it, proffers Gross Generalizations per (but not limited to) racism supposedly permeating all of society, utilizes Ad Hominem, Kafka Traps of "White Fragility", would apparently declare that even generationally-poor white Appalachians possess "white privilege", and makes ridiculous claims about science.
A.) CT, CRT, CGT, etc, lay claim to being theories while positing that science is subjective (cognitive dissonance on their part), and yet act as if their "theories" are unfalsifiable.
B.) If, according to CRT, racism exists but objectivity does not, then objectively no one is racist.
C.) Racism is then an accusation based upon a merely subjective framework.
D.) If the definition of racism is untethered from the belief in one's racial superiority or another's inferiority, then prejuduce + power = racism, minus objectivity, would be a subjective assertion.
E.) On racism, CRT declaring "My subjectivity is more accurate than your subjectivity would be akin to declaring along the lines of Animal Farm "All subjectivity is equal but some is more equal than others". Yet CRT operates as if oppression and power aren't subjective.
F.) Per Robin DiAngelo: "All knowledge* is taught from a particular perspective; the power of dominant knowledge depends in large part on its presentation as neutral and universal (Kincheloe, 2008)…*all knowledge* understood by humans is framed by the ideologies, language, beliefs, and and customs of human societies. Even the field of science is subjective” (p. 15). "Are We Really Equal?"
G.) If objectivity does not exist and even science is subjective, then Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, etc, must surely also be affected, have also been shaped by human interests, and do not stand objectively independent from those interests.
Although it is certainly true that many professing Christians (and society at large) were caught up in this "cultural revolution" due to lack of knowledge/understanding, and the idea of studying different world views sounds good (and doesn't hurt to become familiar with these things), I think it is more accurate to say that "had Believers studied THEIR BIBLES…" (emphasis only, not yelling) "they would have recognized that ciritical theory is…" not in sync with God's Word. It is NOT our lack of understanding of worldy matters that is crippling the Church :/ Oh, may the fear of the LORD and a thirst for righteousness and greater knowledge of His Word soon return to those who profess to love Him. This particular trap is not the stickiest that many are falling into… grace and peace and discernment be unto us all
I’m a 72 year old lady and when I was in grade school we were taught about all these world views and philosophies. We were taught American history and world history. Even as children it was clear to us how and why these foreign world views had failed and would always fail. The problem is that our education system has been compromised, along with the church, the family and society in general. Nobody knows up from down anymore. They believe things that are not true and they don’t believe the truth.
Stand up for Jesus enough, and they'll be off with your head before they starve you down.
Good Morning!