Scot McKnight reviews and recommends Robert Chao Romero and Jeff Liou's book on Christianity and critical race theory. He argues that racism is systemic, that CRT is a needed tool for exposing it, and that Christians should drop their stereotypes of CRT. He adopts the book's claims that racism is rooted in human sinfulness, that communities of color have distinct cultural wealth, and that dismissing CRT amounts to privileged false peace.
Reviewed
Its text teaches none of the positions Doxa lists.
Racism is real, systemic, and pervasive, and those who deny that it is systemic ignore the obvious in order to protect the privileged.
Christians need a discipline that persistently examines how racism has infiltrated American systems, and critical race theory is that tool.
- Endorses a source· Robert Chao Romero and Jeff Liou, Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation
Christians should read Romero and Liou's book on Christianity and critical race theory, and drop their stereotypes of CRT.
Critical race theory examines how US law and public policy have been constructed over the years to preserve privilege for those considered white at the expense of people of color.
- Endorses a source· Robert Chao Romero, Brown Church
Robert Chao Romero is a brilliant, credentialed voice that Christians need to hear.
- Adopts· Delgado and Stefancic (as summarized in the book)
Racism is ordinary, the privileged gain materially from not seeing or ending it, race is socially constructed with no biological reality, and people of color are the ones who experience and can reveal racism to whites.
Whiteness has functioned as property, with Christianity added to it, and colonialism justified itself by incorporating white property and religion.
Christianity is growing among people of color, yet American Christian institutions remain structurally white, and people of color often perceive them as white institutions.
- Adopts· Robert Chao Romero
CRT can serve as a cultural bridge for sharing the gospel, and although not all of it is Christian, much in CRT aligns with the Christian faith.
- Adopts· Robert Chao Romero
Racism is ordinary partly because humans are sinful; prejudice and racism are part of the sinful human condition.
- Adopts· Community cultural wealth theory, as presented by Romero
Communities of color do not lack cultural wealth but possess a different form of it; every ethnic group has community cultural wealth.
Black and Brown churches carry a cultural wealth that white churches often lack, and many people leave white churches because their cultural wealth is not valued.
God is not color-blind but ethnic-conscious and color-conscious.
- Adopts· Jeff Liou
A church that explains a shooter's actions in purely individualistic terms, with no regard for the systemic impact of a collective, fails to take responsibility for how it shaped him.
- Adopts· Jeff Liou
CRT is indispensable for condemning racism in all its forms, because it recovers collective memories of racism and understanding of structures, and exposes theologies that flatten diversity and do harm.
Dismissing CRT is the false peace of the privileged.
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