Critical [G]race Theory: The Promise & Perils of CRT

Christians in America live in a time of great racial tension. Cries for justice flood the streets and dominate our national discourse. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others sparked hashtags that read BLACK LIVES MATTER in what some consider the largest protest movement in our nation’s history.[1] But are these cries the results of real, structural injustices or simply the result of an insidious ideology manufacturing rage to indoctrinate us to a new social order? Is the fight for racial justice a legitimate roadmap to peace, or is it a road to nowhere fabricated by proponents of Critical Race Theory (CRT)? Christians are often made to choose between the two extremes of wholeheartedly embracing CRT or rejecting all it has to say about race and justice. But is such a dichotomy necessary or even the right way to think about this issue? A quick look at how Christians engage other secular social theories gives us great clarity regarding how to move forward.
In a recent post[2] analyzing our societies competing theories of justice, Dr. Tim Keller observed the virtues and vices of the major theories of justice which shape the American discourse. He identified how the American understanding of justice is usually informed from four major theories he labeled: libertarian, liberalism, utilitarian and post-modern. Keller noted, for example, that what he called the “liberalism theory of justice” upholds individual rights while maintaining that we don’t need a consensus on morality. He pointed out the internal inconsistency of that view because, without morality, what are “rights” and why should we uphold them? In responding to this theory, Keller aptly observed that in spite of the “contradictions and fatal flaws in Liberalism’s approach … Christians can agree with much in this justice theory.”
Similarly, Christian Philosopher J.P. Moreland argues that common grace enables us to learn from all people. Common grace is the doctrine that God allows everyone including those who don’t believe in him to understand truths about reality. As a result of common grace, we can learn from philosophers, scholars and activists regardless of their personal beliefs. In fact, as Moreland notes, several Biblical authors leverage the value of common grace…