Critical Theory and Its Incompatibility with Rewarding Individual Integrity

Critical Theory and Its Incompatibility with Rewarding Individual Integrity

*By Joe Cotta, Contributing Writer 

1 Thessalonian 5:21 – Test all things; hold fast to what is good

 

The definition of the Greek word, translated “Test,” means literally, to prove, examine, and discern all things.

 

“Postmodernism… in Western philosophy, is a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.” – Encyclopedia Britannica

 

 

It broadly asserts that Western intellectual and cultural norms and values are a product of the ideology of dominant or elite groups and were made to serve their interests.

 

Critical Theory takes the breaking down and dismantling of postmodernist thinking and adds social Marxism to it.

 

Social Marxism seeks to remove freedoms that create variances of “equality.”  This is to extinguish capitalism to create one class of people (except for those in power).  Everything is viewed through the lens of power and its advocates seek to replace Christianity, as a worldview and ideology.

 

Critical Theory expresses the ideology that all of our current institutions and organizations were built by those who are privileged, at the disadvantage of those who are not privileged.

 

Therefore, justice is dismantling, deconstructing, and destroying all of those institutions.

 

When critical theory is applied to race, it’s critical race theory. This means we need to dismantle what the privileged have done with race, because it was done at expense of the less privileged.

 

When applied to economics, it’s critical economics theory.  We need to dismantle what the privileged have done to our economy.  It is unjust.

 

“A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.” – Education Week https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

 

The idea is that racist institutions were created by racist laws and/or behavior.  Therefore, those institutions still carry a suppressive nature towards disadvantaged races.

 

When applied to gender studies, its critical gender theory.  Gender is what the privileged have made it, so we need to tear it down.

 

When applied to law-enforcement, its critical police & military theory.  We need to dismantle it, because it was created at the expense of the disadvantaged.

 

The problem, is that CRT claims that the continued existence of these institutions cannot be remedied and therefore need to be torn down.  When in actuality, we’ve continued to make vast improvements towards achieving equality every decade, by simply adhering to a higher ethical standard.

 

A flourishing economy does not require slaves or a disadvantaged class.  All it requires is integrity, skill, hard work, and a system that allows those behaviors to be rewarded.

 

When Critical theory is applied to religion, it’s critical religion theory.  This is where anything that doesn’t fall into a humanitarian type mission, misses the mark and isn’t important.

 

In post-modernism (deconstruction of ideas), the virgin birth, miracles, and the resurrection are explained away, because elites made those stories at the expense of other underprivileged people who didn’t want Christianity or suffered under it.

 

They reference corrupt abuses of Christianity, like the Protestant and Catholic wars and the Crusades, to promote this idea.  The privileged won, so their religion won, at the expense of the unprivileged.

 

The problem is that Post-modernism cannot be applied to Christianity without investigating, if Christianity came from God.

 

Miracles, the virgin birth, and the resurrection all have something in common.  They are all true.  We know this, because the bible is a proven source of historical fact and testimony.  We know from critical analysis that the New Testament documents are reliable.

Bruce, F. F., The New Testament Documents.  Are they Reliable?  (I.V.P, 1943)

 

These conclusions are simply the most reasonable, if it can be discerned that truth exists, God exists, miracles are possible, and the New Testament documents are reliable.

Turek, Frank, Stealing from God (NavPress, 2015)

 

The issue is that we need critical thinking to get there, not critical theory, which is really, not that critical.

 

The result of critical theory is to dismantle all of these institutions in the name of justice.  So, we need to get rid of capitalism, police, military, gender, education, marriage, family, and church.  Sound Familiar?

 

When the question is asked “what replaces the institution after it is dismantled,” we receive no answer.  We’re just told these things are bad, so they need to be deconstructed and destroyed.

 

Critical theory is an overarching idea, rooted in some truth.  Some people are not treated well and do not receive justice under the law, but if the answer to those problems is not Jesus, and the Word of God, we will build a system of human suffering and harm, not human blessing and flourishing.

 

So, these guys want to tear everything down, but they don’t know what they’re going to build.

 

Meanwhile, there are people (all of us) that live in these current institutions to help us live and maintain social order.

 

What happens if the institutions are gone?  Minneapolis defunded the police, because they were deemed systemically racist.  Then society suffered, because they didn’t build anything.  Then Minneapolis invested $6.4 mil a couple months ago, to hire back the police force.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/14/minneapolis-to-spend-6-4-million-to-hire-more-cops/

 

The whole ideology fuels itself on emotion and passion, not reason, planning, or reality… and behind it is social Marxism.  This is to achieve power by isolating people into different identity groups, and creating enmity between them.

 

In the current culture, we see various groups upset with other various groups.  Many of the agendas don’t even relate.  Why should a homosexual support a reduced military?  …because they all come together to support critical theory.

 

And when anyone disagrees with that, the mob shows up and screams, “You’re one of privileged people, benefiting from an unjust society.  You are not loving, empathetic, or compassionate.  You don’t understand and that’s why you’re wrong!  Actually, you should hate yourself, for all of the things you’ve supported for your own benefit, at the expense of others.  We’ve deconstructed this society critically, and we have called it unjust.  Therefore, if you oppose us, you are unjust.!”

 

They have done this without applying any reason, logic, solution, or plan.

 

Critical theory also removes personal and moral responsibility.  If you commit crimes, it’s society’s fault.  If you’re sexually immoral, it’s the institution’s fault.  If you don’t care about being a good dad, it’s because of society you grew up in (critical theory seeks to tear down fatherhood and the nuclear family… because it’s evil… made by the privileged at the expense of the unprivileged).

 

In this ideology, no one owns one sin.

 

When you remove personal responsibility, you remove human dignity.  We are all made in the image of God.  You have a conscience.  You know what’s right and what’s wrong.  If I say, “you have no responsibility for your own life,” I am actually devaluing you.  I’m saying that you can’t make a decision, other than by submitting to what the mob mentality requires.  That’s very denigrating to people.

 

CRT also confuses equal opportunity with equal outcome.  When young people hear “equal opportunity,” they hear “equal outcome,” because they grew up in a world where everybody got a trophy.  In real life, school, and business, we strive for equal opportunity, but don’t receive equal outcome, because some people embrace personal responsibility, and some don’t.

 

The guy that got drunk and didn’t show up to work is not going to get the same outcome as the guy who got up early and worked hard.  Both had the same opportunity, but and produced results and one did not, so the outcomes were different.

 

Equal opportunity does not mean equal outcome.  If it did, that would be unjust, by definition, because the man who demonstrated virtue, received the same (equal) outcome as the one that demonstrated no virtue.  Therefore, it is unjust.

 

It’s difficult to discern, because those promoting critical theory, call it just.

 

Critical theory uses virtuous language, like justice, equality, and love, and uses it to break down, critique, destroy, and demolish.

 

The American people are getting fed up with this nonsense, so they are pushing back and standing up for reason and self-accountability.  However, when they do, the mob rises up.

 

When you build on reality, truth, and critical thinking, you end up believing the gospel.  In reality, all people are sinful.  All cultures are bad.  Some are worse than others.  Don’t get me wrong, I like learning about different foods, customs, and traditions of other cultures.  However, all cultures need Jesus.  All races, all policemen, all educators, all 1st responders, all business men, and all fathers need Jesus.

 

We put our faith in Jesus.  Then, when an institution has problems, we know how to fix them, without tearing them down.

 

When fatherhood, goes down the tubes, like it’s currently doing in our country, we don’t need to end the nuclear family and replace it with nothing.  We need to explain to fathers, that they have a problem, common to all mankind.  It’s sin… doing what you know is wrong and refusing to do what is right.  People carry guilt from these things, because they know they are wrong.

 

Because people know these things are wrong, they deserve a punishment.  Sin is rebellion against God and He will judge.  People’s typical response to this, is “critical God theory.”  “It’s God’s fault.  Look at how evil society has hurt me.”

 

The world is full of evil, but the reason we have evil, is because God gives freewill.  God doesn’t force Himself on people.  He wants a relationship.  God can’t have a relationship with you, without giving you a choice.

 

The world is not evil, because God allows it.  The world is evil because people choose it.

 

Despite your choice, to do what you know is wrong and inflict suffering on others… You’ve been a bad father, policeman, politician, businessman… God sent His Son (Son of God and God the Son), to bare wrath of God in your place, on the cross.

 

When you believe this and accept Him, you are forgiven by God.  He loves you so much that He accepts you as you are and He loves you so much that he won’t leave you there (1 John 1:9).

 

God offers heaven, grace, and good things you don’t deserve.  Then God calls on fathers, to behave like their heavenly Father.  That’s how societal problems get solved.

 

Every sociological, philosophical, ideological, and political system is trying to create heaven on earth, but Jesus is the only one that can give heaven.

 

1 Peter 1:15

But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy”

 

That’s the answer to our societal problems.  When people do unjust things, they need to be more like Jesus.  We don’t cancel them.  We advocate for behaving like our heavenly Father and conducting ourselves like obedient children.  These things are only achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

God gives the Holy Spirit to empower us to be like Jesus.  Then, the government, officer, jail, and rehab center are not needed.

 

Ultimately, we’re not to live in obedience to the culture, but to God, who will judge the culture.

 

Right now, everyone is making their culture the standard of righteousness and it’s clashing with other cultures.  MAGA, BLM, Back the blue, the globalists, the nationalists, Capitalists, socialists, and environmentalists all say, “this is my standard of righteousness.”

 

We need to unite under God’s universal law of self-responsibility.

 

We can better do this by advocating for unity and equal opportunity based on individual integrity, not group identity.  The ethical standard of integrity, is the Judeo-Christian ethic.  The issue is that of self-responsibility and systematic reward for individual integrity, under God.