About 15 years ago, I found myself wondering why certain political causes flocked together. What connected environmentalism, LGBTQ issues, feminism, racial advocacy, and the like? I concluded these all divided the world into two categories: oppressor and oppressed; victimization was the common link. Men oppressed women, whites oppressed minorities, LGBTQ groups were oppressed by those holding sexual norms, and humans oppressed the planet.

Within this paradigm, I also noticed that good and evil were basically determined by what group you belonged to: oppressor or oppressed. Oppressors were automatically evil while oppressed were automatically good. These observations led to a few other conclusions. This viewpoint was 1) a worldview, an ideological filter through which everything was interpreted; 2) reductionistic, overly simplistic; 3) based (ironically) in prejudice and accusation rather than grace and forgiveness.

Recently, Critical Theory has gained a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Critical Theory has been around since the 1930s and is based in Marxism. When I first read about Critical Theory, I was stunned to realize it mirrored the observations about socio-political causes I mentioned above. God revealed the ideological thread connecting these movements without me knowing its name. This also suggested social movements were being marshaled in a more deliberate and coordinated fashion than I suspected. However these quests for equality or justice began, they had become tools in another agenda.

On April 18th, James Acree of Wellspring Fellowship discussed Critical Theory during his church service. (Watch here). James gives an excellent, easy to follow synopsis of Critical Theory, contrasts it with a Christian worldview, and shows that the two are incompatible. You cannot embrace Critical Theory and Christianity. Unfortunately, many (including some Christians) have uncritically accepted Critical Theory without realizing it. I pray that changes. Otherwise, I predict that Critical Theory will drive violent revolution. Historically, this is what happens every time Marxist ideas gain a foothold in society.