Godless ideologies are running rampant in our culture. They are also making inroads into some of our evangelical churches and institutions. If we do not open our eyes and address it, it will get worse. Failure to recognize this is naïveté in the extreme. Recognizing it and failing to address it is dereliction of duty.

Introduction

Thabiti Anyabwile, has written an article at The Gospel Coalition interacting with and challenging statements I made in a short talk delivered at CPAC earlier this year. He contacted me first and asked if he had understood me properly. I am grateful for that. It is obvious that he and I disagree on the issues at hand. I appreciate his taking my words so seriously and I take no offense in what he has written. In this article I offer a brief response in hopes of clarifying my reasons for ongoing concerns about the social justice movement and the impact it is having on many within the evangelical community.

Thabiti calls attention to two examples that I gave as evidence that Christians are being influenced by godless ideologies, notably, the ideologies of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Intersectionality (IS) as they developed out of Cultural Marxism.

Jarvis Williams

The first point of his critique is my citation of an interview with Dr. Jarvis Williams, a New Testament professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In that interview Dr. Williams recommends a book on CRT that he wishes “every evangelical Christian would read.” Thabiti quotes me citing this recommendation and then writes,

That book recommendation is enough in Tom’s mind to associate Jarvis with a Satan-inspired incursion of worldly ideologies shifting people away from biblical truth. It’s a heavy charge.

But it wasn’t a mere book recommendation. It was a recommendation that every evangelical read the book with a rationale given. Williams recommends Richard Delgado’s & Jean Stefancic’s book, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by calling it “a necessary book because evangelicals still tend to be decades behind on critical race discussions.” He also lists it as one of the books that have “most shaped” his understanding of racial justice.

This enthusiastic recommendation of a book that he says has been most influential in his understanding of racial justice makes Anyabwile’s following critique ring hollow:

Jarvis is a committed scholar. What do scholars do? They read, write and recommend books. It’s their craft, their stock and trade. And what would a good scholar do if they wished to critically engage others on a topic? They would read the works of people who differ from them, who sometimes differ dramatically. And what would a good scholar do if they wanted to encourage their audience to understand the other side’s viewpoint? They would recommend important texts illustrating the other side’s viewpoint. That’s what scholars do. But recommending a book that characterizes a viewpoint does not at all make Jarvis a proponent of that viewpoint or anything sub- or anti-biblical. Chastising a book recommendation is closer to censorship than evidence.

For the record, I was not “chastising a book recommendation.” I was citing Dr. Williams’ enthusiastic recommendation of the book (as one of the most influential shapers of his own views on “racial justice”) as evidence indicating how godless ideologies are creeping into Southern Baptist life.

To be clear let me spell it out in a simpler way:

• Concern: Godless ideologies spawned by Cultural Marxism are infiltrating the SBC.
• Evidence: Richard Delgado’s & Jean Stefancic’s book, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, is enthusiastically recommended to all evangelicals by a prominent professor (a “committed” and “good scholar”) at a leading SBC seminary as one of the books that has most helped him understand racial justice.

If Delgado’s and Stefancic’s book advocates looking at racial justice through ideological lenses that come from Marxism, which the authors readily admit (see page 4 where they stated the indebtedness of CRT to radical feminism, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, and the deconstructionist, post-modern, philosopher, Jacques Derrida), then it stands to reason that anyone who has been shaped by that book and enthusiastically recommends it as a “necessary”  book is doing so for reasons other than merely “illustrating the other side’s viewpoint.” I am not sure how raising a concern about this can be confused with censorship.

Thabiti summarizes his dismissal of my concern by stating,

Nor does Jarvis’ book recommendation suggest, as Tom contends, that evangelical institutions are about to be overrun by godless pagan philosophy. Mature readers and scholars read widely. That should be true of every seminarian. It’s true of Jarvis and he should not be branded a “social justice warrior” or accused of “smuggling in” CRT because of it….

That a man so committed to the Bible, rooting his arguments in the whole of scripture, could be assailed as a “cultural Marxist” or someone importing “secular social justice” into SBC institutions boggles the mind.

I would hope that those who have read what I have written and listened to what I have said regarding my concerns about what is happening under the umbrella of the “social justice movement” would resist mischaracterizing my words this way. To my knowledge, I don’t think I have ever said that “evangelical institutions are about to be overrun by godless pagan philosophy” or that Jarvis Williams is “smuggling in” CRT to Southern Seminary. I am quite confident that I have never called Dr. Williams a “cultural Marxist.”

What I have said repeatedly and in as many venues as have been afforded to me is that I am concerned that evangelicals are in danger of being seriously misled by godless ideologies that are infiltrating some of our churches and institutions. I have especially tried to be careful not to impugn motives, so I have avoided words like “smuggling.”

Here is my thinking on this. Scripture repeatedly warns us about false teaching. We are told to watch out for it, resist it, and to refute it. We are also taught that Christians are not immune to being played by the devil. Paul specifically tells Timothy how he is to try to help fellow believers to “escape from the snare of the devil” who have been “captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). And Jesus illustrates how subtle and effective the devil can be by exposing his influence on Peter when the apostle thought he was serving God’s purposes (Matthew 16:23).

If the devil could influence Peter to speak in ways that, to Peter’s mind, honored Christ, let us not be so arrogant to believe that we—or any Christian leaders—are immune to such demonic strategy. Peter wasn’t “smuggling in” Satanic strategies. He was being played by Satan. That is what I fear is happening to Christians today who are advocating the use of godless ideologies in service to our Lord.

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