Critical race theory is a gift to Christians
The good news about collective and institutional sin is that, like individual sin, it can be redeemed.
Last month, the Southern Baptist Convention reaffirmed its 1995 resolution apologizing for its pro-slavery roots. The declaration also rejected “any theory or worldview” that denies that racial discrimination is rooted in sin. The latter is a reference to divides in the SBC over critical race theory—and an attempt to appease conservatives without losing Black constituents.
That little word sin might be essential to understanding how a broader battle over CRT has swept across the country. This strain of academic discourse was developed in law schools and cultural studies scholarship during the 1980s and the 1990s to examine specific ways that legal systems and other institutions have racism embedded in their structures. CRT argues that to truly dismantle racism in this country, Americans need to focus on institutional structures and foundations.
This idea does not sit well alongside American individualism—and especially not alongside a theology that defines sin in terms of individual actions or beliefs. Only recently have we become accustomed to speaking about “institutional” and “systemic” racism. Americans, and especially White Americans, still commonly think of racism as an individual problem.
