“20 Theses on Justice” Countered

Just a note that I very much appreciate Jady and Liza Koch’s patient response to the “20 Theses on Justice” from Esau McCaulley and Jonathan Warren.  I will not summarize the response here. (So go read it over at Stand Firm.) But I especially appreciate two things they do.

First, they nicely but firmly debunk the Woke Church’s specious conflation of “justice” with Leftist political agendas:

…Nobody is a “critic of the advocacy for justice,” until “justice” is defined in non-biblical ways, which is precisely what is happening in much of the conversation both within the church and in the wider culture. It should be noted that these terms are used and assumed throughout these theses over against their “opponents” and “critics,” as if there are those involved in this conversation who are legitimately opposed to “justice” and, by extension, somehow “pro-oppression.” If one examines the arguments of these so-called ” critics of justice,” what is clearly evident is a sincere belief that there is great danger in appropriating non-Christian worldviews and concepts to diagnose and cure the human problem. Acknowledging the Marxist and postmodern theories undergirding the discussion surrounding much of what passes for “justice” is a necessary part of defining fully the terms at play. Read Marx, Marcuse, Alinski, Gramsci, Foucault, Baudrillard, etc., and show how their ideas can be baptized, rooted as they are in the fundamental convictions that 1) there is no God, 2) truth is relative, 3) morality is culturally bound, and 4) every relationship in life is a zero-sum power struggle. Until that work is done, the (so-called) “critics of the advocacy for justice” will continue to ignore the unfounded (and frankly slanderous) repeated assertion that anyone who disagrees with this new understanding of “justice” (and by extension, racism, oppression, equality, etc.) is indifferent to the biblical demand for justice.

Second, they refuse to play the Woke game that disagreeing with approved “oppressed voices” is not listening to “oppressed voices” or to “Black voices” etc. and is harming them.  May more and more firmly tell the Woke Church cabal that we shall not play that race-baiting victim-playing game.  The Kochs nicely blow up one tactic of that game when they write:

The influence of radical European and Marxist philosophy into the modern discourse around modern theories of “justice” is well-documented, and, simply stating that the theology of ethnic minorities sprung up entirely apart from those influences does not prove it so. What is more, the African-American Christian tradition, insofar as people like James Cone are illustrative of at least one stream, was and is deeply influenced by (so-called) liberation theology and other theological schools explicitly indebted to Marxist influence.

Yes, the “Black voices” we must listen to, lest we be racist, always seem to be Leftist voices.  Listening to Voddie Baucham or Virgil Walker doesn’t count.

I also appreciate the Kochs addressing “the discouragement of many ethnic minorities and their departure” from conservative denominations such as the Southern Baptists [Emphasis mine]:

It’s true that some high-profile people have left various churches, but people are free to determine what is most important to them in any given denomination. There is a global theological conversation about race, gender, sexuality, etc. that has caused and is causing a disruption in every denomination that affects all people, not just ethnic minorities. In this particular case, there may be some churches that are legitimately “opponents of justice,” but it’s also just as possible that some of those who left were/are the ones elevating race and various other “identities” to an idolatrous level. It makes sense that those who disagree with what’s being taught, when they try to “dialogue” and don’t make any headway, would give up and leave. That by no means proves their mistreatment.

Timely words.  I would go further and say if at least some Woke Church people are not leaving/avoiding a denomination, there is probably something wrong with that denomination.  

But then I am meaner than Jady and Liza Koch.  So go read them instead of me.