A Missiological word on Critical Race Theory from an Evangélico to American Evangelicals (Pt 1):

Evangelicals can’t begin to process the battle we’re (self included) entrenched in if we don’t first look through the corridors of history to track how we got here.

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18th Century: At one time Evangelicals were known for centering the Bible, the Crucifixion, Conversionism, & Social activism (see Bebbington). All the while at-large turning a blind eye to the sin of greed, chattel slavery, & the sin of partiality based on skin (racism).

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It was the systemic sin of partiality practiced without repentance at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal in the “free North” that led Bishop Richard Allen to start Mother Bethel AME (Freedom’s Prophet by Richard S. Newman). The Black Church was born because of systemic sin.

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Formal education for both those of African & Native Indigenous descent was feared by Evangelicals (The Great Awakening by Chacon & Sheffield).

It must be noted within the Anti-Slavery movement, systemic sin based on skin color was "blatant" (Theodore S. Wright).

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19th Century: During the 2nd Great Awakening sinful partiality was visible in revivals (segregated seating & altars for responses) & theological compromise (“blacks don’t have souls”) was the norm (“North American Slave Narratives” UNC collection - https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ 

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It's here normally Wilburforce’s work is referenced in a quasi-Christological federal headship way & applied to confessing Evangelicals. However, if Evangelicals ran in the same lane, there would be more content in the annals of history recording Evangelicalism's....

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staunch opposition to & mobilization of overturning of Jim Crow Laws.

20th Century: As Fundamentalists took the steering wheel of Evangelicalism, those who fought for “biblical orthodoxy” also systemically denied Pastors of African descent enrollment....

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at their “Conservative” Theological seminaries.

Fundamentalists created a theological binary, one was either ‘orthodox’ or ‘heretical’. Fundamentalism was understood as a ‘racialized term’ (Doctrine and Race by Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews).

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Evangelicalism framed ‘orthodox Christianity’ around the life rhythms of “white, middle-class, educated Protestants” (Doctrine and Race; The Great Reversal by David Morberg).

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The world outside of Evangelicalism saw America ran by a 'racial dictatorship' from the colonial era until the Civil rights era (Racial Formation in the US by Omni & Winant).

They saw no distinction in this racial dictatorship in the public square & Evangelicalism.

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I share this brief history for this reason: decisions carry consequences. In 2020 we as Evangelicals are again facing a reckoning with the consequences of acceptable sinful actions going back to the 1700’s.

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In Part 2 I will discuss the contemporary landscape of American Evangelicalism and why CRT (and those charged with being affiliated with CRT) are being attacked, as a way to avoid dealing with Evangelicalism’s consequences for past actions.

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