Cultural Revolution - Part VIII
Social Justice and Communist Infiltration
|
The social justice movement in the modern church is merely an outgrowth of the cultural Marxist agenda, also known as neo-Marxism. Although this movement didn’t begin in the church, it was intentionally brought into the church to fulfill its goals.
Origins
The ideology behind cultural Marxism can be traced back to the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci. In addition, The Frankfurt School was a group of German intellectuals who began their work in Germany in 1923. Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, and Herbert Marcuse, in the 1930s, came over to America and established the Frankfurt School. They saw the need for cultural upheaval in the West.
To achieve this revolution, they added the aspect of controlling the media in a society to bring about this change. They settled at the universities of Princeton, Brandeis, and Berkeley and began their cultural revolution. These intellectuals believed that Marxism would not be brought forth by a violent revolution but by the overthrow of traditional ideas and thinking in non-communist societies. This strategy is, at times, associated with Fabianism. They advocated the freedom from traditional sexual morals, the elimination of gender roles, the promotion of homosexuality, and the promotion of the idea of oppressed and oppressors. The concept of critical theory, which examines society through the lens of oppressed groups, was formulated by the Frankfurt School.
These ideas line up exactly with what we see going on in some areas of the modern church today. The Marxist intellectuals patiently promoted the entering of established institutions such as universities, churches, and seminaries and promoting their ideas from within. Infiltration was their modus operandi. They knew that this process would take decades, if not longer, to accomplish their goals, so they were willing to patiently take the long road toward the fulfillment of their plans.
Today
The ideas of social justice are now very prominent in some evangelical churches, seminaries, and denominations. Race, gender roles and homosexuality are all parts of the social justice movement in evangelicalism. The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest evangelical denomination, has also been host to critical race theory. In 2019, the convention passed Resolution 9, which called critical race theory an “analytical tool” for the assessment of ideologies. This resolution affirmed critical race theory as a valuable tool. Doing this gave CRT legitimacy in the eyes of many. This shows how prominent these racial ideas have become in the modern church world.
Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church for decades has promoted liberation theology. Liberation theology is the redefinition of the gospel by claiming Christ came to liberate the oppressed. Liberation theology has been used to support socialism and communism all over the world. It has historically been very prominent in Latin America. Many Roman Catholic priests have been instrumental in the promotion of liberation theology throughout the world. Liberation theology has been present in Protestant circles as well. It is now entering into evangelicalism as a part of the social justice movement.
These examples of cultural Marxist thinking both in the evangelical and non-evangelical worlds are but the tip of the iceberg manifesting the permeation of Marxist leaven into society. It is evident that what has been progressing in society in general is now entering evangelicalism. It is important to recognize that this is not an organic progression of ideas but an intentional push for change.
One difficulty is that we do not know who is intentionally pushing the agenda and who is merely deceived. Although the church must be both compassionate and discerning, it must stand for the truth and throw out the ideologies of the world.
Ideologies Of Neo-Marxism And Social Justice
The three current ideologies that have done the most harm recently are critical theory, political correctness, and intersectionality. One tenet of critical theory was to position society in terms of sub-groups. Each sub-group is identified by race, gender, and sexual orientation.1
The sub-groups in the minority would then engage in a never-ending critique of the majority sub-group, or hegemony, and this critique would basically badger the majority group to death. Aspects of implementing the neo-Marxist strategical process can be found in Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. Political correctness follows closely on this concept by trying to manipulate and control speech. To accomplish this, the making of certain words and phrases and worldviews become ‘bigoted’ in society that belong to the hegemonic powers therefore enacting a censorship of all words and views that oppress minority groups and therefore don’t fit into that which is politically correct.
For example, social media platforms censor conservative views and comments while offering unlimited speech to those that embrace the popular progressive agenda. And finally, intersectionality teaches that there are intersections of people’s identity, whether that be race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, etc., that make a person more oppressed than another by adding up how many sections of their identity are opposite to that of the majority in society.
One example of this being played out is this: you are oppressed if you are a black, gay, poor, atheist, or female because the privileged oppressors of society are white, straight, rich, Christian males. All of this has created a society of divided, angry people. The church in the West has not been spared from all this. The church, too, was in the sights of the neo-Marxists as a cultural institution that must be influenced and used to bring about a cultural revolution. All the ideologies mentioned above have come into the modern church. Another example is men and women in the church who have struggled with homosexual impulses and now identify as gay Christians and claim they are oppressed. Meanwhile, they don’t seek deliverance form sin but instead want acceptance and compromise toward their homosexuality claiming they were born that way.
It is imperative for every believer to understand the syncretism of worldly methods into the church. The way to push back against the cultural revolution is in prayer against the evil powers of darkness that are seeking to silence the voice of true believers and stop the proclamation of the Word of God. God has given us the spiritual authority that whatsoever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
Source:
1 Voddie Baucham, “Cultural Marxism,” Southeast Founders “Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly” Regional Conference, streamed on February 21, 2019, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRMFBdDDTkI
|
|
