I will examine cultural Marxism and social justice, along with their various components, through the lens of Scripture. I will contrast the biblical perspective with that of social justice and highlight how social justice undermines biblical truth and corrupts the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The theories I will discuss have been taught in academia for decades. They are the basis of identity politics in the Democratic Party. Now, we must face their presence in conservative, evangelical Christianity and the SBC. I do believe genuine racism exists, but I do not think critical theory, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, and social justice are descriptive or reflective of actual racism.[1]
Critical race theory asserts that race is not grounded in biology but is a social construct created by white people to oppress black people; consequently, whites are racists, and blacks are not. Therefore, social justice concepts do not accurately explain the nature of actual racism, nor can they offer an adequate remedy for real racism. Genuine racism is the belief that one or more races are inherently inferior to your own. Since the inferiority is innate, it cannot be overcome. Alternatively, it can also be defined as when one race believes its race is inherently superior to others. Accordingly, anyone can be racist. This contrast in meaning serves as a reminder that before discussing racism, we need to define the term.
The origin of critical theory is a think tank called the Institute for Social Research at the Frankfurt School in Germany, which eventually became known as the Frankfurt School.[2] The expected utopia that was supposed to arise from classical Marxism never appeared.[3] Critical theory emerged to address the shortcomings of classical Marxism, thereby aiming to create a just society.[4] What sets critical theory apart from other social theories is that they generally seek to explain society, whereas critical theory aims to change society. This change entails deconstructing the existing culture through the use of critical theory and ushering in a more just society, which means a Marxist-socialist society. In critical theory, there is the assumption of oppressors and oppression, and critical theory is the deliverer.
In 1933, Hitler rose to power, and he viewed Marxism as an enemy, which resulted in several pivotal thinkers of the Frankfurt School fleeing to New York in the US. There, they took teaching positions at Columbia University. Stephen Thomas Kirschner says, “The Frankfurt School was loosely reestablished at Columbia, this time focusing on American society, rather than German.”[5] After the fall of the Third Reich, all but Herbert Marcuse left their teaching positions at Columbia and returned to Germany. It was Marcuse, along with the Italian Marxist, who established what we know as cultural Marxism.
Kirschner says, “In the 1950s, Marcuse stated the Marxist revolution would not be brought about by ‘the proletariat’ but by a coalition of blacks, feminist women, homosexuals, and students. This is where the term ‘Cultural Marxism’ comes from, as it is applied to marginalized groups rather than class.”[6]
Similar to classical Marxism, there must be a clash between groups. In cultural Marxism, it is the oppressors (majorities) and the oppressed (minorities). Critical theory is the source of cultural Marxism, and cultural Marxism is the advocacy and application of critical theory. Critical race theory and intersectionality are components of critical theory and cultural Marxism.[7] Presently, social justice is one of the most common terms used in America to express the essence of cultural Marxism.
Consequently, when you hear the term social justice, you should think of critical theory, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, and intersectionality. You should not think justice as understood to mean equality before the law or even equality of opportunity; by equality, social justice advocates mean equal outcomes—socialism. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, asks, “How does one explain the origins of something like inequality, which has been ubiquitous as far back as recorded history goes?”[8] His book demonstrates multiple factors that result in unequal outcomes rather than simplistically reducing inequality to one cause, such as social injustice—cultural Marxism. This is true whether one is considering a particular country or the world. Thus, he says, “The probability that all of these combinations and permutations would work out in such a way as to produce even approximately equal economic outcomes around the world is remote.”[9]
Nevertheless, social justice reduces the cause of unequal outcomes to social injustice, which Marxism is supposed to be able to cure, even though it has never done so. Additionally, you should never equate social justice with God’s justice, as revealed in Scripture, because social justice is based on materialistic Marxism and, therefore, is in fundamental opposition to biblical justice.
Cultural Marxism consists of an extensive, complex, fundamentally different set of ideas, individuals, groups, and diverse approaches. I believe this fact alone significantly contributes to the high level of difficulty associated with understanding and identifying cultural Marxism. Dr. E. S. Williams’s insight is helpful to see how all of these fundamentally dissimilar ideas fit together. He teaches that common to all of these ideas “is the creation of interdisciplinary theories that might serve as instruments of social transformation.”[10] This association can include concepts such as social justice, feminism, and neo-progressivism, which are all “inspired by or born out of critical theory.”[11]
Williams also remarks that in cultural Marxism, “Every aspect of a person’s identity is to be questioned, every norm or standard in society challenged and ideally altered in order to benefit supposedly oppressed groups.”[12] The identity aspects can include various factors such as family, religion, education, law, media, and government. Williams further says, “Key points of critical race theory: 1) Institutional racism is pervasive; 2) People of color are oppressed by white privilege and white supremacy.”[13] Consider the following to understand how social justice seeks to transform society. Think of how we have defined such common ideas as family, marriage, the individual, education, sin, racism, oppression, oppressed, government, freedom, responsibility, justice, God, and even the gospel, and realize that social justice redefines such terms so that they are inherently different and unrecognizable to the average Christian or citizen. The Christian who does not understand this transformation of meaning in such common terms often falls prey to adopting some of the new ideas hidden within the old terms.
This is the definition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: “Critical theory: Marxist-inspired movement in social and political philosophy originally associated with the work of the Frankfurt School. Drawing particularly on the thought of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of the philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed.”[14] It is crucial to keep in mind that Marx, Freud, and other key players like Friedrich Engels were all materialists. They denied God, the soul and spirit of man, and the entire immaterial world, which makes them in absolute opposition to Christianity. Critical theory’s materialistic foundations highlight the unacceptableness of Resolution 9, which was adopted at the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention and endorsed critical race theory and intersectionality as reliable analytical tools.
Social justice is achieved by favoring one group (the oppressed/minority/non-sinners) and penalizing the other group (the oppressors/majority/sinners) through compulsory redistribution of wealth, privilege, and power. Civil measures may accomplish redistribution through mechanisms such as a progressive tax system; however, if not, it will require a revolution and the forced redistribution of wealth and power. The Communist Manifesto states, “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution.”[15] Yet, even Marx believed that a peaceful revolution could take place in countries like the US.
As in Marxism, social justice emphasizes group identity and responsibility rather than individual identity and responsibility. The groups may be composed of people who neither suffered nor inflicted wrong. Merit or guilt is based on such things as skin color or sex. Social justice determines what is right and wrong and what the penalties and corrections should be; these may be antithetical to true biblical justice. What social justice calls justice is, at times, categorically condemned in Scripture as sin. For example, the oppressed are minorities, which include homosexuals and transgender people. These groups are viewed as normal and good, while being white and heterosexual makes someone an oppressor—abnormal and bad. And heterosexuality is not morally better than homosexuality or being transgender. Cultural Marxism, with its identity politics, divides rather than unites.
As Americans, people should be judged on factors such as their character, contributions to the community, society, the company they work for, or academic achievements for acceptance into a school. This is reflective of meritocracy, personal responsibility, and the Christian work ethic (2 Thess 3:10). Identity politics undermines this model. Identity politics focuses on group identity (race, sex, minority status) as sufficient to make a person rewardable even if they do not contribute to the task at hand or meet the same qualifications that others have to meet to enjoy the same opportunity. Accordingly, if a person belongs to an oppressed group (minority), they deserve preference for that fact alone (affirmative action and diversity quotas), which takes us back to judging people based on the color of their skin rather than, as Martin Luther King said, on “the content of their character.”[16]
A person’s identity is determined by what group a person belongs to, and it is deepened by how many intersecting layers of discrimination the person believes she has experienced. The person may identify as a black lesbian, as a transgender person, or any number of social identities that contribute to the type of systemic discrimination the individual believes she has experienced. Social justice, cultural Marxism, intersectionality, and identity politics divide people into postmodern Marxian groups based on our differences. Since there is no unifying, absolute, standard set of values, acknowledgment of knowable truth, or even objective meaning of words in a postmodern Marxian paradigm, we cannot even identify what it means to be an American. If we proclaim specific standards, we are called oppressors and racists because there are no true or even superior norms according to postmodernism; there are just relative multicultural norms.
We can see this postmodern Marxism in the destruction of every previously unifying and agreed-upon idea (such as religion, history, personal responsibility, hard work, family, education, morality, structure, monuments, and anthems) that we as Americans unified around and helped to depict what it meant to be an American.[17] Such destruction of all unifying qualities of America is nowhere more graphically displayed than in the unwillingness to stand at the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance and the willingness to burn the flag, which is the most significant symbol of these United States. All this leaves us with is ‘states’ in America, but little if anything to unify around; hence, the fall of America. Moreover, these inter-sectionally-divided groups cannot even civilly and effectively communicate with each other. Because, based on intersectionality, only the minority or oppressed groups can even know the truth, and based on postmodernism, words have no objective meaning (we cannot know the authorial intent), only subjective meaning; that is, what they mean to the hearer.
In contrast, biblically, all people are created in the image of God, and, therefore, belong to the human race and are essentially equal. We, as humans, are all sinful by choice and deserve judgment. Our injustices are, first and foremost, against God’s holiness and his holy law. Consequently, we are all equally in need of redemption. Because God loves us, Christ paid for the sins of the world so that every person can be saved, which is God’s desire. Accordingly, our identity in creation is that we are all a part of the human race, created in the image of God and sinful by nature and choice. Spiritually, those who accept God’s love and payment for their sins by faith in Christ and his sacrifice become Christians, which is our identity. The social justice perspective, with its identity politics, divides, whereas the biblical perspective unifies.
The cultural Marxism grid can transform virtually any biblical immorality into morality as long as a minority of the people practice the sin. Because minority status equals being the oppressed group (which is the righteous group to belong to), that makes the majority who believe the act is a sin to be the evil oppressors. Thus, the biblical sin is sanitized by the dominant Marxian sin of oppression. Therefore, those whose lifestyles include biblical sin are normalized and protected. Presently this includes groups such as homosexuals and transgenders. It seems very likely that in the future, it will consist of people who practice pedophilia and bestiality, as well as a host of other unthinkable vile debaucheries. California’s legislature has already passed a bill that provides greater leniency toward those who have homosexual sex with a minor. The bill has been sent to Governor Gavin Newsom.[18]
Recognizing cultural Marxism and social justice does not require that some injustices they stand against are not real injustices. Even those who are not social justice advocates may agree with social justice advocates on some injustices. The methods used by social justice advocates may differ dramatically from those of ordinary citizens who believe a wrong has been committed and needs to be rectified. Some social justice advocates may use riots, destruction of private property, and even killing innocent people, which was foreshadowed by their Marxian predecessors who did the same in the riots of the sixties.[19] The elites who support the concept of social justice but are not on the streets rioting make their voices heard through the media, public speaking, writing, and academia.[20] They, too, seek the dismantling of the present capitalistic civil system in America as necessary to usher in a Marxian-socialist utopia.
The people who are not social justice warriors but who also recognize injustice and reject rioting will often protest peacefully and work through the justice system, as well as legislative and electoral processes. Additionally, to refer to an event as being influenced or caused by cultural Marxism or social justice does not mean everyone involved is a social justice warrior. Nor does it mean that everyone embraces every aspect of cultural Marxism any more than saying everyone at the rally was a Christian means that everyone accepts every Baptist doctrine. It only means that cultural Marxists are either leading the charge or are heavily involved in various ways.
Consequently, exposing the Marxist presence and influence in a cultural conflict is not equivalent to being dismissive of an actual injustice, nor does it signify indifference to the presence of other motivators for some who are involved. This is a charge that is often made when we speak of the influence of cultural Marxism, but it is a baseless charge.
To avoid confusion, remember that regardless of which specific area we are considering, critical theory, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, or social justice, we are discussing the philosophy of materialistic Marxism, which is antithetical to God, Christianity, Scripture, and God’s justice. I frequently use social justice interchangeably with cultural Marxism since, generally speaking, they seek the same things and utilize similar methods. While social justice may not encompass every aspect of cultural Marxism, they share similarities in that both employ anarchist measures in their strategy and favor socialism or communism over capitalism. They also define justice contrary to true biblical justice, favor redistribution of wealth and power by force, and seek a socialist utopia.
[1] The term “intersectionality” was coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a black, full-time professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School. She is an American lawyer, civil rights advocate, and a leading scholar of critical race theory. She used it to demonstrate that social justice happens at multiple levels. Merrill Perlman, “The Origin of the Term ‘Intersectionality.’” Columbia Journalism Review, October 23, 2018, https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/intersectionality.php.
[2] There is a sense in which Karl Marx was the first critical theorist, at least in modern times, since he evaluated society to change it, and his evaluation was composed of oppressors and the oppressed.
[3] Stephen Thomas Kirschner says, “Marx believed that feudalism would lead to capitalism. Capitalism would create massive inequality between the rich and the poor. The workers would all rise up and overthrow the hated ‘bourgeoisie’ (the upper class). There would then be a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ (the workers) which would ensure equality. Then that government would wear away and break down, and the world would be left with this utopian, egalitarian society. (Although, how and why government would break down and equality would be ensured was never clearly explained.)” “Cultural Marxism: The Origins of the Present Day Social Justice Movement, and Political Correctness.” The Policy, February 14, 2017, https:// thepolicy.us/cultural-marxism-the-origins-of-the-present-day-social-justice-movement-and-political-correctness-ffb89c6ef4f1.
[4] Kirschner says, “In 1937, [Max] Horkheimer wrote about what is today known as ‘critical theory.’ Critical theory is a social theory which is about criticizing the way a culture and ‘society as a whole’ function, in order to change it. Contrast this with other social theories, which are more just about understanding and interpreting why things are as they are.” “Cultural Marxism: The Origins of the Present Day Social Justice Movement, and Political Correctness.” The Policy, February 14, 2017, https:// thepolicy.us/cultural-marxism-the-origins-of-the-present-day-social-justice-movement-and-political-correctness-ffb89c6ef4f1.
[5] Stephen Thomas Kirschner, “Cultural Marxism: The Origins of the Present Day Social Justice Movement, and Political Correctness.” The Policy, February 14, 2017. https:// thepolicy.us/cultural-marxism-the-origins-of-the-present-day-social-justice-movement-and-political-correctness-ffb89c6ef4f1.
[6] Stephen Thomas Kirschner, “Cultural Marxism: The Origins of the Present Day Social Justice Movement, and Political Correctness.” The Policy, February 14, 2017. https:// thepolicy.us/cultural-marxism-the-origins-of-the-present-day-social-justice-movement-and-political-correctness-ffb89c6ef4f1 para. 29.
[7] “Critical Theory has a narrow and a broad meaning in philosophy and in the history of the social sciences. ‘Critical Theory’ in the narrow sense designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. According to these theorists, a ‘critical’ theory may be distinguished from a ‘traditional’ theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human ‘emancipation from slavery,’ acts as a ‘liberating . . . influence,’ and works ‘to create a world which satisfies the needs and powers’ of human beings (Max Horkheimer 1972, 246). Because such theories aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings, many ‘critical theories’ in the broader sense have been developed. They have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimensions of the domination of human beings in modern societies. In both the broad and the narrow senses, however, a critical theory provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms.” James Bohman, “Critical Theory,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, March 8, 2005, Edward N. Zalta, ed., https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/.
[8] Thomas Sowell, Wealth, Poverty, and Politics (New York: Basic, 2016), 2.
[9] Thomas Sowell, Wealth, Poverty, and Politics (New York: Basic, 2016), 20.
[10] Thenewcalvinist, “Stain of Mohler 3.” YouTube video, November 25, 2019, 8:08–8:14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIlnLU-vt_g.
[11] Thenewcalvinist, “Stain of Mohler 3.” YouTube video, November 25, 2019, 8:37–8:47, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIlnLU-vt_g.
[12] Thenewcalvinist, “Stain of Mohler 3.” YouTube video, November 25, 2019, 8:58–9:09, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIlnLU-vt_g.
[13] Thenewcalvinist, “Stain of Mohler 3.” YouTube video, November 25, 2019, 13:00–13:14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIlnLU-vt_g.
[14] The article goes on to say, “Believing that science, like other forms of knowledge, has been used as an instrument of oppression, they caution against a blind faith in scientific progress, arguing that scientific knowledge must not be pursued as an end in itself without reference to the goal of human emancipation. Since the 1970s, critical theory has been immensely influential in the study of history, law, literature, and the social sciences.” See “Critical Theory,” https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-theory.
[15] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Chapter IV: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties,” https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch04.htm.
[16] Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream,” https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm.
[17] Postmodernism began as a literary and artistic movement that rejected the dogmas and principles of modernism, or any other set of doctrines or absolutes. It now encompasses a full-life perspective of rejecting knowable objective standards—including Christian absolutes.
[18] Governor Newsom signed the bill into law on September 11, 2020. Alexi Koseff, “Newsom Signs Bill to Fix Sex Offender Registry Law that Penalized Gay People,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 2020, https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Newsom-signs-bill-to-fix-sex-offender-registry-15561586.php.
[19] Katharine Gorkin, “How the 1960s Riots Foreshadow Today’s Communist Weaponization of Black Pain,” The Federalist, September 14, 2020, https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/14/how-the-1960s-riots-foreshadow-todays-communist-weaponization-of-black-pain/.
[20] Samuel Chamberlain, “Riots Break Out Across America after George Floyd Death,” FoxNews, May 29, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/us/live-updates-riots-break-out-across-america-after-george-floyd-death.
