On Columbus Day

Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective. Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.

Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. I'm Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. As most of our listeners know, along with being the host of this program, I am also the pastor of Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville, Florida.

On today's program, I'm going to feature a portion of a recent sermon from SGFC. If this portion of the sermon is of interest to you and you decide you'd like to hear the full message or others like it, please go to our website and you will find a library of over 1 ,000 sermons on a variety of topics.

These include messages from me, our other elders, and from special guests who have visited our church over the years. Now, without further delay, here is a clip from a recent message.

I hope you enjoy.

The Moral Problem of Racism and Unbiblical Responses

Racism exists in this world, but the means to deal with racism that the world has provided us are unbiblical and immoral.

I'll say it again.

Racism exists in this world, but the means to combat racism that the world provides are unbiblical and immoral. I'm going to give you three examples. I'm going to tell you these three things. I'm going to explain them to you.

You may think we're fixing to switch to college lecture mode. Well, we will for just a minute because these are important. The first is called critical race theory. The second is called intersectionality.

And the third, and this is the one that's really going to hit a few, is the exaggeration of white privilege.

I'll say it again.

The three things that I think the world tries to use to combat racism that is immoral and ungodly is critical race theory, intersectionality, and the exaggeration of white privilege. Now, let me explain what I'm talking about.

Critical Race Theory and Its Influence in the Church

You may not have ever heard of critical race theory before, but you will, especially if you are in college or you're sending your kids to college, you will hear about it. Critical race theory is a theoretical framework that seeks to interpret history and society through the lens of race, and in particular, racial injustice.

There are two major presuppositions of critical race theory, and they are this. Number one, racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of American society. And number two, power structures based on white privilege and white supremacy exist and must be overthrown.

Therefore, the resultant teaching often is this. If you are white, you are racist. If you are white, you are the beneficiary of racism. Therefore, if you are white, you are inherently unjust and oppressive.

The term, quote, all white people are racist, end quote, has not only become accepted, it has become applauded, and it is being taught in our universities. In fact, if you think that I'm exaggerating this, I just happen to have in my hand right here an article.

This is from the University of Kentucky. The article's not, but it's in regard to the University of Kentucky. It says this, in accordance to their residential assistance training, you know what a resident assistant is, right?

If you ever lived in a dorm, an RA. The resident assistant training program will now be segregated by race, and white people will be sent to white accountability space. They will be trained differently than their non-white counterparts to understand the 41 common racist behaviors and attitudes of white people.

It goes on to say that they will denounce the American flag, the National Anthem, and Independence Day, all as being the stuff that makes America racist. I don't know how much you keep up with politics, and I know people say politics don't belong.

In the pulpit.

I'm not up here talking about politics today, but I do want to mention the president for a moment, because the president recently came out and said, we are no longer going to teach critical race theory in government programs, and everybody lost their mind.

You mean you're not going to teach racial sensitivity training? He said, no, we're not going to bring white people in and tell them that they're guilty simply for being white. You know what the sad thing is?

Trump is smart enough to realize how dangerous that is, but the SBC is not. The Southern Baptist Convention has adopted critical race theory. Last year at the Southern Baptist Convention, Resolution 9 was the adoption of critical race theory as a, quote, analytical tool that can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences.

So Donald Trump says, yeah, we shouldn't do this because it's inherently racist to tell people that they are naturally racist simply because of the color of their skin, but the SBC says, no, that's all right.

You see the problem? It's in the church. Jennifer and I went to a conference two years ago, and they were talking about this. The Founders Ministries was talking about this two years ago. We left, and we were really surprised.

We were like, we don't have any idea what they're talking about. I don't think it's going to be that big of a problem. Little did we know. You ever heard of Tim Keller? Tim Keller is a pretty famous Presbyterian minister, has a church in New York, several thousand members.

This is what he said. Now, this was a couple years ago, but this is all leading into this. Tim Keller said this, if you have white skin, it's worth a million dollars over a lifetime. And if you have that asset of white skin right now, that historical asset that you have to say I didn't deserve this, and to some degree I'm the product of, I'm standing on the shoulders of other people who got it through injustice, so the Bible actually says, yes, you are involved in injustice.

Mike, you're white. You're involved in injustice because of the color of your skin. That's not some rando on the TV or the Internet blog. That's Tim Keller, y 'all. Max Lucado. If you've ever been in Lifeway, you've seen books by Max Lucado.

Back in August of this year, took himself publicly to get on his knees and beg forgiveness for the sins of his ancestors, saying all of us white people are sorry. You see, the problem with this, and you may think I'm crazy for even talking about this, y 'all, but the problem with this is what this is, is this is cultural Marxism.

Marxism is the philosophy that the whole world can be divided into the oppressed and the.

Oppressor.

That it's the oppressed and the oppressor, and therefore you have to put yourself into one of those categories, and if you are white, you're automatically on the side of the oppressor. That's the goal of social justice, by the way.

If you ever heard the term social justice, the idea is to bring down the oppressors and bring up the oppressed, and somebody says, well, that sounds good, right? The problem is it becomes what's called identity politics.

You become an oppressor by the fact of what you look like. There's nothing more inherently racist than that, that you are naturally oppressive because of your skin color, and this leads to the idea of intersectionality.

Intersectionality and Identity Politics

Now, intersectionality is the idea that oppression comes in scales, so therefore, if you are a white, heterosexual, cisgendered male, me, then you have all of the benefits, and every one of those that you don't have is a deficit, so if you're a woman, that's one area of oppression, because we know that that patriarchy is so deadly, so if you're a woman, you have one area of oppression, but if you're a black woman, that's two, and they intersect.

That's where the term intersectionality comes from, because now you have two levels of oppression, and they intersect with one another, but what if you're a transgender black woman? Now you got three, and then what if you're gay?

You say, aren't all transgender people gay? No, that's a whole other category. So if you're a white, cisgendered, heterosexual male, you're the oppressor, but if you're a black, transgender, homosexual female, then you're the absolute highest of the oppressed, and your voice gets to be louder because the oppressor has to sit down and shut up.

The oppressor is no longer allowed to have a voice or an opinion. By the way, if you don't like what I'm saying about this, I would encourage you to maybe read or listen to Votie Balcom. He's a black man.

He's a preacher. He's been preaching these things for years, and here's the problem, though. If you think his voice is more important than my voice because he's black, then you have.

A problem.

If you think that the amount of melanin in someone's skin automatically gives them a lesser or greater voice, then you've bought into the lie, and that's where I go to where I say the exaggeration of white privilege.

White Privilege, Majority Privilege, and the Gospel Answer to Racism

The very idea that white privilege exists is not debated anymore. It's taken as a given. Somebody says, well, I believe it. Don't believe it because the news tells you it's true. Don't believe it because your sociology teacher tells you that it's true.

There are many arguments, many sound sociological arguments. I have a degree in social science. There are many sound sociological arguments that prove that the concept of white privilege is actually more an example of majority privilege.

You'll hear one of the arguments. I'll say, well, every movie that we watch has white people in it, or every book that we open has pictures of white people in it. I say, yeah, well, go to China, because if you go to China, all the movies are going to have Chinese people.

All the books are going to have Chinese people.

It's not about white.

It's about majority, and as of right now, white people are still the majority. You see, you believe things because you have been force-fed them, not because they are true, but because they sound right.

Why did Eve listen to the devil? Because what he said sounded right. I want to read something to you. This is from, this is an article from Striving for Eternity. It says this, critical race theory is a blatant Marxist theory, and as such, it is not only atheistic, because Marxism is atheistic, by the way.

It's not only atheistic, it's materialistic. Critical race theory is completely incompatible with the Bible. The Bible teaches us that we are sinners in need of salvation. Critical race theory teaches us that the primary aspect of life is a fight for power, the privileged oppressors versus the oppressed.

You see, the argument is wrong. The argument is wrong. Racism exists, but the answer is not critical race theory. Racism exists, but the answer is not intersectionality. Racism exists, but the answer is not denouncing white privilege.

The answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the answer. They don't ask me, but I tell them I have the answer to racism. It's found in Galatians chapter 3, verse 28. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female, there is neither slave nor free, but we are all one in Jesus.

That's it.

Repentance, the Image of God, and the Unity of the Elect

So I want to say this to you today as I draw to a close. If you're knowingly engaging in racism, stop and repent. If you cannot love your neighbor who is a different color, stop and repent. But if you're harboring the guilt of your ancestors because of somebody on the news or a teacher that told you that you're inherently guilty because of the color of your skin, repent of that too.

Understand this. Every person of every color is made in the image of the same God, and the gospel unites all of us at the foot of the cross, and in heaven the elect will be made up of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

I hope you enjoyed that short sermon clip from Sovereign Grace Family Church. Again, if you're interested in hearing more or you would like more information about SGFC, please go to our website at sgfcjax .org.

That's Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville. And if you're in the Jacksonville area, please come visit us on an upcoming Lord's Day. Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist. I'm Keith Foskey and I have been your Calvinist.

May God bless you.

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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to Him in repentance and faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

May God be with you.