Is Latasha Morrison Training Christians to go Woke?

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today we're continuing to look at be the bridge and its implementation of critical race theory and the tenets within that and one of them that we're going to look at today is intersectionality but more specifically the presupposition that is at the root of intersectionality and that is standpoint epistemology or in essence really universalized standpoint epistemology so this one's going to be an interesting one let's dive in many years ago i began to use the term intersectionality to deal with the fact that many of our social justice problems like racism and sexism are often overlapping creating multiple levels of social injustice why wasn't the real unfairness law's refusal to protect african american women simply because their experiences weren't exactly the same as white women and african american men what do you call being impacted by multiple forces and then abandoned to fend for yourself intersectionality seemed to do it for me i would go on to learn that african -american women like other women of color like other socially marginalized people all over the world were facing all kinds of dilemmas and challenges as a consequence of intersectionality intersections of race and gender of heterosexism transphobia xenophobia ableism all of these social dynamics come together and create challenges that are sometimes quite unique without frames that allow us to see how social problems impact all the members of a targeted group many will fall through the cracks of our movement left to suffer in virtual isolation the racially oppressed have a more intimate insight via experiential knowledge of the system of race and then their racial impressors thus positionality must be intentionally engaged the oppressed have a secret insight the oppressed have knowledge this esoteric knowledge that the oppressors will never ever achieve what are some things we typically talk around um that we need to bring more understanding around and have some honest conversations around it related to this well there's just so many things but i think i mentioned some of them i think i think also we just need to also be mindful of intersections with other issues like gender i see this a lot of evangelicals like now patients talk about gender but it's always white women representing gender it's always men representing race and there's a lot of things that happen for when we color like different kinds of racism there are also gender that we just don't see like when we talk about domestic violence domestic violence isn't just a gender it's also a racial issue because it is through gender violence that racism is successful so i just accept that none of us got these 500 years of fellow colonialist white supremacist shenanigans without being extremely messed up right so so let's just know we're messed up and then what is the process by which we can easily get new information to change when we're messed up and it will come to new areas that i can't even imagine now there's something really ridiculous i'm doing now that i have no idea about that i'm going to learn about but how do i have what is the political practice i have in my organizations and myself such that when that information comes i'll be able to hear it quickly and change is needed what we're going to do is undermine authority we undermine the ability of the individual who speaks up or who has any sort of knowledge we undermine that as being a lesser form of knowledge right so what are we doing collectively that that allows for some voices to have more of a role than others and then what can we collectively do to change that what practices are we putting in place to reverse this hierarchy of who who who's getting more in the group or having more power than others gnosticism is about a special knowledge it's about immediate knowledge and when i say immediate knowledge i don't mean right now knowledge i mean knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through a source knowledge that doesn't have to be mediated through the word of god uh immediate knowledge intuitive knowledge a knowledge that separates insiders from outsiders that is the idea of gnosticism and i use that phrase ethnic gnosticism to sort of explain the phenomenon of people believing that somehow because of one's ethnicity that one is able to know when something is racist according to the concept of white privilege you don't know what you don't know this idea that somehow because of my ethnicity because of my position as a minority i know what oppression is and feels like and don't have to necessarily have evidence for it and literally the phrase is you don't know what you don't know so you have to be taught how racist you are but nobody has to teach me when you're racist this is the problem with ethnic gnosticism i know not only do i know but you don't know and you can say until you're blue in the face that you didn't mean it that way but if i received it that way then i get to the right to determine that that's what it was do you see what this does to us and this is about trusting your heart jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful of all things and desperately sick who can understand it i can understand my own heart and i'm going to tell you what's in yours and listen even down on that micro level if i assume that i can read your heart and you have to assume you don't know what you don't know we've created a relationship that is imbalanced that hinders our intimacy i mean think about that who wants to have a relationship with someone where you to the best of your ability are loving this person but if the wrong thing slides out of your mouth at the wrong time that you in all sincerity meant to be a blessing and they determine that regardless of what you think about it this is what it actually was and it is an affront to me and a sin against god himself what kind of relationship is that you are a racist bigot homophobic transphobic everything else phobic person that you could possibly bleed possibly be whether you're aware of it or not whether you belong to christ or you don't because apparently christ can transform us and deal with all other sorts of sins but this one this one somehow evades the cross and all people whether they're christian or not are still suffering from this one welcome to thoroughly equipped podcast for women where we compare the popular women's ministry teachings books conferences bible studies etc to scripture our focus is 2nd timothy 3 16 to 17 that all scripture is godbreed it is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so the man or woman of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work i'm your host malvitos may this episode bless you and bring glory to god hey guys welcome to thoroughly equipped another episode where we are looking at be the bridge and seeing its critical race theory connections but before we do i want to just inform you that te is part of striving for eternity's christian podcast community if you are looking for podcasts that are very christian based on solid on scriptural teachings you can go to podcast dot striving for eternity dot org and on there you can find such podcasts like justin peter's andrew rapaport's rap report along with his apologetics live where you can see him go live online and and tackle apologetic issues as they come up um matt slick's podcast is on there where he too does apologetics through his call -in radio program there's just so many along with thoroughly equipped so definitely check it out you can do that at podcast dot striving for eternity dot org all right let's kind of backtrack a little bit so that i can give any of you who are new to this um show an idea of what we've been doing for the last year and a half pretty much i've been looking at the if gathering so if you want to find out more about the if gathering and more detail about um how i've been critiquing it you can go back to the very first no second episode of thoroughly equipped for season two and we start tackling the if gathering and looking at uh the presenters who speak there their teaching teaching and their ministries we did a short episode on that we looked at how they handled scripture their hermeneutic when addressing romans 8 we looked at um some of the philosophies that jenny allen also includes or i wouldn't really call them philosophies but they're tools that are incorporated to bring sanctification into a a woman to disciple a woman and such tools such as psychology she has dr kurt thompson at the if gatherings as well as the if lead conferences quite frequently because he's a psychologist in or a psychotherapist as he would say and he talks about um being known and now we're looking at another tool that she brings in and that's this ministry called be the bridge latasha morrison's ministry my goal has been to show you how what she actually teaches is the same teaching that comes out of critical race theory now the episode before this we looked at be the bridge and how she talks about white supremacy so in critical race theory white supremacy is not just an individual believing they are supreme because they are white or a certain color over somebody else but white supremacy is our historical past america's historical past and is has been set up in the system of not just america but also all of western culture has this idea that whites are inherently superior to all other forms of ethnicity and culture now this white supremacy or these systems that were set up perpetuate oppression for people of color today so while we have been getting rid of laws that actually that actually were systematic in nature to produce oppression against not just oppression but separation between whites and blacks this is a real thing and body bachem and i agree with him back in the day we could clearly see there were laws and systems that were set up to perpetuate a separation and an idea that whites have more they're just better than people of color but over time we have eliminated these laws the problem is they say though the laws are eliminated even though we don't specifically or an individual might not specifically have hatred towards another person we because we have privileges perpetuate the oppression against people of color by participating and taking advantage of those privileges and that the the whole american and western culture civilization maintains these privileges that keep people of color oppressed keep them down and they just don't have the same privileges so that's kind of what we looked at last episode if you haven't turned tuned into that one or haven't listened to that one i suggest you do so that you get kind of an understanding of all that's uh i'm critiquing in be the bridge now the second tenet of critical race theory is intersectionality and that's what we're going to look at today i'm going to show you how be the bridge incorporates intersectionality to help educate us or bring us to a certain amount of knowledge now underneath intersectionality is a certain presupposition and that's what we're going to look at today and i'm going to show you how be the bridge perpetuates that perpetuates that presupposition and teaches others to take on this theory or belief so what is intersectionality intersectionality was created by kimberly crenshaw it is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group these categorizations are said to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage kimberly lays out very clearly that she quote considers intersectionality a provisional concept linking contemporary politics with postmodern theory end quote that's from mapping the margins introduction citation number nine now we need to address postmodern theory here a bit because this is very important within postmodern theory it's belief that there is no objective truth but that truth is arrived at subjectively and is influenced by one's experience so within crenshaw's own theory truth regarding oppression is arrived at by one's identity or the intersections and experiences found within one's identity at the root of intersectionality is the same presupposition we talked about last time that social structures and societies are split up into two groups the oppressor and the oppressed and remember crenshaw states that intersectionality is the concept that links contemporary politics in other words the marxist politics of oppressor and oppressed with postmodern theory which is subjective truth this is what weibachum called ethnic gnosticism so intersectionality is about gaining truth regarding what is and isn't oppression based on these intersections for example crenshaw describes in one of her lectures about how she arrived at coining the term intersectionality in reviewing a case of a black woman looking to sue a company for discrimination during an application process she notes how the courts assessed whether the company was discriminating against colored people and women the court found that since the company hired black men and white women they could not actually prove that discrimination took place now the experience that gave rise to intersectionality was my chance encounter with a woman named emma de graffin reed i actually read about emma's story from the pages of a legal opinion written by a judge who had dismissed emma's claim of race and gender discrimination against a local car manufacturing plant she applied for a job and she was not hired and she believed that she was not hired because she was a black woman and the argument for dismissing the suit was that the employer did hire african -americans and the employer hired women the real problem though that the judge was not willing to acknowledge was what emma was actually trying to say that the african -americans that were hired usually for industrial jobs maintenance jobs were all men and the women that were hired usually for secretarial or front office work were all white only if the court was able to see how these policies came together would he be able to see the double discrimination that emma de graffin reed was facing but the court refused to allow emma to put two causes of action together to tell her story because he believed that by allowing her to do that she would be able to have preferential treatment she'd have an advantage by being able to have two swings at the bat when african -american men and white women only had one swing at the bat but of course neither african -american men or white women needed to combine a race and gender discrimination claim to tell the story of the discrimination they were experiencing so many years later i'd come to recognize that the problem that emma was facing was a framing problem the frame that the court was using to see gender discrimination or to see race discrimination was partial and it was distorting for me that the challenge that i faced was trying to figure out whether there was an alternative narrative a prism that would allow us to see emma's dilemma a prism that would allow us to rescue her from the cracks in the law that would allow judges to see her story so it occurred to me maybe a simple analogy to an intersection might allow judges to better see emma's dilemma notice that crenshaw states that discrimination took place it was allowed simply because they did not have any black women employed that's what she's insinuating here notice then that the logic and connection of intersectionality within this instance that discrimination took place because the company did not diversify in this way they had no way of identifying the intersections or the racial discrimination that would take place against a woman who is black had black men in certain areas of their company and they had white women in their in certain areas but no black women noticing too that according to crenshaw had nothing to do with actual qualifications for the job as a possible rejection of the woman's application anyway i state all this to show you the founding of this identifier it's a practice or system used to propagate identity politics and is used to produce critical social theories on how oppression plays out be the bridge takes on the critical theory of intersectionality the whole ministry pushes the postmodern belief that subjective experience regarding systematic racism from non -white perspectives and certain historical narratives are actually truth while postmodernism claims that a person's standpoint constitutes truth it's even worse to claim that that standpoint is true for the whole group now intersectionality is the fruit of universalizing standpoint epistemology and that's the second presupposition promoted in practice and be the bridge be the bridge assumes that universalized standpoint epistemology is a legitimate way at arriving at truth in regards to what is oppression and how racism plays out in society so what is standpoint epistemology and what is universalized standpoint epistemology standpoint epistemology is the idea that one person's standpoint basically their experience can bring some clarification truth or knowledge into a subject while universalized standpoint epistemology is to claim one standpoint of a group has more truth and understanding on racism or oppression than another group and this is where postmodern thought on truth is put into practice and be the bridge and critical race theory it's part of what culture calls going woke a term coined during the civil rights movement to describe a person who has awakened to the black consciousness now there's other consciousness involved here there would be uh the black woman's consciousness or a transgender's consciousness we're beginning to see that woke is encompassing not just racial issues but all issues of oppression are all forms of intersections of oppression so within critical race theory going woke involves a person who's become aware of how the system was set up to exalt whiteness and oppress people of color now we will begin to see later on as we dive more into this that whiteness doesn't mean white skin color whiteness is actually a certain belief system that has been associated with western ideas standards and morals ones the majority culture in the west used to spread democracy which critical race theorists and its proponents call colonization and we'll get more into this in another episode but going back to standpoint epistemology so hearing one person's point of view on a subject can be a good thing it takes discernment and a biblical worldview i believe to determine if someone's interpretation of their experience is true or not but critical race theory elevates standpoint epistemology when it claims that just because one person feels that a certain action on the part of the majority this case caucasian white people are racist oppressive acts across the board they take an experience interpret it with a racist worldview and then equate that experience to racism and white supremacy so how does be the bridge incorporate standpoint epistemology by educating white people to see how they are sinning through being complicit in this system of white supremacy how do white people begin to see this sin and how do people of color begin to identify as oppressed for the be the bridge ministry participants must learn the truth not of scripture but one must understand non -white perspectives and learn of historical narratives we as americans can collectively lament our broken past as we acknowledge our history in fact acknowledging the truth of our country's broken past is the first step in our bridge building lament the more we talk about the hard truths of our country's history the better we understand the need for reconciliation and healing quote to participate in the family of christ alongside the non -white culture the majority culture must understand non -white perspectives and the truth of historical narratives without understanding the truth of racial injustice both the majority culture and non -white culture christians will find themselves mirrored in dissonant relationships if we avoid hard truths to preserve personal comfort or to fashion a facade of peace our division will only widen jesus can make beauty from ashes but the family of god must see and acknowledge the ashes end quote morrison be the bridge page 24 so notice first that she says there's a certain way we have to participate in the family of christ with our people of colored brothers and sisters in christ that there are ashes but the family of god must first see and acknowledge the ashes what are the ashes racial injustice those are the ashes not sin just pointing that out another thing to think about is why do i need to know about the hard truths of other people's sin to have peace with another individual peace for a christian comes from being forgiven and reconciled to god and peace between brothers happens when we are both forgiven and reconciled to each other when one sins against the other scripture is clear on both issues here and so if god has forgiven me for my sins and my brother has forgiven me when i reconcile with him after sinning against him what more must i do that is an issue i see here with be the bridge ministry its goal is to put you in a state of perpetual lament to weigh you down with sins of the past with microaggressions and the ultimate sin of our time rejecting someone's identity when statements like i don't see color are said even though we mean i don't want to treat people differently it takes away from people's identity it takes away from people's identity now what does scripture say the church must acknowledge to prevent dissonant relationships when addressing masters on how they are to deal with their slaves within the christian family a relationship among many christians that may have needed reconciliation and really dealt with class oppression at times and major sins you'd think paul inspired by the holy spirit would write that they are to listen to their to understand how they may be oppressing their slaves to look at roman historical narratives and slave and class oppression to insist that masters and their household gather historical narratives and uh and their slaves point of view or their slave standpoint and listen to the voice list to understand how they are complicit in the oppression so that they can build the relationship with their slaves yet that's not mentioned at all instead paul states in ephesians 6 5 to 9 bond servants obey your earthly masters with fear and troubling with a sincere heart as you would christ not by the way of eye service as people pleasers but as bond servants of christ doing the will of god from the heart rendering service with a goodwill as to the lord and not to man knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the lord whether he is a bond servant or is free masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him flat out masters are told to treat their slaves well knowing that they have a master who rewards each one for whatever good they do do not threaten them or mistreat them because they have a master in heaven in whom there is no favoritism christ is at the heart and is the connection between the slave and the master and because both have the same master christ paul determines that they should know nothing but christ their master why does paul determine to know nothing but christ and him crucified because the more knowledge we have about christ the more sanctified we become the more like christ we become the more we love our neighbor as god instructs i therefore a prisoner for the lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is over all and through all and in all but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of christ's gift therefore it says when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men in saying he ascended what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth he who descended is a one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things and he gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of christ until we attain notice this where our until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ and notice this we are unified in the faith and the knowledge of the son of god why so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine and i definitely say critical race theory is involved in that by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head unto christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love ephesians 4 1 to 6 so notice that we build each other up in love the more we are unified in the faith and the knowledge of the son of god and we then are sanctified to become more like the stature of the fullness of christ now does be the bridge focus on one lord the one faith one baptism one god and father of all no do they look to the apostles prophets evangelists shepherds and teachers within the church to train us in god's word which equips us for reconciliation and unity as this passage says no is be the bridge's goal to unify us in the faith and knowledge of christ which causes one to grow up in every way unto him who is the head no be the bridge's idea that we need to know our historical narratives and non -white perspectives to build relationships and reconcile is not biblical nowhere in scripture are we instructed to do these things to participate in the family of god instead it is critical race theorists who tell us to listen to the standpoints of people of color and certain historical narratives and focus on these to lead us into the supposed truth of racism and oppression so that we can reconcile with our brothers and sisters be the bridge makes the claim that to participate in the family of god we need to empathize and trust in the standpoints of people of color just being born or adopted into a family makes you family we all participate in different ways depending on the gifts and talents given by god there's a right and there's a wrong way to behave in the earthly family depending on the rules and standards of the family but whether right or wrong it's still participation in the family because one is a family member in regards to the family of god god has laid out for us the right and wrong way to behave in his family in his word the perspective that unifies us is not coming under the same teaching about our nation's history or understanding racism as a person of color understands racism but our foundation which sanctifies us together is the teaching from the apostles prophets and jesus himself which we find in scripture it's god's word through christ jesus that builds us into a dwelling place for god by the spirit and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access in one spirit to the father so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of god built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets christ jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the lord in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for god by the spirit that's ephesians 2 17 to 22 another thing we need to take note of is be the bridge's emphasis on historical narratives a historical narrative is simply the spoken or written account of connected events where we can go wrong is in interpretation of these narratives but critical race theory wants to do is interpret all non -white narratives in a racial light so be the bridge insists that to participate in the family of god one must listen to non -white perspectives and the truth of historical narratives now this is saying that children of god must incorporate standpoint epistemology to be sanctified in loving our colored brothers and sisters in christ and love our neighbor the whole goal of be the bridge's ministry is to incorporate safe spaces for non -whites to provide narratives in their lived racist experiences i'll expose that in the next episode this includes america's racist past be the bridge prioritizes non -white voices to educate the white majority on white supremacy and systems of oppression due to race this is intersectionality at play here be the bridge assumes that people of color know the truth of white supremacy while whites do not a real world example of this is a person of color educating a white person on microaggressions a white person making a certain comment can be taken by a black person as racist when there is no hatred or partiality involved it may have been a general statement of observation about the people of color's community as a whole or simple curiosity while we can benefit and gain some understanding through listening to the lived experiences or standpoints of people of color their standpoint does not necessarily set the standard for racism hatred impartiality just because a person of color states that a certain action was biased or racist doesn't actually mean it was hateful or biased now this is something far far removed from be the bridge in regards to microaggressions and perceived racist action this is how you weigh women down with sins they have not committed or not just women but all people in general see god will not condemn someone because a person of color calls their actions racist or biased god will condemn someone who has actual partiality and or hatred in that individual's heart a person of color may interpret the actions as hateful but unless there is actual hatred or partiality in the heart of the person being accused god will not condemn this is a thing to be aware of regarding be the bridge and critical risk theory they completely disregard god's standards in regards to what is deemed hateful and partial instead of looking to scripture to identify racism hatred impartiality be the bridge teaches its readers and participants trying to identify these through the experiences of people of color and make them representative of all groups one black individual's experience is representative or universal for all black individuals in the group one white person's act of partiality or complicity in white supremacy is representative and an example of how all white people are complicit my conclusion why is taking on the idea that intersectionality is a good way to arrive at knowledge about oppression an actual problem intersectionality is affirmation of racism and oppression by accepting people of color's personal interpretation of experience regardless of actual proof of partiality or hatred so here's an argument you might have heard before that i'm going to use to help you see this it's very similar to the use of a trans person's pronouns as a trans person feels to be a certain gender the argument goes that to use their preferred pronouns is a way to affirm their experience as a man in a woman's body or vice versa preferred pronouns should always be respected you guys know the rules of the game right everybody cool why do you why do you strongly agree with that tell him so he can hear it i strongly agree because at the end of the day like you don't understand like what person's culture outside of their culture so you have to understand that where they come from if they are for who they are you have to respect them for who they are that's the person that they are and that that's never going to change whatsoever in the same way because of the same presuppositions that truth is subjective people of color use experience to identify racism in the system and mainly point to inequities disparities and microaggressions to prove it it is the way they justify placing themselves in the oppressed group and make oppression part of their identity if we participate with them in taking on this worldview that western society perpetuates white supremacy that white identity is rooted in oppression while non -white identity is rooted in being oppressed or victimized if we take on intersectionality as a legitimate way of identifying oppression and racism ultimately we remove people of color's responsibility for their choices lifestyles moral standards and sins this drives them away from god who calls them to examine their life and see their sin and rebellion against him and repent and be reconciled to him through christ it hinders the gospel it keeps christians from humility that comes from understanding the sanctifying work needed through god's word to live as sinner and saint on this side of eternity but mainly what is the biggest damage in all of this it is an exaltation of man's word over scripture over god and over christ and that never leads to truth for we as christians should proclaim rather let god be found true and every man be found a liar as it is written that god may be justified in his words and prevail when he judges romans 3 4 and psalm 51 4 christians should be guided and instructed by god's word as it is true we are sanctified by god's word it shows us what is good and what is evil it reveals our sins our hatred impartiality and rebukes us in it it trains us up in righteousness and so that is why until next time i pray you are in god's word ladies if you are interested in the transcript for this episode you can go to ttew .org

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you can find other great resources articles blogs and videos that may bless you in your christian walk as well as links to follow me on social media if you wish to contact me you can email me at thoroughly equipped 316 at gmail .com

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again the website address is ttew .org thoroughly equipped is part of striving for eternity's christian podcast community striving for eternity is a christ -centered ministry focused on equipping people for eternity by assisting christians to have an eternal perspective on life they strive to bring evangelism discipleship apologetics and christian living together for the purpose of eternal preparation by exalting god edifying and equipping the saints and evangelizing the lost they provide speakers online articles online courses books podcasts and other theological resources all centered on god's word to find out more go to striving for eternity .org

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