Cry Havoc! - Critical Theory vs The Bible

I've never trusted Klingons and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy.

If you watch my videos then you know I'm a big Star Wars fan, but I also like Star Trek. I do prefer

Star Wars for a variety of reasons, but Star Trek is cool by me as well. And, you know, that clip

I just showed is from a movie, the sixth movie of the original Star Trek movie.

Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country. And in that movie what we have is essentially

Captain Kirk is tasked with escorting an ambassador from the Klingon Empire. Because the

Klingons and the Federation had always been at odds at war, there's a lot of distrust. But they were hoping to reach a peace agreement.

And so Captain Kirk was tasked with bringing that ambassador to that meeting. What happens is in the movie that it looks like the

Enterprise fires upon the Klingon ship, disabling it and killing the ambassador. Which obviously has a lot of ramifications for the peace agreement.

He didn't actually do it. But earlier in the movie, in his personal journal, he says that he doesn't trust

Klingons and he never will. And so they actually use that against him in his court hearing.

He goes to trial at the Klingon homeworld. I offer him to the record this excerpt from the captain's personal log.

I've never trusted Klingons. And I never will. I've never been able to forgive them.

And he's found guilty largely because of that journal entry. And so here's the thing.

So Kirk was doing something that we would all consider prejudice or racist, if you will.

He was basically saying that because a couple of Klingons years ago had killed his son, that he doesn't trust any

Klingon. He almost holds the entire Klingon race accountable for what a few Klingons did to his son.

And this is why lived experience is not always reliable.

You know, a lot of times you'll hear, you know, you have to listen to your black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ. And I think that that's really good advice.

You should do that. But you have to understand that when you listen, everything that people say is not always the case.

It's not that they're lying sometimes. Sometimes they are lying. I'm not saying that your brothers and sisters in Christ are lying.

But sometimes people do lie. And sometimes people just misunderstand things. Things appear to them to be one way, and they're really not that way.

We've all experienced that where we think we hear something or we think something is a certain way. And it turns out that it really wasn't that.

We misinterpreted things. And so that could happen as well. And so lived experience is something that we should value people's experiences and people's, you know, opinions and things.

We should value that stuff, and we should listen to them. But we also have to verify the facts because in Kirk's case, his lived experience was that Klingons were violent, untrustworthy, evil.

And so he basically didn't like them. He said he didn't trust them, and he didn't think he ever would trust them. And so it's very easy to see how that's a prejudiced opinion.

You know, you'll see this a lot of times in various situations in our modern -day culture.

But so here's the thing, though. A lot of this social justice Christianity finds its root in critical theory.

And I think, honestly, people are being more open about that than they used to be. Even in the last few weeks, I've seen people be very honest that they do appreciate aspects of critical theory.

Critical theory is Marxism. So these people are essentially saying, well, I'm okay with some of what Marxism is all about.

But anyway, critical theory says that you don't apply equal scales to the oppressor class and the oppressed class.

And so lived experience, if it's the oppressor class, you don't trust it. You don't accept it.

So if a white person tells you, well, I'm not racist, and I don't know any white racists, well, you don't accept that because that's not true.

Their lived experience is faulty, not reliable. So just because a white person, because they're the oppressor class, just because a white person says that they don't have partiality in their hearts, you don't necessarily believe that because they probably do.

They just don't know it or something like that. But for the oppressed class, you always accept lived experience.

In fact, that's the standard of evidence. And so for the oppressed class, if they say, well, I have been the victim of systemic and institutional racism, well, that is not questioned.

You don't question that. In fact, that's how you establish whether or not there is institutional racism. And so lived experience,

I'm not saying it's always unreliable, but it can be unreliable. And so we don't apply our experience and say, well, that's always how it is.

And so, you know, you can easily see that with the Captain Kirk thing. But do you do you easily see it, you know, in our culture today?

You know, when you see someone on Twitter say, well, I don't trust cops because of what happened to Philando. Do you hear it like Captain Kirk saying

I've never trusted Klingons and I never will? I've never been able to forgive cops for the death of Philando.

I mean, look, I don't think the shooting of Philando was a good thing. But does that mean that I just don't trust any cop at all?

I don't think that's how we do this kind of thing. Lived experience is not always a reliable source of what's true.

And so that's, you know, important lesson for us all to learn, because here's the thing.

I know critical theory says that it's OK to to use unequal scales when you're adjudicating what's true and what's just and things like that.

And so on the one hand, we can reject the lived experience of the oppressor class, the majority culture.

But on the other hand, we want to accept the lived experience of the oppressed class, the minority culture.

I know critical theory says that's OK. That's not OK. But biblically speaking, you know, we look in the

Bible, there's all kinds of warnings against partiality. And it applies to both sides. God was so wise to give us examples and specific commands that say you can't be partial either way.

It says, you know, you shall not show favoritism to the poor or the great.

You don't show partiality to the great and the rich and the powerful, but you also don't show favoritism to the poor.

That perverts justice. It says that in Leviticus chapter 19. And so if we're going to talk about justice, biblical justice, we need to take that into account.

Critical theory is dead wrong about that, dead wrong about that. Lived experience is something we should listen to on both sides, but we also have to verify.

The Bible also talks about evidence and standards for evidence. Two or more witnesses. You have to establish a matter.

Everyone seems right until someone comes cross and cross examines him. These are standards that are biblical.

So when somebody says you have to listen more and then you and until you agree, essentially listen until you agree.

You know, that's out of critical theory. That's not from the Bible. That's not something that we can accept as Christians.

If you see someone showing unequal scales on the one hand, denouncing white prejudice, which

I would denounce as well. But on the other hand saying, well, I'm scared of all cops or I'm scared of white people.

Again, I've brought up the Jamar Tisby article where he says I was scared to go to church with my white brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know how easy it would be to turn that around. Imagine if a white person said I'm scared to go to church with my black brothers and sisters in Christ after Barack Obama was elected.

You would see easily how prejudice that is, how racist that is. But for some reason you don't see it on the other side.

That's because of the influence of critical theory. That's where that comes from. It's not from the Bible. That's not a godly thing.

That article was not a godly article. That was an article that was chock full of critical theory assumptions, which is essentially

Marxism. I know people don't like when we when we call ideas out for being Marxist, but they are Marxist.

And so let's not use these unequal scales. If we're going to get anywhere in this conversation, if we're going to come to agreement, we need to be laser focused on biblical standards of justice.

Let's throw away all we know about critical theory where it says that minorities can't be racist and things like that.

That is just not correct. The Bible doesn't talk to people in that way. Everyone is capable of every sin.

Do you understand that? Like the Bible doesn't address certain sins to white people and other sins to black people.

No, everyone is capable of showing partiality. And so we need to make sure that we're not doing that.

Anyway, I you know, at the end of the movie, it turns out that that Kirk didn't actually fire upon the ship.

In fact, it was a Klingon who wanted there to be no peace. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

He wanted to continue. He was prejudiced against the Federation. And so he secretly had an invisible ship that fired upon his own people in order to continue the conflict.

You know, this is this is such a good example of Marxism. Marxism wants eternal conflict.

They don't like the they don't like the majority culture. They don't like white people. They don't like rich people. And so they want there to be constant revolution, constant turmoil, constant problems.

And that's not God's way. God God's God's way was is not constant turmoil within his people within the

Church of Christ. No, that's not how it goes. And so if you're going to be using unequal scales, that that conflict is going to continue forever.

So don't be like that that that Klingon that Klingon lawyer who fired upon his own people in order to continue the conflict.

Don't be like that. Use equal scales. Use biblical standards of justice. Anyway, I hope this is helpful.

God bless and live long and prosper. Journey to all the undiscovered countries boldly going where no man or no one has gone before.