For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He has united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. . . Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility [enmity] toward each other was put to death. Ephesians 2:14, 16 NLT
Paul triumphantly proclaims to the Ephesian church, that through the death of Christ, the dividing wall of separation between ethnicities has been torn down. For millennia, different people groups had been warring against one another, believing themselves to be enemies, proclaiming themselves superior to others, and using violence and bloodshed to justify and prove their supremacy. Yet the message of the cross is one of complete equality.
Jesus was the perfect example of humanity and what it means for all humans to be made equally in the Image of God, exposing the lie that humans are each other’s enemies. Jesus exposed the lie that some are superior to others, as at the cross all are equally in need of redemption and salvation. As Jesus tore down the dividing walls of separation that existed only in the minds of those who believed in them, Jesus also built bridges to every nation, people, tribe, and tongue through the Gospel. A message which claims equality for all, liberty from sin for all, and salvation and redemption for all who are made in the very ‘Image of God’.
So then, if Jesus through his death destroyed the dividing wall of racism, why does it feel as though our society is divided more than ever before? Western society is on the precipice of self-implosion as people groups of race, class, and gender battle against one another. Where did this antagonism between people arise that seems so contrary to the Gospel? How does it influence the current affairs we see in the world around us today? Most importantly, should we as Christians respond to this chaotic world, we find ourselves in?
The Birth of Marxism
The contemporary philosophies and ideologies that we observe in our culture today actually derive their origins from the Enlightenment Era which arose in the wake of the French Revolution. One such philosopher from this school of thought was Karl Marx, most widely known for developing the ideology of Marxism.
The primary claim of Marxism is that society is best understood as a battle for power between two different classes, stating, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed.” Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
It was Marx’s belief that society itself through tools such as capitalism and religion, was oppressive and intrinsically evil. The only way for the oppressed (the poor) to overcome the oppressors (the rich) was to revolt through violence and revolution, destroy the established society and rebuild a new one.
But how did Marxism work in practice? The ideology of Marxism resulted in the Communist dictatorial regimes of the 20th century, in which more people were killed than any other century in history. Stalin and Mao alone killed 65 million of their own people. The nations of North Korea, Cambodia, Venezuela, Romania, Albania, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and countless others, all suffered and many still continue to suffer, under cruel and oppressive regimes dictated under Marxist ideology.
The implementation of Marxism had proven to be a catastrophic failure, and yet many believed that Marxism still held beneficial qualities. One such philosopher was Antonio Gramsci, who saw the major flaw in Marx’s ideology was that he focused only on the economic structure of society. For Gramsci, society was oppressive because of the ‘cultural hegemony’, that is, the cultural norms of society which not all people groups fit into. Thus, everyone who fit into the cultural hegemony was privileged, and those who did not were oppressed.
The Frankfurt School of Germany similarly believed that what was needed was not an economic revolution, but rather a cultural one. They developed the practice of ‘Critical Theory’ which was based upon Marx’s idea that society itself was inherently oppressive, and thus society needed to be critiqued and a cultural revolution had to take place in order to disturb the cultural hegemony.
So, who were the privileged class in this cultural hegemony? It is the very mantra that we hear today so often: white, heterosexual, cisgender, native born, Christian, men. These people are the privileged class, and anyone who does not fit into this standard of the ‘cultural hegemony’ is therefore a member of the oppressed class.
It is from Critical Theory and Marxism that we have incorporated terms and ideas into our vernacular such as: white privilege, whiteness, heteronormativity, gender performativity, systemic racism, the patriarchy, internalised oppression, intersectionality, and cis-hetero-patriarchy. These concepts all develop from Critical Theorists in an attempt to create a cultural revolution leading to the downfall of Western societies, so that they can be rebuilt by people who are not white, heterosexual, cisgender, native born, Christian, men.
The Christian Response
How then should we as Christians respond to Critical Theory and the impact it has on culture today? Foremost, we can objectively state that Marxism has never benefited anyone except for corrupt dictators. Revolutions whether they be economic or cultural inevitably lead to anarchy, which provides an opportunity for tyranny. We should learn from history and be cautious of engaging in revolutions which have consistently led to worse tyranny than that originally protested against.
Secondly, Marxism, Critical Theory and the organisations which represent it today are inherently anti-Christian. These ideologies are rooted in atheism and views religion and Christianity in particular as a tool of oppression. It has also consistently sought to undermine Christian values such as the nuclear family. To ally oneself with a critical theorist worldview is, in essence, to work directly against one’s Christian beliefs.
But most importantly, Christians should avoid this ideology because it stands against the Gospel itself. Marxism is predicated on the belief that society can be divided into categories, and that those divisions are at war with one another. Marxism only leads to anger, hatred, envy, violence and bloodshed, and we need only look outside our windows or turn on the news to see evidence of it.
In contrast, Jesus and his teachings are predicated on exposing the lies that separate and divide us. Scripture reveals that the only enemy we have enmity with is Satan and not fellow image-bearers (Gen. 3:15). The Gospel shows that the human race together is made in the Image of God, are all worthy of dignity and respect, and are of infinite value. It reveals that all humans are in need of salvation that can only be found at the cross of Christ.
Christians should endeavour to fulfil the call of the prophets to “learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plea for the widow” (Isa. 1:17) and do so in a way that does not borrow from a worldview antagonistic and antithetical to Christianity. But Christians should also endeavour to fulfil the primary call of the prophets which was to return to a worship of God. When a culture wanders away from God’s law, the symptoms are oppression and injustice, and only the Gospel can change the human heart and put a permanent end to these evils. The root problem is not an oppressive system or a cultural hegemony, but rather sin and the evils of the human heart, and Christianity alone has the solution to that root problem.
Build Bridges
Galatians 3:28 is beautiful in that the categories of people here from a Critical Theorists worldview would be either oppressor or oppressed and would encourage rivalry between these two groups. Yet when Paul says ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” he makes the ultimate declaration that no such categories can divide us when we are in Christ.
The Christian life is not one of building dividing walls, but of tearing those walls down, and replacing them with bridges of the Gospel to every people, nation, tribe, and tongue. Let us fulfil that great commission together.
WRITER: Christopher Petersen, attends Coffs Harbour Church.