A Christian Criticism of Critical Theory: a Word Fitly Spoken
While on the treadmill at the gym, I was listening to a podcast, A Word Fitly Spoken. This particular program was about Critical Theory, and it was hosted by the Revs. Willie Grills and Zelwin Heide. The guests were the Revs. Adam Koontz and David Buchs. It was an outstanding presentation, and I commend all of our readers and listeners to give this episode a listen!
What was especially poignant for me was the juxtaposition of the bank of TVs on the wall and the messages being flashed before the eyes of the millions of viewers around the country. Right in front of me was a screen running the USA Network. There were closed captions, so I could glance at what was going on. But it was really the visual imagery that was telling - especially while listening to a biblical analysis of this very thing being promoted by the secular world in real time.
Television is a powerful medium. It not only sells Budweiser, Toyotas, Doritos, and innumerable pharmaceuticals, it gives something away for free: a worldview.
The USA Network was running a cop show (I think it was “Chicago PD”) featuring several encounters between police and criminals. In this episode, without exception, every violent thug was a white male. And with only one exception, every crime victim was black: the exception being a white female who was being brutalized by a white male.
Only glancing up at the screen without hearing dialogue or background music gave me a sense of disconnect that made it an interesting observation. One of the scenes involved a black female shoplifter who was attempting to steal a loaf of bread. The store owner, an angry white male, was aggressively trying to get the police to arrest her. He complained about junkies constantly ripping him off. The accused woman looked sad, sitting limply on the floor with big puppy-dog eyes. She told the female police officer that she wasn’t a drug user, but that she just wanted to make a sandwich for her boy. The female cop looked at her indulgently and sympathetically, and asked the scowling, angry white male shop-keeper the price of the loaf of bread which was a dollar fifty. But before paying for the woman’s bread, the cop told the shop-owner that she could probably find some code violations in the store. She immediately claimed to see mouse droppings on the floor, and a wire at the ceiling that was not up to code. She threatened to ticket the shop-owner for $20,000. In the face of this police shakedown, the store owner told the police to release the woman. The lady cop then paid for the woman’s bread and sent her on her way - before scolding the shop-owner one more time.
The racial component presented on shows like this are pushing a false narrative, one that simply doesn’t comport with reality, a narrative clearly designed to promulgate a lie to the detriment of the target demographic.
Another scene involved a cop questioning a suspect on the street by inserting the muzzle of his pistol into the suspect’s mouth and demanding answers in three seconds, then he started counting. Fortunately, the suspect was a white guy. Otherwise, the cops would have been seen as the baddies.
There was also a commercial for trans pride.
Since I don’t watch TV any more, this is all unfamiliar territory to me. But it’s very easy to see what’s going on. It’s brainwashing. It’s Critical Theory training in the guise of entertainment. It does not reflect reality, but it is designed to create resentment against the white male population. And it is working for people of every racial and sexual tribe. Whites are conditioned to hate themselves and see their own existence as toxic. Many a Christian parent has been shocked by their children coming back from college holding a completely different worldview - one formed by Critical Theory. Some return from school declaring themselves to be of a different gender identity, bearing a new sexual preference, holding radicalized political views, and even in some cases, confessing hostility to the Christian faith itself.
Parents generally blame the universities - albeit too late. But I think academe is only partly to blame. I believe that the universities are merely the last domino to fall. Children typically grow up watching a lot of TV. And all contemporary mainstream television programs - and the vast majority of movies and online series - are pushing a Critical Theory narrative. This is being done under the noses of everyone.
I don’t think Christian parents have a clue as to how formative and normative and powerful these TV shows are, nor the cumulative effect of the propaganda. They are based on a narrative - and the story is consistent, emotional, compelling, and part of a larger holistic model of re-education. But we have been boiled slowly like the proverbial frog in the pan of warm water. We are being lied to all the time. Reality itself is a casualty of Critical Theory.
As a Christian pastor, this is a source of frustration. If our parishioners attend Divine Service and Bible Class every week, we will get maybe two hours to preach and teach our Christian narrative, which is, the Biblical and liturgical Gospel of Jesus Christ that runs from eternity to eternity. The rest of the time, most of our parishioners are watching TV, movies, sports, and taking part in other aspects of popular culture - all of which push a narrative at odds with, and hostile to, the Christian faith. And as adults, we may well be able to roll our eyes and discern what we are seeing. But then again, let us not underestimate the power of the visual narrative on our minds and psyches. But think about children and youth - whose brains are still in a state of plasticity, whose minds and souls are being formed by a constant barrage of narrative in opposition to the Holy Scriptures.
So what should Christian parents - and even those who are not parents - do in the face of this onslaught? I would say to cancel the cable, and stop watching modern TV shows. Older TV is not nearly as toxic, and some of the older programs may even be neutral or uplifting. But even there, wisdom and discernment are called for. There are older movies - and perhaps a new one or two - that are not antagonistic to the Christian worldview. But allowing children unfettered access to highly suggestive Critical Theory training is, in the long run, as toxic as if they had such access to porn. These shows are designed not only to sell product, but to push a worldview, one that is, without exaggeration, Luciferian in its orientation.
Instead of sitting in front of the boob tube for hours on end, why not listen to podcasts that either uphold, or do not contradict, our worldview? Why not learn a new skill? Take up an instrument? Study a foreign language? Learn how to fix cars or quilt or do woodworking or cooking? How about daily reading or listening to the Bible and great literature?
One of the things that individuals and families can do is to replace the trash narrative of TV with the Holy Narrative of the Scriptures - by incorporating daily liturgical worship into their lives. The Treasury of Daily Prayer (which is also available as an app) is an accessible and yet robust resource for interacting with the Scriptures - especially the Psalms - in a liturgical way that counters the evil and unrealistic narrative and worldview promoted by the TV networks and by Hollywood. Children need to be reading a lot more and looking at screens a lot less. Adults too.
And the beauty of such prayer is that it is liturgical, providing an annual reading of the lion’s share of the Bible but set in a beautiful liturgical setting that can be spoken or sung, simple or elaborate. The liturgical repetition provides children with an anchor for their young memories. And technology has made it possible to hear and pray along with these daily prayer offices in their full majestic beauty as sung by the Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei.
I recently stayed a couple days with a delightful Lutheran family that had three young children. They had a TV, but it was in the basement, and the children acted like they didn’t even know it was there. The kids were surrounded by books. They all excitedly clambered up next to me so I could read to them, and so they could read to me. These children really knew the Bible, the Catechism, and the liturgy of the church. The family prays Matins together every morning. Their six year old reads the One Year Bible (ESV) every day on her own - and was breathlessly explaining the narrative of the day’s readings to me. And the children’s reading was impeccable. Aside from Biblical names and foreign words (with the exception of the little toddler) the children could read and pronounce each word effortlessly and fluently - better than most adults that I know.
What was especially poignant was the fact that the biblical narratives are already embedded in the minds of these very young children. They know the stories of the biblical characters - and not just the usual felt-board Sunday School sections. They relate the Biblical accounts with excitement and intimacy as though they are telling about what happened at the swing-set with the neighbor children only yesterday.
These children are happy, well-adjusted, and intelligent. They are being well-prepared for a future in which their worldview will be challenged. They are being placed on the firm foundation of the Bible and the Confessions, of the liturgy and the Catechism, the Psalter and the hymns. These children clearly know the faith, and they know who (and whose) they are. And they weren’t only reading the Bible. They were also reading standard childhood storybooks and great literature and books covering a range of topics. But they weren’t reading anything about “Two Mommies” or any trashy kids’ books that one might find at a Drag Queen event.
In our modern world, there is huge pressure to conform. And children - especially if they are in public school - are subject to incredible peer pressure to watch those programs that are most at odds with our Christian worldview. This is increasingly the case even in kindergarten and nursery school. And by the time these kids face puberty, they are under enormous pressure to be anything but “normal.” It is, as though to be accepted, one must be of some exotic sexual identity or preference, not to mention, hold radical leftist political views and to question or repudiate the Christian faith. And if you understand Critical Theory, you will know that this is not by accident.
This is what Critical Theory is all about. We are seeing it bearing rotten fruit after many decades of patient brainwashing in school, on TV, in movies, in music, in sports, and in the mainstream media in general, not to mention benign neglect by Christian parents. It’s all about the replacement narrative and how to smash the old Christian worldview.
It is important for us Christians to know what the Enemy is up to, to sever our ties to Luciferian “entertainment,” to equip our children in our own Biblical worldview, and to instill it in their minds and souls through the church’s liturgy - which has formed minds into the mind of Christ our Logos for two millennia.
It is high time that the Church become unequivocally critical of Critical Theory and stop ignoring it or pandering to those who advocate it. We need to put our foot down and reject it at every level - from the parish and the district to the synod, from our publishing house to our universities and seminaries. Critical Theory is just one more serpentine “Did God actually say…?”.
I’d like to thank the guys at A Word Fitly Spoken for their solid analysis, and for their lively and informative program. What a blessing to have faithful pastors putting out programming that confirms, rather than contradicts, reality and the Christian worldview. The contrast between what I was hearing and what I was seeing could not have been more clear.
The Word is being fitly spoken indeed. The real question is, is it being fitly heard?