Conversation framing is a powerful tool, and it is high time that we all took note of it. We are watching as more and more Christians pick up the newspeak of our time. I wanted to take a second to put in writing for you what it means to be “antiracist”. You might be a mere commoner, like me, who would naturally assume that to be “anti-racist” means to be “against racism”. Darling, it’s 2020. “Abortion” means “healthcare”, “pandemic” means “a-bit-above-average death toll”, and “woman” means absolutely nothing. Don’t be so primitive.

Anti-racist does NOT mean “against racism”, and if you don’t believe me, here is what some of the core tenets, developed by anti-racist educators at the Race and Pedagogy Conference in Tacoma, Washington, have lain out that it means: 

Racism is an institutionalized, multi-layered, multi-level system that distributes unequal power and resources between white people and people of color, as socially identified, and disproportionately benefits whites.

All members of society are socialized to participate in a system of racism, albeit within varied social locations. 

All white people benefit from racism, regardless of intentions. No one chose to be socialized into racism so no one is “bad”, but no one is neutral. To not act against racism is to support racism. 

Racism must continually be identified, analyzed, and challenged. No one is ever done.

The question is not, “Did racism take place?” But rather, “How did racism manifest in this specific situation?” 

The racial status quo is comfortable for most whites; therefore, anything that maintains “white comfort” is suspect.

Racially oppressed have a more intimate insight via experiential knowledge of the system of race than their racial oppressors; however white professors will be seen as having more legitimacy. 

Resistance is a predictable reaction against racial education and must be explicitly and strategically addressed. 

As you can see, antiracism is a commitment to sin that cannot be undone—it is a very part of our essence. It cannot be dismantled or finished. Most importantly, Christian, it cannot be taken the cross and buried. It cannot be confessed, repented of, and walked away from. No one is ever done. Regardless of your life or intentions, you are guilty. If you choose not to be guilty for your whiteness, you are suspect (i.e., probably guilty). No one should ever wonder if racism is taking place because it’s always taking place, and we just have to figure out where the racism is located and who is to blame. 

Christian, this worldview is antithetical to your Lord and Savior. He is very much concerned with truth, matters of the heart, forgiveness, and repentance. In keeping with this new religion of antiracism, you must ignore the truth of a matter, find a scapegoat (usually dependent on the color of skin), pretend to seek repentance but never actually find it, change but never actually change, and accept their standpoint epistemology or be anathema.

 We are watching the rise of this new religion. It is your job not to apostatize to it. You can’t do that if you’re bowing down, speaking their language, and hoping to baptize just enough of this new religion in Christian-ese so you can look like you’re on the right side of history. Jesus is better, and the world wants you to stop saying so. That creeping guilt you feel when you want to insist that Jesus died for this sin and you can be fully done with it? That fear you feel when you want to insist that you, in fact, are NOT racist? If you have that feeling, the world has neutralized you.

 Do you believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life? Do you believe that God has spoken and commissioned you to a task? Do you believe that Christians are to be a rational, reasonable people? If you’re a Christian, you are not free to drop these beliefs and join the crowd. You’re not free to be silent regarding righteousness, repentance, and forgiveness in order to do the “listening” the antiracist movement is saying you must shut up and start doing. If you do, you’ve been neutralized by the schemes of this world, you’ve bought their tactics hook, line, and sinker, and you’re no longer living your life to look like Jesus. 

Refuse emotionalism over reason. Refuse it absolutely. Jesus IS better. Jesus IS a faithful and just savior. You can bury your sin at the cross. You must bury your sin at the cross, and then you must forsake all else! All worldly wisdom is folly. Remain faithful, brothers and sisters, to the Word. 

Your job now is the same old same old: faithfulness. Listen to wisdom. Listen to the Word. Remember what you have learned in Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Do not join the wicked in denying the power of the Cross to save. Do not walk in the counsel of the wicked who would love nothing more than to convince you that you are racist, you’ll always be racist, and you can’t even begin to stop being racist. If you hate racism as you should, you’ll stop playing the “antiracist” game. 

SUMMER JAEGER