2.8 | a juxtaposition

II | WORLDVIEWS

Let’s remember that these are only two worldviews. There are all kinds of different worldviews available to us. We have available countless world religions and philosophies we can subscribe to. We can – and probably should – stack them up against each other and see how they answer our worldview questions. The questions I have posed here aren’t the only ones we can ask when determining our worldview, but these are some of the more insightful criteria we can use.

When assessing worldviews, in this case the difference between CT and Kingdom, we can clearly see the distinctions. These distinctions make it plain that CT and Kingdom are incompatible worldviews.

Who are we?

Critical Theory says our primary identifier is our relationship to power and oppression. Are we oppressed or oppressor? If we can identify that, then that helps us define our identity. Kingdom says our primary identifier is the fact that we are created by God in his image. That should be the greatest source of our identity.

Does that mean that the Kingdom doesn’t recognize oppression? Of course not. Scripture is filled with references to all kinds of subjugated people and groups. But Scripture does not teach us to define our identity based on our position relative to power and oppression. CT makes that a requirement.

What is our fundamental problem?

CT says that the fundamental problem we face as human beings is oppression. If we can eliminate and reduce oppression, we fix the fundamental problem facing humanity. Kingdom says the biggest issue we face is the condition of our heart. Left to ourselves, we are incapable of living a good life. We have a nature that drifts towards sin. Our personal sin is the thing that creates our greatest source of “oppression.”

Again, the Kingdom recognizes oppression. But in the Kingdom, oppression is not a result of people in the majority attempting to dominate a minority and maintain hegemony. All of us have great potential to be oppressors. Yet again, we see a vast difference between these two worldviews.

What is the solution to that problem?

CT shows us that the solution to oppression is liberation. Is liberation a bad idea? Absolutely not. We should not be anti-liberation. Kingdom says that the solution to the problem of sin is accepting Jesus’ gift of grace. While we were in the act of sin, Jesus made a way for us.

In the Kingdom, grace brings liberation. But grace doesn’t automatically come as a result of liberation. A person can be physically liberated but still be bound in their soul and spirit. We need grace to be made completely free from both sin and oppression.

What is our primary moral duty?

Our duty in the view of CT is to liberate ourselves and other people, from either our own oppression or the oppression imposed on us by others. We should overthrow our oppressors and dismantle their dominance. What does the Kingdom want? Repentance and forgiveness. Just like Jesus forgave us, we should forgive other people.

CT is about overthrow and dominance. These terms don’t represent a Kingdom approach. Peter once asked Jesus in Matthew 18 how many times we should forgive a person, suggesting that seven times is an acceptable amount. Jesus looked at him and said we should forgive seven times 70 times—490 times—for the same exact offense. That’s not overthrow or dominance.

How should we live?

CT teaches us to identify and dismantle oppression everywhere we think it exists. We must problematize. We have to find ways that oppression has been normalized throughout society and tear society down to the studs. In contrast, Jesus gives us two simple rules to follow in the Kingdom. I call them the “two Greats”: the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We should love God with our spirit, soul and body, and we should love everyone around us the way God loves us. And we should teach other people to do the same.

Humanism vs. Supernaturalism

Critical Theory, like many postmodern ideologies, is humanistic. Humanism says that if we can just “be better humans,” the world would be a better place. If we write better laws, read more books, and elect better officials, we make the world better. Let’s try harder to be empathetic and to act better. We don’t need to embrace “God” or any other form of deity; humans can be good on their own. We can realize completely our capacity and potential for goodness by reason and logic.

The Kingdom is the opposite of humanism. The Kingdom is rooted in the capacity of our spirit to connect back to the Spirit of God. A Kingdom worldview teaches that without this spiritual connection to something greater than us, we can never truly reach our purpose or meaning. Without this spiritual connection, we are incapable of living a good life. When we don’t submit to the authority of the Kingdom, our lives are worse and so are the lives of those around us.

Without God we are all destined for bad lives and a worse eternity. Whether we identify as oppressor or oppressed, we will destroy anything that is good, because our nature is evil. The only way to fix this nature is to have a radical heart change, to experience a Kingdom invasion.

Critical Theory teaches us that the way to solve evil is to overthrow oppressors because they’re evil. There is massive potential to create a vicious cycle. Once we overthrow our oppressors and we’re in charge, what next? Most of the time, historically, when oppressors are overthrown, those who were once oppressors become the oppressed. It seems CT would argue that they must now overthrow the oppressed who became the oppressors. We are all doomed to repeat this cycle.

If everyone is either an oppressor or oppressed, we can’t win. There’s no way out. Everything is bad for everyone, all the time.

The worldviews of Critical Theory and Kingdom both see the problem, but they see it through vastly different lenses. CT says that if we legislate and regulate better, the heart will change. Kingdom says we must allow heart change before any legislature will improve.

“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” // Martin Luther King Jr.

Does that mean that the Kingdom perspective is that justice and cultural progress are only internal? Absolutely not. Every society in the world needs better governance, better laws, and more justice. However, by what standard to we define morality? What do we regulate our behavior according to? The question remains: Through what worldview are we governing countries, writing laws, and implementing justice?

Culture tries to tell us that we can have elements of CT and elements of Kingdom working together. But these things are too different. They are oil and water—disparate. You can have one or the other, not both. It’s always been this way with the Kingdom, whether we’re talking about idols in the Old Testament or Critical Theory in the modern world.

So let’s decide our worldview. Let’s also take Paul’s advice: live like people who are wise and seek to understand what God wants. When considering problems and solutions, let’s ask the question:

“What worldview did this originate from?”

“But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” // Joshua 24:15