7.5 | the choice

VII | ROOMMATES

Critical Theory is an attractive worldview. There are good reasons why it has become prominent throughout America and the Western world. Critical Theory affords us an attractive option, to define ourselves by our relationship to the things we can’t control.

We can’t individually control who is in the majority and who is in the minority. What CT advises us to do is to define ourselves according to our relationship to oppression. Our intersectionality. Our identity comes from the groups we belong to and their relationship to oppression. Both the groups we belong to and their relationship to oppression are outside of our control.

None of us got to choose from a skin color menu when we were born. For that matter, membership in most groups, oppressed or otherwise, is not by choice. Gender expression may be a choice, but sexual orientation and gender identity don’t seem to be, according to science. Our intersectionality, and thus our positionality, is defined by our membership in groups that we didn’t decide to be in. If we are in oppressive groups, we must make amends for the sins of these groups. If we are in oppressed groups, we must overthrow our oppressors.

What does the Kingdom say? The only things that matters are the things we can control. Why? Because God is taking care of all the things we can’t control.

Take some time and make a list of what you can control. Write it down. Now make a list of all the things that you can’t control right next to it. What we discover doing this exercise is that there is very little about our experiences that we control. No matter how long you worked on your list, it probably had some permutation of three things. Your thinking, your attitude, and your actions. Think. Be. Do.

We have a choice between option A and option B. Option A, presented by Critical Theory, says that the definition of our identity is in what we cannot control and our relationship to it. Option B, the Kingdom option, says the definition of our identity is what God has given us to control and what we choose to do about it.

Remember, in Romans 12:2 God wants to change us into a new person by changing the way that we think. And when we think like God wants us to think, we will learn to know how to live a good life. If you want to live a great life, think like God wants you to think. The power of your thinking isn’t just a biblical concept. Great thinkers have known since the beginning of time that we become what we think about.

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” // Marcus Aurelius

“A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.” // Seneca

Understanding the dichotomy of control is simple but difficult to live out. The human default is to blame everything on external circumstances outside of our control, which, not incidentally, are also our greatest sources of anxiety. Critical Theory asserts that we can one day control that which is uncontrollable. If we fight hard enough and scream loud enough, we will be able to control the systems of society in the way that we want.

In contrast, the Kingdom says that there’s no use fighting to control those things. God is controlling them anyway. So which worldview do we want?

worldview

justice

toolkit

tools

Jesus tells us that we will know what is good and bad based on fruit: actions and the results of actions.

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” // Matthew 7:15-20

What is the fruit of Critical Theory? Hate, anger, bitterness, frustration, destruction, dismantling, overthrow.

What is the fruit of the Kingdom? Galatians 5:19-25 gives us the fruit of the Spirit.

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

There are plenty of worldviews out there, but only one will produce this kind of fruit.