Matt Chandler is among the most popular figures in the American evangelical universe, having authored numerous books and topical Bible studies in use in thousands of churches and homes every day.
Having gone through several of his topical works in my Southern Baptist home church in recent years, I can say I’ve heretofore had a generally positive view of Chandler’s theological work and influence. But then it became clear that he had contracted Woke Disease.
That’s the intellectual and spiritual sickness that results from exposure to and acceptance of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the academic poison that has deluded several generations of American college students into believing all white people are irredeemably racist oppressors of “people of color,” who cannot themselves be racist due to their victim status.
The corollary of inherent white racism in CRT is that it has, since before the Declaration of Independence in 1776, bred into the American system of government, economy, and culture a protective “white privilege” that both protects and promotes systemic racism and blinds its beneficiaries to its presence and symptoms.
If you are thereby reminded of Marxist class analysis and Hegelian dialect, you are right on target because CRT is directly descended from those hellish seeds of the most murderous manifestations of contemporary totalitarianism. That so many younger Americans today do not see such obvious connections is an indicator of the grand scale of failure of post-secondary education.
That Chandler was sprinting down Delusion Road was made clear in a June 2018 video in which he described how as a child he was surrounded by “people who looked like me” and how whenever he turned on the TV or read books or played with toys, it was the same monochromatic white world he saw.
“The entire experience of my life was that I could easily find people that looked like me, almost all of my understanding of what made America great is because of the efforts and the work of people like me, and I come from a lower-class Anglo family, and so my story is the American dream,” Chandler said in that video.
“What happens in that kind of upbringing, which is fine, is that there were some lenses put over my eyes in which I saw the world through those lenses not knowing what those lenses are,” he continued.
“So, if I could just be straight about what I am talking about, is that I have grown up with this kind of invisible bag of privilege, kind of invisible tool kit that I could in there at any given moment and have this type of privilege that other brothers and sisters don’t have,” he said.
In 2018, Chandler said coming from such an upbringing would, without the Gospel of Jesus Christ, lead people into judging harshly everybody who hasn’t had the benefit of that invisible privilege, that invisible tool kit. He did try to soften the blow a little, reassuring his congregants that, while, yes, he was talking about them, their “white privilege isn’t overt racism.”
Well, that was then. Now, it’s 2021 (HT: Reformation Charlotte) and Chandler has come to the same dead-end that CRT advocates always reach: White America is devilishly evil and sinister, and it always has been. Speaking to a recent confab of CRT advocates, Chandler put it this way:
Until we acknowledge that we’re dealing with principalities and powers, we’re just going to kind of talk. Until there is a kind of heartbreak that gets all of us asking the spirit of God to break this thing up that was woven into the foundation of the nation.
Theologically, it was. In regard to the system and structures, it was, in regard to the mindset it was. So the quick fix here is for the Spirit of God, by the grace of God to destroy this principality and power that sits over us.
For those who don’t know, Chandler’s “principalities and powers” reference appropriates Paul’s explanation at Ephesians 6:12 of the world’s opposition to evangelism about the saving grace of the resurrected Jesus and applies it to opponents of CRT-driven thinking like his: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
That’s an interesting analogy because Chandler is equating the racism in the heart of white men and women with Original Sin, but, according to the CRT he so wholeheartedly endorses, that part of Original Sin isn’t found in the oppressed people of color.
If Chandler really is convinced the struggle against white privilege and racism is analogous to the preaching of the Gospel, then he is likely a lost cause, at least for now.
But other evangelicals who are not yet so far along the dark path of CRT should pause and consider the realization recently visited upon some of their brothers and sisters regarding the sincerity of President Joe Biden on the abortion issue.
In an open letter, two prominent evangelical Biden backers, Dr. Richard Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Seminary, and Ronald Sider, president emeritus of Evangelicals for Social Action, wail thusly:
As pro-life leaders in the evangelical community, we publicly supported President Biden‘s candidacy with the understanding that there would be engagement us on the issue of abortion and particularly the Hyde Amendment.
The Biden team wanted to talk to us during the campaign to gain our support, and we gave it on the condition there would be active dialogue and common ground solutions on the issue of abortion. There has been no dialogue since the campaign.
We feel used and betrayed and have no intention of simply watching these kinds of efforts from the sidelines. Many evangelicals and Catholics took risks to support Biden. President Biden and Democrats need to honor their courage.
We call on President Biden to honor his commitment to us and immediately demand that the House of Representatives apply the Hyde language to the American Relief Package. This is no time for radical change to longstanding abortion policy.
If this is not done, it will raise questions about whether we are still welcome in the Democratic Party.
I have news for these naive men: You were welcome only through Election Day. Apparently, you forgot that totalitarians define morality as anything that advances their drive to absolute power. It is the same lesson Matt Chandler may yet someday learn when he no longer serves their ends.
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