Published in the May 2021 edition of the Charleston Mercury.
by Charles A,.Collins, Jr.
Voddie T. Baucham, Jr., Fault Lines:The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe (Washington:
Salem, 2021)
Many years ago my caseload for the hospice that I was then serving took me to Walterboro once a
week (usually Tuesdays) and I would typically eat lunch in the same restaurant as I liked their salad
bar. Having become somewhat of a regular the waitresses had gotten to know me and one afternoon
when business was slow one of them sat down to chat with and mentioned that she had recently moved
to the Lowcountry from California and was somewhat anxious about the prospect of a hurricane
although, she noted in passing, at least she didn’t have to worry about earthquakes. I had the
unfortunate duty to inform her of the 1886 Charleston Earthquake and the fact that tremors are still felt
in this area from time to time.
Although South Carolina’s earthquake potential is not as
well publicized as California’s, we do have fault lines in the area and the
occasional tremors that we still occasionally experience serve as reminders of
that. In his latest book the Rev’d Dr.Voddie T. Baucham, Jr., who has served as
the Dean of the School of Divinity at African Christian University in Lukasa,
Zambia, since 2015 but spent his life and ministry in the United States prior
to that, uses the metaphor of geologic fault lines to examine the effects of
the social justice movement, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality are
having on the Church.
Dr. Baucham writes out of his own experience as a black man, born in Los Angeles to a young couple whose brief marriage ended when his father abandoned his family to pursue acareer in professional football. As a child he found himself bussed out of the inner-city to attend an elementary school in Pacific Palisades as part of the court-ordered mandates of those times addressing segregation. He found himself in an environment where he was not wanted and at times experienced open hostility. Realizing that he faced a multitude of potential pitfalls in California his mother took him to live with her Marine brother in Beaufort (mis-identified in the book as “Beauford”), South Carolina. They stayed in Beaufort for only a year and a half, but the tough love that his uncle was able to provide was a needed course correction before relocating to his mother’s home state of Texas.
He then went on to play football at New Mexico State
University, where he became a Christian. Baucham notes; “I am a Christian
because the grace of God found me when I wasn’t even looking. I am a Christian
because of God’s miraculous intervention in my life.” (p. 23). From there he
moved on to Houston Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary, with a decidedly Afro-centric Christianity at the time. After
involvement with Promise Keepers in the 1990s Baucham began to adopt an
increasingly conciliatory stance and found himself and his family serving a
predominately white congregation before a trip to Zambia convinced him that
that is where he should serve.
After
relocating to Zambia in 2015 he was tasked with teaching Introduction to Sociology,
experience that allowed him to reacquaint himself with the discipline (he’d
studied it as an undergraduate) and doing so was “. . . like diving into a pool
of current affairs – only this pool was the fountainhead from which the ideas
that drove current affairs sprang.” (p. 39).
Zambia has a history of police corruption and many of Baucham’s students
began asking him about the corrupt police in the United States based on the
news coverage that they had seen. The research and responses to their questions
produced thereby laid the groundwork for this book.
Baucham
engages in a though review of Critical Theory, which has its origins in the
Frankfurt School and focuses on identifying and challenging power structures
that are seen as inherently oppressive, as well as its offshoot, Critical Race
Theory, that holds that systemic racism is the main affliction of minority
communities as members of the hegemony – white, cis-gendered, heterosexual,
able-bodied males – seek to oppress them in order to maintain their positions
of power. It is a school of thought that is built on conflict and calls for
social justice are a key component of it.
Baucham
notes “God clearly condemns injustice. He is also clear in His condemnation of
falsehood and lies” (p.41). He explores several cases that have featured
prominently in the news and with extensive citations demonstrates that the popular
narrative often presents an inaccurate picture of what actually happened. He
also discusses how the Social Justice gospel contrasts with the historic Christian
Gospel – Rod Martin, a friend of Baucham, has succinctly defined Critical Race
Theory as the belief that “. . . one group of people can never be forgiven of
their sin and another group of people never needs to be,” which is antithetical
to Scripture on both counts – as well as how this thinking has influenced the
Evangelical Church.
Baucham
is a Baptist who pastored a church in the Southern Baptist Convention and was
active in the same prior to his move to Zambia and most of his attention but the
Social Justice movement has also made inroads into other churches such as the
Presbyterian Church in America and the Anglican Church in North America. He
mentions specific cases and challenges them but he also notes:
I am not at war
with the men, women, and ministries I have named in this
book. I love them.
Some of them are actually long-time personal friends.
But I am at war
with the ideology with which they have identified to one
degree or another.
I see Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Critical
Social Justice,
and their antecedents –Marxism, Conflict Theory, and
Critical
Theory – as “cosmic powers over this present darkness.” (p. 219)
He then proceeds to offer
alternative solutions to this division that are based on grace, forgiveness,
and the unity that is found in Christ.
This is an important book that I hope receives a wide
reading and a wide heeding in the Church.
The
Rev’d Charles A, Collins, Jr., has served as a chaplain for a hospice in the
Charleston Area and has recently been elected Rector of St. Andrew’s AnglicanChurch in Savannah (saintandrewsanglican.net). He is a graduate of ErskineTheological Seminary where he is currently a doctoral student. He may be
contacted at drew.collins@gmail.com
