Critical race theory is all the rage these days. It's also become controversial among Christian leaders and pastors. Pastor and professor David Fitch offers a helpful perspective as a guest writer on Scot McKnight's blog, Jesus Creed. Here's a particularly helpful quote:
Various theorists use different terms to describe what Dr. Keller calls “discourse” such as cultural construct, symbolic order, discourse and then there is my favorite: ideological frame. Exposing how frameworks shape the way see people, roles and social dynamics has been enormously helpful for me in the areas of sexuality and race. We are always being formed into frameworks. And yes, language has a way of shaping and creating realities, normative orders that seem like reality that perhaps we need to acquire some distance from. Critical theory helps us acquire that distance.
And Fitch continues.
In my (not so) humble opinion, evangelicals in general, conservative and progressive, have a habit of getting caught in the frame. We argue for or against an issue within the given frame never examining the frame itself. A good example is the way we argue for affirming/not affirming of LGBTQ sexuality and marriage, all the while never actually getting to examining the frame. Instead we assume the frame. For example, we never look at whether “attraction,” and its multitudinous formations in our culture, is something we should base anything on (never mind marriage). We just argue for or against whether those with a given attraction should be allowed to marry or not according to Christian tradition (or Scripture). When we delve deeper into the notion of “attraction” (via “the male gaze” – a third wave feminist discovery in the 90’s or other deconstructive work), we see layers at work we did not see before. We see perhaps that the very things we assume shape the culture responsible for the abuse the #MeToo movement has exposed. We never get to any of these questions unless we ask the question of “discourse” and how we are being shaped into these power structures.