This episode provides an historical overview of evangelical Christianity, highlighting the decline of Biblical literacy and a Biblical worldview in the last 50 years. While roughly one-third of Americans identify as evangelical, only 10% meet the criteria based on the core doctrine tests of Biblicism, crucicentrism, and conversionism. And only 40% of these evangelicals actually have a Biblical worldview. Interestingly, this decline in Biblically-based Christianity has occurred while Christian influence in the political sphere has dramatically increased. The concurrence of these two trends is the backdrop of the perfect storm of the invasion of identity politics in the American church.
The evangelical response to oppression must be more than a gospel presentation
This episode on identity politics deals with LGBTQ and the challenges on reaching people from this background. The core assumptions behind LGBTQ and the Biblical worldview are polar opposites. While Christianity teaches that sexual orientation is a choice, LGBTQ defenders and participants mostly view sexual orientation as a given at birth, and just like race, class, and sex, LGBTQ identity is not a choice. This seemingly insurmountable disagreement over core assumptions can be bridged by the Christian's testimony, in which many testify how God called heterosexual believers to repent and abandon their old sinful identities. By asserting that Christianity is an equal opportunity offender to ALL sinners, hopefully we can better reach for Christ those embracing LGBTQ.
Carnality in the Church can lead to Identity Politics
This episode continues the application of embracing our identity in Christ and addresses the failure to fully embrace that identity in the Christian church. Factions and divisions within the church are sometimes based on Christian carnality in which Christ as our true identity is not urgently pursued. Sectarianism and religious division mixed with politics can lead to identity politics within the Church.
Calvary: the ultimate Payback for Oppression
This episode continues the theme of bridge-building to those who embrace identity politics by focusing on the universal demand for justice and the intuitive grasp of justice in all men. Even atheists demand justice when their rights are abridged. The episode explores the ultimate redress of all injustice in the sacrificial death of Christ, where the oppression of all oppressors was placed on Christ. The satisfaction of the demands of justice is a theme that potentially resonates with practitioners of identity politics.
Christ, our True Identity
This episode unpacks the process of sanctification, in which we progressively abandon fleshly identities and make Christ our true identity. It culminates with 1 Peter 2:9-11 which describes our true identity as a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." This identity puts fleshly identities in perspective, Peter describing Christians as "aliens" who reject worldly lusts. Put together with 1 John 2:16, Christians are those who reject fleshly identities borne out of the boastful pride of life. The implication is that identity politics should never be embraced by a Christian.
Identity Politics Rooted in Idolatry
This episode provides the grand Biblical narrative of mankind's problem: mankind was originally called to rule on God's behalf based on the image of God in man, but because of the fall, has exchanged the truth of God for a lie, being consumed by idolatrous worship of himself and his own desires. Identity politics' exaltation of secondary characteristics into primary ones (race, class, sex, etc.) is a natural bi-product of the Great Exchange, in which unregenerate man exchanges the truth of God for a lie, an image in the form of corruptible man. The Biblical solution to mankind's problem centers on the remaking of mankind into the image of Christ.
Identity Politics: Making the Secondary Primary
This episodes addresses how identity politics exalts secondary characteristics of identity, like race, class and sex--into fundamental markers of identity. Racial profiling is an obvious application of such an unjust approach. White privilege and white guilt amount to racial profiling applied to whites. Both are unjust and miss the standard of Biblical justice.
Identity Politics motivated by grievance
Identity politics is actually an easy scapegoat for anyone not finding their identity in Christ, particularly those who haven't gained God's perspective on their grievances. I give my testimony how worldly wealth categories led to grievance in my own life and my embrace of classism, a category of identity politics.
Identity Politics and the Bible: addressing symptoms vs. universal sin
This episode tackles the deficient view of sin in identity politics, where the depravity of human nature is not addressed. Identity politics focuses on symptoms of oppression without dealing with the sinful root of universal human depravity .
To oppress or not to oppress: the superficial “sin” lens of identity politics
This episode draws the stark contrast between oppression and sin, the respective lenses of identity politics and the Bible respectively. "Sin" in identity politics is largely defined by participation, willing or not, in oppressor/oppressee groups. God is not really in view. This worldview contrasts sharply with the Biblical assessment of man's problem: sin is universal, and oppression/victim status among groups is part of the much larger universal problem of sin.