160. Freedom from CRT In The Church

I found my freedom in you I found a joy I can't lose And thank God it's true You wrapped your arms around me And heaven broke through From the moment you found me I found my freedom in you Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Safer and Brad Martin. Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. It's great to be here. I'm great to have another opportunity. I'm so blessed to record with you, James. I always love getting on here, spending this time together, talking over subjects that we need to know as Christians to be free in Christ. I can't think of a better ministry that I can be involved in. I love recording. I love doing these episodes. I just hope that we're a blessing to our listeners. I hope you get something out of this. And listen, we want your feedback. Get on social media. Talk to us. Tell us what's working. Tell us what's not working. Make suggestions. This is, if you're a listener of this podcast, this is your podcast as much as it is our podcast. One thing me and James love and that we live on, that we feed on, that we can't get enough of, is feedback from our listeners. So we want your feedback. We want you to tell us what you think, what's going on, make suggestions, have any questions, concerns. We're here for you. We listen to you. And so get on social media if you feel led to do that. Just a great day. Great day to be alive. Great day to be here. And I'm excited about what the Lord's doing in our church. Some things we've got going on. I'm excited about some things we've got going on in the podcast and coming up in our future. And with that, James, what's going on in your neck of the woods? Yeah, I was hoping you were going to break out in a song, We Will Rejoice and Be Glad in It. But you didn't. You disappointed me there, Brett, when you began opening that up. To piggyback on what you said, we do appreciate whenever you comment or give some feedback. A guy named Joe reached out to me a while back, and we've talked many different times. But at the beginning of the year, our audio was crazy because the platform we were using to record with, it changed a little bit after our winter break, and so we went to a different one. And in between that, we were recording sort of just makeshift. We were trying to record over my mic and a sound system that I've got here, and the audio was really bad. I didn't realize it. On my computer, it sounded fine. But, man, once you played it in the car, it was really, really bad. And Joe reached out to me and was like, Hey, man, I listened to your episode, and quality is not great right now. What's going on? And so we shared some things with him and told him we were going to be working on some stuff. But, man, he's got a small little podcast they've started called 99 for One, and we want you to go and check that out as well. What a great different opportunity the Lord's opening up with different people, opening up their gifts, talents, and abilities. It was great to have an interview last week with Olivia, some feedback that she's given us with the We Are One podcast. And, hey, we're all in this together. We want to see you thrive in the ministry. We want to see you thrive in your Christian walk with the Lord. And part of that is exposing legalism for what it is and exposing the culture of the world that we live in for what it is and being able to be set free through Galatians 5.1, for freedom Christ has set us free. And so we are thankful that you're listening, thankful that we have another wonderful day to serve him, and it is a blessing to be here today with you. Brett, we've got two things we've been talking about right now. Why don't you start out with the first one, what things we've got going on coming up? Well, one of the things we've got going on, I told you last week, to start saving, start putting back your money, start getting that coffee can, because we are going back to Israel. We are this close. Each week we get closer to setting a date, and it's going to be in the beginning of 2026, somewhere in January, February, March, somewhere right around in there. And we're going to go back for a full trip to Israel, me and James. We were talking to some other churches. We're trying to get a big group over there. Like I said, we've got Marcus. Marcus is going in March of this year. We've got the Hope Church crew is going in September. And so it's safe to go over there. They've got tours, airlines coming in. Now's the time to go. Time to strike when the iron's hot. And listen, I've been on my time hop, and it's been showing me memories. And all this past week or so, I've been seeing memories of us going to Israel. I just got done seeing some pictures of me at the Pool of Bethesda and at the empty tomb. I'm standing at the bottom of the Pool of Bethesda with Austin Wiest and Brandon Neal. We're actually down in there at the bottom. And they took a picture of us. And these are just memories that you can have. I'm telling you, when you go, and I've always said this, there are places that you go to in Israel where you know it's going to affect you. When we were singing and having communion at the empty tomb between Calvary and the empty tomb. And you've got 30 pastors in a room singing, In Christ Alone. And man, it's just there's nothing more powerful than that. It was moving. But man, just getting up and watching the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee or going to the actual stream where Gideon drank the water and watched the soldiers lap like a dog. And one thing I regret not doing was drinking from that. And I think when I go back, I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and drink from it. That's right, man. And that's right. So what we'll do is I'll lap like a dog and you put your face in it. And then you can go home and I'll stay. I'll be chosen. That's right. And so just things like that. I can't wait. There's some. I want to go to. What was that place called? Rendezvous? What was the place called? Razooks. Razooks, yeah. Razooks. You going to Razooks with me? Let's do it, baby. Let's do it. Let's go. But anyway, I am. I am ready to go back and we want you to come. We want you to be a part. We don't know 100% on the price right now. But start saving. It's a once in a lifetime trip. You're going to be glad you go. You're going to be glad you win. Brad, I pulled up my memories because I did a lot of videos from Snapchat because it was the easiest way to record for my kids and then send that to them every day. And so I pulled up to see and I'm sitting here looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada, the location of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They're at the Dead Sea about to go in and get my mud bath at the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Dead Sea. And, man, it was great to be able to just look through that for a minute and see that last day while we were there in February of last year. Hey, man, if things work out, man, we're about 365 days away from being back in Israel. And so it's going to be awesome. Hopefully you go. Can't wait. Can't wait. Absolutely. Well, we want you to also, if you are someone who enjoys our new adventure with our cigar company, we'd love for you to go to our website and forfreedompodcast.com. Check out what we've got going on there. And we've got some exciting things coming up in the future as well, some things that I've been working on. And hopefully you'll go and enjoy that. And we'd love for you to participate in that endeavor for us. But today, Brett, we are going to be talking about critical race theory and the church and what that looks like. And we're going to give you some working definitions for that today. So let's jump right into it. And we'll play our intro. And then we've got a cold open story that Brett's going to start with. We cannot truly worship God while we stay silent on injustice in all kinds of areas. And I know as a white pastor, I have blind spots. So I am part of the problem. James, Paul, elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures. And my friends, we must as well. White people fear black men. That's not fair. But it's true. Jesus repents of his racism and extends healing to this woman's daughter. I love this story because it's a reminder that Jesus is human. He had prejudices and bias. And when confronted with it, he was willing to do his work. I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads, and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints, as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the eighth quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud, and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder. I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love. I believe, glorious God, help my unbelief. Amen. This woke self-loathing... And we will never let the woke left take it away. It's because they're putting woke ideology... To a woke mob that can't even tell you what a woman is. In this season of the For Freedom Podcast, we want to bring to you some enlightening topics that deal with the wokeness of the church. We want to bring to light some issues that are often overlooked, and we hope that it will be a blessing to you in your listening experience. Hey, hey, hey, man, right there! Is everybody okay? All right, class. Before we begin today's lesson, let's start with a simple exercise. I want everyone who identifies as white to stand up. A murmur ripples through the room. Some students hesitate, glancing at one another. Slowly, a handful of them rise to their feet, their faces unsure, some embarrassed, some confused. Others remain seated, arms crossed, eyes darting between their peers. Now those of you standing, you are the oppressors. The room falls silent. The air thickens. A 12-year-old boy named Ethan shuffles uncomfortably on his feet. His heart pounds in his chest. He looks at his best friend, Jalen, who's still sitting there. They've been inseparable since the first grade. Sleepovers, basketball games, church on Sundays. But now, there's a line between them. Jalen looks away. The teacher continues. Those of you still sitting, you are the oppressed. You are the ones harmed by systems that these students, she motions to Ethan and the other still standing, continue to benefit from. Ethan's stomach knots. He wants to sit down. He wants to disappear. But Ethan says, but I didn't do anything. The teacher sighs. That's exactly the problem, Ethan. You don't realize the privilege you have. Jalen won't look at him. Ethan's hands clench into fists. He sits down, face burning, staring at the desk. He doesn't understand why this is happening. Why his skin is suddenly something to be ashamed of. At lunch, Jalen sits at a different table. The other kids at the table glance at Ethan and turn their backs. By the end of the week, Ethan isn't just avoiding school. He's questioning who he is. By the end of the year, he's questioning why he should even try to be friends with people who see him as a villain. This isn't fiction. This happened in a school in California. And it's happening in schools, workplaces, and even churches across the country. This critical race theory in action, that's what it is. It promises justice. But instead, it sows division. It claims to lift up the marginalized, but instead, it forces children like Ethan and Jalen to see each other as enemies. And the worst part, this isn't just in the world. It's creeping into the church. Today on the For Freedom podcast, we're going to break it all down. What is critical race theory? How has it infiltrated our institutions, including the SVC? And most importantly, what does the Bible have to say about it? Welcome back to the For Freedom podcast. I'm James. And man, do we have an episode here for you today. Brett, what a great cold open that was. And we've got a big topic, one that's been stirring tons of controversy in the church, in the SBC, and in society as a whole, man. This is something that we're going to talk about as critical race theory, where it comes from, what it teaches, how it has influenced the church, and most importantly, how we should respond as believers. Brett, what's your thoughts, man? That's right. You know, there's a lot of confusion out there about CRT. And some people think it's just about fighting racism, something we're all against as Christians, by the way, that as we'll see, CRT is a much bigger issue. It's actually a dangerous philosophy that contradicts the gospel. And that's what we want to see, just because, you know, that's the fact of CRT, critical race theory, is it fundamentally contradicts the gospel. Yeah. You know, as you were talking, it reminded me, right before Christmas, we were sitting here at our local school, and we were taking some backpacks up to Asheville where the hurricane had come through and hurt a lot of people. And on the way up, one of the men were telling me about his granddaughter who goes to our church and about how the school did a, they called it a, some type of identity walk. And so they went outside and the guidance counselor had told all of the students to pair up and to get in groups that they decided to get into. And so they all stood on the sidewalk and she stood on one side. And you may have seen this as a TikTok or a video at some point. It went viral years ago and she stood out there and we're in a small rural community of farmers. And she began to ask the questions, how many of you have more than 10 books at your house? Take one step forward. How many of you, your mom and dad are still together and married? Take one step forward. How many of you when you go home, your mom or dad are going to have a hot meal prepared for you at your dinner table? Take a step forward. How many of you have eaten a meal, get this, have eaten a meal together as a family at least one time in this last week? Take a step forward. And one of the young ladies that was there, it was a fifth grade class, she came home to her mom and she said, I feel guilty that we have 10 books in our house or more. And the mom told me, she said, how in the world am I supposed to look at my fifth grade daughter and say, no, it's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. But this system and oh man, the school system got blazed up because of this guidance counselor that did this and did this exercise without parents or even the principal's permission to do this. and all of a sudden these kids began to feel guilty as the story we talked about with Ethan, he did nothing wrong. He asked that question, I didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing here that I did and all of a sudden this is what critical race theory does. And so as we walk through the history of critical race theory, CRT, we're going to use CRT a lot just so we're not saying it. We're going to talk about what the Bible says, how it's affecting the church and really, Brett, as me and you are SBC pastors who've come out of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, we want to talk about how the SBC has been affecting this as well. We're going to spend some time on that and really, we're going to get to the biblical approach about racial issues and what it looks like. So Brett, let's dive into defining the history of critical race theory. So let's start with a basic definition. Critical race theory is an offshoot of critical theory which came out of the Frankfurt School in the early 20th century. The main idea behind critical race theory is that society is structured in a way that benefits some groups while oppressing others. CRT applies this idea specifically to race. Yeah, that's right, Brett. CRT claims that racism isn't just about individual prejudice, but it's embedded in the laws, institutions, and even the social systems that we're in. It says ultimately, and this is a basic broad definition, ultimately it says that white people, whether they intend to or not, benefit from a system that oppresses people of color. One of the key figures behind CRT is Derek Bell, a legal scholar who argued that racism is permanent and that the civil rights laws don't really fix the problem. They just maintain the power structures. Another major voice is Kimberly Crenshaw who developed the idea of intersectionality, which looks at how different aspects of a person's identity as race, gender, sexuality, intersect to create layers of oppression. Yeah, CRT absolutely draws from the postmodern philosophies like Michael Fulcowt and Jack Was Deterda, I pronounced that name wrong, Deterda. These guys argue that power determines truth, which ultimately means that truth is whatever the dominant group says it is. So that's why CRT tends to reject objective truth and instead focuses on lived experiences. And listen, James, that's a big problem. That's a huge problem. Because once you reject absolute truth, everything becomes subjective. And that leads directly into the second part of our discussion, what does the Bible have to say about this? Yeah, and oftentimes, Brett, people don't realize the CRT intersexuality, the point system, there's some type of point system here that begins to work in our lives. I'll explain it like this. If you're a white male, if you're white, that's a negative. If you're a male, that's a negative. And if you're cisgender, if you believe that you're a male that's married to a woman, you've got three negatives against you automatically just because of that. Now, if you're a white male that's a homosexual, now you've got one positive towards you, but you're still negative two. And so, there's this grading scale. Now, if you're a black woman, well, that's positive two there. And all of a sudden, it's this who you are, the outside of who you are, nothing to do with what you actually have done or accomplished in your life. I'll explain it like this, and I sell this often in different situations. But I worked at Chick-fil-A for two years here in North Carolina when we moved back. And while we were in North Carolina, while we were working there, we had a lady, her name was Daphne, great lady, black lady, that's just, I mean, just a good lady in her heart. But she had some hard statements, man. This is during Obama's terms, and right before Trump got elected the first time, and so she was huge in Obama, and just going back and forth on these political issues. And I didn't bring it up often, but there was one time where she just, I mean, she's ram blasting white people and how we're going back into slavery if Trump gets elected. I would just cop, this kept going on and on. And so I was cutting lemons or something, and I just turned around and said something to her. Like, man, that's a pretty racist statement that she'd say something like that. Like, I've never owned a slave, and oh, she just, oh, it was bad. Like, it felt like a grenade was thrown in. My manager, the guy that was in charge of me, Matt, was like, dude, you just set a firestorm. Like, I don't know how we're going to get out of this. And I looked at her and I said, you know, Daphne, I love black people. I said, my sister married a black guy. And her whole attitude and demeanor changed because I was now accepted because my sister had married a black guy. And that really got to the point where it opened my eyes of what critical race theory and intersectionality is. It's all about who you've adapted to become and how many lines you can cross to gain acceptance based on what you've done in your life. This culture that this type of thinking has created has created a culture where reverse racism doesn't exist. Like, like the white people can be racist to black people because you've got the oppressed and the oppressor and the oppressed cannot be racist towards the oppressor. And then you've got, you know, black people who exclude white people and think, oh, well, we can't be racist because they're, we're the minority. And that's just not grounded in truth. That's not a reality. Racism is prejudice. It's a two-way street. And it creates an atmosphere where I've apparently gotten no choice but to be a racist. It doesn't matter how much I do. It doesn't matter, you know, what I say. It doesn't matter what my character reflects. It doesn't matter my integrity or what I intend. I'm white, so that means I'm inherently racist. There's nothing I can do about it. and, you know, a black person is inherently oppressed. There's nothing he can do about it. And that's the type of atmosphere that, you know, this creates. And as we're going to see, as we walk through scripture, is we're going to see that that is not the Bible. Whereas critical race theory wants to bring attention to color and bring attention to race and permanently make our identity all about that, we're going to see that that's not the biblical model. Okay, the biblical model is kind of colorblindness. It's just like we're all the same. And we don't need to make our differences our identity. We need to realize that even though we have differences, we're still the same. Yeah. You know, CRT frames it like this, Brett, as you said multiple times already, there's a struggle between oppressor and oppressed. But the Bible never divides people into categories like that. Scripture simply teaches that regardless of race, and I even hate that term race because we're all one race, we're all part of the human race, we're all part of, there's different tribes and tongues, but we're all part of the human race. We're made in the image of God. Genesis 1 27 made that very clear. He created male and female in his image, breathed life into them, and then love them and placed them in the garden. And we're all part of that one human race. That's right. We are image bearers. We carry the image of God. The Bible doesn't say that our main problem is oppression. It says that our main problem is sin. Every human being is fallen. Our greatest need isn't to dismantle power structures, sinners. It's to be reconciled to God through Christ. Romans 3 23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yeah. Another issue Brett with CRT is that it teaches collective guilt, right? Meaning that certain people are guilty of sin because of the group that they belong to, right? None of that's absolutely the opposite of what the Bible teaches, right? Ezekiel 18 20 is very clear that showing favoritism is a sin. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm misread. Ezekiel 18 20 says that the son does not bear the guilt of the father. Each person is accountable for their own sins and their own actions. Exactly. You know, the Bible warns against partiality and favoritism, treating people differently based on external factors. James 2 1 through 9 is clear that showing favoritism is a sin, and yet CRT promotes racial favoritism under the name of equity. Yeah, you know, and even thinking about James 2 1 through 9, you know, we use that passage as the rich man and the poor man, the way it's applied there in Scripture, but this can be a black gentleman walking into a white person's church, and we say, hey, you come take the best seat, you come take the best place here at the church because we want to favor you because you're different than us, and that's completely opposite. That goes exactly what James was saying, is you're making the poor man your footstool, the rich man is coming in, and it's just you're changing the poor and rich into a black and white, and it fits the exact same context. And we also, Brett, don't need to forget it, Colossians 2 8, Paul warns against the deceptive philosophies that are taking people captive. CRT fits that deceptive philosophy perfectly. It's a man-made ideology, it's a man-made philosophy that contradicts the gospel. And if the gospel is going to be the main thing, then we've got to get rid of the man-made ideologies, just as we addressed with the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. There are man-made ideologies in that movement. This is just another one that is outside of that movement that we can begin to talk about. That's right. You know, over the last few years, many churches have taken a stand against CRT, recognizing it this unbiblical ideology. Groups like Founders Ministries and the Conservative Baptist Network have been vocal in their opposition of CRT. Yeah, we saw a major pushback in 2019 in the SBC on Resolution 9 and the controversy. If you've not heard of that, if you want some education on that, there's a synodoc out on Resolution 9. We'll try to put that in our show notes. You can go and watch and see what happened. and how this resolution argued that CRT could be used as an analytical tool as long as it was subordinate to Scripture. Many pastors and leaders pushed back saying that CRT is fundamentally opposed to biblical truth. Other churches, however, have gone the opposite direction. We're looking at you, David Platt. Embracing CRT language and adopting social justice initiatives that are heavily influenced by it. That's led to a division in many congregations. Absolutely. As we begin to think through this, we're going to specifically jump in and talk about the issues of CRT in the SPC. Brett, my first national convention was supposed to be in Orlando in 2020. That was going to be my very first one. It was going to be the year after 2019. When this resolution passed, our church, we had decided, hey, we're going to send someone. We haven't sent someone to the national convention in years. Then there was a small little virus that went around in 2020 that shut the world down. It also shut the convention down in 2020. My first convention was in 2021. They're in Nashville. I drove to John's house. I went to church there that Sunday, preached at his church. Sunday night drove up to Nashville. It was there for the convention and drove home. It was eye-opening to see the convention at work, but also this issue of CRT being brought up. It's been the center of debate after Resolution 9 at every convention that I've been to since then. 2021, 2022 in California, 2023 in New Orleans, and 2024 Indianapolis, CRT and Resolution 9 has been brought up every single time by pastors and churches, and they've started asking the serious questions about CRT and the influence of the seminaries and the denominational leadership, the ones that are in leadership over this. They're beginning to ask this question and saying, hey, how much is CRT actually infiltrating our organizations? You know, we've seen this play out of places like Southeastern and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where some faculty members have been accused of promoting CRT ideas. Yeah, and that's, you know, we as Southern Baptist, we give to the cooperative program, and I believe it's something like 29% of our Southern Baptist cooperative program dollars go to our seminaries to help offset college costs. So if you're a church member of a Southern Baptist church, you get a discount at those seminaries, and so that's part of the benefit of being a part of it. And so when we see that, we begin to see this, you know, our monies that have been used in a wrong way. Ultimately, the divide in the SBC is really between those who see CRT as a useful tool for addressing racism and injustice, and those who seek it as a dangerous compromise with the secular ideology. And as we've seen it, it causes major fractures in, we'll use the term denomination, we understand that the SBC is not a denomination, they're a cooperation of churches together, but Brett, we have, every one I've been to, and I know your first one was New Orleans two years ago, and then Indianapolis last year, but every one I've been to, when the issue of the CRT social justice mandate, the resolution nine gets brought up, you begin to see this, the people on stage get uneasy feelings, they're shifting in their weight, they don't want to say the right thing or the wrong thing, and they're trying to toe the party line because it is such a divisive topic. I remember in 2021 when Founders Ministry got up and they tried making a resolution that was going to absorb, they had thousands of church pastors that had signed this petition saying that we do not agree with CRT, we don't think it should be what it is, and the guy that actually wrote Resolution 9 got up and talked about how he submitted this resolution and presented his original resolution and they took it and they gutted it and changed it to be something completely different than what he had said. And so there was this whole issue of they're trying to bring in this CRT, this racial theory that is unbiblical to its core as we talked about just a moment ago. If we're going to be biblical Baptists, let's use the Bible as our definition. Let's not use some man-made ideology, some man-made thought-up structure to help us in some type of reading of scripture. That's absurd and that would have never Paul, Peter, they would have never thought of that when they were writing scripture, when they were writing down what God had told them when they were preaching in their churches. They would have never thought, well, let me think of how the Romans would think in this and try to apply that. That's not how they thought, that's not how they process, that's not what Jesus did when he went to the Samarians. He went in and preached the free gospel and said there is this open invitation for all who believe. Exactly, like you go to the Samaritan woman. Even though Jesus, a Jew, was going to the Samaritan woman, all she could really talk about was how her people have oppressed their people. She kept bringing up this oppression that had been going on for centuries. Jesus is like, you don't need to worry about that. That's not the point. It's almost like the Samaritan woman, she was trying to bring up critical race theory. She was trying to bring up the issue of oppressed and oppressor. Jesus is like, that's not your need. Your need is not racial things. Your need is the gospel. Your need is you are a sinner. I think we need to take a note from Jesus. It needs to be all about the gospel. You tripped over the letters when you were reading that. It got me to thinking we need less CRT and more CCR. I go to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and haven't seen it yet. If it does, I'll report on it. We haven't seen any of that critical race theory creep in there yet. If CRT isn't the answer, what is? How should the church address racial issues in a way that is faithful to scripture? Let's be honest. Racial issues exist. There is racism. There is prejudice out there. I'm not saying that there aren't systems set up that aren't inherently racist. It does exist. So how do we approach it? What's our next steps? Yeah, I think that's a great question. And I think it's a great topic. We can talk through really four different ways that we've addressed here today of how to address this from a biblical perspective. I think the first thing we've got to do is preach the gospel of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5, 18-21 makes it clear that Christ came to reconcile us to God and to one another. The answer to racism isn't critical race theory. Brett, the answer is the gospel. The answer is getting back to what God has done. God has sent his son to die for us to redeem mankind, to redeem humanity back to himself. And in doing that, it reconciles us with one another. And we're able to go and we're able to make men's with one another as God has made men's with us through his son. And so the gospel must be the first clearest thing that we can do. Exactly. And second, I think we should reject partiality. The Bible shouldn't engage in racial favoritism. The church shouldn't engage in racial favoritism, whether it's against minorities or against white people. The Bible calls us to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no Jew, there is no Greek, man, woman, rich, poor. We don't need to set up some way to pay back reparations. We need to not be in the show favoritism because that's what the Bible prescribes for New Testament Christians. Absolutely. I think the third thing we can do is emphasize personal responsibility. Ezekiel 1820 shows that people are accountable for their own sins, as we mentioned earlier, not for the sins of others. This means that we don't promote collective guilt. Oftentimes, Brad, I don't know if you've heard this, even in the Independent Fundamental Baptist, all the women that wear pants, they lump everyone together in one category. Those that go to the movies, they're sinning. everyone that goes to the movies, everyone that does, they love bringing a group of people together and giving collective guilt on one issue. It's the same as CRT, all white men are oppressors. All white women are slaveholders. All black women are great. All of a sudden, we're categorizing everyone together in one collective group of guilt. The Bible says that's absolutely unacceptable. Exactly. I think, finally, we should focus on discipleship and not identity politics. The church's mission isn't to create social activists. It's to make disciples who live out biblical justice in their daily lives. When you see a pastor, get up behind a pulpit and use it as a platform to promote this racial ideology, be a social justice warrior, identity politics. It just wears the gospel. The gospel's on the cutting room floor. We need to make the main thing the main thing and keep Jesus at the center. Our job as pastors and preachers is to preach Christ crucified. Our job is not just pastors, but as Christians. We are all ministers of the gospel. If you're saved, redeemed, born again, child of God, you are a minister of the gospel. We need to get back to the gospel of Jesus. Amen. You know, Brett, at the end of the day, if you really break it down, if you really bring it down to the bare bones, which is what we want to do, we want to bring it down to what I like to call the lowest common denominator. Let's bring it down to where the rubber meets the road, putting the cookies on the bottom shelf so that anyone can grab it that takes a hold of it. When CRT infiltrates the church, what it ultimately does is it brings in a counterfeit gospel. It offers a distorted view of sin. It offers a view of sin that if you are a certain color or status or level in your life, then you are good and things are great and you don't need anything else. And ultimately, it brings in a false hope of redemption and salvation. It's a divisive approach to justice. But the Bible gives us something far better. The Bible gives us a true gospel of Jesus Christ. It lays out that all have sinned and we've fallen short of the glory of God and that there is only one way to redemption, not based on the color of our skin, not based on our gender, not based on our sexual preference. None of that matters. All that matters is the gospel of Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection and that he rose from the dead so that we could live forever for him if we trust and accept him. That is the true gospel. CRT distorts that, it changes that, and is a false gospel that Paul preached against. That's right. The church also needs to stand firm on scripture. We need to reject any ideology that competes with the authority of God's word. The fact that God has spoken to man is one of the greatest facts that exists. the fact that we have his word, that he is the creator God, and he's taken the time out of his life to contribute, to give us his word, to speak to mortal man. And if we carry God's word, then God's word carries the authority of the God who spoke those words. And we need to get back to the Bible. We need to get back to scripture. And that's what our foundation needs to be based in. Absolutely. And man, these are hard topics, Brett, not going to lie. These are tough, weighty topics. It's tough talking about them, but they're needed topics. And so we're spending this season talking through this, and we hope you've enjoyed. We hope you will share some of this content, some of the episodes, subscribe. Maybe there's one of these stories that we've shared with Olivia or others that we're encouraging to you, and maybe shed some light on some issues. And so we hope that you will share this and respond appropriately. If you have a question about something we've said, send us a message, let us know what your thoughts are. And until next time, to God be the glory, great things he has done. found my new name, found that good grace, found that healing, and the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending, found that second chance, found my best friend, found my forgiveness, found my happiness, I've been singing ever since, I found my freedom coming out. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the For Freedom Podcast.kom . Thank you.

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