Friday Church News and Notes
March 18, 2022
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY “Critical race theory (CRT) categorizes people. One’s gender, race, or sexual orientation posits you as the oppressed or an oppressor—a status from which you are freed only when all existing societal structures, which are inherently racist, are overthrown” (“How Leftists’ Critical Race Theory Poisons Our Discussion of Racism,” The Daily Signal, June 28, 2020). The following is excerpted from “4 Main Things Christians Need to Know about Critical Race Theory,” Pulpit & Pen, Aug. 6, 2019: “As the Southern Baptist Convention approved Resolution 9 in June [2019], which promotes Critical Race Theory as an analytical tool, we need to know why it’s dangerous. … CRT rejects most of the things that the 1960s Civil Rights Movement fought for, like treating people equally in institutions and under the law. Instead, CRT teaches that if power is to be properly redistributed from the ‘haves’ to ‘have-nots’ (which in their eyes includes minority identity groups), the law may actually need to be biased in favor of minority identity groups. … CRT is a system that rejects both human biology and Biblical doctrine and teaches that mankind should be separated into various ethnic minority groups. With CRT, people are encouraged to identify with their ethnicity (which CRT thought-leaders inaccurately label ‘race’), rather than with greater and more significant distinguishing factors, like Jesus, their nation, or their community. … Critical Race Theory doesn’t just deal with race. CRT promotes division between ‘identity groups,’ dividing people into either the ‘oppressor class’ (usually, White and ‘straight’ men holding to the majority religion) versus ‘victim identity groups’ which can include so-called ‘sexual minorities,’ the disabled, abuse victims, women, the ‘transgender,’ as well as ethnic groups. CRT is used by homosexuals, the transgender, and women as much as it is used by ethnic minorities. In CRT, ‘whiteness’ refers to anything identifying with power or privilege as it relates to the ‘majority class’ (usually, those who hold ethnic or religious majority). For CRT theorists, to be white is to have privilege, and to have privilege is to be white. … CRT views race as a pure social construct, anyone who enjoys social, political, racial, economic, or cultural standing that is better than the average can be classified as a part of the ‘White Identity Class’ whether or not they are Caucasian, have light skin, or are of European descent. Likewise in CRT, being ‘black’ means one’s identification with oppression (much of this is from the work of James Cone who founded Black Liberation Theology and went so far as to say Jesus was black because he identified with the oppressed). In this sense, one can be ‘black’ even if they do not have dark skin or African or Islander ancestry, so long as they identify themselves with an oppressed people group. … if there are homosexuals who are white, because they face bigotry, they have ‘blackness’ and are not considered to have oppressive ‘whiteness.’ CRT teaches that all white people (unless they can identify with another minority group like the disabled, homosexual, transgender, or victims) suffer from racism, because they have power and exhibit ‘micro-aggressions’ (invisible or unperceivable slights of language and behavior that indicate the person is secretly a racist) that demonstrate bigotry” (Pulpit & Pen, Aug. 6, 2019).
BEN CARSON SAYS CRITICAL RACE THEORY IS “A BUNCH OF GARBAGE” – The following is excerpted from “Critical Race Theory,” ChristianHeadlines.com, July 6, 2021: “Neurosurgeon and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Sunday called Critical Race Theory ‘a bunch of garbage,’ saying it would redefine what American society ‘is based on.’ Carson made the comments during an Independence Day interview with Newsmax’s Eric Bolling, who began by asking Carson to define CRT. ‘It’s an attempt to use race as a mechanism for redefining our society, redefining what it was based on, and how it impacts everybody,’ Carson said. ‘And it wants our people to believe that your race is the most critical determinant of who you are and what happens to you in our society. In other words, it’s a bunch of garbage.’ … Britannica says Critical Race Theorists ‘hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.’ Critical Race Theory, Carson said, is dividing America. … ‘Our country is a magnificent place,’ Carson said. ‘It can’t be destroyed by Russia or China, or Iran or North Korea. But it can be destroyed from within–there’s no question about that. That’s what Jesus meant when he said a house divided cannot stand. Lincoln reiterated that, and we need to recognize that we, the American people, are not enemies. … America’s schools, Carson said, are changing–for the worse–what America’s youth believe about the country. ‘It was Vladimir Lenin who said, Give me your children, to teach for four years, and the seeds that I plant will never be uprooted,’ Carson said. Supporters of CRT, he said, ‘know the importance of getting into the school systems, and indoctrinating the young people, and that will have a permanent effect.’ … ‘They’ve been taught to hate the United States [and] hate who we are. If they were taught the true history, they would recognize that this is a time to celebrate who we are, and particularly in the black community. When I was a kid growing up, it was a big deal when some black person came on television in a non-servant role. And now you have black admirals and generals and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and presidents [of] universities – even Ivy League schools, a black president, black vice president. I mean, give me a break!’”
AMERICA’S LARGEST TEACHERS UNION VOWS TO TEACH CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN ALL 50 STATES – The following is excerpted from “Nation’s Largest Teachers Union,” The Daily Wire, July 5, 2021: “The nation’s largest teacher’s union pledged to teach critical race theory–the ideology that claims America is irredeemably rooted in racism–in all 50 states and across the more than 14,000 school districts the union works with. … In what the NEA claims to be the inclusion of ‘accurate and honest teaching,’ it vowed to ‘oppose attempts to ban critical race theory’ and the New York Times’ ‘1619 Project,’ which has been scrutinized by historians as ahistorical. Several states across the country are fighting back against critical race theory by banning educators from teaching it as fact in public school classrooms. Idaho was the first state to pass laws banning critical race theory, and other states such as Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Florida, and Iowa passed similar legislation. Despite the bans, thousands of teachers nationwide have pledged to continue teaching critical race theory.” CONCLUDING COMMENT: The teacher’s union quickly removed its pledge to teach critical race theory from their web site after the issue became national news, but this does not indicate a change of heart, just cowardly deception.
HUNGARY PRO-LIFE, PRO-FAMILY PRESIDENT AND CONSTITUTION – The following is excerpted from “Pro-Life, Pro-Family,” The Daily Wire, Mar. 10, 2022: “Hungary has chosen a pro-life, pro-family mother of three to become the country’s first female president. Katalin Novak, the country’s former Minister for Family Affairs, was elected by a two-thirds majority in the Hungarian Parliament, according to Hungary Today. … Hungary’s pro-family policies have been painted as ‘far-right’ by both Western media and left-wing Hungarian media. In 2019, the new president told the National Catholic Register that ‘in many cases, everything is considered far right; that is to the right of a given position.’ ‘Is it far right and extremist to support families? … Our main aim is to provide opportunities and to make it possible for young Hungarians to freely decide about their lives. Is this far right?’ … The 2011 Hungarian Constitution protects ‘the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman,’ supports family systems and caring for the elderly, and recognizes life from conception. … Novak told The Daily Caller that Hungary has introduced pro-family concepts into the national curriculum in schools … Hungary also focuses on training teachers, Novak said, because ‘no matter what you put in the textbooks, if the teachers do not share the same mindset’ teaching pro-family concepts will fail. … Novak also laughed off the idea that someone who wishes to save the planet must abstain from having children, calling such a sentiment ‘crazy’ and noting that such ideas were not common in Hungary. ‘We just say that it’s stupid,’ she said, adding, ‘That is an advantage of our politics, we speak frankly, we are outspoken. We use simple language that everyone understands. If you don’t have children, for whom do you preserve the planet for?’ she asked.”
ANTIBIOTICS: “EVOLUTION” AND SUPER-WEAPONS – The following is from CreationMoments.com, November 11, 2021: “Antibiotic resistance is one of the most troubling properties of certain strains of bacteria. If a strain of bacteria has developed resistance, then it is very difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate. Certain such strains have developed in hospitals, where their non-resistant cousins have all been killed off by the antibiotics, leaving only the resistant ones left to cause damage. Evolutionists claim that the bacterial strains have ‘evolved’ antibiotic resistance, in a classic example of bait-and-switch. While it is true that the bacteria have changed, this is not evolution in the Darwinian sense because no new genetic information has been formed. Indeed, resistant bacteria have lost information which otherwise would have switched on a mechanism, enabling antibiotics to penetrate the bacteria. So this is the opposite of biological evolution and akin to the old saying that ‘the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind.’ Now, a new medicine has been developed which appears to kill all bacteria, including those that are supposedly resistant. But scientists cannot examine how it works. To see how an antibiotic works, it is usually necessary to breed many generations of bacteria until they develop resistance and then reverse engineer how that resistance happens. So the new antibiotic’s very power actually prevents the discovery of how it works! When God made this world, He made it perfect, so that, whatever purposes bacteria had in that world, they were benign purposes for the glory of God. Author: Paul F. Taylor. Ref: Princeton University. ‘Poisoned arrow defeats antibiotic-resistant bacteria: A dual-mechanism antibiotic kills Gram-negative bacteria and avoids drug resistance,’ ScienceDaily, 3 June 2020.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
Friday Church News Notes, March 18, 2022, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143