Recently, a Reformed friend who loves the Church and concerned about its direction, recently sent me the first syllabus you find below. It is pure Cultural Marxism complete with its methodological tools of Critical Race theory and Intersectionality. It is being taught right now at one of the putative flagship Seminaries (Reformed Theological Seminary — Atlanta campus) to students who desire to spend their lives in the ministry in Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. It is taught by one Dr. Sean Michael Lucas. He is the enemy and so the less said beyond that much, the better.
Clearly Dr. Lucas and I cannot both be Christians given the antithesis that lies between the content of our respective and competing Christian faiths. It is possible, of course, that Jesus would not recognize the worldview and faith of either one of us. It is certain however that while we both could be failing to express a biblical content that defines the Christian faith, we both can not be, at the same time, expressing Christianity.
You will find Dr. Lucas’ syllabus listed first. Note his entire reading list are books published after 2000 except for one that was published in 1996. This tells us that whatever it is that Dr. Lucas is teaching is a completely recent discovery as teased out by Academics or by those seeking to profit from the victim culture that Cultural Marxism supports. Below that is a syllabus I’ve drawn up to answer his cultural Marxism as Christianity with a syllabus that reflects the historic position of the West prior to the beginning of WW II or so. Note that two of the books I list were written in the 19th century while several others are published before 2000.
Almost 100 years ago now the great Dr. J. Gresham Machen published “Christianity and Liberalism.” Machen’s task in that volume was to make the argument that Orthodox Christianity and Liberal Christianity could not be both, at the same time, Christianity proper. We need another book it seems, now 100 years post-Machen that would be titled, “Christianity and Cultural Marxism.” (And maybe another one after that titled “Christianity and R2K.) What Dr. Lucas is pushing in his horrific Seminary course below, is being pushed roundly in the Reformed world from the PCA to the OPC to the SBC to their assorted Seminaries.
Machen was trying to rally the troops with his work. The troops need rallying again or else it is another age of Babylonian captivity for the Church as led by men like Dr. Lucas.
This post looks rather long but it is, for the most part, merely a list of differing books we each would recommend reading to understand the issue of Christianity and race.
I.) SYLLABUS
04HT6210: The Gospel
and Race
Dr. Sean Michael Lucas Chancellor’s Professor of Church History
Course description: An introductory exploration of the intersection between the Gospel and racial issues. Attention will be paid to biblical-theological material, the history of race relations especially in the United States, and sociological data. Students will seek to work through these issues toward practical steps for ministry application in their local ministry contexts.
Goals:
1. Introduce the student to biblical-theological material on race, emphasizing God’s mission to forge a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural people in and through Christ.
2. Overview the history of race relations, especially in the United States and focusing on white-black relations, engaging with key voices in the Christian tradition.
3. Begin to use key sociological terminology in thinking about race relations and develop theological constructs for understanding these issues.
4. Suggest practical steps for ministry application in local ministry contexts.
Required texts:
Anthony Bradley, Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2013); ISBN: 978- 1596382343.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spigel and Grau, 2015); ISBN: 978-0812993547
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Dover, 2014); ISBN: 978-0486280417
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); ISBN: 978-0195147070.
J. Daniel Hays, From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003); ISBN: 978-0830826162
Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity with Racism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019); ISBN: 978-0310597261
Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (Downers Grove: IVP, 2009); ISBN: 978-0830833603
In Pursuit of Gospel Unity: PCA Papers on Racism and Racial Reconciliation (Atlanta: Committee on Discipleship Ministries, 2019); order here: https://www.pcabookstore.com/p-91508-pursuit-of-gospel-unity-pca.aspx
Recommended books:
Richard A. Bailey, Race and Redemption in Puritan New England (New York: OUP, 2014)
Edward Blum and Paul Harvey, The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012).
James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Marynoll: Orbis, 2013).
David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).
Carolyn Dupont, Mississippi Praying: Southern White Evangelicals and the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1970 (New York: New York University Press, 2015).
Korie L. Edwards, The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches (New York: OUP, 2008).
Carl F. Ellis, Jr., Free at Last?: The Gospel in African-American Experience (Downers Grove: IVP, 1996); ISBN: 978-0830816873.
Bryan Loritts, ed., Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Chicago: Moody, 2014); ISBN: 978-0802411969
Sean Michael Lucas, Robert Lewis Dabney: A Southern Presbyterian Life (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2005).
______. For a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America
(Phillipsburg: P&R, 2015).
Peter Slade, Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mississippi and a Theology of Friendship (New York: OUP, 2009).
Requirements and Grading:
1. Regular attendance and class participation (10%). Since we only have a week-long class, no absences are allowed; because this is a class that will have a number of discussion sessions, full participation in the discussions will be required for full points.
2. Reading (30%). You will be required to read 100% of the required texts. You will fill out a reading report that will disclosed how much of the assigned readings you have read.
3. Reflection papers (35%). You will write seven reflection papers, one on each of the
books (except for Rah, The Next Evangelicalism). Each will be one page and will be turned in at the beginning of the teaching week.
4. Final paper (25%). You will write a five-page critical interaction with Soong-Chan Rah’s
The Next Evangelicalism.
Instructions on particular assignments:
1. Reflection papers (1 page each)
a. For each reflection paper, you will respond to the book assigned by answering the
following question: in what ways did this book inform or correct my understanding of how Christians have or should engage racial relations? b. Do not write more than one page. c. The reflection paper will be written with one-inch margins, double-spaced, 12 point
2. Five-page response paper to The Next Evangelicalism.
• In section one, answer the following question (2-3 pages): in what ways did Rah define white privilege, superiority, captivity, and power (n.b., these words are used interchangeably throughout the book)? Did he see this as positive or negative for global evangelicalism? Give examples to support your answer.
• In section two, answer the following question (2-3 pages): in what ways did Rah’s book inform, instruct, correct, or challenge your understanding of the nature of the church? Did you agree with his insistence on the need for a more thorough embrace of a multi-cultural approach? What practical steps might your local church take to get there? a. The response will be written with one-inch margins, double-spaced, 12 point Times
- Syllabus — Christianity and Race
Rev. Bret L. McAtee; Pastor – Charlotte Christ the King Reformed Church
Course description: An introductory exploration of the historic understanding of Christianity and social order in Western Civilization. Attention will be paid to Biblical and theological material, the history of race relations especially in these united States, considering also sociological data that pertains to race and Christian social order. Students will seek to work through these issues especially concentrating how the West has tacked away from the historic and Christian understanding towards a cultural Marxist understanding as currently pursued in much of the modern Western Church. The expectation is that such knowledge will lead to a concrete approach to these issues as ministers.
Goals:
1. Introduce the student to biblical-theological material on race, and ethnicity emphasizing God’s delight in distinct nations as seen in Scripture, and in National Churches, grounded in Christ, as seen in Western history.
2. Reading (30%). You will be required to read 100% of the required texts. You will fill out a reading report that will disclosed how much of the assigned readings you have read.
3. Begin to use key sociological terminology in thinking about race relations and develop theological constructs for understanding these issues.
4. Suggest practical steps for ministry application in local ministry contexts.
III.) Required Texts - Peter Brimelow, Alien Nation
Patrick Buchanan, The Death of the West; How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization
R. L. Dabney, Defense of Virginia and The South
R. L. Dabney, Secular Discussions
Illiana Mercer, Into the Cannibal’s Pot
Wilmot Robertson, The Dispossessed Majority
R. J. Rushdooney, Politics of Guilty and Pity
Samuel Francis, Race and the American Prospect
Patrick West, Poverty of Multiculturalism IV.) Recommended Books
Ann Corcoran, Refugee Resettlement and the Hjra to America
Ann Coulter, Adios America; The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hell Hole
Colin Flaherty, White Girl Bleed A Lot
Samuel Francis, Essential Writings on Race
E. Michael Jones, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit
Heather MacDonald, The Diversity Delusion
Charles Murray, The Bell Curve; Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
Jean Raspail; Camp of the Saints
James Simpson, Red Green Axis
Requirements and Grading: 1. Regular attendance and class participation (10%). Since we only have a week-long class, no absences are allowed; because this is a class that will have a number of discussion sessions, full participation in the discussions will be required for full points. 2. Reading (25%). You will be required to read 100% of the required texts. You will fill out a reading report that will disclose how much of the assigned readings you have read. 3. Reflection papers (20%). You will write seven reflection papers, one on each of the books (except for Dabney’s, ”Defense of Virginia and the South”). Each will be one page and will be turned in at the beginning of the teaching week. 4. Final paper (25%). You will write a five-page critical interaction with Dabney’s, ”Defense of Virginia and the South.”
5.) Oral Defense (20%) you will give an oral defense of your Dabney paper to the course instructor. The course instructor will be looking for your understanding of Dabney’s argument as well as non contradictory and cogent arguments where Dabney is disagreed with.
Instructions on particular assignments: 1. Reflection papers (1 page each) a. For each reflection paper, you will respond to the book assigned by answering the following question: in what ways did this book inform or correct my understanding of the impact of Cultural Marxism on the Church today? b. Do not write more than one page. c. The reflection paper will be written with one-inch margins, double-spaced, 12 point 2. Five-page response paper to Defense of Virginia and the South. • In section one, answer the following question (2-3 pages): in what ways did Dabney justify the ante-bellum Souths social order? Interact with his appeal to Biblical authority. Interact with Dabney’s argument from history. Explain how Dabney’s vision could work to the end of Evangelism and discipleship. Interact with the content of the book in your answers.
• In section two, answer the following question (2-3 pages): in what ways did Dabney’s book inform, instruct, correct, or challenge your understanding of the nature of the new-Calvinism with its emphasis on “equality” and “diversity”? Did you agree with his insistence on the need for a more thorough embrace of homogeneous cultures? What practical steps might your local church take to push back against multi-culturalism and Cultural Marxism? a. The response will be written with one-inch margins, double-spaced, 12 point Times
