Why Evangelicals Reject Critical Race Theory from the Outset

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I’m not an expert in Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) by any means, just a layperson who has done my fair share of reading on the topic. As with most of the country, I started hearing about CRT for the first time last year, and consequently, Evangelical and conservative opposition to it. At first, I couldn’t understand what about CRT was so objectionable. The framework for addressing and identifying institutional racism struck me as entirely sensible at first blush. As podcaster Jasmine Bradshaw explains, CRT focuses on the impact, not the intent of laws and institutions.

I started to realize that many conservatives and Evangelicals (who are not always one and the same, but they are groups with significant overlap) find the very idea of systemic racism threatening. Fundamentally, the denial of the existence of systemic racism is, in fact, racist. I’m not going to get into that in this article, as I would never begin to present myself as a teacher on this topic. Instead, as both a former Southern Baptist and former Reformed Calvinist, I’m going to address two specific aspects of the Evangelical worldview that make it very hard for Evangelicals to take CRT seriously.

Biblical literalism and inerrancy teach Evangelicals that intention is all that matters.