On Friday 19th January I gave a talk at the Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, South Carolina. I was given the brief of, “Critical Theories are Antithetical to the Gospel.” I wanted to address the root of the problem rather than the symptoms, which we spend too much time focussing on. It was my point that the reason Gender Theory, Queer Theory and Critical Race Theory are so prevalent in the Church today is because we have conceded too much ground to Feminism.
They are all forms of liberalism. So I wanted to address them head on.
In the first part of the essay, I discussed how the issue of liberalism in the Church is directly related to how we perceive men and women, and the connection with women’s orders.
In the latter part of the essay, I spoke of the wicked roots of Marxism. We often blame ‘Marxism’ for these Critical Theories, so I wanted to look into the origins of it, which I believe to be evil at its very core. We look at Karl Karx’s interpretation of Martin Luther in his response to Hegel. Marx saw that the Protestant Reformation was a tool he could use to further divide man from God’s order. The question is how successful he been?
Feminism is a tool of entryism for the Critical Theories. Women’s orders, in particular, confuse our understanding of men roles and women’s roles and our place in creation, and Marx’s manipulations of Luther’s work are an attack on God.
The reception to the following talk was mostly positive. I have received a lot of great feedback from people who found it helpful and truthful. I received some friendly, charitable challenge, too. As well as a couple of complaints from feminists who did not appreciate my perspective. Both complaints were hostile, emotional responses, which suggested they were not theological disagreements but of a more personal nature.
On the day of the talk, the Director of Mere Anglicanism implied he was happy with my talk. Off stage he was jovial. On stage he gave an anecdote about Luther, made a joke, and provided a caveat along the lines of “we are not forced to agree with Fr Calvin, but the importance of a conference like this is that we will hear different perspectives on the truth. Later we will hear people who disagree with these points.”*
One of the attendees later approached me in tears taking issue with the above comment, she informed me that she had found it very upsetting at a conference about speaking truth, that the Director seemed to be implying there were multiple truths, a plurality of truths. We prayed that we may all be reminded there is one Truth, and His name is Jesus Christ.
*I do not have the exact quote, but the nice lady had it written down in her notes. If she could provide it I would be most grateful.
The following day, Saturday 20th, I was called into a room with the Director and his bishop, and abruptly chastised. I made a joke in an attempt to lighten the mood, saying I felt like I was in the headmaster’s office. The Director confirmed that is exactly how I should feel. I was essentially ‘told off’ for having rocked the boat. It seems he had received negative feedback and he buckled under the pressure. He told me I was disinvited from taking part in the rest of the event, including a joint panel and Q&A session I was scheduled to be involved in. I found this disappointing because the conference supposedly had a theme of truth telling. I appreciate that some of the other participants had more liberal perspectives than me, and I was looking forward to engaging in a good faith debate on this among a number of other topics. Alas, it was not to be. A shame, because I am far from always right – none of us are – I love a genuine open debate to find out where I am wrong, and to work things through in charity with my Christian brethren. I would have loved to have heard a Biblical rebuttal to my position.
Unfortunately, as a result, the panel became an echo chamber. As an example, one of the panellists essentially said it is okay for a Christian to attend a gay marriage ceremony. When the other panelists were asked to speak up if they disagreed or had a different perspective there was silence. I suspect some of them did disagree, but there was no challenge, there were no charitable disagreements, and the dialogue was disappointingly liberal. The same for the conversation on Christian Nationalism – I was chomping at the bit to be tagged in, or for a conservative to be invited on in my place. I respect my liberal evangelical contemporaries, but I think the panel would have benefitted from some true diversity – that of thought and opinion. I had assumed that is why I had been invited.
The Director made it clear to me on the Saturday morning that he had expected me to speak explicitly on Critical Race Theory. Had that been made clear to me from the beginning I would not have agreed to attend. I am not a brown face for hire to speak about race. I tire of upper-middle-class white liberals putting me in their boxes. I am no one’s superficial diversity quota. Anyone who knows my battle with the Church of England will see the parallels.
I was informed by the Director that Anglicans must live with a “dual integrity.” Those who believe in Holy Orders and those who believe in women’s orders. I strongly disagree with the premise of dual integrities. The Oxford Dictionary defines integrity as the condition of being whole, undivided. How can that be the case if the assembly is split on a fundamental issue such as this? Dual integrity is an oxymoron. Much like the Church of England’s insistence of “walking together” down different paths in terms of same-sex blessings. It is liberal fluff used as an excuse for embracing heresy, whilst pretending to be orthodox.
If Mere Anglicanism upload the video of my talk as promised, I will upload it here. For now, the transcript is below. I look forward to your good faith comments:
Critical Theories are Antithetical to the Gospel:
The Critical Theories are infecting the Church. I suppose it was expected that I would talk about Queer Theory, Gender Theory, and Critical Race Theory and highlight how they are un-Christian ideologies designed to undermine the Christian faith. I could, and I often do, but I feel that for an audience of this calibre, that would be too obvious. I doubt I would meet anyone at this conference who did not believe that marriage was monogamous and heterosexual or that we are made in the image of God, and that he made us male and female, and the idea of being trans not only goes against the theology of Imago Dei but is, of course, ridiculous, because we cannot possibly be in the wrong body. We are, as human beings, a body and a soul. Our soul lives on when we die – God willing in heaven – and will be reunited with our resurrected bodies upon the parousia – the second coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We cannot be in the wrong body any more than we can be in the wrong soul; the premise is confused.
Likewise, I doubt anyone in this conference would believe that race is anything but a social construct. As Christians, we do not see black/white/Asian; we know that there is neither Jew nor Greek in the New Covenant – that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, or at least we are all invited to become sons and daughters of God, through repentance of sin and baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. So, we know that the idea of white people being inherently racist and/or oppressors is a nonsense, and therefore, we know that white privilege is just a modern buzzword to stoke division, and that white people do not inherit a unique generational sin of whiteness, from which there is no repentance. We know that every man and woman is equal in the eyes of God, in terms of dignity and worth, but also in our capacity to sin. Whites are no more sinners than blacks, Asians, Persians, or Orientals. So, we can shrug off these ludicrous ideas of ‘black theology’ or any other liberation theology that places a physical characteristic before theology, which is the study of God, not the study of man. Our immutable characteristics, for the most part, are unimportant and have no part to play in our mortal existence. We are all of us called to know and love God, and to love each other as ourselves.
So I want to talk about the root of these Critical Theories, the tools of entryism used to elbow them into the Church over the years. They are all, of course, one ideology, not multiple ideologies. What combines queer theory, gender theory, critical race theory? Their attempt to destroy the patriarchy and smash heteronormativity. The language of Marxism. These are not the arguments of theology, but of philosophy. They are weapons of the enemy, as instituted by the philosopher Karl Marxism.
So, I will address Marxism and why it has a hold on the Church, but to begin with, I would like us to take a look at one of the most dangerous catalysts to Marxism, which is Feminism.
Because the one immutable characteristic which does have an impact on our lives is our sex or gender, of which there are only two, male and female. To be a man – an adult human male – is a different incarnational experience to being a woman – an adult human female. And it *is* incarnational. God made man, and he made woman from man, for man. Because it is not good for man to be alone. This is the first thing God tells us is not good, in the Bible, so it must be important. Genesis 2:18, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” There is significance in our complementarity.
Secular society now preaches that marriage can be anything. But before we could get to the silly position of claiming a marriage can be anything other than one man and one woman, the enemy had to destroy the concept of marriage. It used to be complementary. The woman is meant to be obedient to the man, and the man is meant to serve the woman. Instead, Feminism would teach us that men and women are the same, interchangeable even. When it became a partnership of equals rather than a complementary union of different parts, why wouldn’t it be okay for two men or two women to do the same? We are not equal in terms of we are not the same. We are equal to God, not to each other. Both sexes provide something the other needs in perfect unity.
I put it to you that Feminism – an arm of liberalism – is the gate by which all the other woke ideas gain ground. They are all part of the same ideology, but Feminism is the brute force which breaks down the wall for all the others. The Church has become effeminate and, therefore, vulnerable in a way that it needn’t be. Men, being the stronger sex of the species, offer talents different from those of women. That is not to say they are better; goodness no, women are far better than men at a great many things. Men are simple beings. But we do have a practical role to play in the Church, which can only be played by men.
Read it all at Fr. Calvin Robinson
