Thabiti Anyabwile and Kyle J. Howard – two outspoken proponents of Social Justice – are now claiming that there is no Evangelical Social Justice Movement. They are now insinuating that those who allege the existence of such a movement are conspiratorial or paranoid. These same men who have explicitly used the term thousands of times in recent years and promoted the concept as a new revolution now claim it doesn’t exist.
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…’Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’
George Orwell, 1984
Marxists are like rats who have infested a home. When the light is shined upon them, they scurry back into the black shadows. Rats do not leave, they simply retreat, only to come out again in whatever corner happens to have remained darkened.
These men use terms of Critical Race Theory, until we explain their vocabulary, its origins, and its ideology. These men espouse doctrine from the Frankfurt School until we explain what Cultural Marxism is, at which point they change their approach. These men teach explicit Liberation Theology, until we explain the devilish doctrines of James Cone. In each case the rats do not evacuate; they only evade. Subversive doctrines require plausible deniability, shows of aloofness, coyness, and the willingness to lie.
Thabiti Anyabwile, who yesterday we uncovered had written explicit affirmations of Marxism and Communism while defending anti-American terrorists, used his blog at The Gospel Coalition to allege that there is no such thing as the “Evangelical Social Justice Movement.”
Apparently, the last 18 months of warfare over the movement has been purely imagined. I can only imagine Anyabwile saying “There is no such thing as the Evangelical Social Justice Movement” while moving his hand like a Jedi, as though he can make people forget the past and be blind to the present by the power of a mind trick.
Now employing “scare quotes” around the term Social Justice, as though it’s not a thing, Anyabwile used TGC to attack Tom Ascol, who has become the whipping boy of the Evangelical Intelligentsia after caving to pressure to conceal and discard footage he had of evangelical leaders talking about Social Justice. Ascol’s concession was his downfall, as the sharks smelled blood in the water. They’ve capitalized on Ascol’s weakness for group acceptance and have been attacking him ruthlessly ever since.
Anyabwile writes, “The net effect is that these worldly ideologies are undermining Christian teaching and taking Christians hostage. Via these ideologies, attempts are being made to redefine reality and reorder the lives of Christians as well as Western civilization as a whole. Chief among these ideologies, according to Ascol, is cultural Marxism, which he sees as an adaptation of classic Marxism from an economic to a cultural view of history.”
Then he continues later,
“But the key question is: What evidence is there that such a phenomenon is happening among evangelical Christians today? Is there actually a movement afoot matching Tom’s analysis and description?”
I think I speak for all God’s people when I say, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
The Gospel Coalition is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. 9Marx is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. The Kingdom Diversity Department at SEBTS is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. The ERLC is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. The entirety of Thabiti Anyabwile’s ministry from 2016 onward is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. Revoice is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. Sam Allberry’s prominence is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement. Beth Moore’s crazy claptrap face still droning on with epic-level feminist insanity is evidence of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement.
Jarvis Williams. Jemar Tisby. Jonathan Merritt. Kyle J. Howard. Russell Moore. Karen Swallow Prior. Danny Akin. Jonathan Leeman. Anthony Bradley. Mike Cosper. JD Greear. Walter Strickland. Eric Mason. Timothy Keller. Ray Ortlund. Don Carson. Rebecca McLaughlin. James Merritt. Ronnie Floyd. Rachel Gilson. Ligon Duncan. Matt Chandler. Dave Miller. Brent Aucoin. Greg Forster.
Does Anyabwile think we’re stupid? I suppose he only thinks The Gospel Coalition readers are stupid.
He might be right.
Anyabwile proceeded to take Ascol’s examples of the Evangelical Social Justice Movement in his brief talk at a Sovereign Nations event and provide defense and obfuscation (and he did so poorly).
For mercy sakes, people. Just google Thabiti Anyabwile’s own name cross-referenced with “Social Justice” and you’ll see he’s been promoting that movement BY NAME for the last two years. And now, he has the audacity to claim it doesn’t exist and we’re making it up.
When you type in “Social Justice” into The Gospel Coalition search function you come up with a staggering 40,328 results.
Or, mercy sakes, just look at TGC editor Joe Carter’s FAQ piece on Social Justice.
The assertion that there isn’t a Social Justice Movement in evangelicalism is simply asinine. Its documentation is beyond infallible. Do I have to remind Anyabwile that Phil Johnson accused him of drifting into this movement back in February of 2016 in a much-publicized brouhaha? We’re not all simply imagining it.
Within hours of Anyabwile’s post claiming that the Social Justice Movement was the figment of paranoid minds, Kyle J. Howard jumped in to also claim that it never existed.
