“I do think [the terminology confusion] also happened because a lot of people [today] have, I believe, good intentions,” he said. “That means that [today’s Christians] look back at America and our history of racism in this country and the church. All of the times that the American church did not step up as I believe she should have…and [they] say, man, the church missed some big opportunities to be a light to the world — to have stood up during Jim Crow laws, and during redlining, and during all of these various things.”
Because people in the church didn’t want to be on the wrong side, Cooper said the Church is going along with “woke theology.” The danger is, he said, “They were going along with the terminology without understanding what they were going into, and now I think that’s becoming very clear.”
John Cooper Describes Critical Race Theory
“Critical Race Theory has become this boogeyman term, and some people get really mad when you bring [it] up,” Cooper said. He referenced the recent Christian bestselling book by a Black Christian woman and professor of theology, Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, titled A Rhythm of Prayer. Her book includes a prayer saying, “God, please help me to hate White people.”
Cooper indicated that CRT seems determined to convict people of wrongdoing, no matter what. “A conclusion of CRT is that majority-White churches that don’t have Black leadership are racist. But if they do have Black leadership, they may be racist because they’re tokenizing Blacks…CRT is the reason when Trump tapped Amy Coney Barrett to be a Supreme Court justice, Ibram Kendi tweeted, ‘You know, many White people adopt Black kids — because Amy Coney Barrett has two adopted Black children — many White people adopt Black children to use them as props. It doesn’t mean they’re not racist.’ ”
Cooper said what should be seen as a completely separate worldview from Christianity is merging as one. “People are using Bible scriptures along with that worldview, but they don’t actually go together,” he said. “They’re kind of imposing a wrong worldview with the words of Christ. So now, the words of Christ don’t mean the same thing as they historically have meant.”
Cooper: “I Want To Be a Voice for Unity”
“The problem is that if you’re not clear on the truth aspect, then you cannot have any true unity,” Cooper said. He called it painful to desire to be a voice for unity in today’s culture, but added that as a Christian, Christians must be unified on the gospel’s definitions and not mans’.
Cooper cited the recent fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who charged her attacker with a knife. Cooper said, “The Biden administration just says that’s systemic racism. Well, my woke pastor’s friends also think that it’s systemic racism. Now I have to go march for something because, to them, it’s a gospel issue. To me, that’s not a gospel issue and that is not systemic racism. That’s a different worldview than mine.”
