Woke Injustice: A Biblical Response to Critical Race Theory

by Bryan Osborne

Woke Injustice by Bryan Osborne takes a deep dive into the pervasive influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its growing presence in every facet of society, including the church. Far from being a neutral or helpful analytical tool, CRT is a dangerous ideology that seeks to divide and destroy, operating under the guise of social justice and equity. Osborne exposes the true nature of CRT, revealing it as a system designed to undermine biblical truth, disrupt the unity of the church, and reshape society according to a new, unbiblical standard.

Tracing the roots and evolution of CRT, Osborne demonstrates how this ideology has spread far beyond academia, seeping into schools, corporations, media, and even Christian institutions. Through deceptive language and redefined concepts like "whiteness," "privilege," and "racism," CRT advances an agenda that is fundamentally at odds with the gospel. It promotes division and discord, leading to a fractured understanding of identity, justice, and reconciliation within the church.

Osborne's book is both an urgent warning and a practical guide for Christians who seek to stand against the tide of CRT and its destructive influence. By meticulously unpacking the core principles of CRT and comparing them with the truth of Scripture, he provides readers with the knowledge and tools needed to discern and counter this dangerous ideology. The book's thorough analysis of key concepts, such as "white fragility" and "anti-racism," alongside a strong biblical framework, equips believers to engage with the cultural challenges of today without compromising their faith.

Woke Injustice is more than just a critique; it’s a call to action for the church to reaffirm its commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Osborne’s passion for equipping the body of Christ shines through as he offers hope and clarity, urging believers to reject the divisive lies of CRT and to stand firm in the unchanging truth of God's Word. For anyone concerned about the future of the church and society, this book is an essential resource, providing a clear path back to the gospel and the true justice found in Christ alone.

Genres: Cultural, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2024

Reviews

[Josh Rathmell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bryan Osbourne is one of my favorite writers to write about the issues that culture faces with the Bible in mind. This book is simple and makes sure to define each term carefully. Osbournes plain writing style is refreshing and no overbearing. This book is full of scripture! The encouragement to Christians not to embrace this unbiblical teaching and to stand on scripture alone is encouraging and beneficial to every Christian that would read this!

[Daniel Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what I needed to become familiar with CRT and its unbiblical concepts that are such a danger to society, let alone truly living in unity in Christ. I highly recommend it to every Christian reader.

[Broheros · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but I rounded up.

This is a very important read, and introduced me to some other books I really wish I'd known of sooner!

While I have some complaints about this book (which I'll get to), the core of it is so solid- refuting every CRT claim from a solidly Biblical approach! Every Christian should read not only this, but book by CRT authors to know what they're up against. Racism is real in this country around and is a big problem, but telling white people that they are inherently racist because of the color of their skin sounds a lot like what CRT is arguing against. They're redefined so many terms and introduced many, so reading this was very helpful in navigating all the imposing terminology.

And now, the complaints.
Osborne repeats himself. A lot. He reintroduces people he introduced in the previous chapter and reexplains many terms, made worse by his very standard prose. This book is intended to be short and concise, and friendly to readers who know very little about CRT, so I'm giving it more of a pass because of that. The photos, though, which are rampant throughout the book, range from useless stock photos to well-placed and quality images. I just wish there weren't so many! Once again, I assume he's trying to make the book seem less imposing with the sheer amount of pictures inside, but it just distracted me.

Getting into much more important complaints, Osborne has very few sources refuting CRT. He quotes the book "Fault Lines" and the Just Thinking podcast many times, but that's about it. When quoting from CRT books like "White Fragility" or "Stamped", he quotes only from the first few pages of the book, i think the biggest page number i saw was 19, which makes me skeptical if he even read the books in their entirety! That said, the focus of the book is the Biblical response to CRT, as the cover says, and in that case, it succeeds, quoting many verses and stories throughout the Bible explaining the deep faults in Neo-Marxism and human-made ideologies in general- because anything not based firmly on what the Word of God truly says is bound to miserably fail. If you're interested in the topic, this is a good place to start! Though I'm yet to read it, it seems like "Fault Lines" by Voddie Baucham tackles CRT at a more in-depth approach, and it's written by an African-American, as opposed to Osborne, who's white. Overall, this was a solid and informative read with some apparent flaws that I wish were fixed in the editing and research of this book.

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

A CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL STRONGLY ARGUES AGAINST CRT

Author Bryan Osborne (who is associated with the ‘young earth’ creationist organization, Answers in Genesis) wrote in the Introduction to this 2024 book, “What’s the big deal about critical race theory---CRT? Why does Answers in Genesis care? Why should Christians (and non-Christians) care about an idea that for so long has seemingly only resounded in the halls of higher academia? Well, for starters, CRT is a new face on an old idea whose purpose is societal division and destruction… It is a malignant cancer, spreading animosity and injustice wherever it is found with devastating effects if left unchecked. The reason CRT is so pernicious is that its driving ideology is utterly anti-biblical… Yet somehow, various tenets of the CRT dogma have infiltrated the minds of many Christian leaders, churches, and Christian organizations. This is why… we at Answers in Genesis … care so much about it.” (Pg. 11)

He continues, “this book is not an analysis of the racist evils of America’s past. No rational, informed person would argue against … the heinous injustices of slavery, segregation, discrimination, Jim Crow laws, etc. Unfortunately, those things really happened. They were entirely evil and anti-biblical (though some professing Christians twisted Scripture … to justify their unbiblical beliefs)… This book is addressing the question, is CRT the answer? Is it the answer to those historic tragedies, and the racial reconciliation issues of today… Is woke justice actual justice… the answer to all these questions is a resounding no! But… there is a right answer… It is His Word that leads us to the true justice and unity found solely in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Pg. 13)

He goes on, “…the aim of this book is to deliver concise, biblical answers … that can be shared with your children, a family member, friend, coworker, neighbor, or a congregation. This is done by boiling CRT down to its core components… then applying the Christian worldview to provide a straightforward understanding and rebuttal of CRT. This arms Christians with the necessary, practical answers to combat the insidious ‘justice’ of ‘Woke Injustice.’” (Pg. 14)

He states, “It is the assumption of systemic oppression and racism that serves as the ‘analytical lens’ for CRT… CRT is a worldview. It is not meant to be proven: it is presumed. If blue-tinted classes represented the CRT worldview, anyone who [wore] these glasses would see all of reality with a blueish tint. You wouldn’t put those glasses on to determine if everything is blue. On the contrary, you put those glasses on and then, you see everything as blue.” (Pg. 21-22)

He adds, “[CRT] basically asserts: *All of society boils down to oppressor and oppressed.*The oppressors have all societal power and dominate other groups… *The goal is to address oppressive society structures, returning power to the oppressed in the quest for equity and ‘social justice.’ As time went on, many of their members infiltrated college classrooms as professors, working as evangelists for their version of Neo-Marxism.” (Pg. 24-25)

He explains, “You might have noticed that the words ‘whites,’ ‘blacks’ … have been in quotation marks … through this chapter. There’s an important reason for that. You see, in truth there are no ‘black’ people or ‘white’ people; there are not different ‘races’ of people with different ‘colors’ of skin. We know biblically and scientifically, there is just one race, the human race… Thus, all humans equally bear God’s image, are related to each other by blood, and are inherently equal with indelible worth.” (Pg. 41)

He asserts, “We get slavery because of sin, not skin. This is why slavery is seen throughout human history, everywhere in the world, long before the construct of ‘whiteness.’ By no means are the evils of prejudice and slavery unique to America. What is unique to America, and other places like Great Britain, is the way slavery was abolished and prejudice progressively condemned. These movements came at great cost and are horizontally unheard of.” (Pg. 54)

He cites diversity trainer and author Robin DiAngelo and comments, “You’re not allowed to ask if racism occurred, only how. Why? Because CRT is a biased worldview that is unfalsifiable. It assumes racism is systemic and then sees it in every societal structure, institution, and situation… In CRT, everything is racist.” (Pg. 76)

He contends, “Make no mistake, the woke ideology is an attack on God’s created order and design, biblical authority, and the gospel. What Genesis calls good, wokeness calls evil (Is 5:20). So many today are being seduced by a woke melody. Leading younger generations away from ‘bigoted, intolerant, oppressive’ Christianity in droves and causing a tsunami of compromise within the church. What can Christians do?... Trust and apply God’s word, all of it---starting in Genesis 1.” (Pg. 90-91)

He maintains, “Let’s sum up. Along with being racist oppressors, whites… are deemed … abusive bullies who throw fits to manipulate and maintain illegitimate power. They’re just born that way. And it’s not racist to assumptively believe that because the oppressed, and anything that reallocates societal power to the oppressed, can’t be racist. If you’re white and disagree, that’s just your white fragility manifesting itself. It you’re black and disagree, you’re … currently the black face of white supremacy. Critical race theorists boldly assume and assert all these things and confidently say ‘just trust us and do what we say.’ But as we’ve seen, God’s Word is vigorously opposed to the fundamental pillars of CRT on almost every imaginable front.” (Pg. 106)

He says, “Enter DEI, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion. The whole premise of DEI is that DIVERSE groups must be INCLUDED in societal opportunities to achieve justice and EQUITY… here’s the problem, the focus on including the ‘diverse’ usually comes with the dismissal of the ‘non-diverse.’ Who are the ‘diverse’? The oppressed, primarily blacks but also all other minorities. Basically, anyone other than whites. The ‘non-diverse’ are those oppressive whites who have benefited far too long from an oppressive system.” (Pg. 112)

He suggests, “It’s … not being claimed that poverty is not complicated or that genuine injustices do not presently exist… injustices abound in a society with unjust sinners… [But] CRT puts its faith in the wrong foundational authority… Being flatly opposed to the Bible… is what makes CRT so disastrously wrong. Any proposed societal resolution that abandons God’s revealed Word in favor of sinful man’s fallible ideas, like CRT, is inherently flawed and bound for failure.” (Pg. 123)

He asserts, “the modern social justice movement is essentially defined by critical theorists within the worldview of Neo-Marxism. Today’s social justice crusade is CRT forcibly applied… Probably the most vivid example of this is the current LGBTQ/transgender revolution sweeping through America… you will hear the creed of critical theory all throughout this movement’s propaganda… Any call for them to repent of their sin is just oppressive ‘white’ Christianity.” (Pg. 129, 132)

He concludes, “There are only two options: either it’s God or man. There is no neutral ground to be found, either you put your faith in God’s Word or in man’s ideas.”

Conservative Christians who are strong opponents of CRT will probably love this book; but others… will probably despise it.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and fairly easy read considering the topic. Hope to get others to read it as well. Important for understanding in our current world.

[Charity · Rating 5 out of 5]

You won't want to miss this book, especially if you are a Christian parent or someone ministering to young people! I had hoped that I could simply avoid woke propaganda by picking the right homeschool curriculum. But this book (and Christ Over Culture by Andrea Crum) convinced me that we as parents and teachers need to educate ourselves to prepare the next generation for the ideas and lifestyles that they will encounter for the rest of their lives. We need to help them be grounded in God's Word as the authority to interpret man's ideas.

The w*ke agenda (and the Marxist construct in which it is based), is a systematic and stealthy form of indoctrination that is anti-biblical and anti-gospel in its treatment of the problem of oppression and inequality. Brian Osborne systematically exposes many of the facets of critical race theory and its related ideas and holds them up to the truth of Scripture. I especially appreciated his contrasting so-called social justice with biblical justice for the oppressed. These ideas sound like they could be made compatible, but biblically they cannot.

Before reading this book (and Christ over Culture), I had no clue how much I was being influenced by postmodernism and how many Marxist ideas have been imbedded in supposedly Christian resources, especially those geared at marriage, counseling, and educational materials.

I truly hope many Christians will read this book and be awakened to biblical truth in this area, and will become equipped to help a lost and dying world to find the true source of hope for the oppressed: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ's work is sufficient, and only He can save us from the oppression of sin and the effects of a sin-cursed world.

[Homeschool mom Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have often heard of Critical Race Theory and did not fully understand what it was. This book was recommended to me to read as a homeschooling mom with the understanding that in my state I need to teach CRT, but I want to glorify God. This book shows what CRT is and what the Bible has to say about it. It shows how a lot of the words CRT and Christians use are the same words, but different definitions.
It was extremely eye opening and leaving me a bit broken hearted for our lost and divided world that puts their hope in CRT and it's Marxist roots, and not the hope of God.
CRT divides everyone into two groups and pits one against another. One group can do no wrong and the other can only do right. Of course this isn't what the Bible says. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, as is in Romans. We also see how the gospel is for the Jew and the greek and God has no partiality.
CRT is at it's root anti-God. It is another tool Satan uses to divide and distract. CRT can leave me feeling hopeless but God gives me rest, peace, and purpose.
It is not a quick or light read, but a book that no Christian should skip. We need to be aware of the devils lies, especially as a parent before our kids go out into the world with all these lies and terms going at them with different definitions (which are different from dictionaries that we grew up with).
I love how as the book goes through the history of what CRT is, and it's Marxist roots, that there is what the Bible says to each of these points. It is really good to have what the Bible says right there with the lies the world has. I am so glad this book was recommended to me and that I read it.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The twisting of definitions and attacks masquerading as activism over the past few years have frustrated and confused me. This book plainly explains the framework of Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ideologies and other "woke" principles then compares it to what the Bible says. The content allows for compassion of those who have subscribed to the Marxist-inspired ideals while holding firm to the only source of Truth, the Bible. I was able to listen to the audiobook and appreciated the narrator's calm and cool vocalization to a topic that is typically discussed in a highly charged atmosphere.

One of my favorite parts is dismantling the argument that "Jesus was the original social justice warrior." Again, Osborne uses direct Scripture to highlight the differences between this woke ideology claim and the Biblical context and application of the verses that have been twisted to often guilt Christians to adopt some or all of the deceptive and dangerous doctrine. "Jesus' primary concern was the libration of the oppressed from the systemic oppression of sin ... Jesus and all of Scripture definitely declare that salvation for all individual can only be found in Christ alone."

I absolutely recommend "Woke Injustice" to Christians who are aware of these woke ideologies for deeper clarity and an understanding that can help combat it.

[SB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woke Injustice by Bryan Osborne provides a thorough exploration into what Critical Race Theory is and the divisiveness it creates. Osborne confronts the lies of CRT with Biblical truth. I was encouraged by chapter 16: ‘Fear Not, God’s Word is Sufficient.’ Osborne states: “God is enough. His Word is sufficient. There is literally no better source, no other right source, to use when addressing any issue including the matters of racism, reconciliation, and injustice. Let us make sure that the world is not conforming us to its image or that we are being held hostage by a deceptive philosophy.” Woke Injustice is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand Critical Race Theory and how to approach it from a Biblical point of view.

[ETHAN KING · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! Very concise, rooted in scripture, and very quick to refute the many injustices of our society’s “CRT” which is largely prevalent in the school system, the corporate world, and everyday life. I think if every Christian read this book, the world would have a much better view of what Christian’s believe.

This book contains many references, including other books by famous theologians (pointing to some as good, and others as misleading) podcasts, articles, and more! If you want to learn about CRT, start by reading this book, then use the references inside this book for further research where desired.

[JENNIFER MEAD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to reading this book, I was aware of what CRT was, how bad it was and how it was being indoctrinated not only to our children but to many people around the world. I was blown away at all of the intricate details that surround it, where it came from and just how sneaky it really is. This is a great read full of information and background surrounding CRT and the reality of how detrimental the implementation of it has been to our country.

[Julie C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard a lot about CRT, and knew enough to know that it did not align with Biblical values. But I'll admit that as a homeschool mom, I didn't put much more thought into than that. This book really helps break down how CRT is Marxism in different packaging. Even though I'm homeschooling and am in control of my children's curriculum, it is important to be able to answer questions about and defend our positions. Besides, someday my kids are going to have questions about this.

[Grayson Herzberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book exposes the fallacies, assumptions, problems, and ultimate goals of the Neo-Marxist worldview that created and sustains the woke ideas of Critical Race Theory, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and Social Justice. In the end, the book shows that there is a better way to fight against the real problems of racism, and pride in our culture.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Starting Point

Bryan Osbourne researched this topic well, and directs the reader to several resources for further study. I appreciate that he stayed on topic and didn’t revert too much to the basic AiG agenda. I have more to learn about this issue, and I know where to go next.

[Christopher Sweet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful regarding how contrary to biblical principles CRT and social justice are.
This book reveals well the biblical solution to racism and the proper way to make changes through God's leadership and forgiveness rather than tipping the scales of injustice in the opposite direction.

[Rachel Fellowes · Rating 5 out of 5]

No-nonsense, biblically-based and refreshing.

[Allan Nemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, basic rundown of the beliefs of this system and why it's opposed to biblical beliefs.

[Jessica Brogna · Rating 3 out of 5]

He made some good points throughout the book but was very repetitive. The last 3 chapters were my favorite.