Letters: The C of E’s obsession with critical race theory

Christian approach

Sir: Dr Michael Nazir-Ali’s criticism of our report ‘From Lament to Action’ (‘Bad faith’, 1 May) was wide of the mark in its suggestion that Marxist-inspired critical race theory was the ‘intellectual underpinning’ of our approach. Far from it. The source material for our report was three decades of reports on the issue of racial justice from the General Synod of the Church of England. Doubtless there are valid criticisms which can be made of Synod; however, being a hotbed of radical Marxism is not one of them. Our report explicitly rejects any idea that our work should be viewed as a battle in a culture war. Rather we state that ‘our mandate flows not from identity politics but rather from our common identity in Christ’.

Alongside the 25 reports from the General Synod and 161 recommendations which we reviewed, the other source consistently quoted in our report is the Bible, in which our theological approach was firmly rooted.