On numerous occasions, I've heard Christian leaders talk about how "people are changing the definition of racism" that's "different from what we grew up with." The "new definition," they argue, comes from Critical Race Theory/Marxism/liberalism, and therefore is bad.

The problem is that we don't do this with nearly any other sin. "Sexual immorality" from a previous generation has had to be defined more expansively to include the changing dynamics and influx of nearly ubiquitous porn, the recognition of sex trafficking and sex slavery,

as well as systems, laws, and policies that tend toward sexual licentiousness.

Likewise, our understanding of murder has had to be expanded and reshaped to include ethical questions such as abortion, euthanasia, and any systems that may tend toward unjust death.

With many

of our understandings of sin, we've had to adjust to the growing and evolving capacity of sinful hearts that find new ways to sin. We can't simply rely on a definition from some preconceived "golden age" to encapsulate an exhaustive definition of any particular sin.

In fact, that would be extremely detrimental and pastorally negligent, since we would be ill-equipped to minister to people struggle with old sins manifesting in New ways. It's like having such an outdated antivirus software that it is unable to address any of the new viruses.

Likewise, with other sins and their definitions, we've had to rely upon secular tools and minds in order to understand the changing dynamics of sin in a changing world. We've used psychological and neurological understandings of sexual trauma and neural plasticity to discuss

the deleterious and social aspects of porn on an entire generation. We've used philosophical and hermeneutical understandings of legality in order to defend the life of the unborn and the chronically ill based on either natural law or the laws of the land.

So, it strikes me

as though there is an agenda to keeping the definition of racism from helpfully being informed by the tools of common grace so that we can understand the new and more subtle ways people commit that sin. Sin adapts to new situations and cultures, so it is necessary to recognize

this so that we are best equipped to minister to those who may be living in the darkness of racism.