Few recent incidents have highlighted the “moral confusion” conjured by critical theory than the recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down on the streets of midtown Manhattan on December 4. “In any sane universe, you should look at this cold-blooded assassination and be able to bring a moral judgment that this is wrong,” said David Closson, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, on “Washington Watch” Friday. “But for those who are operating from another worldview, you are going to start asking other questions about … class dynamics. … And that’s where you get some of this moral confusion.”

Instead of expressing shock at the murder, many progressives could hardly contain their glee, even praising, excusing, or pining for the alleged gunman, Luigi Mangione. This response echoed across the media, academia, and even from powerful politicians.

Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote, “We want these executives dead,” and shared a post calling Mangione a “hero.” University of Pennsylvania professor Julia Alekseyeva declared that she had “never been prouder” to work at Mangione’s alma mater, calling him “the icon we all need and deserve.” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) offered up this mealy-mouthed sentiment, “Violence is never the answer … but you can only push people so far.”

“The first text that came to my mind was actually Isaiah 5:20, which says, ‘Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil,’” Closson pointed out.

“This is a wonderful ‘Exhibit A’ of critical theory-run-amok,” Closson went on. Critical theory is the “idea that there are categories of ‘the oppressed’ and ‘the oppressor.’” Critical theory takes different forms, including Marxism, but it always divides people into categories, Closson explained. Thus, “you’ll have, ‘men always oppress women,’ ‘the wealthy always oppress the poor,’ ‘whites always oppress non-whites.’ … They demand liberation of the oppressed, marginalized groups.”

“When you’re operating from this worldview, you’re no longer just asking what’s right and wrong. Those categories of objective right and wrong are thrown out,” he said. Instead, an adherent of critical theory will “start asking questions about, ‘Well, who was the act committed against? And, ‘the person who committed the act — what’s their race? What’s their background? What’s their socioeconomic level?’”

According to this skewed worldview, “It’s the greedy CEO of a health care company that clearly is oppressing people,” said Closson, and so critical theory reinterprets his murder as a satisfying comeuppance. It was critical theory that led people to justify the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7 “because, the phrase was, ‘Well, settlers aren’t civilians,’” Closson continued. And “the same underlying worldview” misled progressives to persecute the now-acquitted subway hero Daniel Penny, “because guess what mattered to some folks on the Left? The race of the folks involved.”

Penny’s selfless heroism is “the kind of role model of masculinity that we actually need,” Closson protested. “We live in a Genesis 3 world, and we see the consequences of sin, and that’s to be lamented,” he granted. But “it’s a commentary on our culture when some pockets of society see what happened on that subway last year and get so upset about it.”

“If we start making moral judgments on things that are secondary characteristics,” Closson warned, “that’s when, again, you start living in a morally inverted universe.”

“As a nation, we are divided,” said Closson. Some Americans have embraced the tenets of critical theory that divide Americans against one another by race, sex, or other characteristics. This worldview is not only inconsistent with a biblical worldview; it also contradicts the motto on our currency: “e pluribus unum” (“out of many, one”). Others believe that this infatuation with identity politics and diversity over ability is so much nonsense.

This rejection of critical theory (and its aliases, “DEI,” “wokeness,” and “identity politics”) may have contributed to the electoral defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris (D), who leaned into identity politics as a feature of her campaign. The resounding election results have temporarily cleared away the seductive fog of wokeness, allowing some to see, for now, that the classifications of critical theory are no way to run a country.

But, for the CEO’s shooter and his fans, that foggy, morally backward worldview remains.