Opinion: Biblical basis for critical race theory is justice, fair dealings between groups
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a slogan to attack teachers for honestly teaching American history and also for politicians and others to control teachers and the education system, often through controlling school boards. Actually, I believe CRT is an idea which has foundations in the Bible. This basic thought is repentance, one of the basic teachings of the Bible that can be described as turning, changing, and beginning again. What is important in CRT is that repentance is not only applied to individuals, but also to groups in societies and to whole nations. It is what we begin to do when we say “confessions” in common worship.
The modern origin of CRT is in a larger field of thought called “Critical Theory” that was developed by a group of scholars in Germany. The scholars included historians, social scientists, and philosophers. First, we must get rid of the idea that CRT is a product of Marxism. There were some Marxists among the scholars in the field of Critical Theory, but social scientists generally recognize that Marx had some important early ideas in sociology. Probably the most important was that people’s viewpoints were influenced by their social situation, which is now common sense. Marx went to an extreme in distinguishing social classes, in becoming anti-religious, and, of course, in advocating violent revolution. But he helped to found the field of sociology of knowledge. (Think how what you know and think is influenced by your social background.)
The Critical Theory scholars were interested in analyzing societies to see how different segments or groups in societies took advantage of other groups to keep them from exercising their rights. The aim of the scholars was to bring liberation to groups in societies that were unjustly disadvantaged through laws, rules, customs, or any other means. This meant analyzing societies to understand the many relationships between groups within societies. Every society contains different groups with different inter-relationships.
Turning specifically to CRT, some American lawyers and scholars saw that this scholarship in Europe would be useful for understanding how some groups take advantage of other groups. The nature of American society is that it has a large African-American social group, but also other groups, such as indigenous people, Asians, and other immigrant groups that came from Europe. Race distinctions provided a basis for individuals and groups with power to take advantage of particular racial groups, such as minorities or new arrivals, often lacking political influence and power. The American scholars took the term CRT for their social analyses, “critical” being another word for “analytical” as in literary criticism or historical criticism.
For me, the biblical foundation for CRT is a strong emphasis in the prophets and the Bible as a whole on justice and fair dealings between individuals and groups and the continuing need to change from wrong to right dealings and make corrections. This is “repentance.” Bringing liberation to the oppressed is the ongoing responsibility of religious people and of democracies. Unfortunately, in history, oppressions have been so heavy and the sense of hopelessness of people so great that people have used Marxist ideology to cause revolutions. Adding to internal oppression is the domination of an outside power or powers. Opposing outside domination gives an added boost to revolutionaries. I saw this happen in China, where I grew up, and we saw this in Cuba and other South American countries.
The people who use CRT as a scare tactic to push their own power and extend control over the education system distort historical truth and reality that most teachers know about unjust treatment of groups. Many teachers can avoid the control by simply teaching the truths in CRT as actual history, for example, in slavery, segregation, and various forms of discrimination, such as “red-lining” in real estate deals to mark off various neighborhoods segregated along racial, social, and economic lines.
What is encouraging is that the important history of progress can be taught with the stories of people, such as Rosa Parks and the many marchers and Freedom Riders who persisted in spite of physical attacks in overcoming barriers erected against them. Also, there are countless others in courts, legislatures, churches, businesses, and other organizations that have worked for change. America in its educational system should give tools to students to critically analyze and learn how to improve our society. CRT is a valuable tool for learning how societies fail, but also can be changed.
Rev. Dr. Robert L. Montgomery is a Presbyterian minister with a degree from Emory University in the Social Scientific Study of Religion.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Biblical basis for critical race theory: fair dealings and repentance
