In 1 John 3:18, Christians are exhorted— “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” As Christians (and as a society) we ought to prize and promote the expression of truth. Nonetheless, this is difficult because the idea of objective truth has become controversial.
For instance, one commentator wrote about the representation of black journalists, saying, “The views and inclinations of whiteness are accepted as the objective neutral. When black and brown reporters and editors challenge those conventions, it’s not uncommon for them to be pushed out, reprimanded or robbed of new opportunities.”
This comment’s implication is simple: What is “objective” has been defined by whites and is therefore untrustworthy. There are ample grounds for criticizing the sources of authority that deign to define objective truth. However, this reasonable sentiment has swung so far that the very idea of making objective truth claims has been culturally obliterated.
The definition of truth has become even more important as the buzz-phrase “critical race theory” has filled headlines in the past year. It most recently popped up in relation to conservative backlash against its implementation in school curriculums across the nation. This phenomenon has become especially relevant as the Biden Administration’s Department of Education (DOE) just released a proposed rule that would give priority funding to “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives.”
Conservatives are justified in being outraged by this favoritism on the part of the DOE. While many conservatives should do a better job acknowledging the damaging actions that have been taken against minority groups, critical race theory is “highly problematic”— to borrow from liberal vernacular.
Critical race theory is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as an “intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour [sic].”
This theory symbolizes the kind of over-simplified thinking that diminishes the truth that Christians are supposed to love— because its proponents reduce everything about American society to the idea of power and oppression. It leaves no room for anything else— especially in the underdeveloped black-and-white minds of children.
Favoring and punishing schools based on how well they teach the “right” interpretation of this alleged American caste system is dangerous— because the so-called racial reckoning that it promotes will only breed vengeance. There is a reason that 1 Peter 3:9 teaches, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult …” False piety and over-simplifications slammed into a school’s curriculum will not make students more compassionate and kinder to one another.
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