By Rev. Jim Gascoine, Associate Pastor
Our American society appears to be in a particularly contentious mood right now. A huge amount of anger is being expressed, and the partisanship of both right and left is on full display. A few main issues are the focus of much of this contentiousness: COVID, and COVID-related disputes (vaccines, masks, mandates and restrictions); social issues (for example, the new Texas anti-abortion legislation); and political issues (pick any of the disputes in Congress!).
But what worries me is that this combative mood is now having an effect on our schools.
One of the issues facing our society is how to teach about race and racism. There is no doubt that race and racism are part of our American history. But how do we teach about that?
Initiatives like The 1619 Project and lenses like Critical Race Theory (CRT) have become political footballs in this debate.
Here is my concern: if we are unwilling to face the mistakes and dark periods of our past, we will never get past them, and never recover to a better place.
As an individual I have learned the need to be open and honest about my mistakes and misdeeds. Like every other human being, I live with brokenness in my life. The Bible word for brokenness is sin. I have also learned that I will never recover from my mistakes unless I am willing to face them and deal with them. I have learned that I will never heal from my brokenness unless I am willing to admit it exists.
I have served Dutilh Church for more than 12 years now. And in that period Dutilh Church has made mistakes and had failures. When we were willing to honestly face those mistakes and ask hard questions, we were able to learn and grow. In fact, I value the leadership here at Dutilh Church because of this willingness to ask hard questions about our mistakes and failures.
Our American society needs that same willingness to ask hard questions about our past, and the mistakes and failures of our past. Race and racism have been a persistent form of brokenness in American society.
Do we want to do better? Then we must be willing to have difficult conversations, openly face our mistakes, and make the commitment grow past those mistakes.
This approach also applies to education. I see in young adults and students an openness to diversity that is much greater than that in, for example, my Baby Boomer generation. And I see a far greater willingness to engage the issues that come with diversity.
That being the case, why would we shackle and confine them in their education? We may have disagreements about HOW to teach about diversity, race and racism, especially related to our society’s past mistakes. But THAT we need to include this conversation in education is, for me, a settled fact.
And I would include Dutilh Church in this assessment. We, too, need to be open to the need for this difficult conversation.
My fear: the conversation about race and racism continues to be a political football; and nothing is gained or solved.
My hope: the conversation about race and racism happens in our community, our church, our schools, and we learn and grow, and find ourselves in a much better place.
PS: If you want to read more about Critical Race Theory (CRT), here are two resources:
- Summary page produced by The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race. It contains a summary of CRT in chart form, along with additional information and links to other resources.
- Article in Education Week, from May of this year. I found it to be a balanced article discussing the history and the issues involved in education.
Why read these? Simply because it is much better to understand what Critical Race Theory is before either accepting or dismissing it.
Dutilh Church 