When I was running for a position on my local school board, I knocked on lots of doors and had many conversations on front porches all over my home town.  I talked about my reasons for doing this in the article, “Answering God’s Call – Why I’m Running for School Board”.  As I spoke with people while I was running, one question always bothered me.  The question was in the context of my opposition to Critical Race Theory (CRT) in school curriculum.  It went something like, “Don’t you want the students to learn real history? Why are you trying to suppress the truth?” 

You just don’t want to teach the truth

There is a lie out there that if we oppose CRT in our schools, then we somehow don’t want the students to learn the ugly truths of the history of slavery in this country.  My answer is, of course, yes, I want the students to learn the truth of history.  CRT, however, does not represent truth – it represents lies and the evil agenda of Marxism in an attempt to destroy America.  While we’re on the subject, let’s discuss a little bit of truth.

the CRT lie

CRT (and the related 1619 Project) tells lies that are designed to make our young people hate their country.  If we teach the next generation to hate their country, we will have no future.  That is exactly what those who peddle CRT have in mind…  Their idea of teaching “truth” is to teach the next generation that this country is primarily responsible for the evils of slavery and is therefore fundamentally and irreparably flawed.  In accordance with Marxism, they divide our nation’s population into “Oppressors” and “Oppressed” based on race.  We have seen and heard the horror stories of this happening in schools across our country. 

The horrors of slavery

I am not trying to cover up the past evils of the slave trade.  I can’t imagine the evil of people being torn from their homes and families, sold to ruthless captors, taken to a faraway land, and sold into slavery.  What an evil and inhumane practice!  In Patriot Academy’s Biblical Citizenship class, Tim Barton discusses this history at length.  This evil happened in our country.  In fact, it occurred in much of the world.  The African slave trade occurred from approximately 1501 to 1875.  During these 374 years or so of the evil of the African slave trade, about 12.7 million people were taken into slavery from Africa. 

What percentage of the slave trade were brought to our country?

What percentage of these 12.7 million people would you guess ended up in slavery in the United States?  If the supporters of CRT are truly concerned about teaching the truth about these things, then I would think they would be very interested to make sure we all know the size of that pie chart that belongs to our national history.  In week 2 of Patriot Academy’s Biblical Citizenship classes we host, Tim Barton gives us the percentages of where those people ended up enslaved.  The numbers were: 

• Portugal/Brazil 43%
• Great Britain 24%
• Spain 15%
• France 11%
• The Netherlands 5%
• United States 2.5%
• Denmark 1%

Leading the way for the abolishment of slavery

Now I am not trying in any way to minimize the fact that our country participated in this evil practice.  But, if we are trying to make sure we teach the truth about the history of slavery in this nation, I believe it is significant to report these numbers that show our piece of that evil practice was 2.5%.  It is also significant to report that during this time, every nation in the world had slavery.  Again, that does not excuse the evil, but it does put our level of participation into perspective.  He also goes on to show the United States was first in the world to ban the slave trade (that ban was signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson on March 2, 1807), and out of 128 nations in the world at the time, we were 4th to completely ban slavery, which we did in 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. 

teach truth

So, do I want students (and all the rest of us, too) to learn real history?  Yes, absolutely, I do.  I believe we should all know the truths about even the evil practices we participated in so we may repent for those wrongs, and we may make sure to never repeat those wicked things again.  However, I do not believe we should teach our students incorrectly that the United States was a world leader in this practice since that was never the case. 

don’t teach children to hate our country

President Calvin Coolidge wisely said, “The country is better off tranquilly considering its blessings and merits and earnestly striving to secure more of them than it would be in nursing hostile bitterness about its deficiencies and faults.”  We need to be busy making sure the rising generation knows the blessings and merits of this great country, and we do not need to incite division based upon an exaggerated view of our deficiencies and faults. 

CRt is not truthful

Despite their claims, CRT is not there to teach accurate history.  It is part of a larger plan to divide our nation and ultimately to destroy it.  Let’s teach the true history of our nation so we may rejoice in the blessings we have been a part of, and so we may avoid ever repeating our tragic errors.  If you would like to read further on the destructiveness of Critical Race Theory, I highly recommend two books:  Black Eye for America, by Dr Carol Swain, and Fault Lines, by Dr. Voddie Baucham.  Both of these works present clearly the truths of what we are dealing with when we talk about CRT.  We owe it to ourselves, our children, and the future of our nation to ensure we are teaching truths – the real truths and not an evil agenda of an evil movement. 

Watch the video below for a full discussion of this topic