crt (dun, dun, dun)
Anyone else absolutely bewildered by CRT (critical race theory)? Me too. People are up in arms about this topic and honestly, it’s a hot mess of accusations and name-calling.
When it comes to these really hot-button topics I have a few personal policies to keep myself grounded.
God-given tension
It’s a little unnerving when a book of the Bible gets all up in our business. Reading through Solomon’s realizations in the book of Ecclesiastes is like having someone put words to deeply felt truths and insecurities. It’s at once an uncomfortable exposure and consoling company. The author sums up a universal tension: how the temporal nature of this world chafes (see Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:11,17, 26; 4:7) with our desire to put a permanent significance to our earthly work (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Like perpetual mismatched socks, on the left we wear the eternal, and on the right we put on the temporal, and every day we are reminded of it.
red flag, green flag
I once heard a sermon where the pastor (who was agriculturally savvy) put a photo of an enormous, stunning tree on the screen behind him. He told us the name, gave us specific details about its environment, and described the root structure. And at the end of his sermon, he revealed that he had been lying to us for the entire half-hour. {insert appropriate gasp here} Everything he had taught us about the tree was completely false.
I remember being shocked. He had totally hooked me and I had believed him without question. His point was that we should do a little fact-checking every now and then, even from people we trusted.
This puts us in a spot, though, doesn’t it? In a hyper-connected world where you can turn on a podcast, read a blog, watch YouTube from ANYONE, how can we decide who to trust? Especially about the Bible?
how could there have been light before the sun?
Here’s the most important thing: The ancient man was more concerned with the purpose of creation, not the actual matter or process of creation. The creation of nature tells us about the nature of the Creator.
calling for a comeback
I'm calling for an OT comeback (specifically in American white evangelical churches) because the left side of the Bible has entire sections devoted to teaching justice and wisdom. Books like Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and the last half of Exodus. These books have primarily been left closed because they are contextually tricky (at least initially). In regular Sunday services, it’s unlikely we’ve heard a six-week series about Leviticus. Or an in-depth analysis on Deuteronomy. As a result, many of us are trying to react to hashtagged opinions without knowing how God determines justice.
But this may be good news! NOW we are hungry, and NOW we want to understand it for ourselves. And since we are relatively clueless about these odd books, there isn’t much to deconstruct. We are ripe and ready for a healthy dose of Biblical orientation towards justice and wisdom.