Christian Nationalism, Not Critical Race Theory, is the Real Threat to Schools in Cy-Fair ISD
On June 24, the Cy-Fair ISD school board meeting was dominated by public comment on critical race theory and whether it has infiltrated the schools to brainwash and indoctrinate children. Those words are not hyperbole used by this author to disparage the views of those he opposes, but the actual words used by the speakers themselves. Speaker after speaker denounced critical race theory as un-American and un-Christian, which indicates the source of their rage and points to an actual threat facing the public schools in CFISD. That threat is Christian Nationalism, the same ideology that fueled the January 6 Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
An article from Christianity Today defines Christian Nationalism as “the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.” What makes Christian Nationalists different from other Christians is that they “work to enshrine a Christian nationalist interpretation of American history in school curricula, including that America has a special relationship with God or has been “chosen” by him to carry out a special mission on earth.” It isn’t too difficult to see why people with such beliefs would strongly oppose discussions of systemic racism that reflect poorly on the nation’s founding and present. To admit that racism tainted the founding and continues to impede the realization of American ideals today is to admit a flaw in God’s plan and will. It also calls into question the past and present righteousness of Americans as a special people with an exceptional role to play in world history. To Christian Nationalists, “Make America Great Again” essentially means getting back to the historical narrative and social status quo that existed before the modern civil rights movements that empowered women, racial minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community. What led to those undesirable developments? New ideas, educational empowerment, and civic engagement.
Those who are denouncing critical race theory are unknowingly motivated by the famous line from George Orwell’s 1984 that “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” They believe that if they can erase, censor, or abolish certain ideas about American history then they can “save the country” by restoring its “Christian character.” One speaker said, “Thank God for the COVID challenge…it forced parents to see what goes on in their children’s classrooms.” He ended his remarks by saying, “This is not what America’s about, not Christ, not MLK.” According to this twisted logic, it was God’s plan for 600,000 Americans to die so that critical race theory could be identified as the main threat to America’s identity. As if COVID’s “silver lining” was discovering that we need to get critical race theory out of our schools because that will solve all our problems. Martin Luther King Jr’s beliefs about white supremacy and systemic racism were misrepresented by multiple speakers to support a “colorblindness” that doesn’t recognize race or racism as all. If the existence of racism was granted, it was argued that white Americans were the victims of racism by having to possibly feel uncomfortable or guilty about the legacy of white supremacy.
Christian Nationalists are obsessed with the idea that they’re persecuted. They believe they are persecuted for being white, as one speaker said. They believe they are persecuted for being Christian, with one speaker asking, “Are those residents who have a Biblical worldview going to be ignored?” They believe they are victims being oppressed by multiculturalism, secularism, and “woke” philosophies. What they don’t understand is that they are not oppressed, but are in fact oppressing others in their attempt to maintain their own dominance. They believe their conservative, Christian worldview should be the default and foundational worldview for all of society. If their worldview isn’t dominant, then they are discriminated against and must fight back. They said the “Gay Agenda” was being imposed on them because they weren’t allowed to discriminate against gays and lesbians. They said that the “Secular Agenda” was being imposed on them because there was no longer Christian prayer in public schools. Now, they say that the “CRT Agenda” is being imposed on them because society is grappling more deeply with systemic racism and the realities of implicit bias and privilege. They claim, as one speaker said, that CRT will “brainwash vulnerable children” and “infiltrate the developing minds of our precious youth.” Critical race theory was described as “diabolical” and as something the country needed to be saved from.
What Christian Nationalists fail to understand about the United States and its Constitution is that pluralism has always been the foundation of our society. Pluralism is the coexistence of multiple world-views and sources of authority and ultimate truth. Pluralism is why there is no religious test to hold public office. In the United States, lawmakers should not make law solely based on their religious beliefs and laws cannot be justified in court by making appeals to religion. Christian Nationalists reject the idea of pluralism and believe that their worldview should be the basis for law, education, and culture. Not content to control the ideas within their own churches or religious schools, they seek to control government and public schools as well. Those speaking out against critical race theory repeatedly appealed to their status as Christians and promoted Christianity. One speaker, who identified herself as “a U.S. citizen and Bible-believing Christian,” claimed that “true Christ followers are horrified to learn how the CRT ideology and BLM have infiltrated many of our schools” and insisted that “things won’t improve until we are more concerned about God’s approval than the approval of the cult of CRT.” There is no cult of CRT. There is history. There is present inequity. There are people devoted to racial justice. The only cult is the one following Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson. There is no “PC crowd bent on destroying those who disagree with them” as one speaker said. There is respect for differences and diversity. There is loving your neighbor.
Those speaking out against critical race theory are convinced that schools are providing biased instruction that pushes an agenda. They claim that they want students to be exposed to intellectual diversity and freedom of thought, but they actually want an education that is biased in favor of their own worldview. For Christian Nationalists, and many other conservatives, anything that fails to confirm or reinforce a conservative, Christian worldview is biased against conservatism or Christianity. If an alternative idea, interpretation, or worldview is presented as equally valid or possibly true, then it is indoctrination. These individuals are not against biased, one-sided presentations of reality, they are against critical thinking and the marketplace of ideas. They promote biased, one-sided views at church and at home and they resent that children are being taught to think for themselves because if young people are equipped to think for themselves they just might decide they think differently from their parents.
CFISD board members and others insisted that critical race theory was not being taught in K-12 schools. A critic of CRT insisted “there is critical race theory in the schools, otherwise we wouldn’t have all these people here talking about it.” The same logic is responsible for 6 of 10 Republicans believing that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. There are people on Fox News saying he did, so it must be true otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about it, right? In the end, the CFISD board meeting demonstrated why the teaching of critical thinking and the discussion of controversial and complex current events must be part of any meaningful civic education. A diverse and pluralistic republic like the United States thrives on rational deliberation between people with different world-views. If our public schools are guilty of any bias, it is their devotion to developing in their students the habits of the heart and mind necessary for representative government to triumph over the threat of authoritarianism. We must not allow the civic purpose of our public schools to be undermined by the misguided and misinformed. There is an authoritarian element in the United States today that seeks to undermine our elections, government institutions, and public schools. We must defend the truth, and equip today’s youth to identify, for themselves, truth from falsehood. We still have a republic, if we can teach it.
