Yesterday was Sunday, November 29th, 2020. As most of your students never do, there were some last-minute sprints to complete the homework that had collected a week’s worth of dust. After a few conversations concerning the means of getting through the work, one of them said, “Only two more weeks to go.”
Western Marxism has been interested in a Critical Theory of society that encouraged both democratic (peaceful) and violent revolution against capitalist hegemony. Critical Theory as applied to the law basically became known as the Critical Legal Studies Movement. Critical Race Theory was a further spin-off.
Last week we began a three week series about Critical Race Theory. It has rooted itself in colleges, public education, mass media, Hollywood, and politicians of both parties. It is making inroads in the church, and it is affecting your life right now, even if you are not aware of it.
There was a worldview evening several weeks ago at Covenant Grace Church* in Roseburg. Pastor Jeff Scott showed two videos explaining what Critical Race Theory is, where it came from, and the danger it poses to our nation and within the church at large. A discussion followed. Among the teachers attending were Dr. Kester, Mr. Ritchey, and myself. We all found the information very helpful, and very alarming! We thought that our Geneva parents should also be familiar with the outlines of Critical Race Theory.
And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
I am reaching into the eternal for this good news, but after all, it is true and lasting. The Heidelberg Catechism Question 56 asks, “What do you believe concerning ‘the forgiveness of sins?'” Consider this answer, and how it sums up some wonderful truths:
“Implicit in its [the Constitution’s] structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or “ism,” any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course, or drive both majorities and minorities into the cruelties of the Inquisition, the pogrom, the gulag, or the jihad.” — Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006)
The parable of the sower teaches a key principle for understanding the role of “school” in a Christian community. From this parable, we see the hand-in-glove work of the cultivator, the sower, and the seed in Christ’s Kingdom. When the Spirit sows the “Word of God” into soil that is cultivated to receive it, it returns a hundred fold (Luke 8:5-15).
We have started the year, and how wonderful it is to see classes full of students happily learning. Music classes start today, and we’ll hear singing, too.
So revolutions broke out in city after city, and in places where the revolutions occurred late the knowledge of what had happened previously in other places caused still new extravagances of revolutionary zeal, expressed by an elaboration in the methods of seizing power and by unheard-of atrocities in revenge. To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings.