By Ife J. Ibitayo
Three words—Critical Race Theory—have sparked tremendous debate in the past couple months. One of the main questions that is being asked is: What is the point of history? “According to the American Historical Association and Fairleigh Dickinson University, 70% of Democrats say that the study of history should question the past, while 84% of Republicans say that the goal is to celebrate it.” But is the picture really so black and white? Tomorrow, on July 4th, should we laud the greatness of America or ponder its shortcomings?
The Good
The United States has an amazingly blessed and tremendously rich history. We stand on the shoulders of our founding fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to name a few. We evangelized the world through the centuries, from the sterling preaching of D.L. Moody to the thundering sermons of Billy Graham. We’ve innovated, revolutionized, and developed on land, air, sea, and even space. Time would fail me to tell of all the other great accomplishments that Americans have achieved. When I say I am proud to be an American, I say it with my whole being.
The Bad
Yet there is another side to this story, one that many Americans have been recently forced to confront. When our forefathers came to the United States, they didn’t “discover” a new and uninhabited land. They stole it from the Native Americans and wiped them out.
Rampant xenophobia hasn’t been aberrational and intermittent. It’s been baked into the very bedrock of our country from July 4, 1776. After our founding fathers went up to Philadelphia and wrote, “We hold this truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal,” they returned home to their wives and children on their slave plantations. We deported over a million Mexican Americans during the Great Depression to reserve jobs for white people. And while fighting to free Jews from concentration camps overseas, we relocated thousands of Japanese Americans to concentration camps at home. Just like the good, time would fail me to tell of all the great evil America has perpetrated as a nation.
Conclusion
Many who read this article will want to embrace the good and “move past” the bad, or they’ll neglect the great to focus on the evil. But God has called us to a higher standard. Just as the Israelites had an amazing heritage (Romans 9:4-5) and a tainted legacy (Psalm 106), so does the United States.
As we gather in our backyards to celebrate all things American, we should be willing to grapple with our shortcomings as well. And we should take time to thank God that He has preserved our nation for 245 years!
“Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created.”
(Psalm 119:90)