“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

Truth sets us free from the shackles which bind our intellect. Truth delivers us from unhealthy and destructive biases. Truth frees the soul to fellowship with our Holy Creator. Truth, like love, is so much a part of God that GOD IS LOVE and GOD IS also TRUTH. 

Truth is not conditional or dependent upon one’s feelings and emotions. Christian believers are not called to tickle ears but to stand and speak truth to power.

It has become apparent that not everyone agrees. We use terms that indicate a yoga type of flexible truth, bending and molding to suit one’s comfort at any given moment. 

“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” We are living in the days of a whole lot of stumbling and falling as if the nation is in a drunken stupor seeking the comfort of false narratives.

It’s reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s memorable line in, “A Few Good Men,” “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”

This is the era of conspiracy theories.

And aboard that train is that scary CRT thingy, Critical Race Theory. An overseas documentary filmmaker, Christopher Rufo, sold the fear, hook, line, and sinker with a no money-back guarantee. His biggest consumer being Donald Trump himself who used his former position as POTUS to help put a stop to this perceived evil of the CRT Boogeyman “threatening to ruin our democracy.”

Throw in some dismissal trigger words like “Communism,” or “Marxism” and you’ve got a real fear-based bonfire. And cult followers are more than happy to swallow, digest, and regurgitate whatever the snake oil salesman spoon-feeds them.    

Instead of “the Big Lie” of a stolen election and the January 6 attempt to overthrow our democracy, the real threat was a push to teach actual history from a balanced diversified perspective, as opposed to the revisionist fairytales largely introduced into our educational system by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Truth is the enemy in this scenario. So, the pushback against the “1619 Project” becomes Trump’s “1776 Project,” the new name for revisionist history promoting white supremacy.

Instead of choosing freedom, they cling to the lies to which they have grown accustomed. And many teachers are the products of that same hoodwinked educational system which they failed to question and continue to promote in their ignorance.

Strawman arguments express concern for “white” children adopting a sense of “white guilt” due to the infractions against humanity perpetrated by their predecessors. But if we teach the truth of the pseudo-science of race and its divide and conquer strategy and that all belong to one race/species, should this even be an issue of concern? Or is teaching the lie of whiteness as an identity as opposed to an ideology, of greater importance?   

How can we claim a post-racial America when people refuse to disavow whiteness and racial classifications? 

And what about “Black” children, the ones whom these same critics previously exhibited no concern as they silently learned to gravitate toward a status of inferiority, as demonstrated by Dr. Kenneth Clark’s doll tests. “That deadly CRT will make them feel like helpless victims of a system they can’t control.”

Although “Black” (we have not always been recognized legally as Americans) folks have been victimized, we have refused to remain in victim mode and have overcome some of the most egregious obstacles imaginable and have often done better than our European American counterparts, igniting a response of terrorist savagery. How many of us were raised by parents who instructed us that, in order to be seen as good as our lesser melanated counterparts, we must be at least twice as good?

These are merely strawman tactics and red herrings. These obstacles need to be removed once and for all to create a level playing field for every American, not just the homogeneous group. Just because we are able to overcome these obstacles, does not justify their continued existence.    

You see, when the truth is your enemy, BONDAGE is your friend.   

By Tobias Houpe