Karlin Bilcher

I’m holding hands with my two children. My daughter on my right, my son on my left. It’s a gorgeous Idaho summer day and we’re lucky because Amusement Park has been on our calendar for months. Our necks are craned as we stare skyward toward a giant roller coaster. One of my children is recoiling and terrified, the other is standing on tippy toes and thrilled. They are experiencing this event quite differently! I felt pinned down, lacking the tools to navigate this complex situation. How do I validate each perspective? How do I chart a course forward that affirms their respective viewpoints and doesn’t alienate one or the other? I was confused. Of course, there’s no virtue in loving or hating rollercoasters, it’s just a rollercoaster. However, each of my kids had very strong, yet polar opposite reactions to it. I could have used some training!

Something else I find confusing, why are so many of my Christian brothers and sisters are up in arms about Critical Race Theory. As a Christian and local pastor, I just don’t get it. As I understand it, CRT is just a theory, theories offer educated guesses or hypotheses in order to imagine previously untested ideas. The hope being that exercising the theory will bring us closer to reality. Consider other time-tested theories. The theory of gravitational pull for example, without it Newton wouldn’t have offered a hypothesis around why the apple fell from the tree and didn’t float away. Without Einstein’s theory of relativity, we’d never have been able to navigate space travel, let alone employ the GPS function of our phones. What might there be for us to learn from other theories like Critical Race Theory? If we’re cool with gravity and relativity, might it be the “race” aspect of Critical Race Theory that gives us pause? It’s an understatement to say that different races experience the world in different ways. Two different races of people can stare at the same metaphorical “roller coaster”, one experiences joy, while other experiences terror. Perhaps CRT can help Christian’s to navigate these complicated relationships with grace, empathy and understanding.

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