Last year I joined a group of Christian leaders, Black and white, on a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture located in Washington, DC.
Even though I’ve read quite a bit about slavery and Jim Crow, I was still physically and emotionally disturbed by the visual depictions of the systemic and violent ways in which people of color were treated for centuries of American history. There is no sugarcoating this history. It was (and is) an offense against God, with ripple effects that continue to shape our national life.
In the past decade, conversations on racism have become more heated, reaching a fever pitch in 2020 with the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
One outcome of the resulting ferment of protest and denunciation was renewed attention to critical race theory (popularly known as CRT), a controversial legal theory once confined to the academic world and now increasingly mainstreamed and popularized in public life, including many of our leading institutions.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at Christianity Today)
Daniel Darling is director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His forthcoming book is Agents of Grace. He is also a bestselling author of several other books, including The Original Jesus, The Dignity Revolution, The Characters of Christmas, The Characters of Easter, and A Way With Words and the host of a popular weekly podcast, The Way Home. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry from Dayspring Bible College, has studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Angela have four children.
