Their Own Institutions

White Christians in places like Bend, Oregon (my current location) have been organizing herds to shout down school boards that mandate masks and teach students the truth of America’s racist past and present. It is pure projection. A tactic used to distract from and distort the real issue: a disinformation campaign directly connected to what young white Christians are learning in their homes, churches and private schools.

I attended one of these virtually all-white Christian schools in the 1980’s. I did not realize until much later in life that I was participating in a well-funded white Christian counter-response to the Black Freedom Struggle. When the federal government started integrating schools, white Christians fled the scene and created their own institutions. Since then, they’ve segregated themselves from those who suffer—while teaching a white-washed version of U.S. history.

Today, millions of young white Christians read from textbooks that refer to slavery as “black immigration.” They portray the South as the faithful few, rising from the ashes of the Civil War to become the bible belt. White southerners were treated unfairly while power was handed over to illiterate and incompetent state legislators. Groups like the KKK were created to protect people from anarchy. Obama and Black Lives Matter are blamed for riots and divisive rhetoric.

It’s taken me years to unlearn lies like these.

I’m reminded of the words of Jesus:

Woe to you who lead the little ones astray.

A warning white Christians should heed.