“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”
So states the Good Book in Isaiah 5:20. The prophet Isaiah pronounced God’s judgment on those religious and political leaders who misrepresented God and distorted the Lord’s teaching on moral issues. To be sure, there are some ethical challenges that are “gray areas” in which right and wrong are not clearly discerned. On these issues sincere people might disagree.
Nevertheless, there are other topics where positions are clearly right or wrong and attempts by leaders to blur these distinctions do indeed deserve God’s judgment and our repudiation. One such issue is taking place before our eyes in Florida. On Wednesday, that state’s Board of Education approved a new curriculum for the teaching of Afro-American history, including slavery in the United States. Instructions for teaching this history to middle schoolers is that students learn how slaves developed skills which could be applied “for their personal benefit”.
I hope my readers would agree that slavery in the United States was horrific. Thousands upon thousands of Africans died in the voyage across the Atlantic. Many more died due to the hard labor and harsh conditions of slavery itself. Black families were torn apart. We fought a long, bloody civil war to rid ourselves of this evil institution. Although some slave owners were not as bad as others, they all benefited from the involuntary labor of the slaves. (Some of my ancestors owned slaves, and therefore, I benefited indirectly from that slave labor). Although many slaves were resilient and endured horrific slavery with God’s help, this does not soften the evil of slavery itself.
The obvious results (and probable purpose) of Florida’s educational curriculum and guidelines are to distort our history and put a benevolent aura upon a sinful system. This is calling evil good and deserves our repudiation. I call upon Florida’s Board of Education to rewrite their guidelines to make their history curriculum more in line with what truly happened.
Lindy Scott 
Well said – and needed to be said.
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It is difficult to imagine that educational leaders would approve such as adequate curriculum
for grades 1 to 12. Strong protests should endeavor to revise the white supremacy
evident here, recognize slavery for the evil it was, and take measures to learn from history what is good and right. Sid Rooy
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Thanks for stating this biblical perspective so succintly. I also recommend the book “”Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A faithful and constructive conversation” by Robert Chao Romero and Jeff M. Liou (Baker, 2023) for a more extensive treatment of this crucial and timely topic.
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Thanks for the book recommendation. This issue requires wisdom and courage.
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