The notion that America is a gift from God to a group of white European colonizers seems to be making its way into the Public-School streams again with the latest video released by State Secretary of Education, Ryan Walters. (Watch HERE) Secretary Walters took to social media on Thursday to offer his praises for being the first state in the country to “eradicate” Critical Race Theory from Oklahoma schools as a result of last year’s HB 1775. Within the one-minute twelve-second speech, the Secretary touted that Oklahoma is freeing its schools from “leftist indoctrination” and ensuring our students are accurately taught that America is the greatest nation to ever exist. What this speech lacks is a thorough view of a multitude of histories, all of which make up the whole of the history of this country…. And all of this from a history teacher.
For one, this country’s history does not begin with the Mayflower making its way to its shores. It starts far before that, with rich and diverse histories of Native Americans whose tribes swept across the vast lands for centuries. Teaching an accurate history of Europeans coming to the country to take this land from its indigenous populations, while enacting active genocide to erase them from the narrative is not “controversial,” it’s facts. The idea that this country was a gift from God to white Europeans is offensive, false, and antithetical to the Gospel for which Mr. Walters clearly thinks should be the bedrock of our educational systems.
If Oklahoma is to teach America as the greatest country in the world, it should leave Christianity out of it. America is not a Christian nation; it is a nation where some of its citizens happen to be Christian. It is also a country that proudly offers freedom of religion to all, likely as a result of the long-standing European history of religious wars, bloodshed, inquisitions, and state-sanctioned murder. Even if Oklahoma chooses to ignore the history of native genocide, the horrors of the middle passage and slavery, and skip right to the white faces of the founding fathers, it cannot ignore the fact that Christianity is one of many forms of worship available to individuals and should never be the foundation of a public education system filled with the beautiful diversity our state and nation possess.