Lord, have mercy. We are about to stir the pot and, hopefully, make some people think. We don’t expect to change people’s minds, but we hope they will see at least some of the comparisons we will provide.

“Lord, have mercy” is a phrase we hear frequently in Christian church services. It is often used as a response during the prayers of the church after each petition. It is used as part of what is called The Order of Confession and Sins. That is , for those unfamiliar with the church service, a plea for forgiveness for our past and future sins.

Yes, future sins are anticipated and expected, and they will be forgiven through confession. Think there is any chance we will be accused of preaching on the editorial page? Good thing it is the boss doing it, or the author could be in trouble. But today, we want to ask for prayers over the subject of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

Seriously, in taking a look at the horrors of CRT, we find a strange resemblance to many teachings in the New Testament of the Bible. The church we attend hasn’t mentioned CRT, so we are really walking in dangerous territory because we are not Biblical scholars. That is, unless you want to count 67 years of weekly church attendance. In those 67 years, we have had more than a few disagreements with church leaders. This may be an opportunity for the same.

In the confession, we admit that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. That sounds like we are born as sinners, which may include possibly being racist. Further, we recite that we have sinned against God in thought, word and deed. Hmmm. That covers a lot, doesn’t it? By what we have done and by what we have left undone.

They don’t like editorials to run two pages long, so we won’t try to cover all that ground. But the gist is, sin includes not fixing those things that we see as wrong, but rather looking past them or expecting someone else to deal with it. Here comes the kicker: We have not loved our neighbor as our self. That one always hurts. We are expected to love the jerk next door, the Browns fans and the other political party. How ghastly. Try it sometime. It isn’t very easy.

“Forgive us, renew us and lead us to walk in your ways, ” the final paragraph of the confession states. This doesn’t seem like anything that anyone who is a believer could have a problem with, right? Yet many really struggle with what they perceive CRT to be. Some of those people lead church services with these words on Sunday and condemn the same words the next night in public meetings. We don’t get it.

OK, let’s make the other side mad. Religious action belongs in the schools and everywhere. Teaching of religion however should be left to parents and true religious scholars. The comments in this editorial are offered from the pen of a humble sinner who probably got some of this concept wrong.

No one should be presenting CRT from a religious or ethical perspective. Just give the kids the facts, Jack, and not your interpretation. It isn’t the math teacher or the school superintendent’s place to decide which version of religion should be taught (we aren’t suggesting they have tried). And for crying out loud, keep the politics out of it. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and leave the rest to parents — but parents need to pay this amount of attention to the rest of their kid’s education and not just the things where someone successfully strikes fear into their hearts.

Oppose CRT if you wish, but please don’t do so in the name of religion, because if you ask WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?), there is a good chance he would volunteer to teach it.

— RV