Imagine you are a Christian living in a fictitious Islamic country*. “Arabia” is a democracy, with remarkable freedoms—everyone has equal protection under the law, including you, as a religious minority.
But you feel each day how you aren’t equal.
You’re an accountant, with an impeccable education and resume. But you keep getting passed over for jobs, as other qualified applicants who “are a better fit” and who “understand our business culture” are chosen. You swear that sometimes you wait longer at counters, you feel the eyes of suspicion on you as you walk the street.
“But look at Jennifer,” they say. Your friend is a Christian like you, but she thrives in this culture. She holds down a high paying job, is president of the Rotary Club equivalent, and is well-liked by everyone. However, while she makes sure her diet is halal, blesses others with “fi amanillah”, and observes Ramadan, you want to live according to your Christian traditions. You don’t want to have to blend in and lose who you are in order to live equally.
“It doesn’t matter that I have every legal opportunity, or that others like me succeed,” you might say. “You can’t see what’s happening to me unless you look carefully at the role faith plays in this society.”
And you would be absolutely right to say that.
To look at your identity as a person in the Christian minority, to highlight your perspective and your differences, is essential for understanding. “No,” say some in the Muslim majority. “We’re passed all that. We are Arabians, all the same, not Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu. Always highlighting your Christianity is dividing us.” But if you don’t highlight what you experience, you either must compromise like Jennifer, or continue to suffer as an outsider—no matter what the law says.
A very accurate phrase to describe what you would be asking for in this imagined world is “Critical Faith Theory.” Because those in the majority of that imagined Islamic country won’t see the unintended ways oppression continues without looking through a faith lens.
This is exactly what Critical Race Theory does in our real world. This is why it is something Christians should embrace, not condemn. This is how we all together live as who we are, and also as equals.
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* Fictitious “Arabia” is located just to the east of Genovia. Princess Mia Thermopolis is good friends with the President of Arabia.