We are facing as a nation a deep devastation as the truth about relationships with our fellow citizens continue to be revealed with every act of confusing violence against African-Americans. The protests that we have been experiencing in the past 3 months are nothing new. African Americans for the last 400 years have been protesting their devaluation, their marginalization and the most recent attempts at their eradication.

How did America, built on Judeo-Christian principles, become such a hostile place for its people of color? How can we get back to the “good ol’ days?” I suggest that the “good ol’ days” never existed and that our great country was never built by men who had experienced a true illumination of these principles. I realize that at this point of our conversation many of you might feel that those are inflammatory statements. However, please be patient, and for a moment help me to explore these questions.

How can one truly be a follower of Christian principles and sanction slavery, segregation and genocide? How can you love a God who is the creator of all and yet hate his created? Finally, how can you hate in the face of God’s abundant, inclusive love?

For the past 17 years, I have been challenged with the task of teaching America’s history to many black, brown and white faces in a public school classroom. I am constantly negotiating how to teach the “truth” about our country which includes the legalized capture and sale of human beings for hundred of years for profit. Some of these slave owners were also members of the Constitutional Convention, framers of our great democracy and founding fathers of this nation.

The list includes Thomas Jefferson, owner of slaves as well as father to slave children, and James Madison, the main editor of the US Constitution, who not only owned slaves but introduced the three-fifths compromise into the document. (The three-fifths compromise stated that every slave would be counted as three-fifths of a white man when conducting a census or for elections of senators and congresspeople.) Finally, and not in any way the least of these fathers was George Washington, the first official president of the “united” states of America, affectionately referred to as the father of our nation. President Washington, elected almost unanimously among his peers, was a major slaveholder, prior to and throughout his presidency. With the exception of John Adams, these founding fathers demonstrated very little public discontent with their ability to live with the dissidence of creating a free nation for some, while enslaving others.

This information might be disheartening, I know, but it could also serve as an awakening for us as a nation. First, we must accept that the characterization of America as a nation built by Christian founding fathers might not be entirely true. I refer again to my earlier question, can you hate, devalue, segregate and murder other human beings without conscience if you are truly filled with God’s love? Can you be a follower of Christ and at the same time sanction unequal treatment of a group of people based solely on the color of their skin? The foundation of our country was really built on the complete acceptance of this version of Christianity, and its legacy stays with us today.

We need a new framework from which to “rebuild.”