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Chose This Day Whom You Will Serve

When I was growing up in Mobile, Alabama, one of my favorite sights in the city was the statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes. Originally from Maryland, Semmes moved to Mobile after his service in United States Navy during the Mexican-American War, and accepted a commission in the Confederate Navy when the southern states seceded from the Union.  I knew a bit about his exploits during the way and saw him as a heroic figure.

Of course, I grew up where we observed Confederate Memorial Day.  We talked about “The War Between the States” not the “Civil War.”  I visited Jefferson Davis’ home Beauvoir down the coast in Biloxi, Mississippi, on more than one occasion.  When I went to college in Mississippi, our school’s mascot was Nathan Bedford Forrest, I was a member of the ROTC drill team, The Southern Generals, with a Confederate flag on our emblem.

I state all this to clarify where I have been in order to explain where I am now.  Although I was immersed in Southern culture from the time of my birth, I understand now how offensive that heritage is to many of my friends of all races.  My ancestors were not slaveholders or landed gentry, but I am sure that many of them fought on the side of the Confederate States of America.  They fought for their states, their families, and their property.  If I had been alive then, I would probably have done the same thing.  But I am alive now and I am not in that situation.

We cannot change the past and we must be aware of our history, but do we further the cause of a united nation by honoring those who rebelled against legally constituted authority and broke their oaths to defend the Constitution of the United States?  (Most the highest-ranking officers in the Confederacy held commissions in the United States Army or Navy prior to the war.)

I had the opportunity to visit the childhood home of President Woodrow Wilson in Staunton, VA, in April.  Wilson’s father was pastor of the Presbyterian church there when the future President was born in 1856.  The church had an agreement with a local plantation owner to provide three slaves to live in the manse--an older woman to cook, a younger woman to clean, and a young man to do the heavy manual labor.  On the tour, I saw the places where they lived and slept.  This was a better situation for these individuals than on the plantation, but they were still slaves. They did what they were told.  They had no choices in their lives; they were property.

We can argue about the economic, political, and geographic issues that led to the division of our country in 1861, but we cannot deny that the Confederate States of America uphold chattel slavery. People were bought and sold.  Race determined one’s status in society and place in the economy, and this became deeply ingrained in our national consciousness.  The war preserved the Union but it did not address our original sin of racial subjugation. 

Are we being Christ-like when we continue to honor a heritage that offends many of our friends and fellow citizens whose ancestors were participants in this subjugation?  The biblical teaching is that if our brother or sister is offended by an action of ours and it is not essential to our faith, then we ought to stop doing it.

Although I grew up in the South, I took an oath when I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.  The only allegiance that is more important to me is my citizenship in the Kingdom of God.  Both commitments call me to reject any practice, movement, or monument that honors rebellion or racial bigotry.

What is God calling you to do?









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