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The Cross and the Confederate Flag


TitanTiger

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The Cross and the Confederate Flag

June 19, 2015

Russell D. Moore

This week the nation reels over the murder of praying Christians in an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. At the same time, one of the issues hurting many is the Confederate Battle Flag flying at full-mast from the South Carolina Capitol grounds even in the aftermath of this racist act of violence on innocent people. This raises the question of what we as Christians ought to think about the Confederate Battle Flag, given the fact that many of us are from the South.

The flag of my home state of Mississippi contains the Confederate Battle Flag as part of it, and I’m deeply conflicted about that. The flag represents home for me. I love Christ, church, and family more than Mississippi, but that’s about it. Even so, that battle flag makes me wince—even though I’m the descendant of Confederate veterans.

Some would say that the Confederate Battle Flag is simply about heritage, not about hate. Singer Brad Paisley sang that his wearing a Confederate flag on his shirt was just meant to say that he was a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. Comedian Stephen Colbert quipped, “Little known fact: Jefferson Davis—HUGE Skynyrd fan.”

Defenders of the flag would point out that the United States flag is itself tied up with ugly questions of history. Washington and Jefferson, after all, supported chattel slavery too. The difference is, though, that the United States overcame its sinful support of this wicked system (though tragically late in the game). The Confederate States of America was not simply about limited government and local autonomy; the Confederate States of America was constitutionally committed to the continuation, with protections of law, to a great evil. The moral enormity of the slavery question is one still viscerally felt today, especially by the descendants of those who were enslaved and persecuted.

The gospel speaks to this. The idea of a human being attempting to “own” another human being is abhorrent in a Christian view of humanity. That should hardly need to be said these days, though it does, given the modern-day slavery enterprises of human trafficking all over the world. In the Scriptures, humanity is given dominion over the creation. We are not given dominion over our fellow image-bearing human beings (Gen. 1:27-30). The southern system of chattel slavery was built off of the things the Scripture condemns as wicked: “man-stealing” (1 Tim. 1:10), the theft of another’s labor (Jas. 5:1-6), the breaking up of families, and on and on.

In order to prop up this system, a system that benefited the Mammonism of wealthy planters, Southern religion had to carefully weave a counter-biblical theology that could justify it (the biblically ridiculous “curse of Ham” concept, for instance). In so doing, this form of southern folk religion was outside of the global and historic teachings of the Christian church. The abolitionists were right—and they were right not because they were on the right side of history but because they were on the right side of God.

Even beyond that, though, the Flag has taken on yet another contextual meaning in the years since. The Confederate Battle Flag was the emblem of Jim Crow defiance to the civil rights movement, of the Dixiecrat opposition to integration, and of the domestic terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens’ Councils of our all too recent, all too awful history.

White Christians ought to think about what that flag says to our African-American brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the aftermath of yet another act of white supremacist terrorism against them. The gospel frees us from scrapping for our “heritage” at the expense of others. As those in Christ, this descendant of Confederate veterans has more in common with a Nigerian Christian than I do with a non-Christian white Mississippian who knows the right use of “y’all” and how to make sweet tea.

None of us is free from a sketchy background, and none of our backgrounds is wholly evil. The blood of Jesus has ransomed us all “from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1 Pet. 1:18), whether your forefathers were Yankees, rebels, Vikings, or whatever. We can give gratitude for where we’ve come from, without perpetuating symbols of pretend superiority over others.

The Apostle Paul says that we should not prize our freedom to the point of destroying those for whom Christ died. We should instead “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19). The Confederate Battle Flag may mean many things, but with those things it represents a defiance against abolition and against civil rights. The symbol was used to enslave the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, to bomb little girls in church buildings, to terrorize preachers of the gospel and their families with burning crosses on front lawns by night.

That sort of symbolism is out of step with the justice of Jesus Christ. The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. White Christians, let’s listen to our African-American brothers and sisters. Let’s care not just about our own history, but also about our shared history with them. In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the Body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi. Let’s watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors. Let’s take down that flag.

Russell Moore is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the moral and public policy agency of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

http://www.russellmo...nfederate-flag/

I thought in light of all that's gone on this past week, this was a hugely important article.

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I am as proud of my southern heritage as anyone else. I also understand what seeing that flag does to some. It's like the swastika to a Jew. Not flying that flag won't take away my heritage in any way.

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Excellent find, Titan. Thank you for sharing.

There was a time when I was fascinated with the Confederate flag. Grew out of it, luckily.

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I am as proud of my southern heritage as anyone else. I also understand what seeing that flag does to some. It's like the swastika to a Jew. Not flying that flag won't take away my heritage in any way.

Commendable reasoning, CT, and exactly right.

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I proudly tell anyone I'm a Southerner. I love my heritage as well. And I understand that there are some underlying complexities that don't fit the basic Civil War narrative. But in the end, the CSA was wrong. Even if you allow that they had some good points on federal overreach, they chose one of the worst possible things in slavery to hitch that states' rights wagon to.

The South lost, and rightly so. That flag has no warm fuzzies of heritage and history to black people. It is almost exactly like a Nazi flag to a Jew. It's just time for it to go.

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I don't care one way or the other people will still act the way they act. Take the flag down does what really? The thing is to hide racism and act as if it doesn't exist anyway.....

Most people that are big on having it flying at their house or have to have it all over their cars.....let's just say the majority of them carry themselves a certain way....I actually prefer to be able to identify them

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I don't care one way or the other people will still act the way they act. Take the flag down does what really? The thing is to hide racism and act as if it doesn't exist anyway.....

Most people that are big on having it flying at their house or have to have it all over their cars.....let's just say the majority of them carry themselves a certain way....I actually prefer to be able to identify them

Symbols mean things though. You'll never stop Bubba McDoofus from flying one from the back of his truck or getting it tattooed on his bicep. But we can get it out of the official symbolism of our government and shared societal institutions.

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Yes I understand, and it does make you feel a certain way that gov't officials fight so hard to keep it. I think maybe a new flag should be created. It would really mean both, we are proud of being southerners, and we are aware of some views and mistakes were pretty bad but as with all things we have learned from mistakes. A changed flag would show a shift and a change but still show pride. At least that's what I think

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I am as proud of my southern heritage as anyone else. I also understand what seeing that flag does to some. It's like the swastika to a Jew. Not flying that flag won't take away my heritage in any way.

I am impressed tigger. :bow:

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I don't care one way or the other people will still act the way they act. Take the flag down does what really? The thing is to hide racism and act as if it doesn't exist anyway.....

Most people that are big on having it flying at their house or have to have it all over their cars.....let's just say the majority of them carry themselves a certain way....I actually prefer to be able to identify them

I hear what you are saying, but no one has suggested private individuals cannot fly the stars and bars - or even the swastika for that matter.

This is about the state flying the flag as an officially-sanctioned symbol.

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I am as proud of my southern heritage as anyone else. I also understand what seeing that flag does to some. It's like the swastika to a Jew. Not flying that flag won't take away my heritage in any way.

Well done!

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No flag should fly higher than the American flag on US soil.

None.

The only real issue I see is that the confederate battle flag was @ full staff.

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If there is a call for it to be taken down, I believe that it will be better recepted by those in SC calling for it to come down. Everyone outside of SC calling for its removal just may galvanize those that want it down or don't care to remain adamant about flying it. I personally don't care to see it flying. I do think it has been corrupted over the years by those who promote racism. Much like the Nazi's did with the original swastika symbol.

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This is nothing more than an attempt to destroy freedom of speech. If a group wants to stomp on the American flag, go for it, they have every constitutional right to do so. If a city council wants to have a Confederate flag in front of the city hall, go for it, they have every constitutional right to do so as well.

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jeff....some will argue about it being flown in a gov't place and I understand that. But your analogy is dead on. If it's OK for people to stomp and burn the American flag then it's sure as hell OK for me to fly the Confederate flag if I want to. I proudly do so every year on Robert E. Lee's b'day. To each his own.

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An upstart country from 150 years ago created by the greed of the top 1%, that also didn't last a decade.

Yet, somehow it's still a big deal.

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Robert E Lee would be the first to say take it down. He would want nothing to do with today's use of that flag.

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Fist of all, no one here is saying an individual's right to fly it be taken away. What is being said is twofold:

1. It shouldn't be flown at shared government/public properties or be used as an official government sanctioned symbol.

2. Christians, out of greater love for their African American brothers and sisters in Christ than the love they have for tradition or heritage, should voluntarily stop using it as a symbol of Southern pride. It's hurtful. It simply does not and never can be seen as anything other than a symbol of oppression to black people. You look at it and see valor and heritage, Southern manners and magnolias and cotillions. No black person sees those things because they weren't allowed to share in them. They were, perhaps, allowed/forced to serve at some of them. It's a symbol of subjugation and slavery.

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This is nothing more than an attempt to destroy freedom of speech. If a group wants to stomp on the American flag, go for it, they have every constitutional right to do so. If a city council wants to have a Confederate flag in front of the city hall, go for it, they have every constitutional right to do so as well.

This is an interesting perspective.

Are the rights of individuals and the rights of institutions the same? What happens when a government institution reflects the will of the powerful people in that institution and not, the will of all people?

Does the citizenry of a state have the right to defy citizenry of the entire country?

Does the citizenry of a municipality have the right to defy the citizenry of a state?

Actually, I think this is, in some way, an endorsement of our respect for freedom of speech. The force being applied is public opinion. In spite of the fact that caring, loving, thoughtful people would have taken it down years ago, it is still there. To this point, it is not "you MUST take it down", it is, "you should WANT to take it down".

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If an individual wants to fly it, then so be it. I don't think it belongs on a government building or incorporated into a state flag.

As a sidenote, it's pretty laughable to see jacked up trucks of the good ol' boys from eastern Colorado and people from Wyoming flying it on the beds of their trucks.

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If an individual wants to fly it, then so be it. I don't think it belongs on a government building or incorporated into a state flag.

First, take it off the govt buildings. Then off the license plates. Fine. But how long before freely putting it on your car, or flying said flag is viewed as a "crime " ? We're 150 years past the civil, and some are still trying to erase it totally from our history.

I'm inclined to think that's not a great idea.

As a sidenote, it's pretty laughable to see jacked up trucks of the good ol' boys from eastern Colorado and people from Wyoming flying it on the beds of their trucks.

Rebels , perhaps? Maybe some don't see the flag for its racial message, but as a sign against the Imperial Federal Govt. ? All sorts of reasons folks fly flags and associate with symbols. It's not always what you think.

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As someone stated, it's not illegal to fly a swastika or stomp the American flag, I doubt we reach a point where the Confederate flag bumper sticker is viewed as a crime.

As far as the eastern Coloradoans and Wyoming folk flying the flag, I'm inclined to think they see it more as a symbol of redneck-dom than the negative connotations that come with it.

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Actually, I think this is, in some way, an endorsement of our respect for freedom of speech. The force being applied is public opinion. In spite of the fact that caring, loving, thoughtful people would have taken it down years ago, it is still there. To this point, it is not "you MUST take it down", it is, "you should WANT to take it down".

I think that last line is the best expression of how this should be viewed.

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I try to erase all of Auburn's losses from my memory, the South's loss in the Civil War is one that we want to remember, why?

The only thing I love to remember is the great service that General John T. Croxton performed when he burned turdscaloosa to the ground.

WAR DAMN CROXTON!

;D

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