By David Williams
We pride ourselves in claiming to be a Christian nation, but are we really? I’ve watched as our country has wrestled with the issues regarding the removal of monuments. I find it ironic we had no problem agreeing to remove the ten commandments buildings, courtrooms, and school. Locally family members have spoken out in support of removing the monument. They articulated the historical context of the statue and what it represents. It reflects a time in our country’s history where certain segments of our society were disenfranchised. Top military leaders have come forward and articulated how having servicemen and women report to military bases named after individuals who fought to ensure their bondage is wrong. And yet there are those who still support this.
Paul said, “If meat offends my brother, I’ll abstain from it all the days of my life.” That’s the proper Christian attitude. An attitude we would perhaps know better and embrace had we not agreed that the ten commandments should be removed from government buildings and no longer shared in our schools. We have rejected instructions on how to honor God and each other but have embraced the protection of historical monuments. Perhaps the monuments are in fact our gods. I’ve heard talk of civil war over this mess. Our nation is facing a pandemic and people are talking about fighting over statues! How are we any different from Nero supposedly playing the fiddle while Rome burned? How is our attitude any different from Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake.” It doesn’t help that we have leaders to continue to divide us instead of uniting us. It is the same script different, cast and we as a people continue to fall for it. The only ones native to this country are the native Americans and they were treated horribly. The rest of us came from somewhere else, at least our ancestors did. We are a bunch of immigrants living in glass houses and yet we all have a stone in our hand. This is madness. Have we not heard that those who forget the past are destined to repeat it?
As an army brat, I have traveled the world and lived on different army bases. As an educator, I have taught at a school named after the founder of the KKK, and as a resident of this city, I drive by the civil war monument. As an individual, I know not to allow someone’s negative perceptions of me to become my reality, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t insensitive, hurtful, and disrespectful. You wouldn’t ask a Jewish person to go to Hitler High or name an all-girls academy after Harvey Weinstein. Would you name an elementary school after a pedophile or a school cafe after Jeffery Dahmer? You would not because you know to do so would serve as a constant reminder to those individuals the very source of their torment.
In conclusion, if we don’t learn to do better can we at least be honest about who we are? Can we stop calling ourselves a Christian nation and instead embrace that we are many nations, under many gods, very divided with liberty and justice for a few? I’m reminded of the words of Shakespeare, “Come shut the door, and after thou hast done so, Come weep with me. Pass hope and pass care.” I feel sorry for us. I thought we were smarter and better.