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Keep the Confederate Windows

Keep the Confederate Windows

OPINION

By Evan McWilliams, PhD
www.virtueonline.org
July 30, 2016

Dear Sir,

I was most interested to read the 15 July letter from Revd. Robert B. Hunter on the subject of the memorial windows to Robert E. Lee and T.J. 'Stonewall Jackson in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter & Paul in Washington, D.C. Unquestionably, there is much to be said in regard to the intensity with which many respond to artistic commemoration. Were it not so, the impulse captured in Ecclesiasticus 44, 'Let us now sing the praises of famous men', would carry little weight in our collective imagination.

It is a natural human instinct to recall and to glorify those individuals and moments in our communal life which we understand to be significant. We do this in full knowledge that there is no guarantee that all who participate in that commemoration, either through physical presence at an event, or vicariously through the ephemera such events often leave behind, will respond in the same fashion. Yet it is the responsibility of each generation to lift up those representatives and ideals they find most worthy of praise in the hope that God will sanctify them and vindicate those who acted in faith under His providential care.

I have much sympathy for Revd. Hunter's appeal to hold up an ideal of racial equality in the face of a collective history which has for so long promoted exactly the opposite. Breaking down the arbitrary barriers which have divided those of different skin colors is a principle worth lauding and, in this sense, I understand Revd. Hunter's desire to replace a false ideal, that of the superiority of the so-called white race, with the gospel ideal of humanity created in the image of God.

Yet, if we believe that our forefathers acted in good faith before God in their commemoration of certain men, ought we not to ask ourselves what lessons we might learn from those who they chose publicly to remember? I believe we ought, and in the knowledge that, where artistic commemorations are concerned, we are often not without guidance as to how they are meant to be interpreted. It is a rare memorial indeed which carries no intrinsic lesson in its physical manifestation. In the case of the two memorial windows in question, these lessons are plainly spelled out for us in the inscriptions placed directly below the windows.

The inscription below the window dedicated to Robert E. Lee, I quote in full.

To The Glory Of God
All-Righteous And All-Merciful
And In Undying Tribute To
The Life And Witness Of
Robert Edward Lee
Servant Of God - Leader Of Men
General-In-Chief
Of The Armies Of The Confederate States
Whose Compelling Sense Of Duty
Serene Faith And Unfailing Courtesy
Mark Him For All Ages As
A Christian Soldier
Without Fear And Without Reproach
This Memorial Bay
Is Gratefully Built By
The United Daughters Of The Confederacy

The inscription below the window dedicated to 'Stonewall' Jackson is in a similar vein, praising his 'steadfastness' and glorifying the 'The Lord of Hosts whom he so zealously served.'

If we are to understand correctly these windows, we must consider them first on their own terms. Are the persons and the qualities they purport to magnify worthy of our respect? Certainly, no one could claim that paying due honour to the faith, dutifulness, and courtesy of any man or woman is out of place in a Christian memorial. Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that General Lee was seen, long after the Civil War had ended, as a model of virtue in the face of deeply troubling times and impossible circumstances. Biographer Roy Blount, Jr. writes, 'In 1907, on the 100th anniversary of Lee's birth, President Theodore Roosevelt expressed mainstream American sentiment, praising Lee's "extraordinary skill as a General, his dauntless courage and high leadership".' If this historical account is correct, there is little reason for anyone to think what is being commemorated in his window is the wicked institution of slavery as practiced in the Confederate States. To do so is to ignore both the clearly expressed intent of the memorial itself and the commonly-held historical narrative of the United States.

Of Lieutenant General Jackson the same sorts of observations could be made. His personal faith was notable, including strict observance of the Sabbath, and it was a faith he so desired to share that, from 1855, he taught Sunday School classes to slaves in direct violation of the state of Virginia's segregation laws. His faith did not make clear to him the full implications of the gospel in relation to slavery, but who of us can claim that our Christianity makes us all-seeing and fully aware of our sins as well as the sins of others? A memorial to 'zealous' Jackson is not misplaced.

It may be argued that merely to permit the presence of memorials which recall figures associated with events now understood to be tainted with tremendous wickedness is to give license to the entire set of ideas with which those events were surrounded. But I am confident that this kind of indiscriminate sanction is more damaging than helpful. Apart from the unsystematic thinking involved, the hubris required to demean the character of an entire generation, much less the avowedly good character of particular persons, demonstrates a dangerously cavalier approach to our history which, as Christians, we believe is guided by divine providence for our good and God's glory.

In the case of the windows at the National Cathedral, the evidence of the memorials themselves speaks against their removal. Seeing them as they are is not to see commendations of slavery and national treason, but commemorations of the good character of men who lived out their faith as best they knew how and who were recognized as good examples, despite their faults, by subsequent generations. When understood as intended, these windows serve as examples of the Christian faith lived out in the complexity of the world and are thus worthy of a place in a cathedral which is, in its carved and painted histories and storied windows of saints long dead, the most prominent public representation of the truth which Pope Francis recently recognized, that the Church is 'a field hospital after battle' where we may expect rest and the healing of our wounds by none other than the Great Physician Himself, Jesus Christ.

Very sincerely yours,

Evan McWilliams, PhD
Priest-in-Training
Cranmer Hall, Durham, UK

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