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On Monday, June 22, five days after nine African-American attendees at a
church prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, were gunned down by a
white shooter allegedly motivated by racial hatred, Gov. Nikki R. Haley of
South Carolina, a Republican, used a news conference to call for the removal of
the Confederate battle flag (CBF) from the state capitol grounds.The CBF had flown atop South Carolina's capitol dome from 1961, when the legislature approved that location for the flag as part of the opening celebration of the Confederate War Centennial, until 2000 when the legislature passed a bill to move the flag to the front of the capitol next to a monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers. Current state law prohibits the flag's removal from the statehouse grounds without additional legislation.
In her address at the news conference, Haley alluded to the statements of forgiveness the victims' families extended toward the shooter. "Their expression of faith and forgiveness took our breath away," the governor said.
Haley went on to talk about the strength and character of the people of her state as well as the state's struggles and progress. But then she said that 150 years after the end of the Civil War, the time had come for the state to no longer display the CBF on the capitol grounds.
"For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble," the governor said, "traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry."
But Haley added, "At the same time, for many others in South Carolina, the flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past. As a state we can survive, as we have done, while still being home to both of those viewpoints. We do not need to declare a winner and a loser here. We respect freedom of expression, and that for those who wish to show their respect for the flag on their private property, no one will stand in your way."
She further acknowledged that "the flag will always be a part of the soil of South Carolina."
"But this is a moment in which we can say that that flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," Haley said. "The murderer now locked up in Charleston said he hoped his actions would start a race war. We have an opportunity to show that not only was he wrong, but that just the opposite is happening."
The governor said, "My hope is that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move forward as a state in harmony and we can honor the nine blessed souls who are now in heaven."
Since the state's legislature needs to act for the flag to be removed, Haley not only called on them to act, but also mentioned her authority as governor "to call them back into session under extraordinary circumstances. I've indicated to the House and the Senate that if they do not take measures to ensure this debate takes place this summer, I will use that authority for the purpose of the legislature removing the flag from the statehouse grounds."
Near the end of her remarks, Haley said, "We know that bringing down the Confederate flag will not bring back the nine kind souls that were taken from us, nor rid us of the hate and bigotry that drove a monster through the doors of Mother Emanuel that night. Some divisions are bigger than a flag. The evil we saw last Wednesday comes from a place much deeper, much darker. But we are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer. The fact that people are choosing to use it as a sign of hate is something we cannot stand. The fact that it causes pain to so many is enough to move it from the capitol grounds. It is, after all, a capitol that belongs to all of us."
Finally, referencing the proximity of July 4th and the celebration of freedom, she added, "It will be fitting that our state capitol will soon fly the flags of our country and of our state, and no others."
More on this story can be found at these links:
Transcript: Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina on Removing the Confederate Flag
5 Days That Left a Confederate Flag Wavering, and Likely to Fall. New York Times
Viewpoints on the CBF
Editor's note: This is not a usual segment of Wired Word lessons, but we've separated what follows from the "In the News" section above because we want to share the viewpoints of some folks we've talked to about what the CBF signifies to them. And viewpoints are, by definition, more subjective than straightforward news reporting, which we always aim to provide in the "In the News" portion of the lesson. Some of those speaking here are TWW subscribers. Others are connected to TWW team members. We've chosen not to give the names of the speakers, but have identified them in ways that put their opinions in context. Comments have been edited for length.
From a white layperson, who is a lifelong resident of Tennessee: "My great, great grandfather was a private in the 49th Tennessee Infantry. He never owned a slave nor did any of our known forefathers. They were just people who worked the land and tried to make a better life. He, like many of his neighbors, left their farms and shops and hurried to Fort Donelson to enlist. Why? Because they heard that an army was coming and that their way of life and communities would soon be overrun. The politics of it all meant nothing, but protecting their homes did.
"I have seldom seen the flag in question displayed except at re-enactments and in cemeteries. Has it been used by hate groups as a symbol in the past? Yes. There are the occasional 'rednecks' that make a fool of themselves with it, but even then I think it is more an issue of southern pride and authority defiance than true racial hatred."
From a white pastor in Florida: "When I see the Confederate battle flag (CBF) flying, I get scared. Those pickups driving around here with all sorts of CBF bumper stickers are not preaching heritage. That's a smoke screen in my view. '155,000 southerners died for this flag!' 'Heritage, Not Hate!' 'Never Back Down!' 'Stand Your Ground!' They are nearly always accompanied by anti-federal government slogans. Florida only has a rear license place, so many put the CBF on the front of their vehicle. The individuals posting these messages on their vehicles scare me. Their message is personal autonomy. The CBF declares that the bearer does not answer to the U.S. government; they answer to a higher law, the law of self. I don't see heritage. I see anger and anarchy.
"My great, great, great, great grandfather served with the 48th Pennsylvania regiment. They fought at 2nd Bull Run, Antietam, Spotsylvania, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, VA. My heritage is the USA, not the breakaway country that launched the war that cost 650,000 American lives. There is one nation. And one flag. The USA."
From a black layperson in Maryland: "I don't think [the CBF issue] is as simple as declaring racism. What is offensive is that persons displaying the flag say it is part of their heritage and that the Confederates were trying to protect their families and way of life. That way of life, their wealth and comfort, was built on the backs of slaves who had no opportunity to protect their own way of life and families taken from them when they were snatched from Africa. The slaves were ripped from their families, chained and put on a ship for a long journey for someone's way of life. If the slaves survived the middle passage, they were sold at auction and shipped to plantations to work for free under brutal conditions. Female slaves were repeatedly raped and impregnated by their slave masters and/or forced to have sex with another slave to produce more slaves. Slaves were beaten routinely and killed. Slaves and their children were sold away from each other at the whim of the owner. All this for someone else's way of life.
"So the confederate flag represents theft of free persons, enslavement, rape, the destruction of families (in Africa and the United States.). Additionally, it represents the failed attempt to keep these awful conditions in place. Why would anyone associate something positive with a flag that has been used to keep people in their 'place' and enslaved either physically (past) or mentally (current day)."
From a white pastor in Texas: "My observation about those who make a big deal out of the Confederate flag is that it basically is an act of immature defiance. They perceive the federal government as an entity that tells them what to do. Flying the flag is like giving the finger to those who try to 'push them around' as they see it. They feel alienated from the federal government, condescended to by northern elites, and the Confederate flag symbolizes their anger at all of that. They perceive school prayer and affirmative action as top-down decisions that they cannot fight.
"As do most people who do something for a questionable motive, they hide behind excuses like honoring southern culture or honoring the soldiers who died fighting for the South in the war. Those same people do not, however, show as much concern for honoring soldiers who died in other wars.
"Racism is so pervasive and so inextricably bound up with thinking in the South that I am hard pressed to say what role racism plays in flying the CBF. I cannot think of an emotionally healthy, historically justifiable reason to fly the flag."
From a white layperson who's lived in several states and is now in New Mexico: "Per family lore, my great, great grandparents were victims of a KKK cross-burning in their front yard. Since they were ethnic German and politically Republican, they had two strikes against them as far as the Democratic and mainly Scots/English/Irish Klan was concerned. Anyway, for me the flag symbolizes a mixture of liberty and freedom, of politeness, of southern courtesy, of independence and of the ambiance of the South -- with a touch of iconoclasm thrown in."
From a black pastor in North Carolina: "The Confederate battle flag was flown during the Civil War as Confederate forces sought to maintain the status quo in the South; namely, to keep the institution of chattel slavery intact. Chattel slavery held enslaved persons of African descent as mere property of rich whites who literally worked them to death, providing little reasonable clothing, food and housing; beat their native language and traditions out of them; did not allow families to stay in tack; forbade them to learn to read or write; beat them close to death and demanded them to go back into the fields or the slave owner's home to work as though nothing happened; and sold them on auction blocks, listing these enslaved human beings as property on tax records, just as one would list livestock. The lack of consciousness that allows one to celebrate an institution established and grounded in enslavement of another human being is unthinkable and reprehensible.
"Many people who display the Confederate battle flag say they are not racist, and only God knows their sincere thoughts and ethical stances, for God truly looks at the heart."
From a white pastor born in West Virginia and who returns there frequently: "I saw my share of Confederate flags. My impression was that the flag was a symbol of southern culture (hospitality) and pride in that culture, in spite of losing the Civil War to the north. Never did I associate the Confederate flag with racism. I am now 64 years of age, and for the first time in my life at the Solidarity March I attended June 24th [following the Charleston church murders], I heard that the Confederate flag was a symbol of southern white racism. For me, the symbol of southern white racism was the garb of the Ku Klux Klan and its burning crosses.
"At the end of the Solidarity March in an African-American church, when a speaker said 'It's time for the Confederate flag to be removed from Charleston, South Carolina,' I remained seated while everyone around me was on their feet clapping. My eyes were opened as I suddenly realized what the CBF means to black Americans. It is the tangible reminder of the oppressive southern economy from which they had been set free at the conclusion of the Civil War, and it is also a symbol of the hatred that some whites still harbor in their hearts against blacks and other people of color. No, removing the flag won't change the hearts of white people who want to harbor hatred, but that symbol now has no place in public life anywhere in our country. The Charleston murderer is now responsible for its removal and relegation to museums instead of monuments."
The Big Questions
1. When an emblem's negative symbolism outweighs its positive symbolism, what should be done with the emblem? In the case of the CBF, what weight should be given to the argument about heritage when many see the flag as divisive or even as a symbol of oppression?
2. Racism has been around for a long time. Why do you think this tragedy in particular sparked a broad-based effort to remove the flag?
3. What symbols, mementos, emblems, trophies or the like in your life have come to symbolize something different from or even opposite of what they originally did for you?
4. What things do you display that may be offensive to others?
5. What is the root Christian issue in the matter of what do about the CBF?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Song of Songs 2:4 (NIV)
Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. (For context, read 2:3-13.)
The Song of Songs is love poetry between a man and a woman, and in 2:3-13, it appears to be the woman who is speaking. In the verse above, she says, "Let his banner over me be love," which is a poetic way of saying, "Let his intention be to love me." But the word she uses, "banner," literally refers to a standard on a pole or a flag carried by armies to show to whose service they belong. Such banners also served as a symbol of their hoped-for dominance in any conflict.
In a larger sense, the verse calls us to let the "banner" that flies over our actions be love, not self-centeredness. And the banner of love shows that we serve the Lord, who told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Question: What "banners" over your life have you taken down to better serve God? (These might include the banner of anger, selfishness, thoughtlessness, etc.)
Joshua 4:20-23
Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, saying to the Israelites, "When your children ask their parents in time to come, 'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know, 'Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.' For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over ..." (For context, read 4:1-24.)
Joshua tells the story of the Israelites taking 12 stones from the floor of the Jordan River, which God had parted to enable them to cross into the Promised Land, and setting the stones up on the shore as a memorial to what God had done for them.
To the Israelites, of course, the stones symbolized a good future with God as their help. But to the people of Jericho and other places in Canaan, the stones could have surely been taken to symbolize their defeat and destruction.
Questions: Since the meanings of flags, banners, emblems and other symbols are assigned by those who use them and by those they are used against, whose meaning is the valid one? Can both meanings have validity? In what ways does our understanding (or misunderstanding) of U.S. history affect or impede our ability to confront contemporary issues?
1 Corinthians 10:24 (NIV)
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (For context, read 10:23-33.)
The Corinthian Christians had a slogan, "I have the right to do anything," which arose from their freedom in Christ from the "slavery" of Jewish law-keeping. In response to that slogan, Paul responded, "But not everything is beneficial [or] constructive" (v. 23). Then in verse 24, he states a basic principle of the Christian life: "No one should seek their own good, but the good of others."
Questions: After Charleston, what does "the good of others" suggest should be done regarding the CBF? Who are the "others" whose good you hope to affect?
Has there been a time when you held an opinion that seemed right and true, and yet had to reconsider your position upon discovering it had a negative effect on others? Did faith play any role in the discovery or the outcome?
Have there been times when you thought someone ignored his or her own scruples in order to take your feelings into account? Were there times you had to ignore something someone said because you weren't sure the time or circumstances were suitable to effect change?
Matthew 7:12
In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. (No context necessary.)
These words from Jesus are what's been called the "Golden Rule." "The law and the prophets" refers to the Hebrew Bible (essentially the Old Testament). The phrase "for this is the law and prophets" is a way of saying that the Golden Rule is the "essence of God's law." Jesus isn't just referring to case law, but is bringing the example and lessons of biblical history into play regarding what he's saying.
Questions: How would you apply the Golden Rule to the discussion about the CBF? How does your personal history, or your local history, speak to questions like the CBF? How does it affect your ability to hear another, and to love another as yourself?
For Further Discussion
1. Read and discuss the comments of Stephen Ingram, regarding today's topic, found here.
2. It is said that one person's prize cow is another person's Big Mac. Christians view the cross as a symbol of the promises of the risen Christ, yet hate groups used burning crosses to terrorize people. Is perception everything regarding symbols? What is needed to reconcile differences of experience regarding them?
3. Have you ever been treated differently because of a Christian symbol on your person, your car, your home? Have you treated another person differently because of their symbols? If so, were there both positive and negative reactions? Explain.
4. Discuss this, from TWW team member Frank Ramirez: "Back in 2001, I had a discussion about rug making with a Native American. I was interested in the various symbols and patterns that were used. Finally, he showed me one rug that he could not sell or display. It featured a swastika, which in many cultures had been a symbol of good luck [before being co-opted by the Nazis]. He wondered how many centuries it might take before that rug could even be shown, but evidently he was in no rush. Obviously the symbol, which had been hijacked on a grand scale, was simply too toxic."
Responding to the News
This is a good time to redouble our efforts to rid ourselves of biases that interfere with seeing others as God sees them.
Closing Prayer
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