Let me be clear, even if Robert E. Lee had never done or been involved with anything a lot of people find morally offensive. I think fighting for a statue of someone who died long before you were born is stupid.
Most of these people I'm pretty sure are Protestants or Evangelicals. We're supposed to consider Statues Idolatry, we believe Statues of Jesus are Idolatry and that is someone we literally believe is God. So I firmly believe Christians should never defend statues, and yes I'll apply that even to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and the Statue of Liberty and even Eugema.
Now I don't particularly care about this issue enough to fight for tarring them down either. But tarring down statues can be a very powerful symbol of liberation. When they tore down Saddam Hussien's statues in 2003 I don't recall anyone arguing "Saddam Hussein was still an important part of Iraqi history, we shouldn't just erase history", nope, no one made that argument when it was a statue of a brown person being torn down.
So no I don't think all these protestors were openly racists, but I do think they're all stupid. And no matter how much evidence you present to me that the other side got violent too, I still inherently sympathize more with them.
I'd say that to some the constitution and the founding fathers themselves are worshiped as graven images - the literal meaning of idolatry. To the southerners though, these images are not worshipped so much as venerated and respected because it is their history and the history of their ancestors. A concerted effort has been under way to deny them of this.
ReplyDeleteHistory is important. Trying to erase it because certain facts are uncomfortable (or not in vogue) is not a good enough reason. Quite frankly, others besides white nationalists should have taken part in the protest as well.
I went to Europe (Germany, France and Switzerland) when I was a kid and the most lasting impression I have is all the statues everywhere that celebrate their heritage and those who were important to their culture. Plaques adorn all of them and it was history lesson literally on every second street. Quite frankly the left can counter what they deem as offensive by commissioning their own statues in response. This, I think, would be a more mature response than their current authoritarian action.
I disapprove of how we worship the Constitution also, hence the earlier posts on the Patriotic Idolatry tag.
DeleteTo me that veneration and respect is just worship under another name.
It's no different than having a picture of a family member on your mantle; but instead of dull prose it's more akin to poetry.
DeleteArt is a human pursuit worth celebrating. Sculpture in and of itself is not evil anymore than architecture, painting or music. It's what separates us from animals.
Art should be showcased on the Artists private property or in Museums. If shouldn't be government sanctioned.
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