The Cross and the Confederate Flag

Moore to the Point ^ | June 19, 2015 | Russell Moore

[Republican Wildcat]

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.)

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I don’t think the North has anything to brag about when it comes to resettling blacks after the civil.war. The liberals of today don’t either for that matter. I’d call their track record far less than acceptable but they keep.on with the failed programs.

[IronJack]

The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire.

Hogwash. This idiot needs to learn his history before pontificating. The Confederate Battle Flag can symbolize anything people want it to, but in the end, it was just what its name implies: a battle flag.

The beliefs of the soldiers that fought under it probably varied as much as their clothes, their appearance, and their histories. Yes, some were racist. But some fought out of a sense of honor and duty, and the belief that their state's sovereignty was more important than a tyrannical federal Union.

The problem doesn't lie with the flag. It lies with those people who see only "racist" when they see that symbol.

[no-to-illegals]

Now Hear This ....

No Cross ... No Heritage!!! Hear Me?!?!

[AnAmericanMother]

I disagree completely.

Every symbol has been misused, not just the obvious ones.

The Ku Klux Klan had its own flag (not much seen anymore) but the flag they used was primarily not the Confederate battle flag but the U.S. flag.

In addition, linking the CBF to the Confederate government is tenuous at best. This was not an official flag until late in the war (when it was used as the Naval Jack). In fact, it was rejected as the official flag.

It was the battle standard of various military units as well as the command flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Those soldiers were fighting for their homeland, not for slavery. See James McPherson's book, Why They Fought. He was or is a professor at Princeton, hardly a bastion of slavery.

So basically what you have left is a small group of segregationist yahoos in the 50s and 60s who hijacked the CBF for their own purposes. That's no reason to ban it - we'd have to ban every symbol (including the Cross - which was flown at Beziers during the massacre of the Albigensians ("kill them all - God will know his own.)")

[ealgeone]

In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the Body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi.

No...we were not all slaves in Egypt....the Jews were slaves in Egypt.

We are not slaves in Mississippi either.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] Even so, that battle flag makes me wince—even though I’m the descendant of Confederate veterans.

Then move to Cleveland. They'll love having you there. They hate the descendants of Confederate veterans; they're about ready to start sticking yellow stars on them. You'll be just in time to watch the fun.

[no-to-illegals]

another shade of ‘miles and miles’ to go

[DoughtyOne]

Who flies the rebel flag because they hate Blacks? Anyone?

If a guy wears that symbol on his jacket, does that mean he hates blacks?

Do any of these people support owning Blacks as slaves?

It has become somewhat of a symbol of a rebellious nature. Moonshiners, non-conformists, a good ole’ (rowdy) southern boy... it’s just a flag or symbol some folks like.

There are a number of things I don’t like seeing in life. Shall I and others make a list so we can all go through our day with nothing that offends?

Get a freakin’ life folks.

[grania]

The author either misses a very big point or is intentionally part of the problem. Pushing an agenda in a time of horrific violence is just wrong.

[no-to-illegals]

‘Americans’ tried their best but the majority ‘hates Us’ ... I understand why ... ‘why do you not’?

[iowamark]

Washington and Jefferson, after all, supported chattel slavery too.

Washington, Jefferson, Madison openly stated that slavery was wrong and looked forward to its' abolition.

The Confederate battle flag was not widely displayed in the South until school desegregation became an issue in the 1950's and it became the flag of the segregationists.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] The idea of a human being attempting to “own” another human being is abhorrent in a Christian view of humanity.

Not true, and ahistorical. Also, counter-Scriptural. When the Roman centurion asked Jesus to heal the centurion's servant, Jesus did not rebuke the man for owning the slave. Slavery was common as grass in the Roman Empire, and slaves' bones (as from Herculaneum) bore the same heavy-labor marks as those of the slaves exhumed and examined from 18th-century New York City cemeteries.

The writer may be some kind of Baptist, but he is a) not a Southerner and b) misrepresenting history, just as if he were a Left-wing scold.

[StoneWall Brigade]

Ping

[LeoWindhorse]

Sorry pal , it isn’t coming down

Deo Vindice

ps: thanks for reminding me to run one up every morning ,
right under Old Glory

[lentulusgracchus]

[Art.] The flag of my home state of Mississippi contains the Confederate Battle Flag as part of it, and I’m deeply conflicted about that.

---

Then move to Cleveland. You won't have to worry about it any more, and people there will love you.

Northerners truly bellyfeel Southern renegades and scalawags.

[rockrr]

Who flies the rebel flag because they hate Blacks?

Unfortunately, Dylann Roof does.

[StoneWall Brigade]

Deo Vindice

[no-to-illegals]

‘Suddenly’

[Tigerized]

Funny how I made it through 60+ years of life without thinking of the CBF as THE symbol of slavery and oppression, only to find out recently how ignorant I’ve been for most of my existence.

I really detest the historical revisionism of the left.