Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

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Published on Monday, September 4, 2017

Getting rid of mental monuments

There are no statues of Benedict Arnold in the U.S. Because Arnold was a traitor. After a brilliant career in the American forces during the War of Independence, he defected to the British and fought against his former government.

            On the other hand, General Robert E. Lee also fought against own government. He led the Confederate forces in the Civil War. Doesn’t that also make him a traitor? But statues honouring him litter the southern states.

            Now there’s public pressure to remove statues that honour and promote the Confederacy. Mostly because they fought in support of slavery, which we – well, those of us blessed with a social conscience – now condemn.

            Confederate statues and Confederate flags should come down because they tend to perpetuate outdated and wrongful notions.

            Also, as a common practice, countries usually honour their winners, not their losers. Does Munich boast a statue of Hitler? Does China sell little statuettes of Chiang Kai-Shek?

            So, are Confederate monuments a way of claiming that the wrong side won?

 

Copycat culture

            Of course, what happens in the U.S. gets copied in Canada. So there are calls to remove the statue of Lord Edward Cornwallis, the founder of the city of Halifax, because he advocated the killing of Mi’kmaq Indians.

            The federal government already removed the name of Hector-Louis Langevin from an Ottawa office tower. Langevin, one of the Fathers of Confederation, was also an advocate of the now disgraced Indian Residential Schools.

            Currently, some lobby groups want to remove of the name of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. MacDonald, from Canadian schools, because of his racist views.

            Oh, come on! Of course he was racist – back then, everyone was. He was also often drunk. He took bribes from railway companies. He was a lousy father; his son, Hugh John MacDonald, fought in the Northwest Rebellion to spite his father.

            But Sir John A was undeniably an architect of the country we now know as Canada.

 

The “discoverer of America”

            If the movement to edit history continues in the U.S., I wonder what they’ll do with Columbus. His name is commemorated in dozens of town and cities. America even has a federal holiday, Columbus Day, coming up this year on October 9 – although a number of states now call it Indigenous People’s Day.

            The record also shows that Columbus was a brutal, ruthless, racist who makes Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio look cuddly by comparison. Columbus brought slavery to the Americas; he took Arawak natives back to Spain as slaves. (Most died en route.) He forced Caribbean natives to supply gold to him, and cut off hands or feet, ears and noses, if they didn’t comply.

            Columbus was so ruthless that his fellow Spaniards shipped him back to Spain in chains. Where, in an Arpaio prequel, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella pardoned him.

 

Opportunities to learn

            Historic monuments, I suggest, should be thought of like stained-glass windows in medieval cathedrals. They’re a teaching tool. In the cathedrals, an illiterate people could absorb biblical stories portrayed in glass. Today, people can gaze at Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square and ask, “Who was he? What did he do?”

            On that principle, if statues of Robert E. Lee can open modern eyes to the evils of slavery, they deserve to stay; if they merely reinforce an ancient tribalism, they should go.

            But that principle raises a bigger issue – the mental monuments we carry around with us.

            Apparently 80 per cent of people say they still believe in God. But what kind of God? A distant engineer, who keeps the universe unfolding as it should? A tribal God, who looks after His favoured few while smiting everyone else? God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?

            Those names and images recur in Christian worship services. They’re built into the historic creeds, the Lord’s Prayer, and the traditional liturgies of many churches.

            I suspect many people no longer think of God out there, or up there. If they bother thinking about God at all, that is. But the familiar words have become a comforting mantra, a verbal security blanket.

            The Ten Commandments forbid making images of God. For observant Jews, that prohibition includes verbal images. Because people can become as attached to a verbal image of God as they can to a Confederate flag or a statue of a general.

            Like the statues, continuing to affirm those wordings perpetuates bygone understandings. And  worse, misunderstandings.

            And like removing Confederate statues, abolishing familiar formulas from worship liturgies – and from mental mindsets – inevitably results in angry resistance.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

 

Most the letters about last week’s column, comparing two groups of extremists, were favourable.

 

Rob Brown called it, “Another insightful piece, helping us ‘name the demons’ in our lives.

            “What people stand for and what they won’t allow give us a pretty clear picture of the people among whom we live. What I say is one thing, but do my actions match what I say. Because my ‘actions speak louder than words.’ I even recall a saying from the 1960s and ‘70s: ‘If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?’

            “Christians are often told they have to believe in Jesus. Being told to act like Jesus would, I think, be more to the point.”

 

Dale Perkins wondered about responses: “It raises for me our responsibility vis a vis conservatives, fundamentalists, literalists who assert that they represent the definitive expressions of Christianity. Why do the rest of us followers of Jesus of Nazareth permit this? I believe we must be much more explicit in denigrating that sector and insisting it is a perversion of the core tenets of the Christian faith.

            “Your column this week actually serves that purpose; so thanks for launching the counter-voice. I would hope more spokespeople of the so-called mainstream and progressive Christian community would do the same; we must not allow these perverts to be offered as the quintessential expression of what Christianity is all about. They are a perversion through and through, and we must stop being so polite around them; they are dangerous and should be downgraded at every turn, not only in the States, but here in this country too.”

 

Bob Stoddard added some thoughts: “You missed one more characteristic that ISIS and white supremacists share: the great complexity within each of these two groups. That is, neither is a monolithic organization; instead, both consist of many variations.  And what’s more, they fight among themselves.

            “For instance, in Afghanistan there are the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Jamiat-e, and Hezb-e among others.  In Syria numerous Islamic groups fight among themselves and change through time, as the merge and splinter is even more complex. In United States, the same multiplicity of groups, which often fight each other, exist.  These include KKK, Neo-Nazis, Aryan Nationalist Alliance, Aryan Nations, SS Action Group, and others.

            “Many persons oversimplify the situation when they try to squeeze these factions into only one name.”

 

Bob Rollwagen wrote, “We use more than 124 characters or a 20-word vocabulary to illustrate the issues.

            “Remember the issues in the ‘60s and ‘70s when nice guy judges and corporate presidents were discovered on the membership lists of KKK? Nice guys. They were the ones that funded the writing of history and building of statues -- or should I call them idols?”

 

Tom Watson: “What do groups such as ISIS, white supremacists, the alt-right, and also the fundamentalist wing of the Christian church, stand for? Seems to me it can be summed up in one word ‘Tribalism.’ There's the In-group -- that's us, our tribe -- and the Out-group, that's anybody who isn't like us, who doesn't think as we do, and who doesn't have some authoritarian doctrine and structure to keep sway over adherents to its tribe.”

 

As usual, Judyth Mermelstein opened the issue up: “On the so-called alt-left, the [extremists] are painted as equally responsible for the violence. It's worth mentioning that they're a very small element and not necessarily leftists. One element is the ‘black bloc’ -- numerically insignificant but actively seeking to create chaos and media attention by attacking police, breaking windows, and otherwise providing an excuse to have peaceful protests brutally repressed. Ostensibly, they are anarchists hoping to ‘bring down the system’ by provoking a revolution. In practice, I suspect most are people attracted to violence, for whom progressive causes seem like an excuse, exactly comparable to those who sign up for violence for regressive causes.

            “The role of religious fundamentalism in terrorism is also misleading. Most ISIS fighters haven't much grasp of Islam and show little interest in the Qur’an and Hadith except for the bits favouring violence against and control of others. Most of the alt-right may be nominally Christian but are utterly uninterested in Christ's way, preferring the most bloodthirsty parts of the Old Testament that even devout Jews see as vestiges of a barbaric past.

            “In other words, it's not religion that motivates the violence, but the propensity for violence that motivates use of religion as an excuse. [My emphasis: JT]

            “You are absolutely right about the similarities between violent factions. We can find the same patterns in others, like the element that espouses the Nazis' brand of paganism, the ‘Buddhist’ thugs of Myanmar, etc. Sadly, it seems every human culture includes a small percentage of (mostly) young (mostly) men who like forming packs to attack other humans and so designate some other humans as prey. Even sadder, it seems no religion thus far has been able to persuade them it's wrong.”

 

Bruce McGillis: “You are looking deeper at human stupidity. I suspect much of human culture revolves around the perceived and/or real loss of something. While the march of civilization is constantly discarding past cultures and accepting fresh culture, our idiosyncrasies are too difficult for many to adapt and welcome the benefits they are now enjoying.

            “Hammurabi said there are superior people. Are we misunderstanding what superior means today? Is supremacy an innate force in all humans?”

 

On the other hand, I’m losing some readers because of my continuing hostility towards Donald Trump. For example, Dona McGilvary unsubscribed with this note: “I'm tired of listening to people maligning our president, and I notice you grasp every opportunity to do so. Keep your opinion to yourself.”

            In a subsequent email, Dona explained, “He's the pilot, we're in the plane. I want the plane to stay in the air. Criticizing the pilot won't help.”

 

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TECHNICAL STUFF

 

If you want to comment on something, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.

            To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.

            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

            I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

 

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PROMOTION STUFF…

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net

 

 

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