Stonewall stonewalled; or The Lost Cause on the Christian Broadcasting Network
BY PAUL HARVEY
At Civil War Memory, Kevin Levin directs some withering skepticism towards the continued worship of Lee and Jackson among some contemporary southern evangelicals. He begins:
I came across this entertaining little video from the Christian Broadcasting Network which examines the religious convictions of John Jasper, R.E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. It is somewhat humorous to find these two men being raised to something along the lines of civil rights activists. The questionable story of Lee accepting communion in a Richmond church next to a black man and just after the war is explored along with Jackson's mission to educate his slaves and other blacks in the Lexington area.
He continues on to ask:
Here is what I don't understand. If God brought slavery to black people than how is it possible that Jackson "hated" or was "opposed" to it? To put it another way, isn't God's ordaining something to be the case a justification of its existence?
And he concludes:
Is the lesson of Jackson that as long as we apply the Golden Rule within our own set of assumptions regarding its extension than it is safe to conclude that we are living a moral life or carrying out God's expectations?
At Civil War Memory, Kevin Levin directs some withering skepticism towards the continued worship of Lee and Jackson among some contemporary southern evangelicals. He begins:
I came across this entertaining little video from the Christian Broadcasting Network which examines the religious convictions of John Jasper, R.E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. It is somewhat humorous to find these two men being raised to something along the lines of civil rights activists. The questionable story of Lee accepting communion in a Richmond church next to a black man and just after the war is explored along with Jackson's mission to educate his slaves and other blacks in the Lexington area.
He continues on to ask:
Here is what I don't understand. If God brought slavery to black people than how is it possible that Jackson "hated" or was "opposed" to it? To put it another way, isn't God's ordaining something to be the case a justification of its existence?
And he concludes:
Is the lesson of Jackson that as long as we apply the Golden Rule within our own set of assumptions regarding its extension than it is safe to conclude that we are living a moral life or carrying out God's expectations?
Comments
I guess the message here is that Jackson and Lee were heroes of the faith. The title of the book cited in the piece, _Stonewall Jackson: The Black Man's Friend_, says it all.
Here's R. G. Williams Jr.: "Mention the legendary Confederate General Stonewall Jackson to most people and the image that immediately comes to mind is one of a fearless, hard-fighting Southerner. . . . [But] a careful study of his life would lead one to believe that General Jackson might even be described as a civil rights leader. Yes, you read right, a civil rights leader. "
http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Williams/williams1.html
Who'd have thunk it? He was like the Will Campbell of the 1850s!