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The Confederate Flag and Racism |
OK folks. I had a message out about the Confederate Flag two years ago (Confederate Flag Issue). I was sick and tired of hearing all the racist hoopla about this flag. However, the battle still goes on even many, many years after the civil war and there are those people bent on its removal (funny thing is if one tries to remove any other symbol of racial or ethnic backgrounds, we'd hear loud cries of 'discrimination' and 'bigotry' but I suppose it's OK to remove some southerner's symbol of their heritage). Remember, I originally never gave this a thought until the vociferous crowd forced me to take a look--- OK, then, I took a look and sided with the South. I feel this hype has been shoved in my face enough, so now I want to show a little respect for the Southern Cross and go over a few facts.
"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races. . . . I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
Is this something to hate the Confederate flag over? It should be! I am horrified that such a statement was ever made---- except, for one thing. This statement was made by Abraham Lincoln under the Union flag (the stars and stripes)! As much as I admired Abraham Lincoln when I was growing up as our educational system deified him, I later had a feeling that there was something I did not like about the guy; not hate, mind you, just not like about him. I am akin to a human lie-detector and can usually tell when someone is not up to speed for some reason.One other thing.... when I say "slaves", do you think of black men and women only? Ding! Got you again! There were white slaves as well, and even Native Americans owned slaves! This is why I used the adjective "black" slaves earlier. Slavery was an equal opportunity employer, but I must admit the majority were blacks. But I want one to be aware of this. Although it is not as probable, it is possible that a black person's ancestors may have been free and certain white person's ancestors were slaves.
"Well," cries a protestor, "The fact is that the South still had slaves and this was morally wrong and worth fighting over! That's why the confederate flag should be banned because it symbolizes hate!" Oh yeah? Then that applies for the stars and stripes. You see, the slave trade to the United States was outlawed (1808) and the Northern slave ships had to then smuggle the slaves into the country. This was all done under the "stars and stripes" banner. How about the KKK? Most people would condemn the group. However, what do they burn? Confederate flags or crosses? They also carry the stars and stripes. So, must we ban the cross and the stars and stripes as well, or just the Confederate flag, which is also associated with a group as this? Let's not be hypocritical. In like manner, you'd be surprised how much I am called a follower of Armstrong because of what we teach on this site. I NEVER belonged to his group, but let's all throw out the baby with the bath water and/or take diverse groups that have some things in common and box them into one big group! That's real open-minded and educated judgment!
The truth is, slavery was on the way out in the South by the time the war came on. Many southerners questioned it, and advancements made it certain. In other words, had there NOT been a war, the Confederate States would have existed under the Confederate flag but slavery would have been abolished--- I'll let 'how soon' up to the reader, but I believe it would have been that way. My point is that the flag would not have been given up just because of that negative part of the south's past any more than the stars and stripes was not given up just because the North also had slaves.
What about the civil war, then? Well, I won't go off into detail about this because this message is more about the Confederate flag than the history of the civil war. However, I see at least two main reasons: economic and state's rights issues. The economics was due to the North's interference with the South's lucrative agriculture, especially the likes of the cotton plantations and trade. The Industrial North wanted control and taxation under a Federal government, which brings up the state issue. The South saw the states as having their own rights and power, especially where the constitution did not spell out specifically the powers of the Federal government. They believed that the states had a right to secede from the Union and in this case, because of what they saw as the meddling and desire for control (taxation, etc.). If these were Rebels, then it must be noted the original colonies did the same to England when declaring their independence!
Slavery or not, bigotry or not, the Confederate Flag and its design would have still happened! The South could have been the nicest people and the North the slave owners for all we know and yet the flags would have been the same. There is really no connection, although people want to label the South a certain way and any symbol can be perceived as related and hateful. It's like Pavlov's dogs. Whenever the bell rang, he fed them. So even if the bell rang and there was no food, they'd still produce saliva. The bell had nothing to do with food. Rather, the incident of its ringing when fed made the dogs connect the two. A bell is a bell, and one can attach any meaning to the sound. The same with the flags. The flag was not designed to reflect anything to do with racism. Rather the supposed perceived racism was connected to the flag and thus a true case of "the baby being thrown out with the bath water".
So, what inspired the design of the Confederate flag? You will hear the reasons for this in secular history, but I want to express a biblical reason. The Confederate flag is based on St. Andrew's Cross--- a Scottish symbol. And where did they get it from? I really believe that in spite of the supposed reasons, God saw the provision of such a flag based on the action of Jacob the Patriarch when He blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob crossed his arms in Genesis 48 when blessing Joseph's lads, and anywhere you see an "X" in the flag has connections to the dominant son, in this case, Ephraim. Remember, Manasseh broke away from Ephraim in the colonial days, and there was a division of philosophy there. In addition, Manasseh itself was a two-part tribe back in the days of ancient Israel, a characteristic we now see in the Northeast United States and the western United States such as California (In this last election, Kerry had the Northeast and Western states whereas Bush had the rest of the nation). Is this reason maybe due to Manasseh's tendency to gravitate to the philosophy of Kerry and Ephraim to that of Bush? I think so, but you be the judge. I will not go any deeper in this message about Ephraim and Manasseh, but you can reread the messages from late last year starting with this message about the identities of Ephraim and Manasseh.
The conclusion of this message is simple: Don't take away part of someone's heritage even if perceived as "bad". You would not want it to happen to you, and indeed if it did happen to you, you'd be the first to chime in with accusations of discrimination and bigotry. So how do you think they feel? (And trust me, NOBODY'S past is squeaky clean with lack of discrimination anyway). And secondly, don't make a connection of a symbol with something negative especially when that symbol was not designed to stand for the perceived negativity. Think of the bells and Pavlov's dogs. You are smarter than that--- don't look at a flag and think "racist" unless you want to admit you are brainwashed into thinking like that.