It began with calls to remove statues to Confederate generals and politicians. It soon expanded to include statues and memorials to Christopher Columbus, America’s Founding Fathers, Union generals, and post-Civil War U.S. Presidents. Many Americans wonder: What’s next? And that very question leads us to perhaps one of the greatest moments for evangelism in American history.
The murder of George Floyd unleashed a wave of protests and unrest that rivals any we’ve seen in American history. This is truly a moment for the history books, and we are still in the midst of that moment.
The protests, of course, are about more than George Floyd. The murder of Mr. Floyd at the knee of a police officer, while other officers looked on and while several bystanders recorded it, was simply the catalyst that unleashed decades (centuries even) of pent-up anger and frustration over racism and injustice in America’s past – and present.
As a Christian and as an American citizen, I support all peaceful protests and constructive efforts in pursuit of civil rights for all Americans and for the fulfillment of our nation’s Pledge: “liberty and justice for all.”
We as Americans must certainly take this opportunity to renounce racism and white supremacy and to support any and all reasonable and helpful measures toward criminal justice reform and holding all public servants, including law enforcement, accountable to the people they serve.
Today’s protest movement has of course expanded beyond calls for criminal justice reform and opposition to police brutality. It has expanded beyond opposition to racism and calls for civil rights protections. Now, we are seeing a deep, abiding, and intense backlash against any and all persons and institutions perceived to be responsible for or (in any way) allied with white supremacy and/or oppression.
One of the fronts in this new socio-cultural revolution focuses on statues and memorials. From angry mobs vandalizing and desecrating statues and memorials to local citizens demanding that schools be renamed and from portraits taken down in America’s Capitol Building to statues being removed even at museums, we are now in the midst of what can only be called a national identity crisis.
It is understandable that many, perhaps most, Americans would want to move statues to the Confederacy out of public spaces and into museums or onto war cemeteries or private property. It’s likewise understandable that Columbus, long a symbol of European settlement, colonization, and oppression of the New World, might be reevaluated.
But now we are seeing the desecration and removal of statues and memorials to America’s Founding Fathers and even to Union generals and post-Civil War U.S. Presidents. There’s controversy surrounding statues to Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and even Gandhi!
Let’s take Ulysses S. Grant. He was the top general of the Union Army after Gettysburg, and was responsible for defeating and forcing the surrender of three significant Confederate armies – including the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Robert E. Lee. It was this victory that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and was the effective end of the American Civil War.
It is difficult to fathom how someone opposed to Confederate statues on the grounds that they honor traitors to the United States who fought for the perpetuation of slavery would then also be opposed to statues to UNION generals, especially one like General Grant.
The objection to Grant seems to be that he was a slave owner (briefly) prior to the Civil War and was ambivalent about slavery at the beginning of the war. This is largely true, but it leaves out the fact that Grant (like many people of his day) changed. He progressed.
By the end of the Civil War, Grant was not only pro-Union, but anti-slavery. And was also pro-civil rights for African Americans, backing that up as President when he basically decimated the Ku Kux Klan in the postwar American South.
It is hard to understand how self-styled progressives today can be so unimpressed with such progress. And yet…
This is now modern (I should say postmodern) radical progressives (which is a misnomer, if there ever was one) operate. They are pushing toward a society that reflects their vision of a socio-political paradise, a utopia, that respects equal justice, as well as peace and prosperity, for all — as, of course, they define those things. And thus anyone from the past, especially anyone in power in the past, is immediately suspect because, well, utopia wasn’t achieved in the past.
Radical progressives view any statue of a past historical figure with suspicion, because all past figures are (at least in some ways) associated with and complicit with the sins of our nation’s past.
The inevitable conclusion of this line of “reasoning” (such as it is) is that no one is worthy of a statue. After all, can anyone name a single historical figure who checks off all the boxes of righteousness? Is there anyone who was sinless and perfect? Anyone?
I can only think of One.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what presents perhaps the greatest opportunity to lift up the Name of Jesus than perhaps we have ever had in American history.
If the standard behind the #StatuesMustFall movement (yes, that is a hashtag trending on Twitter) is that we shouldn’t honor anyone with sin, then….
There is only ONE Person worthy of a statue, and… technically, we’re not supposed to build one to Him anyway (Exodus 20:4-5).
But we are supposed to recognize Him and worship Him. And we as Christians are supposed to proclaim Him.
If the world is looking for a sinless role model – a true, righteous, noble hero – that anyone and everyone regardless of race, color, creed, sex, gender, or any other consideration can look up to, then let us introduce the world to such a Person.
His Name is Jesus.
I think of the words from the apostle Paul writing to the church in Philippi:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
If the progressive left wants to say “No statues to sinners,” then… okay. Let’s bring all the statues down. All of them. To everybody.
And let’s then lift up the One who knew no sin, except that which He took upon Himself for you and for me.
Let’s lift up the Name of Jesus.
