I wasn’t around during the Civil War, but I am very interested in a few recent conversations about the role of slavery with respect to the War.

Apparently, it’s common for governors, particularly southern governors, to issue proclamations honoring confederate veterans during what’s called confederate history month.  Though I know governors write many proclamations for many reasons, this is my first introduction to the month-long observation of confederate history month.  Perhaps you are familiar with it.  Well, the governor of Virginia recently supplied a proclamation at the request of the sons of the confederate veterans, the first draft of which omitted any hint at the contributions of black enslaved people.  Virginia’s governor.

I think this conversation is clearly historical.  Most people would agree (a) that slavery happened in the United States and (b) that the Civil War happened in this country, even if those same people disagree about the two being related in a casual manner.  And I didn’t know people didn’t naturally associate the two in the latter manner.  The conversation is historical, but it is also a necessary contemporary dialogue in the African American community specifically and in the American community generally. 

The Civil War was a long, extreme, horrific, and powerful moment in our nation’s history.  It’s important to remember it and to remember it well. 

I am not a historian.  I am not a politician.  I am a pastor so I’ll resist the inner urge to respond to these recent sound bites with my amateur historical views or from my strict cultural interpretation of politics–though no interpretator can ever truly separate from his or her cultural context–and respond as a leader in a faith community.  I’ll post more tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is a link to one or two reflections about things, and here are some questions for you: 1) How should people who have experienced atrocities like slavery and war tell their stories, even when those participants come at slavery or war from, say, the position of the enslaved or from a position of power?  Should stories be told?  2) What does it mean to listen well to, and learn from, history?