When I was a kid, I liked to watch the Dukes of Hazard. Even as a little kid, I knew that cars jumping over things on a regular basis to get away from cars that are chasing them was not realistic but, even as kids, isn’t that why we watch TV, to get away from the real world. I am completely blind now and, even then, I couldn’t see well at all. However, from what little I could see, I thought the General Lee looked pretty cool. I liked the orange color and the number on the door and even the flag on the top. I didn’t know what the flag on the top was. I’m not sure I even realized it was a flag. I just thought the blue X with the white stars in it looked neat.
As I got older, I of course came to realize that this was the Confederate flag. To me, this was a symbol of the south, not of slavery. I do have southern pride but because of our present, not our past. I am proud to be from the south because I believe we have better climate, friendlier people, and better food. However, from a historical prospective, we in the south have nothing to be proud of, certainly not the Confederacy.
In the Civil War, we, in the south, were wrong. No matter how you look at it, that’s just the way it is.
Some say that the Civil War was fought over states rights, not over slavery. I used to say that too because that is what I had always been told. Then, I started thinking about it and I wondered what other state’s rights were at issue. I couldn’t think of any and I bet most people reading this can’t either. However, I am not what you would call a student of history so I did a little research. I found that, along with slavery, there were some trade related issues which had caused some states to consider succession decades before the Civil War. However, these other non slavery related disputes were always eventually worked out peacefully. Slavery was the only issue that remained an issue and continued to escalate until it resulted in the attempted succession of the southern states which resulted in the Civil War. So, the Civil War perhaps was fought over state’s rights but a single state’s right was by far at the forefront, slavery. If that particular state’s right had not been in contention, the war most likely would not have happened. Given this, I think to argue about whether the war was fought over slavery or over state’s rights is really mostly a matter of semantics. From a practical prospective, it appears to me that it was fought over slavery.
There were certainly some other state’s rights that were in contention but I think these were very much secondary. Regardless, slavery is the first thing I think of when I ask myself why the Civil War was fought and it was the only thing I could think of until I did some research. Ask yourself why it was fought. If you are more of a student of History than I am, then perhaps you think of more than slavery, but I think that slavery is the first thing most people think of when the think of the Civil War. So, to me, it’s really easy to understand why slavery defines this conflict to many people.
Now then, I have said that the Confederate flag is not a symbol of slavery to me and it really isn’t. I think that is true for many southerners. However, I certainly do understand why it is symbolic of slavery for some people, because of the things noted above. The southern part of the country has always been here but the Confederacy did not exist, and thus the flag of the Confederacy did not exist, until we decided to break away from the rest of the country, mostly because of contention over a single state’s right, slavery. It looks a little different when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?
But I have said that the Confederate flag is not a symbol of slavery to me and it probably isn’t for most other white southerners either. So, why should we care if it is a symbol of slavery for some people? We should care for one simple reason, because it offends those people and sometimes keeps them from seeing the light of Christ’s love shining in and through us. As Christians, this alone is reason for us to let go of the Confederate flag and other Confederacy honoring symbols.
There is an example in Scripture that is directly applicable to this situation. Read 1 Corinthians, chapter 8.
1 Corinthians 8
1 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.
3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
7 However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.
9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?
11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Here, Paul was addressing the issue of Christians eating meat that had been offered to idols.
Here is a paraphrase of what Paul is saying in verses 1 through 6:
You all know basically how this works but be careful not to be too proud of that knowledge because that pride could easily get in the way of Christ’s love. If you assume that you understand everything then that means that you don’t understand as well as you should. If you truly have a relationship with Jesus, then you know it is through Him alone that we are saved and through Him alone that we live and that all of these other so called gods are nothing. Because you know that these fake gods are nothing, you eating food that was offered to them means nothing to you and so it doesn’t hurt your relationship with the one true God.
Now, let’s look at verses 7 through 13. In these verses, Paul several times refers to people who are weak or are of weak conscience. Many English translations word it this way but I think this wording doesn’t really very well convey what Paul was saying and so we must be very careful not to miss-understand what he was saying. He was talking about people who had only very recently converted from some form of idolatry to Christianity and so had “weak” knowledge or understanding of some Christian theology.
With that said, here is a paraphrase of verses 7 through 13:
Many of the people you associate with have just come from a life of idolatry and so have a different prospective on this than you do. For them, eating things which have been sacrificed to an idol has always been an element of worship to that idol. They may think it is the same for you and so, because they see you eating this sacrificed food, they may think that Christians are no different than the idolaters or they may think that it is OK to incorporate idol worship into Christianity. In either case, this may prevent them from coming to Christ or may hurt their walk with Him. Therefore, concerning eating meat offered to idols, it is not a sin in itself but, if you do it knowing that it hurts your Christian witness, this makes it a sin and you should not do it.
In a nut shell, Paul said that there was nothing wrong with eating this meat unless you were doing it in a situation where it could hurt the walk of another Christian, that it could hamper your ability to let Christ’s love shine through you, and, in that case, it was wrong and in fact a sin. This can also be applied to other things that are likely to hurt our Christian witness. Note that, in verse 9, he said “beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block”. I believe this is exactly what we have done with the Confederate flag. In verse 13, Paul said “if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble”. We could say “If the Confederate flag makes my brother stumble, then I will never again fly the Confederate flag”. I believe that we should say exactly that. We are free to fly the flag if we want to but we should not want to if doing so may become a stumbling block to others.
Paul addresses the same issue later in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. Verse 28 reads, in part, “But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, for conscience’ sake”. Verse 29 reads, in part, “Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other”. Clearly, there are some things we are to abstain from, even if they are not wrong, because of the way they are perceived by others and the negative impact that perception has on their ability to see Christ in us.
I know many people say things like “the Civil War happened and we need to display these symbols so that we can remember our history”. Yes, the Civil War is just a part of our history and perhaps we shouldn’t destroy all of the symbols and images and monuments related to it. However, just because we shouldn’t destroy all of them, that does not mean that we should prominently display them. A Confederate flag can serve as a reminder of history in a display case in a museum or pictured on a page in a book. On the other hand, if you fly the flag on your house or paint it on the tale gate of your truck, you are prominently displaying it, giving it a place of honor. Similarly, a statue of General Lee in a museum may serve as a reminder of history but, if you put it on your lawn, doesn’t that suggest that you are proud of it? To you, the confederate flag or a Confederate statue may just represent southern pride and that may just mean you like our better climate, better food, and friendlier people. But, given the history behind these things, can’t you see how they would represent something else to many other people? Can’t you see how that would effect their impression of you, who prominently display these things? If you proclaim the name of Christ, then whatever effects people’s impression of you also effects their impression of Him. Sure, you have the right to display these things but remember that Paul said “beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block”. Is it worth that? I don’t think it is.
You may still be thinking “oh this is just silly”. If so, I understand. I used to think the same way. Then, riding in the car one day, my wife and I had a simple conversation.
Me: This is just silly. The confederate flag doesn’t represent slavery. It just represents southern pride. To some people, it doesn’t really represent anything because they never think about it.
Her: But to a lot of people, it does represent slavery and, given its history, it’s easy to understand why. So, couldn’t it be a stumbling block to those people and wouldn’t that, in itself, make it wrong to display it?
As simple as that sounds, I had never really thought about it from that angle before. That has percolated in my head on and off for the last year or so. After thinking and praying about it, I have come to the conclusions I have talked about in this article. I would invite you to think and pray about it too, with an open mind, and see what conclusions you come too.
