Hope Elusive

This photo was taken by photographer STEPHEN B. MORTON – NEW YORK TIMES

Today I watched a hated symbol come down from our State House Capitol grounds in South Carolina.

I wrote about my feelings two weeks ago in my blog post entitled, “What Story Do I Dream Of.”  The flag came down shortly after 10 a.m. today. I want to say I feel hopeful and love. I want to say that the flag coming down is going to create a new feeling of love and peace and end racism in the South.

It won’t and it didn’t.  I respect those that felt the flag was a symbol of heritage, but I disagree with them.  I saw flying the flag on our State House grounds as divisive and insensitive.  My Christian brother and sisters of color saw it as a symbol of hate.

Flying it on our State House seemed to honor what it had come to stand for racism and White supremacy. I know Jewish people would not want the hateful Nazi symbol, the swastika, flying on public places.

Hate is the enemy of hope. Racism is the enemy of brotherhood and love.  When something becomes a stumbling block to Christians, it needs to be uprooted and done away with. That is how I continue to see the Confederate flag. It was adopted by people in the 1960s who fought desegregation and wanted to keep black people subjugated, going around to the back of businesses and in the balconies; who wanted to keep their children from going to quality schools and progressing.

I keep reading and hearing arguments that the Civil War was not about slavery. The North had slaves even after the Civil War. Black people owned slaves when they became freedmen. The African tribes would even round up their rival tribe members and sell them into slavery. All of these events were true and important, but they do not detract from the simple truths that hatred, slavery, and oppression are evil. Southern white slave owners wanted to keep a system that degraded human beings so much that they seceded from the United States of America and started a war that killed so many young men, whites and blacks from Southern and Northern states.

The war is not a heritage of which I am proud.  The flag needs to be put into a museum so we never forget that system of hate that lead to imprisonment and atrocities against our fellow human beings. If I had been alive in that era, I would have been an abolitionist fighting for change.

Now, I am Christian mom praying for a world of love, peace, and equality. Praying for a world where my daughter will be raised to love and appreciate everyone no matter their race.  That world though will not fully come until Christ returns. He is the answer to all that ails mankind; not taking down a hated symbol in a gesture of goodwill that is appreciated but will not bring lasting change.

Christ is the answer for everything. He is the true hope for us all. When he died, he died for us all. He died for the young man who went into that church and committed that awful, hate-filled act against nine saints of God. He died for the Confederate flag supporters who genuinely see their flag as a symbol of heritage and not hate. I know these people exist because I am related to them. I pray for them too. They do not want the young men who went to fight a war in the 1860s forgotten. They don’t want their sacrifice to be in vain. I respect that and even sympathize.

However, the grounds for the war was based on sin and hatred, and it was fought to uphold a system that enslaved and murdered innocents. Just like the Israelite in Egypt, God heard the plight of the Southern slaves and brought freedom to them.

He hears the plight of the downcast, the downtrodden, the hopeless, and those in chains. He brings freedom. He stretched His arms and hands out and let them be nailed into a cross on Calvary so that we all might be free of the curse of sin and hatred. He died for Africans. He died for Black Americans. He died for the illegal immigrants bringing their families from poverty hoping for a better life of freedom. He died for gays and lesbians.  It is up to all to accept His sacrifice, however,  and repent of sins and evil. Only then will you be saved.

Spreading Jesus’s heritage of love is all that should matter to Christians.

Christ preached on why He came in Luke:

Luke 4:18- 17

And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”…

We have a battle in front of  us. We need to preach Jesus and not worry about the Confederate flag. We need to point to Christ and tell the world that they need to accept His heritage of love and sacrifice that He offers. He is the solution for all. We need to repent of hate and our sins. We need to cling to Jesus and raise up His emblem of hope and love. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. He is real hope. His banner is love. Let us unfurl it for all to see.

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