I love the confederate flag! It reminds me of the Dukes of Hazard a totally sweet t.v. show from my childhood. I also love cotton, the bible, I also love my grandpa. All of these things could be described as reminders of racism. Latley a ton of ink is being spilled (or as my Grandpa would say “spilt”) over a flag in the name of racism. Will getting rid of a flag do any good? No. It will make folks feel good and that’s about as deep as it goes. Some of our random ethical convictions these days remind me of the cricket next to my window last night something very small making a big sound. Why not redeem stuff that’s offensive? Why ban offensive stuff? It’s easy that’s why. Like sucking gas from a whip cream can its a cheap quick moral high. But it’s nothing more than a vapor. 
A couple of years ago I thought the best way to deal with most problems was to get rid of them. Like kill them. Like with a gun. I remember a lady calling me an uneducated idiot because I joked about how shooting feral cats would solve the cat problem cheap and easy. She explained to me that if I shot the cat that another would take it’s place. But if I did the difficult thing and had the cat fixed at the vet it would still keep it’s territory. She said that’s the key just remove the cat’s potency. The cat will still kill mice and rats but it would no longer contribute to overpopulation. She was right. I was looking for the easy solution which as it turns out was no solution at all. Actually my solution was creating a space for more problems. I say all of that to say this. We can kill symbols or we can redeem them. We can kill a flag or we can redeem it. One is easy and one requires much more personal effort and responsibility. Lets not remove a flag lets remove it’s potency. Jesus did this with perhaps one of the most humiliating, offensive and oppressive images of his time the cross. He didn’t get rid of it he changed what it stood for. Now folks wear the horrible thing around thier neck. We’ve made a torcher device into gold and silver images of hope. Do that with the flag thats what Bo and luke Duke did! So many folks are quick to go around like ISIS being mindless iconoclasts seeking to purify our world from everything offensive. Lets do the hard work of change which might involve your hands getting dirty. Let’s not burn books, flags, and shoot evil pregnant cats. Let’s not kill grandpa, get rid of cotton, avoid The Dukes of Hazard and tear pages out of our Bibles. Lets personally get involved with racism when we experience it at work, school or anywhere we come in contact with it by removing its power and potency.
I disagree. I think the Confederate Flag should no longer fly. But I’ve always thought that…
Iconoclast! 😉
It’s odd, on one hand, to want to abandon the term “evangelical” because it’s too besmirched culturally to be redeemable, and yet on the other hand, advocate the cultural redemption of a flag saturated with racism.
Get rid of them all, I say!!! 🙂
Who said I wanted to get rid of the term evangelical? I love the term evangelical warts and all.
To say that the flag or the civil war for that matter was about racism is a misunderstanding of history. Racism was a part but it actually all came down to cotton and $. The union knew the south would fall if they were no longer able to make cheap cotton and sell it to England.
The flag is saturated with more than racism. What is the US flag saturated with? Smallpox?
Well at least your consistent. But what comes around goes around. Flags are not the only symbols that. Offend folks.
Well I’m not as concerned about what offends people 🙂
In fact, I think there are really two approaches, among others, that I’m seeing. One has to do with “in the church” and the other has to do with “in the public square.”
But I’m also not versed enough to make any comments about politics these days because I’m just pretty much convinced that the whole system is broke.
If you’re not concerned what offends people than why would you like to see the flag disappear?
He did make one really good point here, though: “Lets not remove a flag lets remove it’s potency. Jesus did this with perhaps one of the most humiliating, offensive and oppressive images of his time the cross. He didn’t get rid of it he changed what it stood for.”
What “Cooter” is trying to say is that removing it will not be the answer to STOP all the EVIL.
What Cooter’s pastor here is TRYING to say is that removing a flag will not be the answer to STOP all the EVIL.
My question for you AB is HOW do you redeem something that has become
such a symbol of racism to so many of our neighbors? Besides the Cross,
for which a strong argument can be made that Jesus was NOT trying to
redeem as a symbol, what other offensive symbol has been redeemed and
what can we learn from that example?
The cross was definitely without argument a symbol during Jesus day of oppression, tyranny, death, punishment, and shame. Jesus definitely was offering as a king a kingdom not built on those principles. He could have chosen stoning. But he chose the cross. which has tremendous political implications. Every-time a black person votes, eats at a restaurant, collects a paycheck, and enjoys their life in the ever changing USA and the fact that they no longer live in Africa I think that flag has been redeemed.
AB, I agree that the Cross was a clearly a negative symbol. I still can’t see your point that Jesus (choosing the Cross over stoning) attempted to “redeem” the Cross as a symbol. It seems that the negative associations with the Cross convey the point of His sacrifice. Can you cite some text for that?
Choosing the Cross, it seems to me, was to embrace it’s notorious nature, not redeem it. You may be otherwise engaged and unable to answer my other questions but here they are again. How do you redeem a symbol that has become so identified with racism? Can you cite an example of an offensive symbol that has been redeemed that can serve as a guide?
Finally, do you really think the fact that because black Americans manage to function like
other Americans within the “ever changing USA” means the Confederate
Flag has been redeemed?
Okay so we are talking about this portion of my article “Jesus did this with perhaps one of the most humiliating, offensive and oppressive images of his time the cross. He didn’t get rid of it he changed what it stood for. Now folks wear the horrible thing around their neck. We’ve made a torture device into gold and silver images of hope.”
I do not see why I must cite a scripture passage for something that is so historically obvious this is getting a bit silly i have no proof text for you. After around 200-300 years Christians began decorating with the cross. It became an image and emblem of hope. Historically speaking because of Jesus participation with such horrible object the Church has chosen to embrace the cross as the dominant image of the Christian faith. Jesus did not attempt to redeem the cross as a symbol he did. That’s just the historical truth of the matter. Christians did not condemn the symbol of the cross because of what it stood for or reminded them of. Instead the cross became something different because it was touched by God. I honestly believe the confederate flag has come to mean something different because of civil rights. It means something to me because slavery has been abolished. It is a great reminder of how God moved in and among the people of our nation.
The slave trade as horrible as it was has been and is being redeemed in the south since the abolition. America is a place of freedom for many folks today whose great grandparents were slaves. That is amazing. This is not being done by forgetting or pretending something didn’t happen but embracing that it did happen and incorporating it into a part of our nations story and identity. So yes similar to the opportunity that Christians had to redeem the cross we have the same opportunity to redeem the flag both confederate and American.