The Confederate Flag and the Christian: 2 or 3 Questions

Coming home from church Sunday Kris and I ended up behind a truck in our village with two flags flapping in the wind — big flags not those dinky ones that hang out windows. The Stars and Stripes, and a Confederate flag. Equally displayed. One couldn’t help but think the driver was flouting recent decisions and flaunting his freedom. My question for him, had we had a chance to converse, would be: Is this the best way to bring peace in our society?

Now to a guest post by a friend.

By Glenn Pemberton

The Confederate Flag:

Two Questions, or is it Three?

Isn’t it odd? The Confederate flag is nothing more than a rectangular piece of cloth imprinted with a bright red and blue design, and this simple flag has raised a firestorm of controversy. To set the record straight, I am not a constitutional expert, nor am I an attorney. My perspective comes from a different set of concerns, those of an imperfect man trying to follow the way of Jesus (emphasis on the imperfect). Consequently, in all the debate to reach my eyes or ears it seems that the primary issues have not yet been identified. Just to clarify, insofar as I read the situation, the critical issues for people of faith are not primarily wrapped up in:

• Whether or not the Confederate flag became a popular symbol for the Southern way of life in 1861 or 1961, or whether it became a symbol of racism in 1961.
• Whether or not a person has a constitutional right to fly a Confederate flag (or a hundred flags) on their own property.
• Whether or not it is constitutional to fly a Confederate flag on state or national property.
• Whether or not I am personally offended by the presence or sight of a Confederate flag.

Regardless of how we may answer these questions, these points do not determine how Christ-followers should respond to the debate (with a possible exception regarding racism in 1961). The Confederate flag may be (to me or you) no more than a symbol for the Southern way of life – my way of life, it may be legal to display the flag at my home and on public property, and it may pose no offense or threat to me at all (or any of my friends). And yet, for people of faith the critical conversation begins where the media debate has no more to say, out of necessity to keep their sponsors – separating politics from religion, and religion from the media. It is here, in sacred space for Christians, that two questions call for our attention.

First, am I (a Caucasian or person of color) able to see and understand what this rectangular piece of cloth imprinted with a bright design means to many African-Americans? Even more, are we able to feel the gut-wrenching fear that still comes over so many, even now? Yes, it has been over a hundred years since the Civil War, but it has not been so long since this flag flew over indiscriminate lynchings of “uppity-_____” across a wide portion of the South. The only comparison that comes close (and is far from perfect) is to ask a Jew living in Germany or most of Europe what they might think or how they might feel if they saw a swastika on a German flag flying at someone’s home or on government property? So to ask the question again, are we able as Christ-followers to put ourselves into the minds and hearts of those who see a Confederate flag and react in a manner very different than our own?

The second question is even more important, assuming that we can put ourselves into another person’s perspective – mentally and emotionally: do we care? Do we care what this simple symbol does to the psyche of another person who sees it and reacts in confusion, anger, or fear? Does it matter to me that many others respond with a different perspective from my own? Or, is all that matters how I view the Confederate flag, how I think others ought to see it, and my rights of free speech as an American? When the dust settles and all the other questions come to a predictable end, do I make my decisions on the basis of any higher ethic than what is legal, or what I think and feel? Or as a Christ-follower do I place the interests of others above my own? If so, we must push ourselves to answer these two (at least) additional questions: 1) Can I see and feel what others perceive and feel? 2) Do I care for them? And maybe there is a third question as well: how might our Lord respond to the debate?

Glenn Pemberton, Ph.D.

Author of Hurting with God (ACU Press, 2012), After Lament (ACU Press, 2014), and the forthcoming textbook The God who Saves: An Introduction to the Message of the Old Testament (ACU Press, August 2015).