I have previously written about my concerns in the removal of statues and names from public buildings due to contemporary views of historical figures like George Washington. For that reason, it should come as little surprise how I view the decision of the current congregation of Christ Church in Alexandria to a memorial plaque to George Washington. I once lived near the church and occasionally went to services there. including the funeral of our late Associate Dean Admiral John Jenkins. It is a thrill to sit in a church that once served Washington and others. It is deeply disappointing to see the congregation now reject that long history in the removal of a plaque placed on the church in 1870. The reason offered below by church leaders is that the plaque made people feel unwelcomed or threatened because Washington was a slave owner.
The historic Episcopal church was one of the primary sites of worship for George Washington. However, plaques to both Washington and Robert E. Lee were ordered removed because “… Many in our congregation feel a strong need for the church to stand clearly on the side of ‘All are welcome — no exceptions’ . . . Because the sanctuary is a worship space, not a museum, there is no appropriate way to inform visitors about the history of the plaques or to provide additional context except for the in-person tours provided by our docents.”
It is a rather odd statement since, as shown by the Jefferson Memorial, one can always add context to a memorial that acknowledges the hypocrisy of being a slave owner. It would seem a rather simply thing to retain one’s historic association with Washington while adding a plaque that raises the issue of slavery and its meaning to the contemporary congregation. Such an effort avoids the sanitizing of history in favor of better understanding that history.
The signatories below specifically states
Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Christ Church lives into this call, feeding the hungry with our Lazarus ministry, welcoming the stranger in our refugee ministry, and inviting all to worship with us. The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome. Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques.
I fail to see why a plaque to the first President would make some feel “unsafe” in attending services in a progressive and welcoming church. There are such references to Washington all around the church in Alexandria, including the fact that the street sign outside the church reads “Washington Street.” That was named after the same guy, but most do not feel threatened in driving to the church or into Alexandria. By the way, the cross street for the church is Cameron St. (named after Lord Fairfax of Cameron who was also a slave owner).
The 13 members signing the letter below seemed intent in making a statement with the removal of the plaque rather than actually address the underlying historical conflict. The church once held a congregation of not just slave owners but confederates like Lee. That is part of its history. One can find meaning in that history — not by eradicating its evidence but acknowledging it and placing it into a new context. I fail to see why the removal was necessary as opposed to the use of the memorial to address slavery with added information.
What do you think?
Here is the letter:
Unbelievable that someone would feel “unsafe or unwelcome” due to a plaque in honor of a man who has been dead for about 200 years. Halloween has gone to their heads.
“Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques.”
I hope people choose not to return because of the removal of the plaques.
“He [George Washington] regularly worshiped in our pews”
They should give all of his tithes to Mt. Vernon (in today’s dollars, too) since they apparently wish he had never been associated with their church.
They don’t feel unsafe. They’re just enjoying themselves making the vestry and rector dance a jig. They are also people of scant accomplishment trying to badger others into not honoring historical figures with actual accomplishment.
TSFS,
I mostly agree. However, there are some people who get themselves worked up into hysterics and thus consider themselves “psychologically” unsafe, so to speak. The same sorts of folks who get “triggered” or other such nonsense.
They’re in the habit of doing that because it got results when they were at impressionable ages.
Except when they were two, they had a tantrum because they simply wanted a cookie. These perpetually aggrieved adults are playing a power game. “I’m offended so you have to remove a plaque; I’m offended so you have to drape the statue of Jesus in gender-neutral clothing; I’m offended so nobody in the church can wear cotton,” and so it goes, getting increasingly absurd until life becomes a parody of Mad Magazine,
I think we’re there.
Indeed; the natural result of attachment parents taking their approach too far, allowing their 2-year olds to make important decisions, and then validating their every boo-boo, hurt feeling, or mediocre attempt by their average children to set themselves apart from their peers for the next 20+ years.
Here’s a translation of the above letter in the long-lost language of truth:
Dear Brothers in Christ:
We are totally capitulating to elements in society who hold us in contempt and who use the false guilt narratives as a weapon. Some of the beta males in the Vestry have decided that to “turn the other cheek” really means to bend over and offer another kind of cheek to those who would delight in our demise. Without sounding irreligious, it harkens back to a famous atheist German philosopher who declared in his work “The Gay Science,” (seriously!) that “God is Dead” but who did, however, presciently offer some insight into our current predicament and our obsession to remain the most correct of the politically correct gang when he said:
“I call an animal, a species, an individual corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it prefers what is injurious to it.”
Those German philosophers know a thing or two about losing. Some guy with a bad mustache said that. Hey, does anyone have a portrait of him to display?
Yours in abject obsequiousness to fashion,
~ The Vestry at Christ Church in Alexandria
Fabulous post, Mespo.
And the beta males begat the gamma males. And the gamma males begat the delta males. And the delta males begat the epsilon males. Then the Y chromosome merged with the X and the last vestige of masculinity was cuckolded into defeat.
And it was not good.
Hear, hear!
It is the inevitable march of Cultural Marxism. Destroying a culture’s art, symbols, plaques, is about destroying said culture. This is cultural suppression which is an act of soft genocide. It is about killing the whites by proxy. They are purposely destroying the foundations of this country to replace it with their Marxist culture. We are facing genocide by many means in this country. https://www.academia.edu/34936383/The_Many_Forms_of_Genocide_Hard_and_Soft This is a Maoist type of revolution, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, that killed many. America is destroying itself. America is gone.
Leftist PC “logic.” Auschwitz should be torn down and turned into an amusement park.
Extremist thoughts!! Ihjäl!
Off topic. Just skimmed through the indictment. The first word that came to mind was “Toast.” The topics of the indictment are familiar territory to people in my profession : tax fraud (Klein conspiracy), FBAR violations. Nasty stuff. And the time period covered precedes the Presidential campaign by years. Makes you wonder about Trump’s tax returns for the same period.
Utter nonsense.
This isn’t about Washington’s plaque at all. This is all about Robert E. Lee’s plaque and the bigots’ desire to equate traitors like Robert E. Lee with national icons like George Washington.
Who was it that complained of the plaque honoring Washington? The church won’t say and apparently will remove the plaque of its own volition. This church didn’t honor Washington and Lee with these plaques until 1870 when it simultaneously honored both. Further, as the church wrote in its current announcement:
The church itself, from time of the placement of the plaques to their removal, has tried to equate the Father of Our Country with a traitor to our country. And now its playing the victim.
Why not just take down Lee’s plaque? Or better yet: Take down Washington’s plaque and replace it with one honoring Benedict Arnold.
Or is that just a little too on the nose?
fiver: All Confederates are considered US Military Veterans! —by Law! Congress passed a law giving all Confederates the title of US Veterans. General Robert Lee is not a traitor; he publicly announced his loyalty to his state of Virginia! Before the Civil War, the States still had some sovereignty! One’s loyalty belonged to one’s state—not to the central government! It was Abraham Lincoln that changed that by converting the federalist government into a national government. In noway, was General Lee or any other Confederate a traitor! Abraham Lincoln was a Marxist. Lincoln was an avid reader of newspapers especially the New York Herald that printed over 400 articles by Marx and Engels. Lincoln’s favorite phrase was “Labor must control Capital”. He wanted to end slavery. Read Jon Nichols book, “The ‘S’ Word, A Short History of an American Tradition: Socialism”. And then read Aston King’s book, “Yankee Babylon”. Aston researches that Lincoln purposely instigated the Civil War. Lincoln wanted the war secretly. Lincoln was a Marxist. Lincoln was a reprobate. It was Lincoln, a radical red republican, that created the Civil War. Lincoln was a tyrant. Glad that he was assassinated. The Civil War is about Yankee Progressive Brutality. And that is why this Gnostic filled Christ Church is taking down the two plaques. Scourge on them.
Your country is gone and finished, fiver. It’s gone. We live in a Banana Republic, in a collapsed society. We live in tyranny and barbarianism.
Some points:
Pure, unadulterated, bull scat. https://www.snopes.com/confederate-soldiers-veterans/
Perhaps that’s why exclamation points were used in lieu of citation.
Robert E. Lee was a West Point graduate who had formerly served in the United States Army. He then left the United States Army to take up arms against the United States (his “loyalty” to Virginia is of no moment as Virginia also took up arms against the United States).
That’s some pretty basic, straightforward stuff.
I doubt anybody is surprised…. smh
fiver – the Northern Armies invaded the South, not the other way around. No state in the Confederacy or the Confederacy itself declared war on the United States. Hence, the War of Northern Aggression. It was not known as the Civil War until after the war was over.
The North thought they would have a walk in the park run over those Southern boys. People came out in their carriages to watch the battle, it was a spectator sport, or supposed to be until it all turned bad for the North. Suddenly that walk in the park turned into a vicious war. Turned out those Southern boys could fight and they had great cavalry.
C’mon, Paul.
I’m sure you’ve heard heard of Fort Sumpter where the traitors first attacked the United States. I’m also sure that you’re aware that Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was not in the South.
As for the term “War of Northern Aggression,” I’d hope you’re aware that term wasn’t even used until the 1950s in the Jim Crow South.
fiver – South Carolina seceded. They expected the Union troops to leave the state. The Northern troops abandoned one fort. They holed up in Fort Sumpter waiting for re-supplies from the North, so after many offers to surrender, the citizens fired on the Fort. For all the firing they did on the well-designed fort, no one was killed, a couple was injured, when they finally surrendered. Read Mary Chesnut’s description of the incident.
Northern troops invaded Virgina and the first real battle was fought at Manassas Junction, Virginia. And without Pickett’s Charge (where they did break the Union line temporarily) Gettysburg could have been at least a draw.
Not really sure what your point is, Paul. Fort Sumpter is universally recognized as the start of the Civil War and, regardless of casualties, was certainly a casus belli. The First Battle of Bull Run occurred months later.
As for the wishful thinking of “the South would have won a battle, or the war, if only…,”: the South didn’t win the war. And if it hadn’t been for Northern mercy, General Sherman could have continued his march through the South and been joined by many others. Poor Scarlett O’Hara would have been even more sad, and Jefferson Davis would been hanged after he was caught slinking away wearing a woman’s shawl instead of being granted bail and fleeing the country.
But the United States let those uppity Southerners off the hook far too easily. In return, we still have southerners today whose main, if not only, sources of pride is in their history of treason against the United States and their love of looking down on people who are not of the imaginary “white race.”
Do you have any idea of the atrocities committed by the union army against the Southern civilians? How about the horrors of Reconstruction? Oops, you are not intetested in facts are you. You are either a yankee or a scalawag. A prime reason why there will never be peace between the north and South.
Atrocities happen in war on all sides. Of course, losers are often more victimized – because they lost.
It’s a good reason why it’s just plain stupid to pick a fight with a country that over matches you on every plane.
Understand that nobody is intimidated by this nonsense of there never being peace with the South. Much of the South is in an even more pathetic state now that they can’t force other people to do the hard work, and their economies function (barely) thanks to an infusion of federal money collected from states that actually produce more than they take.
But go ahead. Grab your ‘possum guns, wrap yourself in Southern Pride, and take on the strongest military the planet has ever seen.
Good luck with that.
You’ve obviously never been to the south. You probably never stopped to realize that the BMW or Mercedes you ride around in was made in South Carolina or Alabama. Realization of course requires thought and throughout this thread you’ve shown yourself to be devoid of those. You are merely a parrot, repeating back what others instructed you to say.
Given that the economies of much of the South leave so many people dirt poor, it’s hardly surprising that it’s an attractive spot for Big Business to find cheap labor – just like many other areas of the Third World.
Given that the economies of much of the South leave so many people dirt poor, it’s hardly surprising that it’s an attractive spot for Big Business to find cheap labor – just like many other areas of the Third World.
Personal income per capita in the Southern United States ranges from 74% of national means (Mississippi) to 118% (Maryland). The weighted average of the region as a whole is 88% of national means.
Evidently your conception of what amounts to a 3d world standard of living is the United States in 2003 and all but about 10 occidental countries today.
I had no idea Maryland fought for the Confederacy. Darn every single American history book ever published for being so wrong, and thank you for making the reliability of your assertions so clear.
My point stands. Just a few examples (using your preferred per capita income) in relation to the rest of the country:
Tennessee 40th of 50
Louisianna 42d of 50
S. Carolina 43d of 50
Alabama 47th of 50
Arkansa 48th of 50
and, of course,
Mississippi 50th of 50
That’s 7 of the 11 Confederate states – all in the bottom ten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income#States_ranked_by_per_capita_income
fiver – when you have Sherman come through your state and destroy it or Grant is bombing the hell out it with cannons, it can have a deleterious effect on the infrastructure. Some of those states were agricultural states, to begin with, not manufacturing states, but the damage was permanent. The fact that they have an economy at all is a miracle.
If Lee had won at Gettysburg and continued north, he could have destroyed the manufacturing centers of the north and the table would be flipped.
My point stands. Just a few
If you fancy it does, it’s due either to dishonesty or to a lack of understanding of the limits of ordinal rankings.
Ok. Pick your poison. How about dollar to dollar comparison?
The per capita income in Illinois (The Land of Lincoln) is 144% that of Mississippi. (see previous link)
Mississippi’s per capita income is also below that of (per the World Bank and IMF): Uruguay, Chile, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Panama, and Malaysia to name of few of those non-“occidental” countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
fiver – the North saw Fort Sumpter as a causa belli, but South Carolina saw it as an act of self-defense.
alright fiver, you won on the veteran account. I do not consider Lee or any Confederate traitors. They were loyal citizens of their states and did what their States wanted to do.
Lincoln was still a tyrant; he is still a Marxist.The whole Abolitionist movement that caused this war was Gnostic. None of it was orthodox Christianity. And the taking down of Confederate memorials is still disgusting and reprobate. I have no sense of community toward America. There is no community in America any more.
Who is committing Treason? It is the Northern Academics, the liberals, the Marxists, in Southern colleges and Universities teaching disrespect for Southern Culture and deliberately undermining it. Treason is being conducted in all of our colleges and universities.
Thought I posted this already, but here it is again: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Constitution of the United States, Article 3, Section 3.
Treason in the U.S. is not a personal preference or religious belief; it is not the disrespecting of a backward and shameful culture; it is a Constitutionally defined crime.
In other words: it clearly applies to Robert E. Lee (who later signed an oath of allegiance and requested a pardon with the return of his U.S. citizenship), but it in no way applies to any of those you’ve named.
fiver – if you were an honorable man, and if nothing Robert E. Lee was an honorable man, what would you do to get your illegally taken citizenship back. Mrs. Lee never got over the loss of Arlington and railed against it until she died.
Paul,
Lee requested a pardon because Johnson’s original amnesty didn’t include Lee. Johnson later issued a blanket pardon which did include Lee. I personally think a rope would have served better, but, for the country’s stability, Johnson’s decision was probably the right one.
As for Arlington? There is at least some small measure of justice in knowing that the land the Lees “lost” was filled with the bodies of those killed in the war Lee prosecuted. Nothing like physical reminders of the devastation he helped cause to bring the point home (pun intended).
That Lee or his wife had even a penny of Lee’s wealth remaining after the war is unjust. That money going to the families of U.S. soldiers killed by Lee would have been justice.
fiver – I just do not understand your anger or venom over a man of such great honor and military ability.
Paul,
I’m not understanding your insistence that a traitor to the United States is somehow honorable. Don’t get me wrong; I do believe in just revolution. But a revolution for the causes of white supremacy and the right to enslave people? How is that in any way honorable?
Bravo. Good to hear some truth spoken.
Equate? Damn. Didn’t both Robert E. Lee and George Washington et al. SECEDE?
Let’s ask the British if the American Revolution was NOT SECESSION.
Holy guacamole. You are dictatorial – you want what you want NOT what freedom produces.
You misinterpret equality to mean the state will make everyone equal.
That’s pretty messed up thinking – if it can be considered thinking at all.
Aren’t “Affirmative Action Privilege” and “Generational Welfare” unconstitutional bias?
Aren’t discrimination, bigotry and racism “freedom?”
There are laws against damaging property and injuring people.
The Constitution provides freedom of thought, belie, speech, religion, assembly, neighborhoods, press and every other conceivable natural and god-given freedom per the 9th amendment.
Minorities are not provided superior status anywhere in the Constitution.
Americans must accept the outcomes of freedom.
Were the Founders bigoted when the required citizens to be “…free white person(s)…” one year after adopting their Constitution? Oops.
Was “Crazy Abe” Lincoln bigoted when he proposed compassionate repatriation of freed slaves.
Does the Constitution allow minorities to control the disposition of private property though “Fair Housing” and “Non-discrimination” laws – of course, those laws are constitutional.
If Americans cannot discriminate, Americans cannot be free.
People must adapt to the outcomes of freedom.
Freedom does not adapt to people…
dictatorship does.
George Washington led a revolution. I’m just not sure how “secession” would apply to Washington unless he was some sort of rebel Duke “seceding” from a monarchy. Even then, it still doesn’t make sense. But let’s not be picayune with word choices and get to the heart of the matter.
Washington led a revolution against the monarchy of George III. From a British perspective, the Founding Fathers were certainly traitors (while Benedict Arnold, on the other hand, was loyal in the end).
But I’m not British. I’m a proud citizen of the United States.
From a U.S. perspective, Arnold was the traitor… as was Robert E. Lee.
A key difference between the two is that Washington fought his revolution against a monarchy to advance the ideals of self-determination and power proceeding from the people. Lee fought his rebellion to maintain white supremacy and for the right to enslave people. Quite simply: Washington’s motives were noble while Lee’s were deplorable.
Oh, and Washington won while Lee had his butt kicked.
I’d address your other points except they don’t seem to have anything to do with the topic and appear to be the result of the keyboard version of Tourette’s Syndrome.
fiver – to save the American Rebellion Washington ran away from the British army several times when he was undermanned or at a disadvantage. Actually, he spent much of the first few years of the war running away. The Confederates didn’t run away and Lee kicked more asses than got his kicked but by the time he surrendered, he didn’t have enough forces to fight the Union troops opposing him. Lee made mistakes, Grant made mistakes, Sherman made mistakes. McClellan was an idiot who was great at training troops but terrible at leading them into battle. The loss of Stonewall Jackson was a great loss to both Lee and the South.
The Southerners were proud to be called rebs or rebels since their ancestors had fought the British some 50 years before in the War of 1812 and before that in the American Revolution. At most 17% of Southerners were slaveholders, yet all these young men signed up to defend their states.
Fiver, do not waste time on idiots. You are dealing with fans of Putin.
Ahhh, Putin….
I really hate those who “meddle” in our elections. How dare anyone reveal even more proof that Clinton operatives in American media and the Democratic party were rigging the primaries to favor Hillary!
Oops. I just realized I’ve got my Scooby-Doo cartoons all turned around. Remember how each episode would end with the fraudulent bad guy exposed by the Scoobies being hauled away saying: “… and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those meddling kids.”?
Apparently, in today’s America, the police should take the handcuffs off the fraudulent bad guy and arrest the Scooby Gang. You know… for “meddling.”
————————————-
I’ve also yet to even hear about a National Intelligence Estimate that connects Russia with the revealing of Clinton’s shenanigans.
Presumably, you hate Obama who directly and overtly meddled in Israeli elections – no difference – Obama is guilty.
Let’s talk on this subject and then moron this subject. You’re good at it.
Abraham Lincoln illegally maintained troops in a SOVEREIGN FOREIGN COUNTRY, the CSA.
Lincoln had no rebellion, insurrection or war powers sufficient to issue any Proclamation. The act by the CSA was legal, peaceful secession.
The Confederate States availed themselves of their natural and god-given right to secession. Secession is omitted from, not excluded by and, therefore, allowed by the Constitution.
The American Revolution differs from secession only semantically; its effect was the same as Confederate secession.
Catalonia, Britain in its Brexit, Scotland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Virginia and every nation in the former Soviet Union, ALL, availed themselves of their natural, god-given right to secession, which, like all rights and freedoms, exists before government is established.
Slavery was a free market, labor issue which should have been resolved employing free market tools such as promotion, boycotts and divestiture. People in America and Europe must have been allowed to vote with their pocketbooks, per the Constitution, freedom and free markets.
“Crazy Abe” Lincoln was a brutal, heinous despot and national criminal who refused to allow the course of the Constitution, who nullified the Constitution through illegal and unconstitutional acts and who should have been impeached, convicted and imprisoned rather than allowed to kill 1 million Americans.
The “Reconstruction Amendments,” forced through by Lincoln’s radical, illegal successors, are unconstitutional to this day as they were compelled “with a gun to their heads” under the duress of post-war military occupation, not only of the South but the entire country which had been conquered by a violent dictator.
Maybe you should read more than the first sentence of a reply – especially when that reply was on a subject not directed to you. I have little to no problem with the alleged Russian “meddling” which has not only been completely unsupported by evidence but is also far less severe than the Clinton campaign’s actual meddling in the primaries which was confirmed by the released emails.
As for the rest, especially the “natural and God-given rights” nonsense: prove it. Because I talked to Jesus last night at the bar, and he mentioned that free market capitalism had nothing whatsoever to do with his message. We didn’t get too deep into the subject as it was only tangential to our main conversation of why the God of the Torah was such a bigoted, bloodthirsty jerk. Jesus said he’d never met that God, but agreed in general terms.
We also had a great laugh about those humans who claim to understand an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God. It’s kind of like a dog giving his opinion on quantum mechanics (and worthy of even less respect).
Mainline congregations tend to be run by people who are unserious, and lady clergy are shallower and sillier than most. Not much to see here. It has been evident for more than 50 years that the Episcopal Church was run by people who had no business in the positions they were holding.
That’s pretty SAD that they would buckle under just to appear P.C. Very SAD indeed.
I have read that some of the Christian churches in Europe are removing crosses s
I have read that some of the Christian churches in Western Europe are removing crosses so as to not offend Muslims. Some are renamed “all faith churches.” Is this our future? To erase and rename the past. If America is to purge our history prior to 1865, then the Lincoln Memorial and statue of Grant in DC must go. If people find statues of MLK offensive, will those be taken down? There is no end to this madness. I hope people who attend that church stop attending.
As I study our history, I get the message that this country was born in greed, misogyny, racism, and blood. I guess that means that I can’t live here because this history makes me uncomfortable. But where will I go to find a place without such a history. The Piraha in the remotest part of the Amazon seem like a peaceful group not burdened by such a wretched history, but I don’t think I could live successfully in the conditions there, without cardiologists, gastroenterologists, orthopedists, ENTs, ophthamologists, primary care doctors, emergency medical care services, computers, internet, cars, supermarkets, etc. I guess I will have to just continue to be uncomfortable enough to keep trying to overcome my country’s history.
Even if he had been a monster (a man of his time, perhaps, a monster? Please.) he isn’tgoing to crawl out of his grave and start attacking. How this is representative of anything but borderline clinical mental issues with the observers is the shock to me. The left is literally damaging people at this point. We are going to have a mental health crisis that makes today look like preschool if we don’t start doing a better job of parenting and countering the omnipresent, manipulative media narratives. This is Mao level stuff, folks.
The indictment is out, time to switch gears.
I feel “unsafe” and “unwelcome” in reading Mr. Turley’s posts. After all, isn’t that George Washington and many of the slave holders who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution who appear on his masthead. I wonder, is there is an appropriate place to retire that masthead?
Removing the plaque does not change the fact that George Washington attended services there. Nor does it change the fact that many of our founding fathers, including Washington, owned slaves. History is history and such superficial acts will not change that. Reminds me of a kid hiding his head under the covers to ward off the monsters.
That’s the insanity. They invent monsters, imagine them around every corner, and ignore the usually very dull reality in front of them. In the past that would have earnestly been described as mental illness, and treated accordingly. We have a very large segment of society that is non-functional, they truly aren’t well.
I agree. They are tilting at windmills.
Agreed, Lorenberg. Lumping George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in with Confederate slave owners who committed treason and started a war against the United States, only in order to preserve slavery, is absurd. Yet another excessive pendulum swing, over-correcting and fixing what’s isn’t broken along with what is. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Get a grip on yourselves, folks.
JWBurdick – the War of Northern Aggression is treason, secession is not treason. Find me the place in the Constitution where it says a state cannot leave the United States.
Thank-you Paul for correcting this erroneous northern revisionist history.
Paul:
Apparently secession is the act of treason. We’ve heard all that secession stuff before as not being prohibited by the founding document, but Congress effectively amended the Constitution in 1861 by sending armed troops into the South and thus to make secession a treasonous act. It was called the Civil War. Never saw an opinion by SCOTUS challenging it either.
There is also Texas v. White.
Right you are, Darren, but I was so hoping to avoid round 78 of that fight. 😀
mespo – it is not called the War of Northern Aggression for nothing. 🙂
Well, I call it that but no one listens to lawyers anymore.
mespo – if enough of us call it the War of Northern Aggression, it will come back in style. 😉
I like to also think of it as when the Yankees invaded America.
Only losers call it the War of National Agression, you fit the bill.
Or this:
Obviously, this arrangement will never produce comity in a large and boisterous republic like ours. But the purpose of the arrangement is not to produce comity, the claims of Christ Church officials notwithstanding. Demanding the removal of plaques and statues and memorial crosses, or, failing that, mobilizing angry mobs simply to tear them down in righteous anger, is not the behavior of people who desire compromise and understanding with their fellow citizens. It’s the behavior of those who believe the culture wars are going their way, and smell blood in the water.
http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/30/iconoclasts-come-george-washington/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=67af09f67f-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-67af09f67f-79248369
Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques.
I suggest firing the Reverend and Vestry. They’ve failed to make their called intended message more important than this so called, <unintended message. This sounds like a pure money move. They’ll ride the attention this has brought them and after much prayerful consideration, they will return the plaques with much fanfare. In the meantime, Christians in the M.E. praise God if they can come together to worship in a bombed out Church.
Christ Church seems to have gone soft on the Great Commission.
Let’s take this to it’s logical conclusion. The church was built by slave labor so the continued existence of the building is unsafe and unwelcoming. Pull it down. The historic value is forfeit.
Joe, that is so on point.
I guess the best thing to do would be to hit them where it hurts. I’m assuming that the majority of the parishioners were not offended and felt “safe” going to this church. So stop going and let this minority fill the the collection basket. I’m sure that the lack of weight of that basket on Sunday will wake the idiots up.
One would think that George Washington invented
Slavery.
Shame on those ignoramus on the left.
They are both deaf and blind to history.
Slavery still continues.
So shocking! I use to sing in the choir of Christ Church. I lived down the block from the church on Queen St. After all, Alexandria is considered the home town of George Washington so what are “they” going to do about that!? I blame the church leaders for allowing this to happen. So shocking!
The Episcopal Church in America has been in serious decline for quite some time. I grew up in the church but left for the Lutheran Church due to the PC nonsense such as this. There has been talk of the E.C. splitting, with the more traditional members aligning themselves with the world-wide Anglican body. Should that happen, I expect the remaining ultra-liberal Episcopalian Churches will continue to lose members and eventually shutter their doors.
There have been a long series of secessions since 1966. The ‘continuing Anglican’ congregations are unable to get their act together. You’d think the could coalesce into two bodies: one which accepts and one which rejects women’s ordination, but they cannot manage it. There have been quite a few legal battles over church property as well. I think the national office only failed in its property seizeure in cases where whole dioceses have seceded.