Somehow, the Confederate flag has become a leading story. Not the nine black churchgoers killed in the Charleston Shooting, but the flag that represents a doomed rebellion on United States soil 150 years ago.
In case you missed it: The families of the people murdered in Charleston publicly forgave Dylann Roof, who has confessed to the killings.
Look, I get it. The lasting legacy of the American Civil War has been boiled down to whether or not Americans were going to let other Americans own human beings to perform manual labor. You can argue that this is an oversimplification all day, but that is what society has boiled the war down to. The narrative is that one side wanted to enslave black people and the other side wasn’t going to stand for it. And the pro “own people to do my manual labor” side is characterized by that flag.
Folks are angry and passionate and screaming in ALL CAPS using words like “heritage” and “tradition” seemingly unaware that the flag in question wasn’t even adopted by all the Confederate states in the first place.
General Lee, with the Confederate Flag, from Flickr user Chad Horwedel (Creative Commons)
And you know what? I don’t care about this flag. So I’m not going to focus on it anymore.
What I care about is this: How on earth did we shift the news cycle from nine people murdered in Charleston before they were even buried? And is there a better topic to discuss than a flag?
Yes, I understand South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the flag to be removed, and that’s where the Confederate Flag news cycle began.
How about this: The families of the people murdered in Charleston publicly forgave Dylann Roof, who has confessed to the killings. That is a story.
In case you missed it: The families of the people murdered in Charleston publicly forgave Dylann Roof, who has confessed to the killings.
I first caught word of this on a Periscope live feed from Pastor Greg Surratt at Seacoast Church in Charleston. I couldn’t believe it.
Nobody can believe it.
The “New Black Panther Party” couldn’t believe it, and desperately tried to incite violence unsuccessfully, even going as far as demeaning the grieving families publicly for their forgiveness of Dylann Roof… one block away from the church where the murders took place.
In case you missed it: The families of the people murdered in Charleston publicly forgave Dylann Roof, who has confessed to the killings.
Nine families living out the Grace of Jesus Christ is a story worth talking about. Nine people were brutally murdered, and their families told the killer straight up that they forgave him. That’s powerful. That got more people’s attention than any riot or destruction of property. Of course, there were no riots in Charleston. No violence.
Let’s not rally around the Confederate flag being up or down. Let’s rally around these nine families. When I think of heritage and values and tradition, I don’t think of a flag or any other historical emblem. I think of Jesus Christ. I’ve never met anyone who fought in the Civil War and neither has anyone else alive in 2015. I have no connection whatsoever to the Confederate States of America or their short lived history.
In case you missed it: The families of the people murdered in Charleston publicly forgave Dylann Roof, who has confessed to the killings.
I don’t see Jesus in the Confederate flag, but I see it in the nine Charleston families. I’m going to rally around them.