17 July 2007<\/p>\n
To bar or not to bar the (Confederate) flag at fair booths is the question asked and answered by the editor (Journal<\/em>, 17 July 2007).\u00a0 Mr. Huffenberger alleges the flag to be \u201can emblem of slavery,\u201d a \u201cracist symbol\u201d unbefitting the \u201cfairground landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n Before attempting to utter a word in defense of that flag in the present milieu, I must offer up in peace some credentials to the monitors of political correctness which lurk behind or sit in the very seat of every editor\u2019s desk.\u00a0 A small sample of available evidence of my purity as a non-racist are as follows:\u00a0 1) I have attended many majority black churches, 2) black people have dined and slept in my home, 3) my daughter, with my hearty approval, almost married a black college classmate.<\/p>\n Onward, then. I would proffer some obvious evidences against the charge that the South and its flag ought to be shunned as nothing less than a \u201cracist symbol.\u201d Shall the U.S. Flag be associated exclusively with a given major sin from its history and be denied reverence?\u00a0 Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson, for example, had no slaves while some northern generals did.\u00a0 Moreover Initially the Northern goal in the war was the speedy restoration of theUnionunder the (racist) U.S. Constitution and the laws of 1861, all of which recognized the legitimacy of slavery.\u00a0 Since interfering with slavery would make reunion more difficult, Union generals like George B. McClellan inVirginiaand Henry W. Halleck in the West were ordered not only to defeat the Southern armies but also to prevent slave insurrections \u2013 their liberation.\u00a0 The slaves were not to be freed; the union was to be kept in tact.\u00a0 This was alwaysLincoln\u2019s stated goal.\u00a0 During the first months of the war, slaves who escaped to Union lines were returned to their masters in conformity with the law: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.<\/p>\n Why should the Southern flag be summarily denounced as a racist symbol and the Union flag get a pass? Old Glory may be called a racist symbol as well.Lincolnwas a racist; he did not believe in equality among the races.\u00a0 He was a tyrant who locked upMarylandlegislators who were planning to vote for secession.\u00a0 He believed in the racism which the Constitution established and loved theUnionto the extent that he would not allow the South the freedom to secede when the North was violating that Constitution. He believed in preserving theUnionat literally all costs and against the wishes of a free people to freely and by popular vote to withdraw from it. He was what the man who started the war which the South called, \u201cThe War of Northern Aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Quakers despise flags as idols and all wars as sinful.\u00a0 Communists tend to despise all flags.\u00a0 Among those living, mostU.S.flag haters also hated theU.S.involvement inSoutheast Asia. And some now despise the flag forU.S.involvement in theMiddle East.<\/p>\n There is plenty more indignation to find in Old Glory than there ever was in the Confederate Flag.\u00a0 Consider the 4 million people in bonds in the South in 1861.\u00a0 The fact that there were relatively few in the north does not excuse the fact that at the time of Independenceall colonies<\/em> had slaves.\u00a0 But consider that number compared to the murder of that number every three years by abortion under the U.S. Flag in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n Which flag is more offensive to fly?<\/p>\n Those who abhor the Confederate flag might well find plenty more to complain about in the flying of Old Glory.\u00a0 But we obviously do not fly our flags because they represent perfection.\u00a0 We fly them because they represent us as a people united under God in pursuit of liberty and justice.\u00a0\u00a0 And when we fail to live up to the ideals they represent, we begin to despise our symbols or look around for alternatives.\u00a0 We disintegrate.\u00a0 Let us pursue national righteousness by upholding His laws and thus avoid His chastisements and judgments.\u00a0 If we repent and seek to please Him, we may avoid the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 17 July 2007 To bar or not to bar the (Confederate) flag at fair booths is the question asked and answered by the editor (Journal, 17 July 2007).\u00a0 Mr. Huffenberger alleges the flag to be \u201can emblem of slavery,\u201d a \u201cracist symbol\u201d unbefitting the \u201cfairground landscape.\u201d Before attempting to utter a word in defense of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}