Complicity, racism, and the legacy of the Confederacy

In reaction to the massacre in Charleston, SC, people are taking a new look at the Confederate battle flag.

What do you think, when you see it?  I remember visiting San Antonio TX on a professional trip, and seeing a pickup drive by with  a huge Confederate flag flying off a pole in the bed, and I thought, "they don't like my kind here," my kind being liberal, academic, lesbian. I knew I would be scared  to meet the  men driving the truck because I instantly associated the flag with white conservatives and anti-gay, anti-black, anti-women values. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes compellingly in the Atlantic,

That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth...

and stirringly concludes,

Take down the flag. Take it down now.

Put it in a museum. Inscribe beneath it the years 1861-2015. Move forward. Abandon this charlatanism. Drive out this cult of death and chains. Save your lovely souls. Move forward. Do it now.

Well, this demand has been made before,  but now there's support from an unexpected quarter.  Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention agrees with Coates (a pigs-flying kind of event):

The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. White Christians, let’s listen to our African-American brothers and sisters. Let’s care not just about our own history, but also about our shared history with them. In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi. Let’s watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors. Let’s take down that flag.

And yesterday, the governor and senators of South Carolina agreed and called for the flag's removal from the grounds of the State Capitol. Meanwhile, Walmart announced it would remove flag-themed merchandise from its stores.

But let us not delude ourselves into thinking that removing this potent symbol will cure what ails us.  Paul Krugman writes in the NY Times

I’m sorry to say this, but the racial divide is still a defining feature of our political economy, the reason America is unique among advanced nations in its harsh treatment of the less fortunate and its willingness to tolerate unnecessary suffering among its citizens.

 He goes on to cite the sobering scholarship that supports this statement, and concludes that while things are better, we aren't there yet:

[A] history of slavery is a strong predictor of everything from gun control (or rather its absence), to low minimum wages and hostility to unions, to tax policy....Every once in a while you hear a chorus of voices declaring that race is no longer a problem in America. That’s wishful thinking; we are still haunted by our nation’s original sin.

Slavery is the root of our long battle with racism.

And let's not pretend we aren't all in some ways complicit.  Here in San Diego, our Spring Diocesan newsletter addressed issues of race and reconciliation (before the recent shootings), and the Bishop and the Editor received what they describe as "angry and vitriolic" letters in response.  Now, the newsletter isn't particularly strident, and in fact as I re-read the articles knowing the response they elicited, I was extremely surprised at how mild they are. And yet apparently many people felt enough offended by what was expressed to write angry letters.  Our Bishop shepherded the Diocese through The Gay Issue successfully (so that it's no longer an issue here), so one might think that Episcopalians in Dio San Diego are all in the same place. So it's quite a surprise to realize that our self-satisfied "enlightened values" here aren't so enlightened after all.  I wonder what response the Bishop will get to his latest call,

My sense is that nothing is going to change until we get rid of the guns and we actually pay the price, as a nation, for what we have done to generations of African-Americans from the days of slavery until today. The wasteland we have created calls for a new Marshall Plan to transform the lives of our brothers and sisters. It is time. There are no excuses. The next time we recite our baptismal covenant and say the words, "to respect the dignity of every human being," race relations and reconciliation are what we should be thinking about.

You go, Bishop Mathes!  But you might want to have some asbestos gloves to handle your mail after this one.

Same Sex Blessings to begin in San Diego

This past weekend was San Diego's Gay Pride parade. The Episcopal Cathedral of St Paul's won this year's Stonewall Service Award for its long support of equality. As usual, the Cathedral also fielded the largest contingent of marchers in the parade, with around 130 purple-clad parishioners, friends, family, kids and clergy walking with rainbow streamers, flags, and the big purple banners that say "Love to each of you". Lots of cheers from the crowd of 100,000 onlookers, some of whom ran out to hug the marchers.

But the pinnacle of the weekend was an announcement during the Rev. Canon Allisyn Thomas's sermon on Sunday. She informed us that Bishop James Mathes has given St Paul's permission to offer same sex blessings. There were many tears of joy in the congregation, as long-time couples realized that they, at last, can fully belong. (BP was singing in the summer choir, so I had to wait for the Peace to be able to sneak into the choir to hug her tight!) The details of the process are to be worked out, but the expectation is that gay and lesbian couples will be required to adhere to the same rules, policies and procedures as straight couples as far as possible. Which is as it should be.

San Diego is a large, very diverse diocese, encompassing a fairly conservative part of the state. Needless to say, it is not of one mind. The Bishop requires any parishes considering blessings to embark on a self study patterned on the Diocese-wide document on Holiness in Relationships, and then the clergy must ask his permission. I am absolutely certain that there will be parishes whose priests do not choose to participate, and for whom this decision will be met with some dismay.

On the other hand, I know several straight couples with new babies who joined St Paul's specifically because of its inclusiveness. And as I waited in the queue after Mass so I could hug Allisyn, an older gentleman in front of me turned around and said, "That was a heck of a sermon. And I'm right of center. But at the end of the day, we don't have to agree on everything as long as we can come together here as family."


Pics from St Paul's blog

More on the San Diego report

We went to a forum this morning at St Paul's Cathedral about the San Diego Diocese Report of the Task Force on Holiness in Relationships and the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions . Several people from the Cathedral community were on the task force, which was appointed after a resolution at the Diocesan Convention. The forum explained the report and how the task force worked, and answered questions from the Cathedral community.

First, the task force was explicitly diverse in opinion (from strong conservative to strong liberal), status (clergy and laity) and sexuality (including out GLBT people and people with GLBT family members). And, the membership was not secret during the year-long process.

Second, the report did not pretend to come to a clear conclusion on issues of scripture or theology. Rather, it honestly portrayed the different opinions in a point-counterpoint format, between traditional and "alternate" views. However, all members of the committee agreed to a consensus of recommendations:

The Task Force makes the following recommendations to the Bishop, the Diocesan Convention, and to clergy and parishes of the Diocese of San Diego:

1. We encourage individual parishes and missions to study and discuss this report and to advise the Bishop of the character and outcome of their efforts.

2. We encourage our 2009 General Convention deputation to support measures that allow the exercise of an “option” to perform blessings of same-sex relationships, rather than measures that would direct such blessings to be performed or direct such blessings to be prohibited.

3. Should an “option” approach to the blessing of same-sex relationships be enacted by General Convention, we encourage our Bishop to put into place a process by which a church can discern if the blessing of same-sex relationships is appropriate to occur within its community.

• a. We encourage this discernment to include extensive study and discussion of the appropriate General Convention resolution, this Task Force report, and the effects of the decision on the spiritual life of the congregation.
  
• b. We also recommend against coercion or sanction that might be brought against any priest or congregation choosing to exercise or not to exercise such an option.

4. In discussion of these questions, we encourage congregations to follow the guidelines for discussion adopted by our task force and included in the Appendix to this report.

5. We encourage our Diocese and its congregations not to take any unilateral action that will knowingly further endanger the relationship of The Episcopal Church with the Anglican Communion.

6. We encourage our Diocese to advocate for changes at the State and Federal levels that grant domestic partnerships and civil unions the same legal rights and privileges as married couples, including the elimination of financial penalties for those who marry. In addition, we encourage our 2009 General Convention deputation to support resolutions that would commit The Episcopal Church to similar advocacy on these issues.

7. We encourage our Diocese to continue to advocate for equal protection under the law regarding domestic partnerships and civil marriages.

8. We encourage readers of this report to explore its bibliography, appendix, and references included in the endnotes with the intent of achieving a balanced view of the issues raised in these pages.

Those reporting at the Cathedral forum were clear that the task force had managed to unite as a community even while disagreeing, sometimes quite strongly. They also said that all participants, on either side of the divide, came away with a deeper understanding and respect for each other, even affection. It says in one part, we are convinced that our bonds of affection will be strengthened, not weakened, through diversity of belief and constructive engagement. As described, it sounds like a model for how to live with, and try to resolve, what they described as the "dynamic tension" on this issue, and that is the hope.

I urge you to read the whole report. It's really quite good.

From San Diego, no less. Who'd'a thunk?

Update Brought from the comments: some of you may not realize but San Diego's diocese is very conservative demographically. THis is a diocese that spans the 8th largest metro areas in the US, albeit a conservative one, and some of the most rural, conservative regions in California reaching all the way from the coast through Imperial County to Arizona. These are regions of the state that voted for Prop8 by a VERY large margin. Inotherwords, this ain't LA, not by a longshot. So this report being a consensus of conservatives and liberals is a Pretty Big Thing.

Report on Holiness in Relationships and the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions

From the Diocese of San Diego. Report here.