The Confederate Flag? Amazing Grace??

The thing about age is one mellows. 

I watch the news program, Martin Bashir, eat my lunch, and then ride my exercise bicycle (sort of).  Today there was a segment about the House Republican Caucus that blew my “mellow” all to pieces.  It was about how the Caucus met this morning with a prayer.  Well, that’s OK.  It wasn’t a public meeting, and if they wanted to pray, that seemed like a good thing to do for them because, in my opinion, they need all the help they can get.  But they left the Caucus, in the halls of our government, singing the hymn “Amazing Grace”.  I came unglued for the following reasons, some objective, some not.  Let me state here that I profess to being a Catholic Christian along the lines of Pope Francis, long before he came on the scene, so this is not some anti-Christian rant.   

The first reason deals with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”  Now if the members had wanted to sing any other song that was not so blatantly Christian, I would not be so furious.  How about, “The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor…”, or, “Let Justice Roll Down Like a River.”  These are songs that could be sung nearly anywhere.  But singing “Amazing Grace”, which is blatantly and specifically Christian, for me smacks a bit too close to being an attempt to subvert the First Amendment.   

Further, the words to “Amazing Grace” were written by John Newton, a former captain of a slave ship who became a committed Christian later in life.  He wrote the words obviously after he had a complete change of heart from his former occupation.  The melody, however, was written on the five black keys of our Western eight note octave, which are the five notes of West African music.  The melody is remarkably close to a sorrow chant of West Africa, and would have been chanted in the holds of his ship by the newly captured Africans on their way to be sold as slaves.   

Take the deeply meaningful history of the hymn and put it in juxtaposition to the waving of the Confederate flag in front of the White House this weekend.  Not only does this flag have very, very deep emotional scars for our fellow African-American citizens, but it also represents sedition for the rest of us.  It was the flag of the South during the Civil War.  Allegiance to this flag represents sedition to our Constitutional system of government, that all are equal before the law.  Our society often does not live up to this ideal, obviously, but that does not mean we should abandon it as an ideal.  To wave that flag in front of the White House when the current occupant is an African-American is beyond despicable. 

Perhaps the members of the Caucus don’t know the history of the hymn; perhaps they know and don’t care; or perhaps they know and are sending a message, along with the Confederate flag, that does not auger well for our entire country.  In any event, these were despicable actions on both counts

 

When will this gaggle of radical insurrectionists be called to account for their actions which are becoming, in my opinion, perilously close to being high crimes and misdemeanors.