Fighters of the ISIS use sledgehammers to destroy priceless museum artifacts at the second-largest museum in Iraq. The beautiful statues were over 3,000 years old by the ISIS called them "pagan idols."
It is fitting that on a Sunday I tell that my favorite medal is one that affirms I had 11 straight years of perfect attendance in Sunday School. The truth is I had little to do with it, and very little say about it; it rightfully should have been presented to my most persistent mother. Because of that, I reckon I was about age five when I learned about Jonah and the Whale.
God ordered the prophet Jonah, according to a book in the Bible that bears his name (and, believe it or not, a similar story in the Qur'an) to go to the evil city of Nineveh to straighten its sinners out. The Lord told Jonah “their great wickedness is come up before me” and the orders from headquarters put Jonah in a twist. The last thing the bashful prophet wanted was take a whipping, or be stoned in Nineveh so the prophet ran off the opposite direction.
In his escape from God, he was on a boat sailing to Tarshish when a great storm came about and the sailors figured he was bad luck. So they heaved the wide-eyed Holy Man overboard into the rough seas. A great fish gobbled him up – right then – and Jonah got to spend the next three days repenting and praising the Lord, among other things. When the fish spit him out, Jonah had smelled the inside of the great fish long enough to know Nineveh could never be worse that that, so off to Niveveh he hurried, causing even the king to repent.
Well, after a pretty illustrious career Jonah was buried in a tomb in what is today Mosul, Iraq, and for eons the tomb was a place of sanctity for Christians, Jews and the Islamic alike. But on July 24, 2014, some ISIS fighters rigged it with explosives and blew it into dust. The reason: they don’t like pagan idols.
On January 28, 2015, the ISIS blew away a wall at Ninevah that had stood for 2,700 years. On March 2015 they razed the entire city of Nimrud, including bulldozing archeological treasures that were believed to be the most important find in the 20th century, this because the city had been un-Islamic.
Next were the historical cities of Hatra and Khorsabad because the ISIS destroys whatever they find is disagreeable to their tastes, counter to their misguided beliefs, and – in truth -- their keen desire to simply raise as much hell as it takes for the whole world to cringe.
So how do we answer my friend James Skipper, who writes, “What’s the difference between removing Confederate monuments (or any other that already exists here) versus ISIS destroying various historical artifacts and monuments in the Middle East? Aren’t both a form of intolerance of something you don’t agree with or see as valuable so no one should see it?”
The only answer I can give Mr. Skipper, since it has been over 10 days since the horrific murders in the Charleston, S.C., church, and the ensuing “social cleansing of the South” has erupted into a firestorm of senseless hysteria, is that in my belief there is no difference. Joseph Stalin, the despicable Russian, proved it.
It is painfully obvious those who hate, both blacks and whites, have turned the Confederate flag into a modern-day Swastika. Amazon refuses to ship one. Stores across the South refuse to sell one. I totally believe if anyone finds it offensive the symbolic flag should no longer be on public display but I also recognize the War Between The States is a major part of the South’s heritage. My lands, over 34,000 were killed in just two days at the Battle of Chickamauga. Shouldn’t that stand for something? Shouldn’t we learn from that? What happened at Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Missionary Ridge years ago is part of what we have become and who we are – like it or not.
Candidly, for the mayor of Memphis to demand that we destroy the statue of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, that we dig up his body and that of his wife and move their remains elsewhere, smacks of racism and hatred.This black guy is eager to fan the flames of racism because that has been his life’s mantra, and every white person in Memphis knows it.
But rather than call for calm and unity, Mayor A.C. Wharton would much rather jump into a centuries-old whine that aligns him with the Al Sharptons, the money-hungry NAACP, and others who I believe stand directly in the way of a better society where we can listen to one another with open minds and move forward. His almost-immediate actions are deplorable -- all any knee-jerk reaction ever does is reveal the jerk.
A bust of General Forrest is at the Tennessee state capitol because he is undoubtedly one of our state’s greatest heroes by any measure. But Governor Bill Haslam, saying General Forrest is not one of his heroes despite 29 historical markers across the state to the contrary, wants it removed. Senator Bob Corker, and some state legislators, all believed to rational and fair, have been caught up in a ridiculous maelstrom – this in less than two weeks, mind you – and my view is that under any other circumstance this Confederate purging would be considered so outrageous it could easily be relegated to late-night comedy.
I can guarantee this: Any referendum to remove General Forrest’s bust, to destroy military monuments such as those at Lookout Mountain’s Point Park, or devalue the South’s true heritage would overwhelmingly fail, be it by city, county or state vote in Tennessee. Any politician alive knows that, too, so why foist their racial prejudices or petty fears on those of us who instead glory in Charleston’s Christ-like reaction of forgiveness?
The South’s history has hardly been a “happily ever after” tale, yet if you’ll study our country right now, and compare our region against any other by economy, population, or FBI crime records, it seems to me we’ve done right well. Trust me, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and most Northern cities need a much deeper “social cleansing” than is now being suggested for “the Confederate states.”
Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama ordered every Confederate flag at the state capitol removed, but Mike Williams, who stood watching and acknowledged he was a member of the group, Sons of Confederate Veterans, said quietly, “If you don't change people's hearts, changing a flag won't do anything toward racism."
Yet all across the South there is an increasing frenzy to rename state parks, school buildings, bridges and any mention of the valor of people exactly like us who were forced, 150 years ago under the most trying of circumstances, to stand together. We know the war was wrong – on both sides – but no one should condemn those who believed it was the only thing to do long ago and did their best to save their land, their farms and their families. Simply put, the Yankees came to kill us.
How many ghosts do these who hate symbols, such as a flag or a monument, think they can kick in the face? Once long ago, the Lord had a prophet who was scared to stand up for what he believed and it took three days in the belly of a whale, without a flashlight, for him to finally come around.
The precious families of victims in Charleston, S.C., most certainly averted horrible violence with their unfathomable acts of forgiveness in the very face of horror. Oh, that we could sprinkle such virtue on some others right now.
royexum@aol.com
This painting of the prophet Jonah, as depicted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, which is located in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City