By The Rebbe with a Cause, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

This week, I took my family to Virginia in pursuit of one of my favorite summertime activities, visiting Civil War battlefields. We traveled to the four great battlefields around Fredericksburg, where more than 100,000 soldiers died in the course of the war. I also fulfilled my lifelong dream of visiting Appomattox Courthouse where on April 9, 1865, Lee famously surrendered to Grant, in effect ending the war.

What consistently baffles me in making these visits is the romanticization of the Confederacy that continues 140 years after the war’s end. Wherever you go in the South, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, J.E.B. Stuart, James Longstreet, and the other Confederate leaders are venerated as heroes. In the course of my travels, I have driven on Robert E. Lee Drive and Jefferson Davis Highway. I’ve seen myriad monuments to Stonewall Jackson, and I’ve seen the Confederate flag flying from cars and homes.

As an American who loves his country, I am appalled by the persistence of Confederate hero worship in the South 140 years after the Civil War’s end. After all, the South fought for a truly evil cause. While there were other factors that led to the Civil War, no serious, objective historian would deny that the principal cause of the war was the institution of slavery, and that the South fought to preserve its “peculiar institution.”

Whether or not the soldiers of the Confederacy personally believed in slavery, they still fought to preserve the hideous, reprehensible practice of buying and selling human beings–each and every one created in the image of G-d–like animals. Babies were torn away from their mothers’ breasts; men, women, and children were whipped like beasts. This was the essential, defining institution that the Confederacy struggled to keep.

General Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee was opposed to slavery. But his personal feelings about the institution are utterly immaterial. The only relevant point was that he used his military genius to fight a war that would have kept men, women, and children in chains. What on earth could make a man like that a hero? What could make a man like Jefferson Davis a hero in the eyes of the good people of the modern South, and what message are those who lionize this man sending to their children? That it is good to rebel against the United States?

Last summer, when I visited Richmond, the Confederate capital, with my children, I was astonished to see the enormous statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and the other confederate luminaries that line Monument Avenue, which the Virginia tourism literature calls “one of America’s most beautiful boulevards.” This, in the heart of a city that is about 60 percent African-American. If I were they, would I abide this display of veneration for the Confederacy’s leaders? Were the statues erected with any thought to the feelings of the city’s black residents?

And aside from the slavery question, were these men not traitors to their country? The Confederate rebellion cost the United States 580,000 lives. It began when the South rejected the election of Abraham Lincoln, a president who they believed would abolish slavery but whom we Americans today regard as the greatest president ever to lead this country.

Let’s put this in the starkest possible terms. The cause for which the Confederate leaders fought, namely slavery, was no more noble than the cause for which the terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Al Zarqawi fights for today in Baghdad.

Zarqawi fights to enslave the Muslim people, and the Confederate leaders fought to continue the enslavement of American’s black sons and daughters. Zarqawi fights to deny Muslims their rights and to deny them a say in their political future, and the Confederate leaders fought so that blacks would have no rights and no future. Zarqawi fights so that women can be whipped in the streets when they are dressed immodestly, and the Confederate leaders fought so that black women could be lashed when they disobeyed the orders of their masters. In every way, the enslavement of blacks that Lee and Davis fought to perpetuate is much more severe than any kind of enslavement that contemporary Muslim governments, however brutal and despotic, would currently inflict against their people.

To be sure, I do not compare the Confederate leadership to terrorists. Davis and Lee never waged a war against civilians, and in their personal lives historians tell us they were scrupulous gentleman. Lee in particular was instrumental in getting his fellow Southerners to lay down their weapons after Appomattox rather than continuing a guerrilla struggle from the mountains of the West. But the cause for which these men fought was just as odious as that for which terrorists would lay down their lives today.

It is high time for the United States to remove statues of Confederate leaders. And for those who say that removing such statues would be an affront to free speech, I would respond, are there any statues of Benedict Arnold in the United States? And would anyone dare erect one? And yet Arnold’s treachery against the United States was child’s play compared to the damage caused by Davis, Lee, and Jackson.

The great men of the Civil War were not the rebels, but those who fought to preserve the unity of this great nation rather than to tear it asunder. The great men of that terrible war were those who ultimately freed the slaves from bondage–most notably Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman–rather than those whose victory would have had fellow Americans owned as beasts of burden by their countrymen.

The idea that any southern state capitol would fly the Confederate flag offends the sensibilities and perpetuates racial division. Did we forget that it is the symbol of rebellion against the authority of the United States and stands for hatred of America?

I know that this is a hot-button issue, and that there are some state capitols that want to incorporate the Confederate battle flag into theirs because, they argue, the Confederacy is an integral part of their history. Indeed it is. But is the wrong history, the worst kind of history that could be perpetuated. While I would never compare the Confederacy to Nazi Germany–there are, after all, gradations of evil, and the Confederacy did not approach the inhuman slaughter by Hitler’s minions–no one would accept a historical argument for incorporating the Nazi flag into modern Germany’s flag. Modern Germany is rightly ashamed of its past and the symbols of that past.

In the same way our country could never remain the United States if the South had gained the upper hand, likewise we cannot be a great country if we romanticize those who fought an evil rebellion whose ultimate objective was the perpetuation of America’s foremost moral sin.

Which leads me to another conundrum. Many of the Southerners who romanticize the Confederacy are religious Christians who lead lives devoted to moral excellence. How is it possible that they would make heroes of men who betrayed the Bible’s essential message: that G-d is the father of all humankind, and all of us therefore are equal before Him?

There is no easy answer to this question. Some would say that the original sin of the Confederacy’s Christians was to talk themselves into believing that slavery was really a benevolent institution, granting support, food, and shelter to a population who they believed could not fend for themselves. The perpetuation of that sin would be lionizing the Confederate leaders and believing that it does not offend the South’s black citizens or undermine its morality. Still others would say that when G-d-fearing Christians honor the Confederate leaders today, they do so as a means of honoring the South and a lost way of life rather than focusing on slavery. It’s collective amnesia. The horrors of slavery have been forgotten and only the charm of the old South has remained.

But all these answers ring hollow. For people of religion should be lionizing only those whose lives captured the divine ideals that they hold dear. And those who fought to preserve slavery, to use an understatement, simply don’t make the grade.

When religious southern Christians engage in nostalgia for the Confederacy, they are making the mistake of putting Southern sentiment before religious conviction, in effect elevating an inferior part of their identity over the most central part. Regional loyalty must never come before eternal principle.

About the Author: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is host of the daily national radio program, “The Rabbi Shmuley Show” on Oprah & Friends, XM Satellite Radio, and host of the award-winning national TV show, Shalom in the Home on TLC. He is also the international best-selling author of 20 books, including his most recent work, “The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him”. His recent works, “Parenting With Fire” and “Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children” were both launched on Oprah’s TV show. This 6.24.08 article is reprinted with permission from the author. For more information, click www.shmuley.com

“G-d’s Thoughts on the Presidential Election”

It’s time to play that fun, all-American game, Who is G-d punishing now? Three years ago, when Katrina devastated New Orleans, some on the religious right suggested that the city with the infamous French Quarter was being destroyed for its debauchery and licentiousness. G-d poured fire and brimstone on Sodom in ancient times, and He rained down lightning and broken levies on New Sodom in modern times.

Fast forward three years and here we go again, only this time G-d is punishing innocent men and women in Louisiana for the Republican Convention in Minnesota. According to filmmaker Michael Moore “Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven. To just have it planned at the same time, that it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for Day One of the Republican convention, up in the Twin Cities, at the top of the Mississippi River.” The theme was echoed by Don Fowler, the South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, who joked that the hurricane was God’s favor to Democrats. But Mr. Fowler will have to forgive some of the residents of New Orleans, both Democrat and Republican alike, if they don’t get the joke.

We Americans are a famously religious people and can therefore be forgiven for sometimes, arrogantly, claiming to know the mind of G-d. But it behooves us to always remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, our most pious president who said, when he was asked whether G-d was fighting on the side of the Union armies, “We trust, sir, that God is on our side. It is more important to know that we are on God’s side.” While none of us can know the mind of G-d, we can know right and wrong based on what all world religions agree G-d has revealed to be moral, holy, and ethical. And, dare I say, even atheists and agnostics agree with the general, universal morality propounded by religion.

Based on this revealed, universal morality, here is a list of what we can assume, based on the Bible, G-d is thinking about the current presidential election.

1. We do not know if G-d wishes Obama to win or lose, but we certainly know that G-d is overjoyed that, perhaps for the first time in our history, tens of millions of Americans are looking beyond skin color and seeing all human beings as equal children of G-d and equally deserving of the highest national office. At the very beginning of the Bible G-d made clear that he created every human being equally in His image, something that it’s taken us Americans several centuries to digest.

2. We don’t know if G-d wishes McCain to win or lose, but we know He shines with favor toward Cindy and John McCain for adopting their youngest daughter, Bridget, who is Bengali, dark-skinned, but has been welcomed as an equal alongside the McCain’s three biological children.

3. America needs leadership, and people must run for President and be away from their families. But G-d instituted a Sabbath day of rest, even in the midst of the toughest contests, to be with family and focus on what is even more important that becoming President. This is especially true for people like Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, both of whom have young children whose development cannot be put on hold until after an election. In this sense, both campaigns can learn from the example of Joe Lieberman who, while running for the Vice-Presidency of the United States in 2000, refused to campaign every Saturday and was with family instead.

4. G-d loves unity among his children and hates division. The first human sin was the fratricidal conflict between Cain and Abel with the horrific result of one becoming a murderer and the other a dead victim. Likewise, the Bible is clear that slander and character assassination are forbidden by divine decree. Attack ads, therefore, however effective, are unG-dly and unjust. (Emphasis added.)

5. G-d loves the penitent. He shows special grace to those who are courageous enough to confess their sins and correct previous error by trying to act better. We should therefore be forgiving both of Obama’s admission to prior drug use and McCain’s confession to moral lapses in his first marriage. America often punishes its leaders for their shortcomings. This is wrong. Righteousness in G-d’s eyes is defined not as perfection but as engaging in the struggle to try and be better. So long as our leaders take responsibility for their actions and commit themselves to more righteous action, we should be inspired by their courage and commitment.

6. G-d delights in stories of redemption and joyfulness. He repeatedly commands us to be happy and rise above slights and resentment. This might explain why He has shined especially brightly on Obama and McCain. The former is a black man, abandoned by his father, who after educating himself in the best Universities chose to work with the poor and downtrodden. The latter is a man who lived through hell for five-and-a-half years but rose above his horrific experiences of being tortured as a POW to devote himself to inspirational public work rather than indulging in brokenness and bitterness.

7. G-d does not mind that Barack Obama made millions of dollars on his book or that John McCain has seven homes – that is, so long as both are charitable in pocket and in deed. Those making money are required to give at least ten percent of their earnings to charity and so long as they commit a significant percentage of their money to the poor, we should applaud them for their industry.

8. G-d created the world with words, “Let there be light,” etc. He demands that language likewise be used for constructive and holy purposes. G-d’s favor therefore shines brightly on Barack Obama’s enormous capacity for using words to inspire and uplift. But the Bible makes it equally clear that G-d hates evil and those who use language to sow discord between His children. He therefore abjures us to forcefully oppose people like Mahmoud Ahmedenijad who has repeatedly threatened to ‘wipe Israel off the map.’ G-d calls upon all men of justice – especially those in positions of leadership – to neutralize evil before its words are turned into irrevocable action.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach hosts a daily national radio show on “Oprah and Friends.” He will hosting an all day seminar at Radio City Music Hall on October 12. www.shmuley.com