The House of
Deputies on June 29 approved in an overwhelming voice vote Resolution D044, which “strongly urges all persons, along
with public, governmental, and religious institutions, to discontinue the
display of the Confederate battle flag.”
Deputy Betsy
Baumgarten of Mississippi urged the house to support the measure, noting that
symbols “help to shape our belief and our continued understanding of God and
the world. To continue to allow the Confederate flag to have a place in our
churches says something about The Episcopal Church.”
While
acknowledging that the symbol is for some a sign of their heritage, “for many
more it has and continues to be a symbol of slavery, racial injustice and
violence – and now more than ever, a sign of the white supremacist movement.
The Confederate Battle Flag has no place in a church that calls all baptized
persons to respect dignity of every human being.”
The
resolution went a step further, challenging the Church to get out of our churches
and engage our public and government institutions in a conversation about such
a toxic symbol of hate having any place in our current civic life.
“As a deputation from Mississippi, we felt we
needed to speak to this issue. But it isn’t just our issue. We call on the
whole church as the people of God to join with us to remove this symbol of hate
and oppression and to work towards bringing equality to all people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment