Well, this is a
strange entry for a blog on tolerance!
Mentioning Robert E. Lee, the United States Army officer who resigned
his commission (after having been suggested as a commander of the Union troops)
to take command of the rebel forces in the Civil War. Why would the military commander of the armed
forces seeking to divide the country – and maintain a system of enslavement of
a people – be mentioned in my blog on tolerance?
People are
complicated. In Jay Winik’s book, April,
1865 – The Month that Saved America, he portrays Lee as a most able
commander and leader who could have ordered his troops to disband and continue
a guerilla war which would likely have prolonged the torment, cost thousands of
more lives and perhaps have brought down the Union. He did not, however. Realizing that the South had lost and the
killing must stop, he surrendered his troops at Appomattox.
The reason I
have included General Lee in this post, however, if an incident shortly after
the war, at an Episcopal church in Richmond, Virginia. Winik reports in his book that St. Paul’s
Episcopalian Church was frequented by the cream of Richmond society. African Americans also worshiped there, but
traditionally received communion after the white folks had done so.
On this
particular Sunday, after the Confederates had surrendered, a black man strode
to the communion rail without waiting for the whites to receive communion
first. As the black man kneeled alone at
the communion rail, the parishioners were stunned, and remained in their pews
to see what would happen. The Pastor,
too, was unsure how to proceed.
Only after
Robert E. Lee left his pew and joined the black man at the communion rail did
the other parishioners approach and kneel.[1]
The battle had been
lost. The war was over. The son-in-law of the step-grandson of George
Washington lived in disgrace, his plantation, located just across the Potomac
from Washington, D.C., and known as Arlington, was confiscated by the Union and
turned into a cemetery.
Yet this man
had the dignity to respect a fellow human being and kneel beside him in a house
of worship to their mutual God.
I think we
should be able to do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.