Sanitizing History

“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely

because it does not fit the present.” Golda Meir

  Oliver Cromwell, the great English statesman who led the Parliament of England’s armies against abusive King Charles I during the English Civil War, was not a handsome man and was disfigured by warts upon his face. A court painter who was painting his portrait and thinking to please the great man omitted his disfiguring warts. When Cromwell saw the picture, he said, “Take it away, and paint me warts and all.”

  “Painting warts and all” is one of the major differences between a Christian/biblical worldview and other religions or worldviews. It’s an evidence too of the veracity and inerrancy of the Bible. Throughout the Bible, the heroes and heroines are “painted” with shocking transparency.  Currently, I’m reading 2 Chronicles in my personal devotions. The candor with which God’s Word shares failings of the “good kings” is astonishing.  

  Years ago I remember being warned to have a jaundiced eye when reading an autobiography or a biography written by a relative of the main character. For example, we’d be very surprised if Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President Kennedy wrote a tell-all about her famous father. Although Kennedy carefully cultivated the image of the devoted family man, he was possibly the most prolific philanderer ever to grace the Oval Office. Islam hides the perversity of Muhammad. He married his bride Aisha, at age six, though he reportedly waited until she was nine to be intimate with her. Though as many as 3,000 were massacred by the Red Army at Tiananmen Square protest in 1989 and countless others arrested and imprisoned, there is no monument remembering that horrid loss of life or the cry for freedom that inspired it. Both Hitler and Stalin were outdone in deaths by Mao whose policies led to the deaths of up to 45 million, easily making him the worst mass murderer in history, yet the Chairman is still heroized and his abominable policies still enforced in China.

  It’s why we must value Scripture. Only God’s Word transparently paints its heroes, “warts and all.” Abraham, the friend of God, is reported to be a habitual liar. King David, the man after God’s own heart, was an adulterer and murderer. Other than Jesus Christ, only the prophet Daniel, has no exposed “skeletons in his closet.” The transparency of the Bible demonstrates the validity of Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, we’re all one huge evil mess, even our heroes, and we all have a desperate need for Savior.

  Currently in America we’re watching the purging of our history because leaders from the past don’t fit a contemporary narrative. Attempting to erase those who are not acceptable in contemporary culture is very uneducated. If this anti-intellectual trend continues, in a not too distant future, those who purport it will find themselves purged from our collective historical memory.

  Sanitizing history opens up the infectious potential for repetition. Nazi Holocaust Museums, slave quarters, the bombing of the World Trade Center, all of those and countless other historical accounts, for the future protection of humanity, must be told with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

  Because much of the current historical sanitizing centers on Confederate history, it’s my opinion that it’s a wrong needing to be corrected. Yet, not with the kneejerk reaction of mobs toppling statues, but as a reasoned argument that educates and reminds us of the horrors of slavery and racism.

  The South rebelled against the Union to protect slavery. Confederate leaders should not be heroized or memorialized. For those defending them, I’d ask what they’d think if an American military base in Germany was named the “Rommel Base” after the Nazi military genius. It’d heroize someone who was part of the most abominable culture in modern history.

  Wiping clean our history is inerudite. It’s imperative that we know our history.

  We need our history to educate and instruct us. “To know nothing of what happened before you were born,” warned the ancient philosopher Cicero, “is to forever remain a child.” Learning history roots us in reality—in what actually happened as opposed to what we assume must have happened or wish had happened. America’s history is both awe-inspiring and checkered. It’s awe-inspiring that our forefathers and mothers were willing and often made incredible sacrifices so that we could enjoy the liberty that much of the world still does not have. It’s checkered by horrible acts like slavery or the massacre of native peoples. The study of history has an instructive and protective purpose.

  We need our history to inspire and exhilarate us. Every nation needs heroes. Our children need heroes. Yet, no hero or heroine is untainted. As we learn of those in the past who did the best that they could or knew in the midst of the culture of their day, it should inspire us to take heroic risks, to live and invest in what has true value for the present and future. It can be a journey of discovery to learn of people we’ll never meet and visit places we can never go. They should inspire us to do what we might never do because they did what they also thought that they could never do.

  We need our history to give us perspective. History broadens our horizons and helps us to see beyond the present and often overwhelming demands of the urgent. One historian noted, history “must be our deliverer not only from the undue influence of other times but from the undue influence of our own—from the tyranny of environment and the pressures of the air we breathe.” Excessive focus on the present results in historical myopia. We need history to expand our horizons.

  We need our history to inspire and humble us. Learning of great leaders should be a powerful source of inspiration. The persistence of an Abraham Lincoln to preserve the Union or the vision of a John F. Kennedy should give us a sense of gratitude and motivate us to reach beyond ourselves. The determination of a George Washington against incredible odds should motivate us to persevere.

  Yet, our heroes' blindness and failures must humble and convict us. While Thomas Jefferson’s genius is astounding, his moral insensitivity is tragic.

  For the Bible-believer, it gives us great hope. The failures of even our best leaders remind us why we all need the cross. Their best attempts yet failure to eradicate inequity and injustice remind us that our hope is not in human government but only in our perfectly just God. While we must do the best that we can in this sin contaminated world, we know that human effort will often cause as many ills as it hopes to solve. Our only hope is in a Kingdom not made with hands (2 Cor. 5:1). Until then we do the best we can with the “mud pies” of human frailty and fallibility.  

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