Heritage of Hatred

My heritage is German and Dutch. I no doubt had some relatives who fought under the Nazi flag... I do not embrace THAT heritage... I do not fly a Swaztika flag, which was not a symbol of a nation, but of a normalized movement of economic, military power centered on bigotry and built on hatred and built on the backs of enslaved peoples and was expressed in the genocide of millions.
I am glad that we do not still fly the version of the American flag flown by Texicans who squatted on lands outside our territories and provoked through ramped up aggression a series of battles that created martyrs and ended in us forcing the treaty of Guadalupe hidalgo, so we could steal much of Mexico from that sovereign nation, and so that "our" citizens could steal the lands owned by generations of people who lived there, but who had no legal representation or "appropriate" legal documentation to prove it.
I am glad we do not fly the flag of 1848 also because it was the year that our FEDERAL GOVERNMENT reimbursed mining settlers $1million for BULLETS used to kill native Americans just in the Sacramento Valley... money they collected by producing the scalps of those "barbaric heathen"...
... and the Confederate flag, that is the banner of a movement, considered even a nation by some, a way of life based on an economy built on the enslavement of people, dehumanizing them to be considered chattel, kidnapped and sold... out of a false sense of superiority, entitlement and privilege... wealthy, white landowners getting wealthy for generations on the backs of black slaves through a white construct of race, and some share-croppers because they were easily exploited, who were also turned against others based on race to keep them under the boots of those who "owned them"... it was the banner of a movement, a hateful heritage, because the confederacy is gone... it no longer represents the CSA... but a movement in hearts and minds, where the heritage of hatred continues... a desperate holding on of false superiority, supremacy, entitlement and privilege... based on power over others... which brings memories and images of the "good ole days" for them, and the BAD OLD DAYS for those whose heritage was the victimization of these ruthless folk... I HAD to protest in Columbia on Saturday... we must rid ourselves of these banners of a hateful heritage that further embolden the bigots whose vehement contempt for our President is already unchecked, whose murders of unarmed young black men and women by the police go unchallenged, and whose voter suppression efforts go un-addressed... these are desperate attempts by desperate people to hold onto their false supremacy, privilege and entitlement... a hateful heritage... we necessarily need NOT to let that be displayed... particularly on ANY public land or property...
Pastors - we need to NOT BE IRRELEVANT to the time in which we live (rough quote of Rev. Al Sharpton), the circumstances in which we experience injustice, greed, unrest and gross abuses of power... our silence is compliance, and it SCREAMS of our irrelevance in these situations! The Gospel of Jesus addresses it, when we preach it, teach it and live it... Pastor Jamie