He Deposes Kings

Ok. At first I decided to leave this one alone. Not because it isn’t important, but because I want the focus of this blog to be on the positive impacts we can have by employing unashamedly Christian principles, which means I don’t need to address every shiny object that hits the airwaves. However, since it seems that disagreements on the removal of Confederate statues are coming from everyone and from everywhere, perhaps it is important to address one Christian perspective. Here’s the point where I say you either believe the whole Bible or you don’t. Cherry pickers need not apply.

In Daniel 2:21, we’re reminded that God “changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” (NIV)

(Just a second while I don personal protective equipment)

Gen. Robert E. Lee, Pres. Jefferson Davis and Martin Luther King Jr. were all raised up by God when we needed them.

Yes – President Donald Trump, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, President Abraham Lincoln, and civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr. were all given to us in a time and season when we need(ed) their leadership, their challenges, their personalities, and their spirit. I don’t know if we’ll ever really understand why we needed these leaders or why their actions led to some of the best and worst times in American history, but we needed them nonetheless. Without Lincoln, Davis and Lee, we might still be debating the benefits of slavery as a competitive advantage for labor-intensive agricultural business. History has shown that argument was a failure. Without Martin Luther King Jr. we might still be arguing that blacks and women don’t need to vote. History has shown that argument too, was a failure. Maybe we wouldn’t have chosen these men to lead us during troubling times, but if we believe Daniel, then we have to trust that God knew what he was doing. After all, it took the wisdom of Confederate and Union leaders to recover from that great rift – divine wisdom.

But how do we memorialize these lessons? Without citing Orwellian concerns, how do we prevent history from repeating itself? How do we teach our children of the horrors of civil war without forcing them to experience it firsthand?

Well, a good start would be by not destroying the artifacts that remind us of those travesties.

After all, they are representative of kings raised up by God.