One thing that gets much overlooked is that equating "The South" with the Confederacy is waaaay too much a simplification. This is a great article on Southerners who took up arms for the Union. This is a story that needs to be told: There were tons of Southerners (like Texas's much-beloved Sam Houston) who staunchly opposed secession and who deserted or even took up arms for the North. We've already talked about the birth of West Virginia, which was basically a civil war within a state over secession. I particularly love the stat of 30 and 30: 30% of Tennesseans voted against secession, while over 30,000 Tennesseans took up arms for the Union.
Another point is that one of the reasons why the South lost is because it had so many desertions: Although in total numbers the Union lost more to desertion, that couldn't save the South. When your enemy outnumbers you over 2 to 1, then your enemy can afford to lose more men than you, and a war of attrition by subtraction can't be won. Why were Confederate soldiers deserting in droves? Among other reasons, they increasingly saw their part in the War as dying so some wealthy plantation owner could keep his slaves.
I think this adds to my beloved motif that South is not the Confederacy now, and to a large degree it wasn't the Confederacy back then during the 1860's. To the degree that anything unmoors my beloved South from an organization whose raison d'être was the perpetuation and expansion of slavery based on white supremacy, I'm all for it.
Welcome to the Intersections Blog, where I try to work out where politics, pop culture, and the Bible meet
So What's This All About?
In case you didn't know, I'm in the multi-year-long process of posting a Christian devotional at the TAWG Blog. The TAWG Blog is, and always will be, mostly apolitical. For the most part, Bible-believing Christians will find little to disagree with there. But I also firmly believe that God's word can--and should--inform everything in life, and this should include politics and popular culture. How should we vote? How should we respond to hot topics such as abortion, capital punishment, taxes, and other issues? Which party, if either, is closer to the Biblical ideal? Tony Campolo and Ron Sider, Evangelicals whose political leanings are on the Left, have made the case in several of their writings that God wants his followers to vote politically on the Left more than on the Right. At times, some of them have gone so far as to equate voting on the Left with obedience to Christ, either subtly or not-so-subtly contending that the converse is true as well: If you vote Republican, you're sinning against the Savior.
I don't agree. I think that to the degree they actually resort to the Bible, they're misinterpreting it. With a whole bunch of caveats, I think politically conservative positions are a lot more compatible with the Scriptures than the Leftist positions.
Just to clarify, I would never accuse people who disagree with me--especially siblings in Christ--of what they accuse me of. I don't judge my own heart, much less anyone else's, and I don't equate political disagreement with theological fidelity to God. I have no reason to doubt their love for the Lord and "for the least of these," but I believe that they're sincerely wrong.
Just to clarify, I would never accuse people who disagree with me--especially siblings in Christ--of what they accuse me of. I don't judge my own heart, much less anyone else's, and I don't equate political disagreement with theological fidelity to God. I have no reason to doubt their love for the Lord and "for the least of these," but I believe that they're sincerely wrong.
So there are two main purposes for this blog. One is to make a case for my political beliefs based on Scripture. The other is a bit more vague, basically to work out my political beliefs and figure out what's based on Scripture and what's based on my own biases. I certainly don't have all the answers. Some of this stuff I'm still figuring out. And I'm certainly open to correction. As long as you make your case civilly and based on Scripture, feel free to make a comment, and I promise I'll post it and consider your arguments thoughtfully and prayerfully. Who knows? Maybe we'll learn a little something from each other.
May God bless our common striving together towards both the "little t" truth and "Big T" Truth. Our watchword here is a line from C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle: "Further up and further in!"
P.S. -- Below on the left is "Topics I've Covered" which lists everything I've posted topically. It's come to my attention that some people would like to see everything just listed for them. If that's you, you can get it here. Thanks to my friend Stephen Young for the tip!
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