This past week I read an article* updating the ongoing drama plaguing many older universities over the issue of renaming college buildings. Those advocating for change argue that commemorating men like John Calhoun at Yale, who supported slavery in his era, amounts to endorsing the practice.
I disagree. We need to remember Orwell’s cautions from 1984 where the “Ministry of Truth” conscientiously rewrites history in order to suit the sensibilities of the current regime. However bitter our history tastes in the present, it remains the only compass by which we can orient ourselves to where we stand now.
According to historian David McCullough, Thomas Jefferson saw history as a series of missteps highlighting paths not to take. While we can certainly appreciate that truth, the reality is that world history, as well as our own life stories are a mixture of good and bad. One of the challenges of self-understanding involves sifting through our individual and cultural legacies in order to glean the worthy and try to rectify the wrong.
A key component of dealing with the past is the search for truth: not merely in knowing a series of names, dates, and events, but also in apprehending the players’ perception of what happened and the aftereffects of that lens. Just as I worked with students in literature to see the nuances of characters – that the hero was never “all good,” nor the villain “all bad” – we need to develop an appropriate balance of outrage and compassion for what happened in history. This doesn’t happen when we try to whitewash or purge the past.
Science fiction writers love to imagine the possibilities of “going back in time,” especially with the prospect of changing the present and future. But God keeps the past “frozen” with good reason.
God’s answer to our past is forgiveness; we’re relieved of the guilt of our transgressions, but not the consequences. The Lord isn’t about “do over’s” and our crazy optimism that if we had the chance to erase the past we could “get it right” the second, or third, or nth time around. Instead, God offers us a chance to do differently in the future.
Improved actions speak louder than new names.
* “The College Formerly Known as Yale” by Roger Kimball published August 8, 2016 in the Wall Street Journal
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