On yesterday’s Holocaust Museum shooting

Yesterday we all received the shocking news of the attack on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. A known racist and extremist, James von Brunn, decided to make the Holocaust Museum a blood bath that would be remembered on his tombstone. And, he must have thought that his dreams had come true when the door was opened for him by an African-American. Security Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was simply trying to be polite by opening the door for the elderly man. But for von Brunn, a door being opened by an African-American in a Jewish museum was everything that he wanted. And so for von Brunn his dreams came true.

But for Officer Johns and his family, von Brunn was their nightmare, their bogeyman come true. He was the tale of the evil white man, the tale that is told to make sure that little African-American and little Jewish children behave. The difference is that the bogeyman does not exist. But the von Brunns of the world do exist. They are not bogeymen; they exist and they are alive and well in various parts of the world, including the USA. In some parts of the world they are not white; in some parts of the world they are not male; but, they do exist.

For those of you who have been reading the last few posts, you know that I have been printing excerpts from a book that was a collection of speeches and letter written by a Presbyterian minister from the South called Dr. Ross. He was all of a Southern gentleman, highly educated, and a supporter of the South as it was before the Civil War. A couple of his speeches were delivered at national Presbyterian conventions in Detroit and New York. He used his Biblical exegesis to claim that God still permits slavery and the Southern slavery was actually more appropriate than many other slaveries–with the exception of some men who mistreated slaves inappropriately. He also claimed, from Scripture, that there was a hierarchy in which whites were superior to chinese and arabs who were superior to blacks. And, men were superior to women. In each case, the superior had the responsibility to care for and oversee the inferior.

I had begun to point out that there were themes from those arguments that were still found in the Religious Right. I was further going to point out that a few of the themes that he presents, particularly of the US’s place in world history, still echo through to our foreign policy of this day. I was going to do the analysis after the current diocesan conference is over.

However, after the events of yesterday, I find that I no longer have either the desire or the heart to carry through on this particular series. I suspect I may again sometime in the future. But, I find it horrifyingly coincidental that I chose to start a series quoting the arguments of the pre-Civil War South right before an old relic from that type of thinking took violent action. I was going to warn that the tendencies and thinking from that time that are still present to this day, are causing trouble for our culture. I never thought that I would see such rapid proof of my thought.

So, pardon me and I hope that I do not disappoint you if I say that I am going to let this series go for the moment.