Removing images of Washington and Lee

[Elijah John]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A historic Episcopal church in northern Virginia has decided to relocate two plaques in its sanctuary that honor George Washington and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who worshipped there.

Leaders of Christ Church in Alexandria sent a letter to congregation members last week explaining the decision, and announcements were made during Sunday services.

"The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome."

What's especially disturbing is that the congregation broke into applause at the announcement.

For debate, has liberalism once again gone too far? Where does "political correctness" stop? Or in the words of President Trump, "what's next"?

Also, does this reflect the position of the Episcopal church as a whole?

Is it reasonable that a plaque of George Washington makes anyone feel "unsafe"?

[Elijah John]

There have already been incidents of people calling for the removal of Washington and Jefferson monuments, and in NYC, a statue of Columbus was defaced.

Don't let a Christian pastor, a Baptist Minister and a deranged homeless woman get you panicked. Despite what you may have been told, it's really not that big of a movement.

We found two instances where two people unambiguously called for those statues to come down, plus another instance where an interviewer’s question elicited a mixed reply that included the words "certainly it ought to be removed."

Beyond those examples, there is scant evidence of a broader movement to take down statues of Washington and Jefferson, especially not along the lines of the push against Confederate monuments.

http://www.politifact.com/georgia/state ... n-statues/

I hope you are right. And yes, I don't want to be in the position of advocating a fear of the "slippery slope". Not many things are.

[Rufus21]

Separate issue. The church did not cite the separation of Church and State, only of not wanting to offend some people. In the process, they offended many.

They did what their members wanted. It is private property so they were not compelled to keep the plaques. I'm sure it offends many good people, but they have to do what is right for themselves and allow the rest of the world to make their own decisions. That kind of freedom is that America is supposed to be all about. Live and let live. Find your own happiness but don't impose it on others. Yadda yadda yadda.

Even those extremists were not bent on "murder and genocide". They were armed for the confilct, nothing more.

White supremacists are not bent on murder and genocide? It is their defining characteristic. It is their mission statement. It is their whole goal in life. It's what makes them who they are. They even murdered someone at the rally and tried to murder a whole group!

There is no evidence at all they were planning on raiding a Church like the one in question. Why would they? So that congregation had no reason to feel unsafe.

I don't understand this. There are armed white supremacist marching through the streets screaming about genocide and people are supposed to feel safe because they probably won't attack their church?

You mentioned how unsafe you feel in the NW. You have no idea what these people are living with every day. There are literally organized mobs trying to kill them and bragging it about and nobody is doing anything about it. Do you think sitting in a church is going to feel safe for them? Especially when right next to Jesus is a supremacists?

If they were so concerned about visual symmetry, why not replace the picture of Lee with another one of Washington?

That sounds like a better solution to me, but I'm sure this was a group decision that had to please everybody.

[help3434]

And besides, many like me (judging from the reactions to the story on Yahoo) would feel uncomfortable being around people who would police our thoughts and force-feed us their PC opinions by doing this in the first place.

Isn't that what you are doing? "Policing" or at least judging the actions of a congregation within their own church because you don't like their supposed political motivations?