In November 2021, New York City government officials voted to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from city hall, because he was a slaveholder.
Similar attempts to expunge the memory of notable statesmen have been made throughout the Union. From monuments of Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln to those of Francis Scott Key and George Washington, none of the greats of our past, it seems, can escape the merciless crosshairs of wokeism. British historian Andrew Roberts, in a 2022 interview, noted that “there has been, in recent years, a new viciousness toward national heroes. Almost, there’s the sense that there’s no such thing as a hero, that everyone is much more feet of clay than …statue of stone.” Of course, we should refrain from whitewashing historical personages, celebrating loudly their triumphs while remaining silent about their faults. But surely today’s trend of searching for our heroes’ warts and, in turn, crucifying them for having them is no less heinous. Call me a Bible-thumper if you must, but I trace the inability of our people to celebrate flawed human beings back to our warped view of human nature. The scriptures make it plain that we are a conflicted bunch. Though made in the image of God Himself, we also possess a sin nature, capable of enacting genocides, carrying out terrorist attacks, and holding grudges for generations. King David was an adulterous murderer, and yet also a man after God’s own heart. The people who put up the statues we are now tearing down possessed such a worldview. They never thought that those they were honoring were sinless. Far from it. They understood that the individuals they were memorializing were worthy of honor in spite of their flaws. In our own generation, though, we have rejected biblical revelation and, with it, have lost the ability to grapple with both the complexities of human nature and the reality of nuance. People like Jefferson or Washington, then, may have worked to create a nation where the experiment of a constitutional republic could thrive; but because their lives were inconsistent with their principles and our modern worldview, they are mercilessly discarded to the ash heap of history. As far as I know, the process of canceling heroic figures had not yet fully begun when I was a teenager, at least not on a macro scale. And I am glad for that. My heroes were people of conviction, people whose lives I sought to emulate in one way or another. Chief among my boyhood heroes was Winston Churchill. Though early in wokeism’s advance, he was laughably labeled “worse than Hitler” by some enlightened academics, Churchill was the model of tenacity and grit. He was a man with many vices and objectionable qualities, to be sure; but he was also the man—the only man—who had the foresight and bravery required to save Western civilization from Nazi totalitarianism. Another Brit, William Wilberforce served, for me, as an example of a Christian who put his beliefs into action. Though unpopular, Wilberforce fought against the Atlantic Slave Trade for much of his life, eventually bringing an end to the Trade and the abolition of slavery itself. He was also a tireless champion for the alleviation of cruelty to animals and the betterment of his fellow man, inspiring one biographer to label him a “hero for humanity.” Back in the United States, a modern historical hero is Clarence Thomas, an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The descendent of slaves, he was raised by his grandparents in the Jim Crow South, where he experienced injustice and discrimination firsthand. Still, in spite of significant challenges, he worked hard, graduated from Yale Law School and, in 1991, became the second black Supreme Court justice in America’s history. Kids need heroes. We all need heroes. I shudder to think of a world where heroes do not exist. To what are we to aspire if we have no examples of fallen people who did great things in flawed ways? How, in a world where every hero of our past is literally being pushed from their pedestal, is there any hope of curbing evil or pursuing justice or making peace with our neighbors? In one of his many books, C.S. Lewis wrote of children: “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” The influencers of our day, from educators to political leaders, would do well to drop the woke narrative of a heroless world, and instead tell the stories of the men and women who lived their flawed lives to accomplish great things.
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AuthorTy Perry is a writer based in metro-Detroit. Archives
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