The Lost Cause myth is the original Big Lie, building on cultural, historical and religious elements of culture to try to create (or recreate) a world where white men reign supreme and some version of America is Great Again. One…
Dixie’s Daughters, the Lost Cause and the roots of white Christian nationalism
Did you grow up hearing the Civil War was fought over states’ rights, not slavery? And how was the war referred to? Civil War? War Between the States? The War of Northern Aggression? Then you were exposed to the Lost…
On the SBC, Alliance and CBF and lost causes
The histories we tell ourselves about our churches and denominations are important. They shape organizational identities and give greater meaning to the work churches and denominations conduct in the wider world. When those histories become deeply engrained, they can morph…
‘The Religion of the Lost Cause’ is back, and it may be winning
An intelligent foreigner, making his observations at Washington at this time, would be puzzled to determine whether the Americans had a Government, or not. There are the names: The Executive, the Congress, the Judiciary; but what is the executive question,…
In Charlottesville, an effort to reuse bronze from Lee statue for new public art
A plan to melt down and ultimately reuse the bronze from the Robert E. Lee statue that white supremacists violently rallied to save in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 is an inherently spiritual undertaking that should appeal to many people of…
Meet the Baptist pastor who helped cultivate the Lost Cause narrative
A Baptist Civil War figure and the Lost Cause narrative he helped create are very much alive today in the growing wedge between Christians and how to teach history, Christopher Moore said during Baptist History and Heritage Society’s first “Making…
Of statues and stories: Reckoning with the Lost Cause
A few years back, as I wandered across a broad hill overlooking Washington, D.C., I discovered a monument, the statue of a woman atop a 32-foot decorated pedestal rising above the untold thousands of gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. I…
The Capitol insurrection, the Lost Cause and the Confederate flag
On Jan. 6, 2021, I was in quarantine, recovering from COVID-19. As I read and watched TV to pass the time, I began to see early reports of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. I saw the events of that…
To heal racism, seek atonement before reconciliation, authors say
White Christians must seek atonement before reconciliation if the wounds of racism are to be healed, two religion scholars said during a March 16 webinar on evangelicalism and race in America. “You can’t have change until you have had true…