Leaders of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, informed their congregants over the weekend that they will remove a plaque dedicated to George Washington in order to make the church more inclusive.
George Washington was a great American. He taught himself a number of professions, presided over the first continental Congress that declared independence from Great Britain, led the Colonial Army to a stunning victory against the British empire, and was ultimately elected as the country's first president. In his spare time, however, Washington lived in his Mount Vernon estate and worshiped at local churches with his neighbors. One of those churches was Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 1773, this Episcopal church relied heavily on donations from the British Crown to stay afloat. After the American colonies won their independence, that funding obviously dried up. George Washington was one of many prominent locals to rise up and fill that void. The Washingtons rented and even bought pews to help keep the church going. Today, a plaque sits next to the altar honoring George Washington not only as one of the church's most prominent congregants, but also for his work to help the fledgling church. The church also displayed a plaque memorializing its second-most-famous congregant: Robert E. Lee, the general who commanded the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Over the weekend, church leaders announced they had arrived at a decision to take both the George Washington and Robert E. Lee plaques down. They released this statement:The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome," leaders said, a reference to the fact that Washington was a slaveholder. "Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques. Many in our congregation feel a strong need for the church to stand clearly on the side of 'all are welcome -- no exceptions.'"The Washington decision was obviously made in the context of the greater debate over the role Confederate monuments should play in American society. But the inclusion of Washington's plaque in their decision represents a big development on the issue.
I can understand a church not wanting to honor the general of the rebel army that fought a Civil War against the United States to maintain the institution of slavery, and it is certainly their right as a private institution to remove their own decorations. However, if their statement is true and the Washington plaque is also being removed because some parishioners "choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques," it represents a pretty serious departure in how American history is treated in this country.
Yes, George Washington and his family owned slaves. Most wealthy colonists and Americans at the time owned slaves. George Washington owned his first slave at the age of 11, which he inherited after his father passed away. This was a cruel system that Washington was born into. But at the time of his death, Washington's last will ordered that all of his slaves be emancipated following the death of his wife, Martha. George Washington's story -- besides all of the literally history-making exploits -- is one of a lifetime of evolution on the issue of slavery.
If we are going to remove plaques and monuments to leaders of the past, we need to make sure that the people they memorialize were objectively evil and not just historically misguided.
Christ Church can choose to remove these plaques. That is certainly within their rights. But if they were actually pressured by churchgoers to remove a memorial to the country's first president because it made people feel unwelcome, then that says more about the sensibilities of those parishioners than it does about George Washington.
The British looked upon the American colonies as nothing but unruly rabble-rousers. Name any Founding Father and you can find a sin or vice that would make them unworthy of even being elected dog catcher in today's day and age. Ben Franklin was a serial womanizer, John Adams was reportedly a raging alcoholic who drank two to three mugs of ale at breakfast, Thomas Jefferson raped his slaves and fathered children with them ... the list literally goes on and on. Despite these sins and vices, each of these men played an integral and foundational role in our collective history.
Better or worse, we wouldn't be where we are today without these men, and Christ Church in Virginia certainly wouldn't still exist had it not been for George Washington.
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