Washington National Cathedral to remove stained glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee, Stonewall...

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post




Washington National Cathedral to remove stained glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson

By Michelle Boorstein September 6 at 12:39 PM

Leaders at the Washington National Cathedral, the closest thing in the country’s capital to an official church, have decided after two years of study and debate to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Confederate figures Robert E. Lee and and Stonewall Jackson.

Saying the stories told in the two 4-foot by 6-foot windows were painful, distracting and one-sided, a majority of the Cathedral’s governing body voted to remove the windows Tuesday night. Wednesday morning stone masons were at work putting up scaffolding to begin taking out the art that was installed 64 years ago.

“This isn’t simply a conversation about the history of the windows, but a very real conversation in the wider culture about how the Confederate flag and the Old South narrative have been lively symbols today for white supremacists. We’d be made of stone ourselves if we weren’t paying attention to that,” said Bishop Mariann Budde, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, which includes the Cathedral.

The Cathedral is the official seat of the Episcopal Church, a small Protestant denomination that historically has counted many of America’s elite as members, including presidents from George Washington and James Madison to George H.W. Bush. It is the second largest church building in the country and is typically host to official events like presidential funerals and official interfaith ceremonies on presidential swearing-in days, including that of President Donald Trump.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/06/washington-national-cathedral-to-remove-stained-glass-windows-honoring-robert-e-lee-stonewall-jackson/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.13e79764ecd8

[TlalocW]

1. Why would a church have stained glass windows

Of secular historical figures? And if there's a reason for that, why have stained glass windows of men who fought on the wrong side of history?

TlalocW

[LanternWaste]

2. It's quite common

It's quite common. Canterbury has stained glass windows depicting American paratroopers in action on D-Day. First Baptist in Dallas has one pane illustrating the WPA workers.

As an aside, history, like science does not take sides.

[mountain grammy]

6. Right, history does not take sides..

but it doesn't need to be glorified or, in this case, kind of made holy. Stained glass in a church, to me, depicts some holy person or event, although there are other examples, as you pointed out. I just don't see the Civil War and the officers of the Confederacy qualifying.

That they were installed 64 years ago, in my lifetime, is appalling to me. Still honoring the great glory of the war for white supremacy 90 years after the fact and just when Civil Rights were becoming a cause. I'm thinking that was no accident.

[Lars39]

3. The Daughters of the Confederacy strike again!

It's kinda buried in the article, but it's there.

[BadgerMom]

4. Good!

I'm glad they're replacing those traitors. I thought the winners got to write history.

[mgardener]

5. Same people who want the Confederate statues to remain standing

Are the same ones that cheered when Sadam Hussein's statue was toppled.
And Lennin's in Russia. Stalin.
And I dare say they cheered the destruction of the Berlin wall.

[treestar]

17. And statues of George III were

brought down. I bet they would have cheered that one on. Then again they might have been loyalists in that day.

[Bradical79]

7. Kind of surprised nobody tossed a rock through them yet

[Dave Starsky]

8. Exodus 20:4

Prohibition against graven images of worship, and all that. Read your BIble.

I had no idea these were in the National Cathedral.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Why do we have a national cathedral?

[csziggy]

11. It is not US property - it is owned by the Episcopal Church

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States.[1][2] The structure is of Neo-Gothic design closely modeled on English Gothic style of the late fourteenth century. It is both the second-largest church building in the United States,[3] and the fourth-tallest structure in Washington, D.C. The cathedral is the seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Bruce Curry, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde. In 2009, nearly 400,000 visitors toured the structure. Average attendance at Sunday services in 2009 was 1,667, the highest of all domestic parishes in the Episcopal Church that year.[4]

The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, under the first seven Bishops of Washington, erected the cathedral under a charter passed by the United States Congress on January 6, 1893.[5] Construction began on September 29, 1907, when the foundation stone was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and a crowd of more than 20,000, and ended 83 years later when the "final finial" was placed in the presence of President George H. W. Bush in 1990. Decorative work, such as carvings and statuary, is ongoing as of 2011. The Foundation is the legal entity of which all institutions on the Cathedral Close are a part; its corporate staff provides services for the institutions to help enable their missions, conducts work of the Foundation itself that is not done by the other entities, and serves as staff for the Board of Trustees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_National_Cathedral

The windows rto be removed are probably there because some important member was involved with the United Daughters of the Confederacy and arranged to donate enough to pay for them. Remember, it's all about the money and damn near nothing to do with beliefs.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. As long as it's not public property, I guess I don't much care if they have whatever in the windows

then.

Smells a bit like a lemon test violation though...

[csziggy]

13. Do you mean the cathedral itself or the windows in question?

From what I understand the National Cathedral is not funded by taxpayer money (as stated in the Wikipedia article), it is wholly funded by the Episcopal Church and donations to the church. Of course many if not all those donations become deductions to reduce taxes so it could be argued that it is indirectly funded by taxpayers, as are all qualifying churches that receive deductible donations.

The windows would fit into the same category - donations that could be tax deductible.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Both.

I'm used to various religions being bound up in racism and bigotry and the infliction of human suffering. Doesn't even give me pause anymore.

[csziggy]

16. I was introduced to blantant racism and bigotry at an early age

By my uncle the evangelical Baptist preacher. I come from a long line of bigoted Baptist preachers - one was partially responsible for the Alabama Baptist Convention being created - and wanted the creation of the Southern Baptist Convention - but he died before the second was formed.

That lovely example of humankind left the church that ordained him in South Carolina when they decided that church officials should not own slaves. He took his household to Alabama, becoming one of the largest slave owners in the county while preaching racism and bigotry.

I have nothing to do with that side of my family - they cut me off when my husband and I were married without any ceremony, religious or otherwise. They considered that we were living in sin - if they only knew - we lived in sin for several years before we made our partnership legal. Their attitudes just solidified my objection to religion.I waiver between atheist and agnostic. If I had to make a choice I would call myself an apathetic agnostic: http://apatheticagnostic.com/ourchurch/intro.html

[Old Terp]

9. A moon rock is part of one window.

[QC]

14. And there is a Darth Vader gargoyle. n/t

[treestar]

18. It even had them to start with?

Weird.