The board has officially confirmed the total ban on these symbols across campus. It has been a long and draining road to get here but we finally reached the end. Stay alert to ensure this change remains permanent and enforced.
August 28, 2015
Final supporters
We as supporters of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg wish to offer our gratitude and thanksgiving to the faculty, staff, and board of the Seminary. Last year, they put in place a policy limiting the display of confederate flags on campus to historical contexts only. In June 2015, they changed that policy to prohibit the display of confederate flags that include imagery that is associated with hate speech and supremacist groups on campus (Seminary Ridge Museum excepted). We stand fully behind the seminary’s decision on this crucial issue.
We are inspired by the words of Daniel A. Payne, former Lutheran Theological Seminary student and the Sixth bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME): “American Slavery brutalizes man—destroys his moral agency, and subverts the moral government of God. Sir, I am opposed to slavery, not because it enslaves the black man, but because it enslaves man… I shall lift up my voice to plead his cause, against all the claims of his proud oppressor; and I shall do it not merely from the sympathy which man feels towards suffering man, but because God, the living God, whom I dare not disobey, has commanded me to open my mouth for the dumb, and to plead the cause of the oppressed.” Most importantly our faith calls us to be a people living into Christ’s mission of reconciliation and love in the world. In Luke chapter 4 Jesus declares his ministry by saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
As followers of Christ we seek to stand against sin and oppression wherever and however it exists. It is our belief that flags associated with the Confederate States of America, and specifically the Confederate Battle flag, are active symbols of that oppression. Their connection to slavery, racism, and oppression is so deeply entrenched that we do not believe they can be flown without causing pain. It is our belief that their presence on campus outside the context of the Seminary Ridge Museum provides a conflicting and confusing message of Gospel message of Jesus Christ and about who we are as children of a loving God. We give thanks to God for God’s continuing work of reconciliation in our world and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg today.
Updates
July 3, 2015
The silence from the board continues but we are not moving from this position. I have been reading your stories of why this matters and they remind me that we have to keep pushing until the campus truly reflects the mission of reconciliation.
July 3, 2015
Reaching this milestone feels heavy given how much work remains to be done. It is exhausting to keep pushing against this resistance but seeing so many people echo these words provides the stamina I need to keep going.
Reached 100 supporters
July 3, 2015
60 Comments
I am so glad to walk out my door on campus and not see the Confederate battle flag flying. While respecting the historical battle that took place on our campus, LTSG has an even longer history of activities in the underground railroad and in opposing slavery and oppression.
I have taught at LTSG and know the place the battlefield plays in your identity - but that identity is first and foremost about love, kindness, and grace. You are exhibiting it now by caring for the justice issues you see in removing this flag that too many see as a symbol of hate and oppression. Thank you for your leadership. I stand with you in this action and support you 100?
While some decry such a ban as trivial or PC at its worst, allowing the blasé display of the Confederate battle flag serves to embolden and encourage institutional racism. Bravo LTSG for taking a stand. I support your contribution to living the Gospel that Love fulfills the Law.
I am a Lutheran pastor, graduate of the Lutheran seminary in Chicago, and a mission developer in Baltimore, south of Gettysburg. This decision is rooted in the heart of our radical gospel, one that follows Jesus into the depths of love - and refuses to let death have the final word. I'm proud to support LTSG.
I am a graduate of Gettysburg College (which, if it doesn't already have the same ban, should), a Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and an avid student of history. I gladly offer my support to those who "call the thing what it actually is" and make unwelcome this flag that symbolizes a historical revisionism at best and the heresy of racial supremacy at worst.
Full support. Thank you students for leading the charge...uh...CHANGE!
Gettysburg Seminary class of 1980
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The board has officially confirmed the total ban on these symbols across campus. It has been a long and draining road to get here but we finally reached the end. Stay alert to ensure this change remains permanent and enforced.
August 28, 2015
Final supporters
We as supporters of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg wish to offer our gratitude and thanksgiving to the faculty, staff, and board of the Seminary. Last year, they put in place a policy limiting the display of confederate flags on campus to historical contexts only. In June 2015, they changed that policy to prohibit the display of confederate flags that include imagery that is associated with hate speech and supremacist groups on campus (Seminary Ridge Museum excepted). We stand fully behind the seminary’s decision on this crucial issue.
We are inspired by the words of Daniel A. Payne, former Lutheran Theological Seminary student and the Sixth bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME): “American Slavery brutalizes man—destroys his moral agency, and subverts the moral government of God. Sir, I am opposed to slavery, not because it enslaves the black man, but because it enslaves man… I shall lift up my voice to plead his cause, against all the claims of his proud oppressor; and I shall do it not merely from the sympathy which man feels towards suffering man, but because God, the living God, whom I dare not disobey, has commanded me to open my mouth for the dumb, and to plead the cause of the oppressed.” Most importantly our faith calls us to be a people living into Christ’s mission of reconciliation and love in the world. In Luke chapter 4 Jesus declares his ministry by saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
As followers of Christ we seek to stand against sin and oppression wherever and however it exists. It is our belief that flags associated with the Confederate States of America, and specifically the Confederate Battle flag, are active symbols of that oppression. Their connection to slavery, racism, and oppression is so deeply entrenched that we do not believe they can be flown without causing pain. It is our belief that their presence on campus outside the context of the Seminary Ridge Museum provides a conflicting and confusing message of Gospel message of Jesus Christ and about who we are as children of a loving God. We give thanks to God for God’s continuing work of reconciliation in our world and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg today.
Updates
July 3, 2015
The silence from the board continues but we are not moving from this position. I have been reading your stories of why this matters and they remind me that we have to keep pushing until the campus truly reflects the mission of reconciliation.
July 3, 2015
Reaching this milestone feels heavy given how much work remains to be done. It is exhausting to keep pushing against this resistance but seeing so many people echo these words provides the stamina I need to keep going.
Reached 100 supporters
July 3, 2015
60 Comments
Plain Courtesy (PC, according to columnist Ellen Goodman) demands that I refrain from symbols or acts which I know cause offense to people I respect. For this reason, I avoid the swastika or hymn tunes associated with the Nazi's. Why would a person of good will want to remind people of color of the worst form of racism?
I am so glad to walk out my door on campus and not see the Confederate battle flag flying. While respecting the historical battle that took place on our campus, LTSG has an even longer history of activities in the underground railroad and in opposing slavery and oppression.
I have taught at LTSG and know the place the battlefield plays in your identity - but that identity is first and foremost about love, kindness, and grace. You are exhibiting it now by caring for the justice issues you see in removing this flag that too many see as a symbol of hate and oppression. Thank you for your leadership. I stand with you in this action and support you 100?
While some decry such a ban as trivial or PC at its worst, allowing the blasé display of the Confederate battle flag serves to embolden and encourage institutional racism. Bravo LTSG for taking a stand. I support your contribution to living the Gospel that Love fulfills the Law.
I am a Lutheran pastor, graduate of the Lutheran seminary in Chicago, and a mission developer in Baltimore, south of Gettysburg. This decision is rooted in the heart of our radical gospel, one that follows Jesus into the depths of love - and refuses to let death have the final word. I'm proud to support LTSG.
I am a graduate of Gettysburg College (which, if it doesn't already have the same ban, should), a Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and an avid student of history. I gladly offer my support to those who "call the thing what it actually is" and make unwelcome this flag that symbolizes a historical revisionism at best and the heresy of racial supremacy at worst.
Full support. Thank you students for leading the charge...uh...CHANGE!
Gettysburg Seminary class of 1980
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Plain Courtesy (PC, according to columnist Ellen Goodman) demands that I refrain from symbols or acts which I know cause offense to people I respect. For this reason, I avoid the swastika or hymn tunes associated with the Nazi's. Why would a person of good will want to remind people of color of the worst form of racism?