MONUMENTAL MALFEASANCE

From My Perspective - - -

Hillsdale College, located in Southern Michigan, publishes Imprimis – a free monthly speech digest that is dedicated to educating citizens and promoting civil and religious liberty by covering cultural, economic, political and educational issues of enduring significance. In April 2012, a featured address and writing was given on The Decline of American Monuments and Memorials by Michael J. Lewis, the Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art at Williams College since 1993. He writes: “This has been an extraordinary year for American monuments. The memorial at Ground Zero opened last September in New York. One month later came the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial here in Washington, and soon to come to Washington…is the memorial to President Eisenhower…”

A major part of this address and writing pertains to the subject matter of a monument and what it is to represent. It is supposed to be – “something erected in memory of a person or event…a personification of some abstract quality, especially when considered to be beyond question…” Dr. Lewis points out some inconsistencies and inaccuracies of some recent monuments. “The King Memorial was criticized for engaging a sculptor from Communist China, who saw to it that Chinese rather than American granite was used for the structure—which accounts for its ‘Made in China’ inscription. Even worse, the memorial managed to misquote the great man: Not only did he not say, ‘I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,’ but his actual words were a hypothetical statement put in someone else’s mouth. Worse still is the demeanor and expression of the sculpture...Instead of inspiring warmth, there is the infinite aloofness of an idol…”

The second illustration Dr. Lewis references is – “The proposed Eisenhower Monument… Instead of making its subject a 30-foot effigy, it turns him into a diminutive country boy. In an outdoor public space that is part formal civic plaza and part wooden urban park, columns in the background will support a wire mesh screen depicting images of the Kansas prairie of Eisenhower’s childhood. And at the center will be the sculpture of Eisenhower as a dreamy country boy ‘looking out onto his future achievements’—an unconventional depiction, given that there were millions of dreamy country boys and only one Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in World War Two…” Dr. Lewis adds, “As traditionally understood, a monument is the expression of a single powerful idea in a single emphatic form, in colossal scale and in permanent materials, made to serve civic life…” If one has ever been to Washington, DC, there are Monuments of grandeur representing men and events of a bygone day – from the Lincoln Memorial to the Iwo Jima Monument – very graphic depictions of men and achievements. The same would be true for the one visiting Mount Rushmore and observing the life-like features of four former Presidents.

Some Evangelicals become hyper over “graven images” as being contributory to “idol-worship” – but – care needs to be exercised that one doesn’t throw the baby out with the bath-water. There are “symbols” of the Christian heritage and faith that are scorned by some and attacked by others – (a) Tablets containing the 10 Commandments; (b) A Crèche (Manger Scene) depicting the Birth of Jesus Christ; (c) The Cross – the symbol of Crucifixion for one’s sins; (d) The Empty Tomb – the symbol of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; (e) Praying in the Name of Jesus Christ; etc. Central to the Message and Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ is I Corinthians 1:18, “…the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 15:3-4, “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…” Failure to proclaim this message would be Monumental Malfeasance. Let your life and message always be – To Know Him (Christ) and To Make Him (Christ) Known. Consider these things with me.