Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Columbus “Canceled” For Following the Words of Moses and Jesus.
The New York City Council, evidently a proponent of “cancel culture”, has just voted to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from its office in City Hall because he had slaves, no matter that he was one of the author/signers of the Declaration of Independence and instrumental in the creation of the United States as a democracy, a very positive force for humanity notwithstanding its flaws. Christopher Columbus’ statue in the middle of Columbus Circle in New York City is also targeted for removal by “cancel culture” proponents because of his direct or indirect association with slavery or colonialist abuses against Native Americans, notwithstanding his discovery of the Americas due to his courage and smarts, going against the conventional wisdom that the Earth was flat.
In other words, for “cancel culture” proponents, one moral flaw by today’s standards, not the moral standards prevailing during a person’s lifetime, overrides great personal accomplishments and warrants “cancellation”. The Jefferson and Columbus statues are clearly intended solely to commemorate their admirable achievements, not their flaws, in contrast to Robert E. Lee’s statues intended solely to commemorate his leading the Confederate South in its fight for secession and slavery.
Moral perfection being an absolute requirement of proponents of “cancel culture”, will they insist that the American flag be canceled since the United States has not been perfect, given its egregious history of slavery and other human rights violations? No matter that without the United States, which defeated fascism and communism in the 20th Century, the whole world would be dominated today by fascists and communists whose very public policy and laws violate democracy and human rights. Indeed, would they stop at canceling and banning the American flag? To be consistent, would they insist that the United States as a nation be canceled?
To be consistent, “cancel culture” proponents should push for all statues and paintings of Moses and Jesus Christ to be “canceled” and banned, removed from public venues. After all, Moses’ laws in the Old Testament institutionalized and validated slavery. Meanwhile in the New Testament, Jesus never repudiated slavery, while finding time to repudiate divorce (for the simple reason that Adam and Eve did not divorce). Worse, the only time he spoke about slavery was to explain what would happen to disobedient slaves: they would be cut up into pieces by their masters and thrown into Hell (Matthew 24.48–51). Had Jesus said instead that slavery was an abomination and should be abolished, there would never have been slavery in the United States since the vast majority of its citizens were Christians.
To be consistent, then, “cancel culture” proponents should call for canceling and banning the Bible, the very source of slavery in the United States. They should then go one step further, and call for canceling and banning the three monotheistic religions since they endorse the Bible. A step further, to be consistent: call for the removal of all churches, synagogues, and mosques in the United States, since they teach the holy books of monotheism which serially violate many human rights, beyond inciting religious discrimination.
Unfortunately, cancel culture proponents, while admirably against violations of democracy and human rights, are superficial thinkers, have little culture and knowledge of world history, and deficient logic and critical thinking ability, which leads them to absurd conclusions. How can anyone expect people of past centuries to have a modern morality? Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Columbus were Christians, they followed the morality of their times, the one imparted by Jesus Christ and the Bible.
The writers of our Constitution also followed the morality of their times when they envisioned capital punishment as not being “cruel and unusual punishment”. They were Christians whose morality was determined by the Bible. Capital punishment was institutionalized and validated by the Bible, even for non-virgin brides, homosexuals, blasphemers, adulterers, and sodomists. Our laws have over time rejected penalties for those violators of the Bible’s norms, but they did not also reject and “cancel” the Bible itself. Perhaps an inconsistency? The Catholic Church has in recent decades shielded their own priests from prosecution for sexual abuse, including rape, of children. Why no action from the proponents of “cancel culture” to cancel and remove Catholic churches? Excessive? Overkill?
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a good Catholic in tune with the Bible who died in 2016, was a fervent defender of the death penalty, not considering it “cruel and unusual punishment”. Many of his non-religious contemporaries have made a good case that capital punishment is indeed “cruel and unusual punishment” and that it should be declared unconstitutional. Modern morality with its understanding of psychology repudiates capital punishment as primitive, medieval, barbaric.
The death penalty, a staple of dictatorial regimes, has been abolished in most if not all Western European democracies, and will probably be abolished in the United States in the not too distant future, on the condition that biblical morality does not continue to dominate a large portion of the population, of Congress, and of the Supreme Court. The day the United States abolishes the death penalty as being immoral and barbaric, will “cancel culture” proponents insist on having all paintings of Antonin Scalia removed from the halls of the Supreme Court, and his name removed from the historical list of Supreme Court justices? Will they insist that the Supreme Court itself be canceled for not having found the death penalty unconstitutional decades ago?
Many, if not most, Americans have not read the Constitution, at least not carefully, just as many, if not most, Christians have not read the Bible, at least not carefully. The result is the belief among many Americans, especially fundamentalist Christians, that the United States is legally a Christian nation, as opposed to a secular nation, ignoring that the Constitution provides for the separation of church and state. They also fail to distinguish between deism and religion, and fail to understand that “In God We Trust” does not refer to the god of the Bible, but to an unidentified, unknown, and unverified Supreme Being, supposedly the creator of the universe. Similarly, the Declaration of Independence refers to “nature’s God”, not the Bible’s God. Meanwhile, the American governmental practice of having people swear with a hand on the Bible is a clear violation of separation of church and state.
“Cancel culture”, along with most of our nation’s social, economic, and political shortcomings, derives from a low average level of education due to our many mediocre public schools with their severely deficient curriculum. There is little awareness that all Americans need a solid, broad education which should start in high school, that they are not truly well educated if their knowledge is mostly limited to their profession. The public high school curriculum needs to be drastically upgraded. It should include the following courses: 1) psychology, accompanied by “group therapy” and “good parenting” workshops; 2) logic and critical thinking; 3) The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights along with the world history of human rights violations; 4) 20th Century world history in great detail; 5) economics, finance/investments; 6) ethics and empathy; 7) introductory and Constitutional law; 8) comparative religion, with readings of the holy book texts; 9) history of art, architecture, and design; 10) history of music; 11) foreign languages and cultures; 12) the major mistakes in economic, social, and foreign policy over the past 100 years and which would have been the correct policies. In addition, to prevent dropouts, we need individual assistance for students having academic or psychological problems. Every single public school must be truly excellent, in order to ensure real equal opportunity and a knowledgeable, logical, civilized, cultured, serene and highly ethical citizenry, an essential requirement for a socially and economically prosperous nation not riven by political animosities.
© Edward Sonnino 2021
October 19, 2021
Independent Self-Funded Write-In Candidate for New York City Mayor 2021
