Statues.

We Presbyterians have always had this iconoclastic streak.  We have historically tended to take seriously the prohibitions in the Hebrew Scriptures against “graven images.”  For instance, Leviticus 19:4 says, “Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves.”  And Leviticus 26:1 says, “You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images.”  And of course the Ten Commandments prohibit making or worshiping idols, which, considered literally, are carved or cast images of animals or people.

Part of this was just the reflexive anti-Catholicism that is part of the DNA of the Reformation churches.  Then, as now, the Roman Catholic Church makes use of statues in worship.

Another reason for this was the outsider and minority status of Protestants in 16th century Europe.  Back then, all statues were of kings and saints.  They were intended to express the views of the political and religious establishment, which the Protestants opposed (and who were oppressing and killing them).    

So, graven images, which is to say statues, are inherently problematic, which is why the Hebrew Scriptures reject them.  For graven images have always been a propagandistic tool of the reigning Empire.  Maybe the Hebrew people learned to hate statues when they represented the slave-owning class back in Egypt.

In Jesus' day, the Roman Empire would deploy statuary as a way to remind conquered and oppressed people who their masters were.  Local towns would feature statues of Roman gods and generals for veneration, basically conveying the message “You lost; we won; get over it.”  In Galatia the Romans apparently even put up statues of defeated, dying, and dead Galatians, in case the people didn’t get the point.

So statues served the same purpose then as these graven images of Confederate generals did when they were erected at the end of the 19th century.  They conveyed the message to a conquered population of who is really the boss.  And the people were reminded of this every time they passed one of these monuments.  

All such monuments are public and expensive, which means that they have to be underwritten by the people in power.  And they all tell a story from their perspective, expressing the agenda and goals of the State and commercial interests who control public spaces and can afford to produce them.  

Of course, once a group takes power, they get the statue bug and whatever principled iconoclasm they may have harbored evaporates.  Heck, there is even a statue now of Oliver Cromwell in London... a statue of an iconoclast.  I am quite confident that many of the Daughters of the Confederacy or whatever they called themselves, who got those statues of Lee and Jackson (and other traitors and terrorists) erected across the South, were Presbyterians.  And plenty of Presbyterians have been content to disregard the Bible and nod in smug approval of having elegant and awe-inspiring statues of all kinds of famous people who did all kinds of awful things to weaker people, deface the landscape.  (And yo, even statues of common soldiers valorize the idea that when the bosses want you to kill and die for them, you need to do it.)

So, no, now that we are in an iconoclastic moment and crowds of demonstrators are bringing down statues of people who implemented or defended slavery and white supremacy, who massacred Native Americans, Mexicans, Philippinos, or others, I am more worried that someone will get hurt in this activity, either by police, vigilantes, or accident (these things must weigh tons), than I am concerned about “losing our history” or some such nonsense.    

For in the end, the most effective anti-statue should be the Crucifix.  The image of Christ our God, nailed to a cross by human sin in the form of Empire, identifying with the lynched and tortured, the executed and the oppressed of every age, is the image that negates and conquers all images of conquerors and victors.  

And even this, when it is domesticated, sponsored, and erected by the principalities and powers of this world, becomes an idol meaning exactly the opposite of what it really means.  The Crucifix has been used as a tool of conquest and mass murder.  Love, when it becomes a graven image, too easily can be made to communicate hate.

(We even see this in the use of creche images.  (The only images that are allowed in Presbyterian churches, apparently.)  These days it’s not so much about remembering the story of God coming into the world in humble circumstances for the salvation of all.  It’s more about making a political statement in favor of “traditional values.”  Well, in the gospels, no one is less in favor of “traditional values” than Jesus Christ.)

Which means I return, at least in this area, to my Presbyterian roots.  I would never bother anyone’s home or church, of course.  But as far as public spaces are concerned?  Leviticus is right.  Statues easily become toxic. 

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