Thursday, July 04, 2013

Faith and War



When I was a kid ou

cupola 2011





When I was a kid our family made a vacation trip to the States which included a stop at the historic Civil War battleground of Gettysburg. I remembered very little about it, and my younger brother even less  because we were so young. Together we returned forty years later and became aware of the scope of  the site of this turning point of the war. I have returned with wife Ruth and again after the opening of the new and expansive interpretation centre.

There was and still is a Lutheran Seminary in Gettsburg, on what it called Seminary Ridge. It was probably a lovely, rural setting to train for church leadership when all hell broke loose. The seminary became a field hospital for over 600 wounded men and people from different denominations provided medical and spiritual support.

This year marks the 150th anniversary for the Battle of Gettysburg and a new museum has opened on Seminary Ridge which examines the role of religion during the Civil War http://www.seminaryridgemuseum.org/  Scripture was used to justify both sides of the issue of slavery and clergy were criticized in both camps for the stands they adopted. The museum explores the concepts of duty and devotion which led men into this terrible conflict and resulted in the deaths of nearly three quarters of a million Americans. There are also exhibits of personal items such as a tiny bible carried by one soldier.

It sounds like an interesting museum from my standpoint. What about you? Have you been to Gettysburg? Would this museum interest you?

2 comments:

Judy said...

Yes, this is a museum that would be worth visiting - I have been reading historical novels by Lynn Austen, a winner of the Christy award (3 times) ... she writes about and describes the personal events in lives of white and black people during the Civil War, and the struggle which the slaves had to be recognized as human beings with feelings and spirits... the dichotomy between the interpretations of the gospel in both the white and the slave populations, and the injustices which were forced on a race of people brought against their will, to serve in the cotton fields and homes of rich plantation owners, and the faith struggles which resulted from the shameful imbalances prevalent,are palpably painful to experience, even in this vicarious way.

IanD said...

I would LOVE to go.

That period of history (both north and south of the border) is so interesting, for so many reasons; and that conflict had been brewing for at least two decades prior to the first shots being fired.

One of the biggest reasons behind our own confederation was the near constant fear of invasion at the hands of the Americans. With the Civil War ending in '65, the northern British Colonies once again began to worry about invasion, assimilation and the like, and a good deal of that tension made its way to the Maritime conference that Sir John A. hijacked.