Upon this stage … three boxes
Frederick Douglass said “A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box and the cartridge box. Let no man be kept from the ballot box because of his color. Let no woman be kept from the ballot box because of her sex.”
It is believed these statements refer to rights regarding democracy, laws and freedom. The cartridge box, as shown below, is a leather box commonly used in the Civil War to carry cartridges of ammunition. So, scholars think the reference to a cartridge box is a person’s right to protect oneself from slavery, to use self-defense against those who would enslave him/her, and a reference to abolish slavery itself.
I didn’t know that a reading of Frederick Douglass’ words from 1845 would be relevant in 2021. When I saw the above quote, I went looking for his Narrative, his autobiography. I was inspired and thought it would give me some perspective on what happened on January 6, 2021. If you will bear with me and indulge in a reading of the last segment of his Narrative, you will see how very relevant it is.
We’ve talked over the past several years, since at least the 2016 campaign, about how Christian evangelicals have gone so far from what they were supposed to be about and have supported Donald Trump. Little did I know that reading Douglass’ Narrative from 1845 would tell that the hypocrisy of Christians was seen even by Frederick Douglass. It’s not new at all.
Democracy is constantly under attack. In fact, it’s never guaranteed. It must be fought for every day, every year by all of us. Upon this stage our rights rest. We must defend our rights, using these three boxes of democracy, laws and freedom. And even Christianity is not our friend, as Republicans and Trump have clearly shown. But then, Douglass knew this in 1845.
From The Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, by Frederick Douglass“The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works they do for to be seen of men. — They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, . . . . . . and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. — But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. — Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are full of extortion and excess. — Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping a sheep-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a man-stealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with them for it. They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They are always ready to sacrifice, but seldom to show mercy. They are they who are represented as professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors.
Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land; and to avoid any misunderstanding, growing out of the use of general terms, I mean by the religion of this land, that which is revealed in the words, deeds, and actions, of those bodies, north and south, calling themselves Christian churches, and yet in union with slaveholders. It is against religion, as presented by these bodies, that I have felt it my duty to testify.”
So, we must be judicious in our approach and diligent in our objective. Upon this stage of these three boxes, rest all that many of us hold dear. The only constant is change but we must hold onto our principles in changing times. When people, even people who claim to be Christians, fail us then we must stand up and defend what we believe and know to be right. In 2021, this is as true as it was in 1845 and and the Civil War. I believe we’ve reached a New Civil War and the events of January 6, 2021 was a stark battle in that New Civil War. Truth matters.
History may actually document that the shots of this New Civil War had actually been fired when Ahmad Aubrey was killed in Georgia on February 23, 2020. More shots of this New Civil War fired Breonna Taylor was killed on March 13, 2020 in Kentucky. A battle was ignited when George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020. The battles raged throughout the summer of 2020 and into the fall of 2020. The New Civil War came to a raging frenzy during the Presidential campaign in September, October and November of 2020. The blatant lies of the white supremacist Donald Trump fed the flames. And upon his clear loss being announced on November 7, 2020 to Joe Biden, an eruption occurred.
The New Civil War then took on more urgency as Trump knew that he had to move with more deliberate speed as clearly his days were numbered and the courts were truthfully delivering verdicts. He called on his following of supporters by spitting out lies, which they gladly absorbed, as any cult leader can. What was equally damaging was the complicity of Republican “leaders”, particularly elected officials who spread the lies. Hitler didn’t act alone and neither did Trump. In service particularly for this New Civil War were Christians, just as Frederick Douglass proclaimed in 1845.
The harm caused by Evangelical Christians in this New Civil War must not go unchallenged and their part in the election and duration of Trump’s Presidency are unescapable.
W.E.B. DuBois spoke of the duplicity of integrity in the face of oppression. I believe that is a way to challenge how Evangelical Christians have been complicit in this climax of deception.
“How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.” — W.E.B. DuBois
Between these two thought-provoking minds, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois, I am on alert for 2021 with what democracy holds for us, how we must respond to defend it, who is fighting against its defense, the tool boxes available to us with which to defend it, and the integrity / decency it will take to do so.
Not for the faint of heart. Buckle up.
