Recognizing Reconciliation after the Civil War
Last year I gave a talk at church on reconciliation – something that seems timely right now. There is much lip service to it, how much more is needed, and sometimes too little recognition of the efforts made. Some of our most sacred memorials have been defaced, including even to the president and some soldiers who freed the slaves. In my talk are examples of reconciliation offered by that president and one amazing officer. We can learn from history -- read on. “As I pondered examples of reconciliation, I was impressed by two magnanimous and profound conciliatory gestures by great men in our national reconciliation at the close of the Civil War. On one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is etched Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural speech, given just a few weeks before the end of the great and terrible Civil War. It had taken 620,000 lives (2% of the population, and more than all our combined foreign wars until Vietnam) and was marveled at across the world. In the address he quotes...