Let us now praise famous men

My memory of School Assembly is of my rather severe Junior School headmistress reading the above phrase from the book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha which has subsequently lodged in my brain.

Even as a young lad I sensed there was something wrong, not just her use of the Apocrypha, when she had all the Bible available, but the idea of praising men and not God, who alone is worthy of praise (Psalm 148:13).

Whilst I might have held these feelings during a rather boring School Assembly, at other times my boyish mind was taken up with learning more about the heroes of our shared British past. Men like Nelson, Wellington, Francis Drake, Captain Cook, Richard the Lionheart, Robin Hood, and the great King Arthur. These were the men I dreamt of, fantasised over, and I rejoiced that I shared the same British (blue) blood.

I had more modern heroes also, usually of a sporting nature. Men like (Sir) Geoffry Boycott, who alone could be trusted to keep enemy bowlers at bay. Men like Bobby Charlton and George Best, heroes of the worlds greatest football team. My team, Manchester United. My country, Great Britain.

As I reflect, I note that young boys today are likely to share only part of my personal experience. They read, fantasise and to some extent idolise Premiership footballers and other sporting stars, but are far less likely to spend time on the great figures of our nation’s history. Indeed, the teaching of history has changed substantially over the years.

Today’s National Curriculum for History states that: “Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.”

This is far more complex than what used to be required. For me, history was simple, it established my identity as British. Furthermore, it made clear how fortunate I was to have that identity. I learnt about famous men, their great deeds in adversity and sought to learn lessons of how to behave myself in similar situations I might face in my life. Today the curriculum teaches children to “think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement”. These men are no longer considered “heroes” indeed, there seems little place for heroes in today’s world.

One of the heroes my Headmistress mentioned in school Assemblies as a role model and example for us all was Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the scouting movement which seems to have maintained its popularity over the years. I read today that his statue in Poole is to be removed, to protect it from those who might do it damage.

Another hero who was considered beyond reproach was Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister, and saviour of the nation. His statue in Parliament Square was defaced last weekend by a painted slogan stating that “Winston Churchill was a racist”. Perhaps they should have added “as was everyone else in his lifetime”.

So, now I understand a list of 78 statues of famous men (I suspect it is men, not women) have been identified so that they may be removed by those who consider their legacy tainted.

As an Amateur Christian, I guess this is of course true. As the Apostle Paul puts it in Romans 3:10 “There is none righteous, no, not one”. We also know that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. However, it is sometimes difficult to recognise that the men who built the nation were all faulty, failing God’s standard and hardly deserving of unqualified praise.

At this current time, it is the Black Lives Matter campaign which is drawing attention to the failures of men who included in their history, racism, or slavery. However, at another time a new campaign might draw to our attention a different (or perhaps overlapping) group with a different failure. And so on, indeed there is no end to this discovering of personal failure in each and every life.

So, the Amateur Christian recognises the personal failure of each character remembered by statues dotted around our nation and asks the question, should they not all be removed as they are not adequate examples or role models for the future?

In answering this question, I believe we have to ask why statues have been erected and have stood in their places, often for many centuries.

My own view is that people of a particular time believed that the person concerned was exceptional for a reason. It might have been a battle won, an invention discovered, an organisation founded or developed, or leadership recognised. All of these may have been tainted to some extent and no one is better at recognising this than their peers. However, a statue was erected because the people, at that particular point in time, wished to recognise the figure as being significant in his historical context.

When the Amateur Christian had children, we used to visit towns in England and inevitably note the presence of local monuments. “Who is it?” the girls would ask. “What did he do?” they would continue, prompting an educational experience from their father. Statues teach us to remember our past. For many people they are our significant past. Just as stained-glass windows taught Christianity, statues taught the nation’s history.

If one goes to St Peters in Rome, the centre of the Roman Catholic church, one is immediately impressed by the 140 statues above the Colonnade. These are a mix of martyrs, saints, and popes. A right old mixture of the good, bad, and ugly, most certainly not wholly good. In the cathedral itself are around 25 statue memorials to past popes, again a very mixed bunch, many of whom were deeply involved in political intrigue, immorality, and most ungodly behaviour.

One may ask why the RC church retains such a motley collection. It certainly would not wish to pretend that all figures represent paragons of virtue. Indeed, the surprising monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie, it could be argued, is to an insurrectionist, traitor, and war monger. The statues do however tell a story. One recognises with our later perspective that these men had many faults, but they tell a story, a flawed story of a flawed humanity and flawed church.

St Peters would not be the building it is without those statues. It might be a better place for God honouring worship. Indeed, it might be better to remove all trace of honouring man. It might be better to remove much of the cathedral contents, to remove earthly distraction from worship. However, as a historical monument, St Peters is hugely enhanced by those statues and I hear no calls for their removal.

In the street or marketplace however, worship is not the primary consideration. Indeed, it is important to note that we do not wish to worship statues of men and cannot take them as our example in life. For that we have to turn to the only pure and holy one, the only valid example, Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth and the life”.

We do not take statues of men as our example for life and likewise are not offended by statues of men who reflected the different values of a past culture. We learn about that past culture by knowing about the men who lived in it. Hopefully, we will learn lessons from learning about their mistakes and rejoice in belonging to the same national tribe.

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