Coming to terms with our past

"The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity." --William Faulkner

"To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child." -- Cicero

Our present is a product of our past, and our future is influenced and imagined by both. Hence, as individuals and nations, it is incumbent upon us to be aware of our past and come to terms with it. Likewise, we must be cognizant of the fact that humans tend to portray themselves in the best possible light - that we tend to avoid things that are unpleasant or illuminate our failures.

As a former member of Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I surrendered (and actively suppressed) my intellectual curiosity. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I once accepted the racist and bogus teaching of Anglo-Israelism. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I missed several opportunities and suffered financially because of my affiliation with that organization. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I was arrogant and believed that God had revealed his truth to my mind and had hidden it from most of my fellow Christians. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I tortured myself and others with false and hypocritical notions about human sexuality. And, finally, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I can't do anything to earn my salvation - that Christ and his grace are the only things that can save me.

In similar fashion, the United States is currently wrestling with some unpleasant parts of its past. Statues have been coming down that were erected to honor Confederate generals and politicians, and discussions have been generated about Founding Fathers who owned slaves. Likewise, Native Americans have recently had the audacity to remind everyone that Christopher Columbus did not actually discover America, and that his arrival here wasn't good news for indigenous peoples.

For many folks in other parts of the world, the United States' preoccupation with Confederate statues and flags is bewildering. They don't understand why a people would honor and memorialize an ideology which they defeated - an ideology that had once threatened the very existence of government for and by the people. There aren't any statues of Nazi generals and politicians in Germany. In fact, swastikas and other Nazi symbols are outlawed in that country. Moreover, Germans have decided to memorialize and educate their citizens about the horrors of the holocaust.

We obviously don't want the past to weigh us down and destroy us, but we do want to be aware of mistakes so as not to repeat them. Wallowing in depression is not constructive, and the Apostle Paul warned against it. He pointed to what Christ had done for him and told the saints at Philippi: "I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Philippians 3:12-14, NLT) In short, the past must not be allowed to destroy our hope for the future. Nevertheless, an integral part of becoming a better person is recognizing and acknowledging our many sins and failures in our former life.

If people and nations are going to improve, there must be a willingness to face the ugly things we have done in times past. Fairytales and golden age nostalgia might make us feel good, but they do not offer much help in discerning the right path forward. Indeed, our perception of the world around us will be skewed and inaccurate unless it is based on a truthful and comprehensive survey of the entire landscape.

Scripture is filled with examples of the good and bad behaviors of our spiritual forefathers. We are instructed to imitate the good and avoid the bad - to learn from their failures and mistakes. It seems to me that this line of thinking represents very good advice for humankind - individuals and nations. What do you think?