It’s been a while. But I’m back today; pulled I’ll admit by contrasting articles in today’s newspaper (Yes, I still read print news) that continue to respond to the death of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain this past Sunday. Juxtaposed on page three of the Dallas Morning News, one headline read, “Mourners in Scotland fill route to pay their respects.” In contrast the other, proclaimed “‘I cannot mourn’: Ex-colonies conflicted over queen’s death.”
The two lenses of the demise of the longest reigning monarch in Britain’s history offer perspectives from the ground so to speak. One’s conception of history and its ruling players is rooted in the interplay between them and those who came before you over the ages. Her majesty’s rule was not without its dark side. And that dark side has not been forgotten by those whose ancestors lived and died in its midst.
Ironically, it’s not unlike the unrelenting struggle in this country, birthed by British rule, to come to terms with the darkness of our republic’s acceptance of caste-based slavery and displacement of the country’s indigenous people; the lingering side effects of which define us today. In the shadow of what was and what too often is not owned as truth, descendants of the ex-colonies as those of former enslaved and displaced human beings register ambivalence in times like these.
Many are weary of these discussions today. But in an era in which some seek to rewrite history by discounting its evil and its subsequent long-term impacts, I’m afraid that is not going to happen. Truth today struggles to burst forth much like an at – term fetus pushes to pass from darkness to the light of life and become a living human being. Truth demands confession, acknowledgment of wrong, repair, resolution, honesty and fellowship to begin anew – to live as the human beings God created us to be, to embrace the beloved community of humanity. We are all flawed, but in Christ we are forgiven. We have the potential to overcome the past’s evil and live in today’s world with honesty and truth. May it be so. And may the life she lived in public and private have earned the late queen’s entrance to eternity.