In recent times the memories of heroes of the past have been torn down, statues destroyed, and even high schools renamed. The list of ways history is being rewritten, diminished, or condemned is long.
Protestors on many sides of the political spectrum have worked hard to destroy the heroes of their opponents until all we have left are villains.
I use the word villain on purpose. Eight hundred years ago the word simply referred to a farm worker, a person attached to a rural estate. Over time the usage developed and came to mean a serf, then a low-status person, then eventually it came to mean a wicked person, the bad guy.
That etymological evolution tells a story. Society first looked down on a class of people before it looked down on their character. A description became an insult. An insult became a moral judgment.
Something similar is happening with our view of history and our view of the notable figures of history. Instead of seeing great, though flawed men and women, we see only their sins. Their flaws block everything else from view. Instead of being amazed, impressed, and inspired by what they achieved despite their flaws, we judge them as unworthy of any merit and we toss them aside.
But, if every significant person in history must be perfect in order to be respected, and must meet the moral clarity, privilege, and standards of every future generation, then eventually no one will qualify. No one in the past will qualify, every statue will be pulled down, every name removed from buildings, and every legacy becomes a cause for prosecution.
No heroes remain. Only villains.
When a society only has villains in it’s history, then we all become, in a sense, villains. No heroes are left, not even among ourselves. Not on our side and not on their side.
A civilization without heroes is not healthier than one with flawed heroes. Heroes are not meant to be perfect. They are meant to be examples of particular virtues and achievements to which we aspire.
Do we ignore their sins? No, absolutely not. But criticism without proportion or discernment becomes cynicism. That cynicism, unchecked, quickly devolves into a kind of nihilism. People believe there is nothing good in the past, nothing good in the present, there is no hope for good in the future, and so why even try? Why try to achieve greatness if no one has achieved it before?
I look at some of the great heroes of the Christian faith and they were, by many accounts, terrible husbands and fathers.
I look at some of the founding fathers, and they were inconsistent, at best, in their application of liberty.
Do I condemn them? Do I cast them aside entirely? Do I ignore where they were excellent because of where they were wrong?
No.
We must let our heroes, and the heroes of others, be human. Acknowledge the good and the bad and take them as a whole, not as just one extreme or the other.
History gives us examples of men and women with wisdom, courage, determination, insight, and a hundred other virtues. Their virtues and achievements serve as north stars to guide us. Their blindsides warn us to look out for our own.
Where they excelled we should aspire to, where they were weak we learn from, and above all we must look to the only perfect man who ever lived as our ultimate example, Jesus Christ.
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