No Time Too Long
“Why study the Protestant Reformation? Why remember the
martyrs and the massacres and all the things our ancestors suffered? It was all
so long ago!” Ever heard anything like this? If you are a student of religion,
a historian, or at least aspiring to either of these, you understand that these
questions are irrelevant to you. Many of us “feel” the past. When we write,
debate, remember, and honor, it is as if we are right there with our spiritual
predecessors, smelling the blood and feeling the fear and seeing the horrors of
intolerance. It does not matter how “long ago” it was, does it? For instance,
if one’s grandparent died fifty years ago, is there a cut-off date to when it
is no longer proper to remember? If a person means something to us, if we
cannot bear for him or her to be forgotten, there is never such a date.
We remember famous figures in world history every day. We
talk about the Twelve Apostles. About William Shakespeare and Thomas Edison and
Julius Caesar. Just because they were born hundreds or even thousands of years
ago, is that any reason to stop remembering them? For Protestant Christians,
it’s personal. Those are our spiritual forerunners and, in many cases, our
ancestors. We have a unique heritage and feel increasingly close to them and to
their struggles. When we write, we picture the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
and the Wars of Religion. We feel caught up in their story. They died for the
Protestant faiths that we can freely
practice.
That’s right. Our ancestors died. They gave up their lives for their faith. That will always be
worth remembering. And, having made such a sacrifice, they would expect their
descendants to do something as simple as remember them. On a separate note, as
I often said, I have always felt great sorrow that the story of the French
Protestants martyred in 1565 near St. Augustine, Florida is not better known.
These facts are often obscured if not downright ignored. I have often heard
people say things like “it was so long ago, get over it,” and things of that nature.
But these were human beings with names, faces, identities, and lives. Why is
there a time in history that we must suddenly “forget”?
They deserve better than that.
(c) 2012 Joyously Saved
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