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about a biography which is a new york times Washington post and Los Angeles times best seller. The book was honored as a best book of 2009 by the Washington Post because the christian science monitor, the ST

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louis post dispatch, the history book club and Barnes and noble. His Lincoln Biography won the coveted Christopher Award in 2010, which salutes books that affirmed the highest values of the Human Spirit. White is also

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the author of Lincoln's Greatest Speech, the second inaugural , honoured as a New York Times notable book of 2002 and a Washington post in san Francisco Chronicle bestseller . And he is the author of the eloquent President

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, a portrait of Lincoln through his own words, which is the Los Angeles Times bestseller, a selection of the History Book Club and the Book of the Month Club. He is presently writing a comprehensive biography

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of ulysses S grant. Dr White has lectured at the White House and been interviewed on the PBS News Hour. He is a graduate of U. C . L. A. And Princeton Theological Seminary and

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holds a PhD in religion and history from Princeton University . He has studied at Lincoln Theological College in England and has been honored with a Doctor of Humane letters from Whitworth University. Dr White has taught at UCLA

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Princeton Theological Seminary, Whitworth University colorado College Rider University and san Francisco Theological Seminary, where he also served as academic dean. And we talked about that job over laughter A few minutes ago, he is a

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fellow at the Huntington Library, visiting professor of history at UCLA and a senior fellow of the trinity forum . He lives with his wife, Cynthia in la kenyatta California, A stone's throw from Pasadena. And

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Dr White's lecture this morning is entitled Abraham Lincoln's sermon on the mount, the second inaugural Dr White. It is an honor to have you with us this morning. We look forward to the word you bring

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to us today. It's a delight to be with you. I've had the privilege of serving teaching learning in four theological seminaries. I thank you for coming . I thank you for what you're doing in this

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very difficult transition time in our church and culture. I commend you Lincoln sermon on the mount. That wasn't the title my publisher wanted. They didn't understand that title, but it's actually the title that was

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given to Lincoln's second inaugural address by a reporter the next day. Now another reporter said he's crossed the line between church and state and yet another reporter said it sounds like a tale of an old sermon,

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but Lincoln adopted and like the title Lincoln's sermon on the Mount for you see in these 701 words, Lincoln mentions God 14 times, quotes the bible four times and invokes prayer three times. You won't find

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this in the traditional Lincoln biography, you won't find in the traditional Eisenhower biography that Eisenhower was baptized while he was president of the United States and joined the National Presbyterian Church. That's not what we write about

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in biographies today, but I hope you will understand this for the ministries that I trusted to you for my task is in a sense to show that along with Lincoln being a politician, a lawyer, President

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Emancipator, he was also on a faith journey. You and I are on a faith journey and the people, we serve our on faith journeys and this faith journey is important to understand. Let's refresh our

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memories. The Civil war had gone on for four years. We used to think for 125 years that had cost 620 dead A demographer five years ago, looking at the 1870 census and has convinced us that

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that figure is absolutely wrong. The figure is actually 750,000 dead In a tiny nation of barely more than 30 million people. More deaths than all of our other wars put together, Lincoln came to speak on

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a dark, rainy, windy day. Here's the extra credit question. Who was the last president inaugurated for a second term before Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson . And so to be elected for a second term

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, He arrived, there were 25-35,000 people. It looked like Austin on Saturday. I barely made it in from Los Angeles with all the rain. This was a dark, Rainy, Muddy, Windy Day

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. The reporter for the times of London looking out on the 35,000 people, there was particularly struck by the people who were gathered at the back. Most of the people on such a day were dressed in

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dark clothing, but these people at the back were dressed in red and yellow, green, bright clothing . He wondered if they'd ever been to an inauguration before. The crowd looked around and were shocked by

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what they saw because the soldiers in the audience were marked by Civil war surgery, three quarters of which was amputation amputation of legs and arms. And they wrote home about what they'd seen. Anybody here been

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to an inauguration. A couple of people good for you. Uh, I expected people to be caught up in a mood of celebration. That's what we do, especially if it's our candidate. But when

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I read their letters and diaries, I found something quite different for the letters and diaries were filled with them. A sense of deep anger. People were angry that day because if you think about it,

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every person there had lost a father, husband, son, brother. And they were angry at the south and they wanted Lincoln to give voice to that anger. That's what we do in times of war

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in World War One, we banish the teaching of german in every public school in the United States. In World War Two, we banish the japanese from the Western parts of the United States. Surely Lincoln

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would give voice to their anger. Let's see what he actually does say. Would you take out your hand out? Does everybody have 1? Okay, good. 701 words 505 are one syllable. Those

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of us involved in theological education are concerned with words 505 or one. Silver Lincoln loved what he called the Saxon bible. He didn't call it the king James bible. The Saxon bible is filled with strong

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one syllable Saxon words at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office. There is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. This is not exactly four score and seven

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years ago, we're not sure what Lincoln is doing or where he's going. In the first paragraph, I suggest that Lincoln breaks every rule of modern politics or modern leadership. You and I are enduring the

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longest political campaign in american history. It's not even next year and we're still into this and all of the candidates on both sides are promising everything they will do for us. The american voter Lincoln takes exactly

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the opposite approach. Listen, at this second, appearing to take the oath of the presidential office. There is less occasion for an extended address. eight lines down on the right margin. Little that is

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new. Could be presented the next to the last line of the first paragraph. No prediction in regard to it is ventured what a surprising way to be a leader To say what one cannot do. In

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the second paragraph, I suggest we begin to get to the heart of the rhetorical purpose of this address , Lincoln, you see, is asking himself a question that no one else is asking. Not The

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pastor's, not the professors, not the politicians. The question is, how can the South be brought back into the Union without alone bearing the blame and the shame for the civil war? And Lincoln attempts

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to answer that question, first of all, by what I call his use of inclusive language, inclusive language. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending

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civil war. All dreaded it. All sought to a verdict. Do you hear what he's doing? He's imputing the best possible motives to the people of the south. Wouldn't our political dialogue be so different

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if we imputed the best possible motive, not ideas but motive to those on the other side of the conversation, at the end of the paragraph, Lincoln says both parties deprecate ID war. Now, the

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first time I ever gave this address was that the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs before the beginning of the war with Iraq and my guide was a Marine Corps major who told me he had been

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wounded one day in Vietnam 38 times. He went on to win, earned an M. D. Degree A. PhD in philosophy and became a military chaplain. When we left that day, he said

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, Ron he said, the next war is coming and we will be told by our american political leaders , as well as our american military leaders that we will win this next war quickly, he said,

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do not believe it. The next war will spin out of our control and it will go on and on and on and it's still going on today. And Lincoln had understood that although the direct object of

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the use of the word war in the second paragraph , which is the main noun seven times, he uses the World War twice, he uses the word pronounced. This is what people are talking about.

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Obviously in the crowd that day, the word war is not simply the direct object that it is now achieving a life of its own. Remember the north believed they would win this war easily in 3-4 months

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, they had more than twice as many men in arms had a much great industrial base. But the war went on and on and on. And so Lincoln comes to the final sentence. It's four words

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, it's four syllables. And the war came. I wondered how did Lincoln say those words? We have photographs, nine of them by alexander Gardner of Lincoln delivering the second inaugural address. We don't have

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any audio of him speaking the second inaugural address. I want you to think for a moment, how do you think he might have said those words now that you've begun to enter into this text? The

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idea that this painful war had gone on and on and on. Edward Everett, who spoke for two hours and seven minutes at Gettysburg. How would you like to follow that? Might have said it this

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way? He was the great orator of the day . He was given over 150 speeches trying to raise money to restore Mount Vernon. I think he might have said it this way, and the war came

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. But this is interactive. How do you think he might have said that last sentence of the second paragraph? Anyone regret, regretful, regret, anybody else More Somber? Yes. 750 dead. Is

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this the time to rejoice? No, it's a time to be mournful, to be regretful. Perhaps he might have said it. Hand the war. Okay, Lincoln then starts in the third paragraph,

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like an historian or a sociologist, chronicler, to tell us what is the meaning and purpose of the war. 1/8 of the whole population were colored slaves , not distributed generally over the Union, but localized

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in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow somehow the cause of the war. In April of 2011, as we began to commemorate

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four years of the civil war, the Pew charitable trust asked a question of american american people and one of the major, it was about the civil war . But the major question for me was what was

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the cause of the civil war? And the american people couldn't answer. The group that most could not answer. The question was 18-29 years of age. They were all over the map. They had no

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idea what was the cause of the civil war. Only one group, 65 years of age and older answered slavery. Read the secession documents. Every one of them suggest that slavery is the cause of the

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civil war, and yet we have been told all of these things that slavery was not the cause of the civil war. Abraham Lincoln very clearly says here , slavery is the cause of the civil war to

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strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the union even by war. While the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the enlargement of it. When

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Lincoln ran for office, he felt bound by the constitution that he could not deal with slavery where it already existed. He could only stop its spread into the territories and states of the West. He then

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assumed as commander in chief that he could do something about slavery and therefore he enacted the emancipation proclamation. How many of you have seen the movie, Lincoln ? It's a very unusual movie. There's no sex

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violence or pirate tactics. It's all about ideas. There's 164 speaking parts. I've seen it six times with various friends And the whole point of the 13th Amendment is that Lincoln understands we have to outlaw slavery

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. It cannot be left to a future president, it cannot even be left to the Supreme Court. There must be a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery. And that's the whole fulcrum of that movie. Neither party

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expected for the war, the magnitude or the duration which has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with slavery or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each side looked for

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an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding . And now Lincoln makes a tremendous change in this address. I think both read the same bible and pray to the same God. When I started working

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on Abraham Lincoln rather Late in my life, I was told by all my academic friends don't get too excited. This is what we do. In inaugural addresses, we all quote the Bible, we all

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invoke God. So I said, Well, all right, I'll read the previous 18 inaugural addresses only one time in those 18 addresses had the Bible ever been quoted, john Quincy Adams from the psalms.

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Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. And of course, the invocation of God. Yes, that is true in every single inaugural address, but it's always been in

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the last paragraph and we need God's help to Lincoln makes this front and center. He does something here publicly, which he had been mulling over privately for the previous 2.5 years. He's asking himself the question

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, where is God in the midst of this civil war? So he says, both read the same bible. Do you hear the inclusive language? One of the fascinating parts of my research was to go

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to the american bible society in new york and to hold in my hand either whole bibles or quickly they realized marching soldiers couldn't carry whole bibles with them. So they printed 14 different parts of the bible that

00:17:00.740 - 00:17:14.170

they could carry with them. Often the soldier would write his life verse in the center in the front flyleaf, Some had blood on them when they cleared the battlefield at Gettysburg to return things to family members

00:17:14.460 - 00:17:30.110

, they found diaries and letters and watches and money . What they chiefly found her bibles. Both sides read the same bible and pray to the same God semi call it. Now you in this wonderful seminary

00:17:30.110 - 00:17:44.090

are involved in words. You're involved in texts when I speak in church, as I call this american scripture, alongside of the christian scriptures that we expound , we're dropping out of our language were abbreviating our

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language. So semi colons are going, they're gone . They are very important for Abraham Lincoln, I think they might be important for us. And often for abraham Lincoln, it's a sign that he's going

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to now change it. So after invoking an affirmation , both read the same bible and pray to the same god. Suddenly he says, and each invokes his aid against the other. What he's really saying

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is how dare each side invoke God's aid against the other? What's going on here? Do we worship a territorial god? Do we worship a tribal god Lincoln had become very upset when a group of ministers

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came to him one day to say, God is on our side, God bless America. And he leapt from his chair and said, wait a second , I want to figure out how I can get

00:18:26.790 - 00:18:38.770

to be on God's side. He knew they were coming to jefferson. Davis with exactly the same plea . I look for the antecedents of this address. When you look at say, martin Luther King's wonderful

00:18:38.770 - 00:18:51.110

. I have a dream speech. You can find that he said parts of those speeches, that speech earlier and other occasions, and then in a wonderful way, brought it together on that memoir, more

00:18:51.120 - 00:19:04.090

memorable day in Washington. I couldn't find it in any previous speeches, but I did find some have seats. Three months to the day, Lincoln was greeted by two women from the south whose husbands officers

00:19:04.090 - 00:19:21.590

were in a union prison. They knew that Lincoln was a softie when women came to plead their cause with him. So they claimed that their husbands were christian men. Surely this would get Lincoln's attention to

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the consternation of his secretary's Lincoln often did this, he said to these two women, this is a wonderful conversation. Why don't you come back tomorrow and we'll continue the conversation. And after the second day

00:19:33.160 - 00:19:44.200

, he said, come back tomorrow. Let's let's keep talking about this. And on the third day , he said to these two women, I find it very difficult when you tell me that your husbands

00:19:44.210 - 00:19:56.820

are christian men, How can christian men go against the duly constituted authority of this nation and then, and I'm sure from memory, he then offered these words. It may seem strange. This is from

00:19:56.820 - 00:20:08.070

the book of genesis that any men should dare to ask, adjust God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. I don't have my bible with me. But what I really want

00:20:08.070 - 00:20:18.600

to say is often we allow the bible to be back there and then and what we want to do , certainly as Ministers of the Gospel is for the bible to be here and now. And Lincoln is

00:20:18.600 - 00:20:27.940

saying to these two women want, your husbands are involved in slavery and that's against what I think of as religion. And then he said to these two women, I don't think that's the kind of religion

00:20:27.940 - 00:20:38.320

that gets people to heaven and he has to believe well, noah brooks of the sacramento Daily Union was sitting out in the hallway. He would have become Lincoln secretary in the second term. He said,

00:20:38.320 - 00:20:51.230

noah, come on in here. I want to write down what I said that these two women, I may want to use it someday. He did use it someday. Mhm. There's a semi colon

00:20:51.230 - 00:21:07.240

though. But let us judge, not that we be not judged Matthew seven verse five, Lincoln misunderstood As a person with no religion, misunderstood as a person who didn't formally join a church misunderstood as if

00:21:07.240 - 00:21:18.950

anything. An old testament person here invokes jesus sermon on the mount for this is the core of what he's saying. Instead of judgment, we're going to offer reconciliation, we're going to offer forgiveness. Where

00:21:18.950 - 00:21:32.530

is this? Found? This is found in jesus sermon on the mount. Let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered, that of neither has been answered

00:21:32.530 - 00:21:47.890

fully. And then this strong indicative. The Almighty has his own purposes. You and I, as we preach sermons, I think the sermon hasn't really changed that much in several centuries. I think what

00:21:47.890 - 00:22:00.410

the minister does sunday by sunday is first of all , offer an indicative, this is what God has done in the life teaching death and resurrection of jesus . And then there will come the imperative where and

00:22:00.410 - 00:22:12.510

therefore we might respond with this. What? By reconciliation, by forgiveness, by generosity. So the indicative of this address sent right in the center part of it, the architectural center is the almighty has

00:22:12.510 - 00:22:26.490

his own purposes, wow. And then Lincoln changes again, whoa! Under the world because of offenses for it must needs be the defense has come but woe to that man by whom the offense come with

00:22:26.500 - 00:22:42.320

Matthew 25 but his audience would have understood what, sadly our audience would not understand that he is now invoking a Jeremiah, He is now invoking the puritan preachers of the 2nd and 3rd and 4th generation who

00:22:42.320 - 00:22:55.770

told their audiences you have forgotten the faith of your grandparents, you have forgotten the faith of your parents , you have done. And the audience in new England's wave, what have we done, What have

00:22:55.770 - 00:23:10.670

we gone after? So the audience is wondering what is the problem and Lincoln says, if we shall suppose that american slavery is one of those offenses notice he doesn't say slavery. He says american slavery.

00:23:11.140 - 00:23:18.590

If I could go back one step, I wanted one thing to say and I failed to say it . So if you'll allow me to take a back step, I will. At the end of the

00:23:18.590 - 00:23:33.580

second paragraph where Lincoln says both parties deprecate ID war , but one of them would make war when I was speaking that day in colorado Springs, a Princeton University PhD professor in English said. But dr white

00:23:33.590 - 00:23:45.900

don't you understand that he actually is blaming the South ? It's quite clear that he is. Here's a point that I think those of us who wish to be AD ministry need to understand, oh, I

00:23:45.900 - 00:24:00.370

wish our politicians understood it, but they don't, it's extremely important to listen to what someone does not say does not say as opposed to something someone does say. So what would have been the effect on

00:24:00.370 - 00:24:14.960

the audience of Lincoln would have said? Both parties deprecating war. But those tyrants, those rebels, those tire it's the audience would have erupted in applause , but that's exactly the response Lincoln did not want

00:24:15.440 - 00:24:30.930

. And so very calmly quietly, he says generically . But one of them, sometimes we have to be careful when we push the send button or when we send something in a provocative way in a sermon

00:24:30.930 - 00:24:45.080

which we wish we could walk back from later. And so Lincoln understands this in the way he talks in measured tones in this address. If we should suppose that american slavery is one of those offenses which

00:24:45.080 - 00:24:57.660

in the providence of God. Okay, let me stop for a moment and say something about Lincoln's faith journey. He grew up in Kentucky and Indiana in what was then known as the 2nd Great Awakening.

00:24:59.340 - 00:25:12.740

His parents were members of a baptist church. No offense to any Baptists here this morning. It was extremely emotional and Lincoln really rebelled against this kind of emotion. As a nine year old boy, he

00:25:12.740 - 00:25:25.470

would stand out in front of the church after sunday morning and repeat literally word for word the minister's sermon in a very derisive way until his father hit him on the back side and sent him home. And

00:25:25.470 - 00:25:38.420

then Lincoln did what many of us have done or certainly the people in our congregations have done with their Children or grandchildren, Lincoln reacted strongly against that baptist tradition. He became a skeptic, he became a

00:25:38.420 - 00:25:51.460

fatalist, kind of a kissing cousin of deism. When he lived in New Salem, he actually wrote a paper criticizing Christianity and criticizing the bible. He was torn out of his hand and thrown in the

00:25:51.460 - 00:26:06.190

fireplace. It's not a smart thing to do for an aspiring politician to criticize Christianity, but Lincoln's on a faith journey like every one of us. And so after he marries mary Todd Lincoln and the first

00:26:06.190 - 00:26:18.130

boy is born Eddie that he dies at 3.5 and they go looking for the Episcopal Minister who has married them, but he's not there. And so there's a young presbyterian minister who's only been in town 11

00:26:18.130 - 00:26:30.930

months James smith. And they reach out to James smith and smith comes into their lives and ministers to them in this time of crisis, and this begins a change in Lincoln's life. Mary joins the presbyterian

00:26:30.930 - 00:26:41.530

church Lincoln, who is not a member. What we forget is when the church gets involved in a wrangle with a presbyterian, what else is new? The church asked Lincoln if he will be one of

00:26:41.530 - 00:26:55.260

the three lawyers representing the congregation before the presbyterian Lincoln , then comes to Washington. If you've seen the movie Lincoln, you remember that terrible scene when Willie dies, Willie's 11 years old. You don't want

00:26:55.260 - 00:27:07.210

to say this about any child. But the sun most like the father Mary will never recover from Willie's death, Lincoln is overcome with grief. But he asked Phineas Densmore girly to preach the funeral sermon.

00:27:07.640 - 00:27:21.080

Greeley is minister of the new york avenue Presbyterian Church . I argue that he's the missing person in the Lincoln story and I love to speak to seminaries because I'm so worried that ministers today, some of whom

00:27:21.080 - 00:27:30.770

drop out of the ministry do so because ministry today doesn't seem to have the kind of public cachet that it had 50 or 100 years ago and I want to say to people, ministers are so important,

00:27:32.640 - 00:27:45.650

people may never know your name. They may know the names of people in your congregation. Girly is the person behind Lincoln and Lincoln asked Girly for that sermon. At the end of the sermon, Girly

00:27:45.650 - 00:27:59.220

leans forward to a grieving abraham Lincoln, mary can't even attend the service and he says, I ask you to trust in Biblical providence, Biblical province, so watch the language of the Second Inaugural. This

00:27:59.220 - 00:28:11.000

is not fatalism. This is not deism, this is providence. What do we as christians believe? That providence is? It's the belief in a loving God with personality who enters into history. So Lincoln

00:28:11.000 - 00:28:25.350

says, which in the providence of God must needs come, but which having continued through his appointed time , he now wills to remove notice the activity of God and that he gives to both north and south

00:28:25.350 - 00:28:38.400

this terrible war as the wo due to those by whom the offense came. Shall we discern there in any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in the living God always ascribed to him? I have

00:28:38.400 - 00:28:52.100

been criticized by those who say when Lincoln says those which the believers in the living God always ascribed to him and they say, aha, this is not Lincoln talking, he's talking about other people. But

00:28:52.110 - 00:29:03.450

for Goodness Sakes, Lincoln wrote his autobiography in the 3rd person. This is the way he spoke, but for years and years, maybe you're smarter than I am. I didn't understand where does this phrase

00:29:03.450 - 00:29:15.360

? Divine attributes come from? Divine attributes? Divine attributes. Then I asked someone much smarter than I am. Don McKim who teaches reform and studies Reformed theology, said Ron, that's the Westminster confession of

00:29:15.360 - 00:29:30.740

faith. It's right there in Westminster, this is exactly what Lincoln would have been hearing from Phineas. Densmore, girly at new york. This is very sophisticated theological language. Friends. This is not tipping

00:29:30.740 - 00:29:42.560

his hat to religion. This is sophisticated language fondly . Do we hope fervently? Do we pray? Oh, how Lincoln loved alliteration fondly? Do we hope fervently? Do we pray that this mighty scourge

00:29:42.560 - 00:29:59.220

of war may speedily pass away? Yet if God wills That it continue until all the wealth piled by the Bond men's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk. You're sitting there on a cold windy day

00:29:59.220 - 00:30:11.230

and you've got to say 250 years old. He's saying right back to the beginning of this nation until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, slavery Shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.

00:30:11.240 - 00:30:26.430

$750,000 As was said 3000 years ago. And now he will quote psalm 19. So still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Now, the reporter for the

00:30:26.430 - 00:30:37.610

Times of London perked up his ears. Now we began to notice a stirring and that group of people who were at the back of the audience, they began to say something, and he struggled with his

00:30:37.610 - 00:30:48.220

screening of his ear to hear something. It was the african americans. They had never been to an inauguration before, but they were there for Lincoln, and what they said was bless the Lord! Bless

00:30:48.220 - 00:31:00.880

the Lord! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord ! The chant carried forward from the back to the front of the audience, Frederick douglass was in the audience that day. He had been terribly disappointed in

00:31:00.880 - 00:31:11.460

Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural, in which Lincoln said he would preserve the fugitive slave law, which meant that people could come to the north from the south and take a slave and go back to the south.

00:31:11.470 - 00:31:22.350

But he had met Lincoln twice the first time. He turned in his card, knowing that you've often waited days to get in to see the President, United States in five minutes. The door open and

00:31:22.350 - 00:31:34.520

Abraham Lincoln stood up. He stood up, degree . Frederick Douglas Douglas told a gathering that next sunday in philadelphia. I know and I'm treated with respect . I may not agree with everything with Abraham Lincoln

00:31:34.620 - 00:31:49.500

, but I am treated with respect as a man by this person. Davis Frederick Douglass wrote in his diary that evening. This was not a state paper . It sounded like a sermon. Well, it

00:31:49.500 - 00:32:02.840

really was a state paper, but let me close with this in our preaching. We do. I think most of us offer in some form what I call the indicative, what God has done. I

00:32:02.840 - 00:32:15.480

don't know how it works in your congregation, depending on your particular style of minister. But often the minister at the end will then say, and therefore , my friends in the coming week. I suggest

00:32:15.480 - 00:32:31.310

that you live out what with reconciliation or forgiveness or generosity, whatever would be the response to the indicative . So, I believe that the final paragraph is Lincoln's imperative. It's his ethical imperative. It really

00:32:31.310 - 00:32:50.450

almost deserves to have an invoiced. Therefore, before it, I'm amazed by this Lincoln lived in a nation deeply divided friends. We live in a nation deeply divided. He dared to ask this nation to

00:32:50.460 - 00:33:01.150

forgive each other to enter into reconciliation. I am so appalled by much of the political debate that's going on. But those of us who bear the name of christ, is it possible that the levin that

00:33:01.150 - 00:33:15.440

we can be in the congregations where we are, can offer something of forgiveness, reconciliation, graciousness. We don't have to agree with each other's ideas, but we can treat each other with respect. So

00:33:15.440 - 00:33:24.150

, at the end of the day, the second inaugural is not saying, well, Lincoln can help us solve climate change. No, he can't. He's not going to advise us on what to do

00:33:24.150 - 00:33:38.240

in Syria or Ukraine. But as you think about this, he's offering us a spirit, an inclusive spirit of respect, humility. The Almighty has his own purposes and a way of relating to each other

00:33:38.400 - 00:33:52.460

. So may we close this morning by saying the final paragraph together. It needs to be understood as written in 1865, but in a strange, remarkable way, I think it still speaks to 2015.

00:33:52.940 - 00:34:07.740

Let's say it together. 18 I'm on the wrong page with malice toward none. With charity for all . With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right. Let us strive on to

00:34:07.740 - 00:34:22.230

finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and

00:34:22.230 - 00:34:45.800

a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Thank you. Thank you. Have a question answer . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dr White. That was a very timely word.

00:34:45.900 - 00:34:59.390

And we have time for some questions. Do we ? Good. I'll repeat what you say. If everybody can hear each other, your comments or your questions. Yes. When I was taking american history

00:34:59.400 - 00:35:15.750

as part of my undergraduate arts of correct at Missouri . Mhm. We had to write a paper that dealt with causation in the american civil war. There is a body of literature out there that focuses on

00:35:15.760 - 00:35:29.240

other issues. Sure, slaves Sure. Written by Sure. Very good historians. Would you talk to some of those additional issues for a minute or two ? The comment is that when he did his arts

00:35:29.240 - 00:35:40.190

work at the University of Missouri, there is a body of literature that talks about other causes. And of course if we get into the whole question of his story ah graffiti, there's been shifting moments of

00:35:40.200 - 00:35:52.620

story ah graffiti. So that for example, at the end of the 19th century, in the early 20th century, even what I was reading, this was all done really amazing way by a group of

00:35:52.620 - 00:36:07.630

southern historians who who recast the meaning of the civil war, diminish the role of slavery lifted up Reconstruction as a terrible, terrible epic in our history interestingly . And I'm gonna get your question, The Head

00:36:07.630 - 00:36:23.290

of the United States, the Park Service's just is initiating a whole, uh, initiative to go and re look at all of the sites of Reconstruction to rethink what, what really took place, What took

00:36:23.290 - 00:36:37.660

place in the massacre of Memphis? What took place in the riot at New Orleans? What took place in the riot at colfax? People were never prosecuted . But we're going to take a fresh look at

00:36:37.660 - 00:36:50.280

this and I'm convinced that we're going to have a few of Reconstruction we've never had before. So yes , there's various ways to interpret the causation of the civil war. Uh, certainly the war of northern

00:36:50.280 - 00:37:04.520

aggression would be one way to understand it. That here, abraham Lincoln attacks the south in his attack on Ford center could be another way to interpret would be the whole economic causation that there's a very real

00:37:04.520 - 00:37:16.320

imbalance between north and south. This would even get into the issue of tariffs. So there's a variety of ways of doing that. And, and I think that what I've been impressed with were I think

00:37:16.320 - 00:37:35.820

today on that first day of The day, Fort Sumpter, April 11, 20, a white historian from the University of South Carolina, simply said, read the secession documents who read the secession documents.

00:37:35.840 - 00:37:50.230

It is absolutely clear what the cause of the civil war is. One side has slavery, which no one could defend even at the time of the american constitution. Until the cotton gin came in and suddenly

00:37:50.230 - 00:38:01.650

we came up with political defenses of this. We came up with biblical defenses of this, but he said, read the secession documents. It will be very clear what they say, other comments or questions

00:38:05.520 - 00:38:16.500

. I'll make, let me just get someone else . I don't want to get other people involved. Yeah, please. I think I know why he refers to american slavery and not slavery. Yes,

00:38:16.870 - 00:38:29.530

I'd like to hear you. Okay, thank you . Thank you. She asked. She said, I think I know why appeals to american slavery and not slavery. When Lincoln came to the presidency,

00:38:30.290 - 00:38:44.680

there was a man in prison from getting mixed up Connecticut or massachusetts. He was a slave ship owner and he was convicted and the judge said, you will be hung to your debt. The man's wife

00:38:44.690 - 00:38:58.830

came to appeal to Lincoln twice with her tears, Lincoln left the sentence go forward. And the point of this is that many of the slave ships sailed out of Connecticut in massachusetts and Lincoln wanted it to

00:38:58.830 - 00:39:07.140

be very, very clear. He will not blame this out. At one point, he said, if I lived in the south, I would think as they do, I would act as they do

00:39:07.150 - 00:39:19.800

. I would have no idea how to get rid of slavery. So he really tried as best he could to enter into this this whole issue recently of should we take off the names of robert e lee

00:39:19.800 - 00:39:28.710

and Stonewall Jackson from all of our schools and monuments . Friend of mine wrote me an op ed. He wrote in a Knoxville paper saying, well, no, that's history. I said, well,

00:39:28.710 - 00:39:45.450

this is a little ammunition for you. After Stonewall Jackson's death, Lincoln wrote an op ed that next sunday in the Washington paper and praised Stonewall Jackson as a christian gentleman that he deeply admired. Quite amazing

00:39:45.320 - 00:40:00.750

question about Tommy Yes. One of the theological things that's going on, at least in southern President period during the years. Mhm. Leading up right now , more than ever is the development of the notion

00:40:00.750 - 00:40:27.650

, especially by Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes . Uh wonder you've been making some implicit and occasionally explicit connection between Political and Theological Universe of the 1860s . Now, I wonder if you make that theological

00:40:27.650 - 00:40:42.160

connect happens. Wonderful comment. Yes. James Henley thorne well, ah presents this view that the church is basically a spiritual institution And this, I think is even underneath the split of old school and new

00:40:42.160 - 00:40:52.950

school presbyterians in 1837, interestingly, Lincoln is a member of old school churches, both in Springfield and his first sunday when he, when he arrives in Washington, has offered a free pew at a new

00:40:52.950 - 00:41:04.230

school church and he turns it down and he attends the old school new york avenue. What happens is his Children. I think there's a better sunday school at the new sculpture. So that's where they go

00:41:04.240 - 00:41:15.980

. So, in one sense, Lincoln will say of girly, we're not quite sure that he said this, we have to be very careful of reminiscence . Girly don't preach politics. I get that every

00:41:15.990 - 00:41:29.060

day of the week, he preaches the gospel. So, in a certain sense, Lincoln is old school in terms of the church meddling, so to speak, in politics. But on the other hand

00:41:29.060 - 00:41:44.130

, I think now, the end of more than four years in a public political address, he wants to state this very clearly. So whether there's a contradiction there, I don't know that there is Lincoln

00:41:44.140 - 00:41:52.710

didn't want his minister to be talking politics, but now he is the President of the United States is going to talk politics and he's going to use religion in a certain sense, to buttress what he has

00:41:52.710 - 00:42:09.630

to say. This is worth a further conversation. Any other comments? We're gonna go too long here . Are we doing? Yes. Get the facts straight question. Right. This ideal when you to

00:42:09.640 - 00:42:30.410

teach you how to break the world over. Yeah . That you need Rogers blood they want. And he goes in both directions. And this is a true Well, your invocation. Mhm. You're talking

00:42:30.410 - 00:42:39.310

about the idea of blood and it's just an old idea or even a medieval idea that we need one kind of blood to pay for another kind of blood . Let me put it a little bit different cast

00:42:39.800 - 00:42:52.200

. I want to suggest that Lincoln is not a genius, but it is growing as you and I should be in our public speaking. This is light years ahead of the first inaugural address, in which

00:42:52.200 - 00:43:06.990

it's very lawyerly, very rational, very logic. Blood. This is much more evocative language. This slavery is not some abstract idea. It has to do with blood. To me. That's the import

00:43:06.990 - 00:43:20.920

of what he's saying here. People's blood has been spilled over this. Now. It is true that Lincoln will be assassinated or on good friday Dies the next Saturday morning at 7:22 and then preachers throughout the

00:43:20.920 - 00:43:36.680

land, we'll see Lincoln as offering a blood atonement in his own life for the life of the nation . But that's not here. That's that's later. Yeah, Yeah. Yes. These are it has

00:43:36.690 - 00:43:55.720

been slaves, terms of sit down guilt. They feel print for, you know, the blood that had been to share and there we have about Mhm . Does that play out socialized Now let's move on

00:43:57.200 - 00:44:16.770

. New free population. Mhm. Yes, served sort of as enemy and really To perpetuate what would be the 2nd case. Their margins alien. Uh , you need to work. Yeah, wonderful thoughtful

00:44:16.770 - 00:44:35.080

comment towards the end of the war, Lincoln is at city point with Grant and when he hears that Richmond is liberated, he decides to go to Richmond with his young son tad against all the instructions of

00:44:35.080 - 00:44:44.850

his military leaders who say there's snipers in Richmond, You don't want to go there. They try to go up the James River, which is mind. And by the time they get there, they're down

00:44:44.850 - 00:44:55.820

to a tiny rowboat with about nine sailors and Lincoln and Tad. And he arrives about six hours before the Union General thinks he's going to arrive. So this tall man gets out of the boat, he's

00:44:55.820 - 00:45:07.180

six ft four. Today, he'd be six ft nine. People were much smaller in the 19th century with the tall top hat and who recognizes him. But the african americans, they fall down before his

00:45:07.180 - 00:45:17.010

feet, They call him moses says, get I am not moses, but what we've also learned in recent years and are in the advent of social history . And this is very instructive and corrective. Is

00:45:17.010 - 00:45:32.360

that the whole idea that African americans liberated themselves that they deserve credit. It wasn't some white man who simply signed a piece of paper, but they took the courage to march towards those union lines and they

00:45:32.370 - 00:45:50.270

did it themselves. But in the revisionist and revisionism of the revisionism in which people have now tried to portray Lincoln is a racist. What is failing to be recognized is that African Americans for generations celebrated January

00:45:50.270 - 00:46:05.560

one is emancipation day that they would have a portrait of Abraham Lincoln in their home. Or they might have the famous Francis carpenter painting of Lincoln signing the emancipation proclamation. So they really felt that Lincoln was

00:46:05.570 - 00:46:19.070

there person who had helped them be free. It's a complex story and we need to appreciate all the parts of the courage of the African americans. And then sadly, and I'm just finishing this biography of

00:46:19.080 - 00:46:34.730

ulysses? S Grant uh then the very Republican party that had helped foster this spirit withdraws from the reconstruction , withdraws from supporting the freed people. And Neil's , he says Grant in a very dramatic chapter,

00:46:34.730 - 00:46:45.140

goes after the ku Klux Klan and says the central government must do this because the state government will not do it and the central government must do it in the name of the constitution. And now we are

00:46:45.140 - 00:46:59.960

in the midst of all of this voter suppression and here's a republican president. What the irony of this is who is going after voter suppression because grant won his first term only by the popular vote because 400,000

00:46:59.960 - 00:47:20.800

African Americans voted for this Republican leader By 18 80 . The total african american vote has shrunk To 50,000 throughout the entire south. That's voter suppression. And I believe we're encountering a similar kind of movement today

00:47:21.180 - 00:47:30.990

of voter suppression so that people entitled to vote will not be able to vote. That's why we need to know the story, not simply a Lincoln but of Grant. I've spoken long enough. You've been

00:47:30.990 - 00:48:24.400

very gracious. Thank you very much. I don't know what to say other than that was great. Thank you. Dr Weiss. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. You can get yeah. Uh this one