Historical amnesia can threaten freedom, Rev. Nicole P. Guns and others warned Thursday during an Emancipation Proclamation remembrance ceremony at Gary’s First Baptist Church.
The Interfaith Clergy Council of Gary & Vicinity held the service on Jan. 1, marking the anniversary of the effective date of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It took effect Jan. 1, 1863, freeing slaves in rebel states.
That proclamation was the start of bringing freedom, not the final product, Rev. Joy Heine, of Bethel Lutheran Church, said. “It took the war to end. It took the 13th Amendment, which didn’t even happen until a couple of years after the war.”
Heine and Guns warned that remembering history is vital to preserving freedom. “Any kind of history is being whitewashed like nobody’s business,” Heine said, with attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion and history being scrubbed by the Trump administration to downplay or erase contributions by minorities.
“It’s our time and year to tell the story,” Heine said.
Guns, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Gary, preached a sermon based on scripture that told of the Israelites repeatedly forgetting their history and having God’s protection removed from them.
“There’s something sacred about remembering the journey,” she said. “When we forget where we come from, there are consequences.”
“History is not always fairy tales and lullabies,” Guns warned. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery was the law in the rebellious states. Even with Lincoln’s executive order proclaiming freedom for the slaves, the practice continued until the war was completed.
But equality wasn’t automatic.
“Deliverance that does not lead to justice is not complete,” Guns said.
The cycle of oppression has continued. Slavery, Jim Crow, separate but equal, war on drugs, ICE and mid-decade redistricting are all signs of that oppression of minorities, she said. “It repeated itself. It just had another name.”
“Leadership changed, but the culture did not,” Guns said. “The people experienced freedom, but they never institutionalized justice.”
“Freedom without protection from abuse is backlash,” she said.
“We can’t allow people to whitewash our history,” Guns said.
“It is biblical to tell our story because it’s about what God did for us,” she said. “Give God the praise.”
Guns invoked the story of the Israelites not remembering their legacy.
“God told them to remember and to tell their story, so we’ve got to do the same,” she said. “This Emancipation Day is a holy day. It is a sacred day.”
Three things happen when a people forget their story, Guns said. “When we forget God, we are at risk of misdirected worship.”
“This generation had heard the story, but they had not inherited the testimony,” she said. “Forgetting God did not lead to freedom; it led to new forms of bondage.”
The Israelites drifted from God to other gods, “the gods who liked to put his name on buildings, who tore down historical buildings, these gods,” Guns said, implicating President Donald Trump without naming him.
“For some, your idol may be your success,” your wallet, your privilege, etc., Guns said. But that’s drifting away from God.
“This danger is not always about rebellion; it’s about a drift away,” she said. “They abandoned the source of their freedom.”
“We live in the days of misinformation and the rewriting of history,” Guns warned. “Whatever we serve begins to shape us, begins to redirect us.”
“We push Jesus as a mascot to push our political agenda,” corrupting what Jesus really stands for, she said.
“We are also at risk for moral vulnerability,” Guns said.
“The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel,” she said. “This is not God abandoning them, it’s God removing God’s protection.”
What once could not touch them now had access to them. “This is the danger of forgetting God.”
“Freedom without grounding leaves us exposed,” Guns warned. “You can be free in name but unprotected by systems. Freedom can be eroded from the outside and undermined from within.”
“Our missteps are repeated” when historical amnesia occurs, she said. “When freedom is not transformed, our oppression returns.”
“We’re in difficult times,” ICC President Rev. Shelley Fisher said. She denounced Christian nationalism, “where people say we are the pure race and this is our country and people are subservient to us.”
“We are the ones who are educating our children, our teenagers, even the adults of our history, the facts,” she said. “We need to resist with facts.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
