An Abolitionist shouldn’t decorate a dollar (op-ed)
Decorating currency is an ancient practice, it began before Christ.
In the New Testament Christ is confronted by the Pharisees about whether or not it was lawful to pay the Roman tax. Christ asked whose face was on the coin.
They shouted Caesar’s.
Christ responded, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God’s.”
This quote is cited as a precursor to our separation of church and state, but Christ wasn’t establishing a precedent he was avoiding a trap.
If Christ said “Don’t pay the tax” the Romans would have charged him with sedition. If Christ said “Pay the tax,” he would have been discredited by those that rejected Roman rule.
But there was another matter.
Under Mosaic Law the Pharisees were required to pay a temple tax. But if they also paid a tax to the Emperor, a man-god, would that tribute violate their commandments? (Thou shall have no other god, graven images, and false idols)
Christ skillfully avoided the question, but the other matter remained along with the images on coins.
Later there was an empire that reached a “new world”. But there was a group of men that didn’t avoid questions they questioned authority. They proclaimed taxation without representation was tyranny. These men declared independence and established a system of government without a man-god at the helm.
These men, later dubbed the founding fathers, were also anti-royalist. When it came time for the young nation to create a currency George Washington, the first President, declined his image on the US coin, because only royalty took pride in images on currency. In fact, it was Julius Caesar’s audacity to put his face on coins that led to the rebellion that resulted in his assassination.
According to the US Department of the Treasury the paper currency use today was selected in 1928, but their records didn’t “suggest why certain Presidents and statesmen were chosen.”
I suggest George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have constitutionally prevented their images on money if they had the foresight.
During George Washington’s first term Vice President John Adams realized the constitution didn’t specify a formal manner to address the chief executive of the United States. The Vice President formed a committee to give Washington a dignified or royal title, but Washington settled for the simple title that remains today “Mr. President”.
Thomas Jefferson held many government positions. He was a Governor, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President, and President, but his tombstone reads he was the author of the American Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of Virginia University. In Jefferson’s own words, “Because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered.”
Now Harriet Tubman, a black woman abolitionist, is going to replace President Andrew Jackson, another man that would have hated his face on money because he preferred gold and silver to paper, on the twenty dollar bill.
So a woman who dedicated her life to freeing slaves, and slavery, a practice where human beings were exchanged for currency, is going to be honored as an abolitionist on the same currency that dehumanized the lives she led to freedom?
This is only honorable to those that know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/27/16
In the New Testament Christ is confronted by the Pharisees about whether or not it was lawful to pay the Roman tax. Christ asked whose face was on the coin.
They shouted Caesar’s.
Christ responded, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God’s.”
This quote is cited as a precursor to our separation of church and state, but Christ wasn’t establishing a precedent he was avoiding a trap.
If Christ said “Don’t pay the tax” the Romans would have charged him with sedition. If Christ said “Pay the tax,” he would have been discredited by those that rejected Roman rule.
But there was another matter.
Under Mosaic Law the Pharisees were required to pay a temple tax. But if they also paid a tax to the Emperor, a man-god, would that tribute violate their commandments? (Thou shall have no other god, graven images, and false idols)
Christ skillfully avoided the question, but the other matter remained along with the images on coins.
Later there was an empire that reached a “new world”. But there was a group of men that didn’t avoid questions they questioned authority. They proclaimed taxation without representation was tyranny. These men declared independence and established a system of government without a man-god at the helm.
These men, later dubbed the founding fathers, were also anti-royalist. When it came time for the young nation to create a currency George Washington, the first President, declined his image on the US coin, because only royalty took pride in images on currency. In fact, it was Julius Caesar’s audacity to put his face on coins that led to the rebellion that resulted in his assassination.
According to the US Department of the Treasury the paper currency use today was selected in 1928, but their records didn’t “suggest why certain Presidents and statesmen were chosen.”
I suggest George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have constitutionally prevented their images on money if they had the foresight.
During George Washington’s first term Vice President John Adams realized the constitution didn’t specify a formal manner to address the chief executive of the United States. The Vice President formed a committee to give Washington a dignified or royal title, but Washington settled for the simple title that remains today “Mr. President”.
Thomas Jefferson held many government positions. He was a Governor, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President, and President, but his tombstone reads he was the author of the American Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of Virginia University. In Jefferson’s own words, “Because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered.”
Now Harriet Tubman, a black woman abolitionist, is going to replace President Andrew Jackson, another man that would have hated his face on money because he preferred gold and silver to paper, on the twenty dollar bill.
So a woman who dedicated her life to freeing slaves, and slavery, a practice where human beings were exchanged for currency, is going to be honored as an abolitionist on the same currency that dehumanized the lives she led to freedom?
This is only honorable to those that know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/27/16
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