A lovely and thoughtful Comment of the Day by Sarah B. on the post, “Ethics Quiz: The National Cathedral’s New Windows”:

***

I look at these windows and I am disappointed. Our culture has moved away from what should be presented everywhere: the true, good, and beautiful. Let us put these windows to the test.

Are these windows depicting what is true? Yes, things like this have happened. No one can argue on this. Are they depicting what is good? This is harder. The windows have the intent of being understood in several ways, some of them, NOT good. Finally beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that is true, but no one seriously thinks that the rose windows in Notre Dame are ugly. I certainly do no see much beauty in these windows. The signs are jarring and take up most of the space on the windows. The emphasis, therefore, is on signs and messages, not on beautiful pictures.

In addition, I look at this from the Catholic standpoint of stained glass typically showing multiple scenes of import or people to be admired. From that standpoint, I can come up with many better pictures for an attempt at a mostly apolitical set of windows. If one wants to tell the history of slavery even, I have some great ideas. I think our history has more important matters than that, but I’ll give the slavery a shot first. Of course, all of these will have to be simplified for the material of stained glass, but we have had Jesus feeding the multitudes on stained glass for centuries, not to mention all the other Bible stories. A true student of stained glass can simplify anything and do so meaningfully.

For a history of slavery, we could easily have the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A pious looking slave being ministered to by angels would be a great next window, declaring that the evils of slavery cry to heaven. (Remember here that Christians have plenty of stained glass windows that depict Jesus on Good Friday in many of the stages of the Cross, so people should understand that we don’t always have to think that everything seen is good, like beating a man innocent of crime.) Another good picture could be Harriet Tubman standing beside the opening to a tunnel. Lincoln at Gettysburg, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King are other great options.

If we really wanted to be apolitical, we could have other great pictures that have little political meaning. Signing the Declaration of Independence might still be political for some (some find everything political), but is a good start. Betsy Ross, sewing a flag, could be a way to have women on the board. I really like the idea of Rosa Parks (black and a woman, cool!). The first man on the moon is another great one. We could have a Chinese immigrant working on the Transcontinental Railroad, a picture of Chief Washakie, or even just the Statue of Liberty.

There are so many ways we could show our amazing melting pot of society. Sure, we have come from harder times, but we don’t have to emphasize them in a cathedral, or if we do, we should do so beautifully, with more windows showing the good than the bad. This seems to focus on a message of division, not of unification, and even the story of slavery is a message of unification, when told properly. That would be true, good, and beautiful.