Preaching that Confronts Confederate Monuments: Religion, Anti-Racism, and United States Politics

by David M. Stark

Overview

Confederate monuments preach-at times subtly, at other times overtly-about who we are, who God is, and how we should live together. David M. Stark looks at the way many Confederate monuments provided ongoing opportunities for commemorative speeches and ceremonies that would entrench racist and white supremacist ideologies in the American South.

Stark examines key speeches and proclamations given around monuments to the Lost Cause, such as Julian Carr's Silent Sam speech (1913), and Archer Anderson's speech at the dedication of a monument to Robert E. Lee (1890), reading these as theological and homiletic moments. Stark then moves on to construct a homiletic that can confront such monuments and the racist preaching ideologies around them.

In developing this counter-homiletic, Stark analyzes the preaching strategies written into Confederate monuments and highlights best practices from recent counter-proclamations that deconstruct the troubling rhetoric and theology of Confederate monument dedication speeches. Finally, Stark presents insights from naming commission reports and clergy interviews about the values, mission, and leadership needed to work for ongoing change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567719843
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/30/2025
Series:	T&T Clark Library of Homiletics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David M. Stark is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Co-director of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at the University of the South, USA.
David M. Stark is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Co-director of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at the University of the South, US.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
a. Confederate Monuments and the Church
b. Confederate Monuments within U.S. monumental culture
c. Preaching and Monuments
d. Preaching Monuments
2. Moving Mountains: De-centering the Presence and Preaching of Confederate Monuments
a. A Theological and Homiletical Reading of the Presence and Preaching of Confederate Monuments
b. Preaching that De-centers the Presence and Preaching of Confederate Monuments
c. Moving Mountains: Preaching as Collaboration with Monument Removal, Relocation, and Recontextualization
3. When the Stones Cry Out Perversely: Preaching that Confronts the Proclamation of Monuments to the Lost Cause
a. Orality, Monuments, and Meaning-Making
b. Rhetorical Analysis of Confederate Memorial Dedication Speeches and Resistance Speech
c. Preaching to Confront Monuments to the Lost Cause
4. When the Stones Cry Out Perversely: Preaching that Confronts the Proclamation of Monuments to the Lost Cause, Case Study 1: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
a. Julian Carr's Speech at the Dedication of Silent Sam, 1913
b. Contemporary Proclamation that Confronts Julian Carr's Silent Sam Speech
c. Preaching to Confront Monuments to the Lost Cause
5. When the Stones Cry Out Perversely: Preaching that Confronts the Proclamation of Monuments to the Lost Cause, Case Study 2: Richmond, Virginia
a. Archer Anderson's Speech at the dedication of the Monument to General Robert E. Lee, 1890
b. Contemporary Proclamation that Confronts Archer Anderson's Dedication Speech
c. Preaching to Confront Monuments to the Lost Cause
d. Homiletical Reflection: Preaching as Confrontation and Change Agent
6. Standing up to Nebuchadnezzar's Statues: What Naming Commissions Can Teach Preachers about Confronting White Supremacy
a. A brief history of Naming Commissions in the U.S.
b. Naming Commissions as Institutional Equivocation
c. Naming Commissions as a Way to Mark Institutional Change
d. Standing Up: Preaching toward Transformation
7. Preaching Stones, Living Monuments: A Conclusion
a. (Re)membering Space: Sewanee's Black Heritage Trail
b. Bringing Monuments Home: A Pilgrimage to the Memorial for Peace and Justice
c. (Re)Moving Mountains: Sermons Etched on Hand and Heart
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

David Stark wonderfully displays how preachers ought to think about and then preach to contemporary American racial realities in the light of the gospel. He confronts the history and present harm of Confederate monuments and shows us preachers how to help our listeners think like Christians about matters that many would rather left unsaid. A wonderful book not only on how to tell the truth about our past but also how to do this truth-telling from the pulpit.” —Will Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School, USA

“You can never look at any statue or memorial erected on our streets or in parks, or icons in a church the same way after reading this book. Using personal insight, historic dedication speeches, past and current sermons and speeches, experiences of naming commissions (to either remove statuary or build new ones), Stark will upset many who believe these graven images to whiteness are sacrosanct, and perhaps should not even be the subject of preaching. This book should be required reading for every seminarian, for every church dissecting their history as it relates to race, and anyone who truly wants a country where all are free to live into their God-given talents. This book is a blessing.” —Rev Dr Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Chaplain, Takoma Park Police Department, Maryland, USA

“What a timely and necessary volume! With theological depth and prophetic clarity, David M. Stark equips pastors and public theologians to engage in transformative, anti-racist proclamation that reshapes sacred spaces and reclaims community memory. Essential reading for all who seek to preach justice in contested places.” —The Rev. Sunggu A. Yang, Associate Professor of Theology & Christian Ministries, Department of Theology, George Fox University, USA

“David Stark holds careful, historical research alongside a grounded hope in God's Spirit to convict, redirect, and heal through gospel proclamation. It is rare to find a book as clear-eyed in its exegesis of embedded sin and as committed to the transformative value of engagement. Weaving primary documents, international examples, and performative analysis with a Christian commitment to reparative justice, Stark argues that preaching is necessary in confronting the "sermons" of white supremacy. For readers who doubt that racist mountains can move, Stark insists that preaching changes hearts and local landscapes alike. Preaching that Confronts Confederate Monuments is a bold affirmation of preaching's critical role in healing the nation's deepest wounds.” —Rev. Dr. Jerusha Matsen Neal, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School, Duke University, USA

“This book by David Stark underlines the relevancy and urgency of preaching today in particular in an era that calls for decolonization. Monuments play an important role in this regard, as symbols of power, often used against the vulnerable, living on the margins, without power. Preaching of the Gospel not only calls into remembrance what God has done, but also what we have done, in order not only to recover our past, but also to uncover where abuse took place. This book offers a remarkable, and timely uncovering in at least two regards: we cannot monumentalize the living God, and we cannot hide behind monuments against our trespasses against the vulnerable.

I highly recommend this book, not only for preachers, but to all who are interested in the strange, vulnerable power of the Gospel.” —Professor Johan Cilliers, Department of Practical Theology and Missiology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

“Many preachers want to know, “How do I engage in meaningful anti-racist and anti-colonial preaching?” Through careful historical work and incisive interdisciplinary analysis, Stark summons us into this work by interrogating the ways that Confederate monuments form social imagination and engage in their own proclamation, and by inviting us into the imaginative and liberative work of “homiletic confrontation” with these monuments. This book charts an important new path for homiletics.” —Richard W. Voelz, Union Presbyterian Seminary, USA

“Messages about power resound through our rhetorical landscapes, and David Stark reveals the ominous role monuments often play in this process. In this incisive book, Stark deftly probes the interplay between monuments and preaching, offering vital strategies for proclamation. This gripping volume is indispensable for traversing the complex historical dynamics that haunt the pulpit.” —Donyelle C. McCray, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School, USA

“In this courageous book, David Stark reveals that Confederate monuments preach. He names what they proclaim but teaches people how to counter-preach to resist their racist message. Although there are debates about the role and meaning of Confederate monuments in the United States, what is undebatable is the constructive-even hopeful-approach Stark takes by teaching how to live into anti-racist homiletical praxis. This book is homiletical truth, and this truth will set every reader free.” —Luke A. Powery, Duke Divinity School, USA

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