Our Old Sins

Westover Plantation still stands along the James River in Virginia. It was built by William Byrd in 1730.

My ancestor, Capt. Daniel Lewellen, lived across the river.

Mr. Byrd is famous for having kept a diary, one of our best sources for colonial life in Virginia.

I found one passage very interesting. Byrd said that after dinner one evening his wife and her sister were arguing over the inerrancy of scripture.

It’s an old argument.

My ancestor and Mr. Byrd went to the same church, also still standing.

And both owned—bought and sold—enslaved human beings.

Another ancestor, Jessee Lewellen, was a Baptist preacher. He started a church in North Carolina around 1830.

It is still there.

And although a preacher, Jessee owned three people.

As a biblical inerrantist, he could justify that sin.

One of his sons, Jessee Jr., just like Abraham in the Bible, had a child by a woman he owned.

Which leads us to Beverly, our black cousin in California. She is planning a big family reunion next summer in Mississippi.

Our black and white family–all together.

Except for cousin Sam.

He appeared on a family zoom call with a Confederate flag behind him and he used the “N-word.”

Like the old buildings in this narrative, the evil of racism still stands, with its sister sin of homophobia.

And if you are a biblical inerrantist like my ancestors, you can justify any sin you want.

But if you listen to Jesus above all, the old sins must go. His love is our hope.