Hate crimes and gravestones. (From The Argus)
Get involved: Send your news, views, pictures and video by texting SUPIC to 80360 or email us.
Hate crimes and gravestones.
9:19am Thursday 27th October 2011 in Blogs
Outside the village pub beer garden in Dragons Green, near Horsham, there is a tombstone "In loving memory of Walter… the “albino” son of Albert and Charlotte Budd.” Walter was born in February 12th 1867 and died February 18th 1893, just 6 days after his 26th birthday.
He had been subjected for many years to much unkindness by the locals due to this white hair, pink eyes and and epileptic fits. It culminated in him being accused of a trivial theft. Though wholly innocent, as one writer put it: “The charge so prayed on his sensitive mind that he drowned himself. The parents voiced their grief and indignation at those whose tongues had been the cause of the tragedy.” His parents had the following inscribed on the stone: "May God forgive those who forgot their duty to him who was just and afflicted."
Walter was buried in the local church in Shipley but it seems that the vicar objected so much to the epithet that he would not allow that headstone to be erected with those words in lead at the foot of the stone. So Albert and Charlotte Budd, the landlords of the George & Dragon, put it outside their front garden instead on the road to Shipley as a constant reminder that God does forgive but will not forget.
It is not clear why the vicar objected: the Church in general frowns on suicide and tries to distance it from countenancing it in anyway. It may be also that many of the congregation had contributed to the culture of discrimination that caused Walter to feel so bereft that he drowned himself.
International Day Against Hate Crime is one way of reminding us that hate crime is wrong. As one local politian put it: “In Brighton & Hove we celebrate people being different. We must unite as a city to combat hate crime. The candlelit vigil at the Steine provides a moment for everyone to come together and shine a light on crime, illuminating the dark corners where hate festers."
Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here
Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here
Comments(3)
Almighty Sky Pixie
says...
1:21pm Sat 29 Oct 11
International day against hate crime sounds like a marvellous idea. Do they have one in every country?
From seeing the grave stone, it occurred to me that that, seeing as most hate crimes are caused and excused by one religion or another, we could really do with an 'international day against religion' - not just tackling hate crime...but tackling many causes of hate crime. I can't imagine aligning myself with any religion - all of them seem to have caused so much pain and suffering - I would be too ashamed. At least they mainly just burn candles these days. Though there do seem to be more witches about in Brighton as a consequence.
Some believe that hate crimes are caused by ignorance. Ignorance seems to be an essential component of being religiously devout. The vicar's objections, noted above, are hardly surprising - peddlers of nonsense require a large enough flock to which they can sell absolution each week. I would agree that the banned words would have been too much of a permanent declaration that most of his congregation were really self-interested inveterate scumbags. How little has changed.
I'm not entirely sure that the local politician's comments are compatible with some aspects of Islamic law or Catholic dogma - could he/she check that homosexuality has now been given the all clear? I've heard that gay people are still being stoned for being gay (sadly, I'm not talking about pot smoking). Could this be an internationally sanctioned hate crime?
Almighty Sky Pixie
says...
1:21pm Sat 29 Oct 11
International day against hate crime sounds like a marvellous idea. Do they have one in every country?
From seeing the grave stone, it occurred to me that that, seeing as most hate crimes are caused and excused by one religion or another, we could really do with an 'international day against religion' - not just tackling hate crime...but tackling many causes of hate crime. I can't imagine aligning myself with any religion - all of them seem to have caused so much pain and suffering - I would be too ashamed. At least they mainly just burn candles these days. Though there do seem to be more witches about in Brighton as a consequence.
Some believe that hate crimes are caused by ignorance. Ignorance seems to be an essential component of being religiously devout. The vicar's objections, noted above, are hardly surprising - peddlers of nonsense require a large enough flock to which they can sell absolution each week. I would agree that the banned words would have been too much of a permanent declaration that most of his congregation were really self-interested inveterate scumbags. How little has changed.
I'm not entirely sure that the local politician's comments are compatible with some aspects of Islamic law or Catholic dogma - could he/she check that homosexuality has now been given the all clear? I've heard that gay people are still being stoned for being gay (sadly, I'm not talking about pot smoking). Could this be an internationally sanctioned hate crime?
anubis says...
7:29pm Thu 27 Oct 11
That the church rejected the grave is hardly surprising if we remember the Christian church is but a partial relic of medieval theology. In the days of ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ (still readily available in bookshops) the writers cited Catholic fathers and Holy Scriptures justifying belief that the physical (and mental) imperfections of invalids were the ‘Devil’s handwork’. Satan’s demons and witches (incubi and succubi) furtively collect male semen, implanting them in the wombs of the chosen virgin females – so giving birth to ‘strange children’ (changelings); ‘creatures’ easily distinguishable by errant behaviours and/or physical imperfections. From this rationale, the crippled individual is ‘the Devil’s child’, not believed to be ‘truly human by birthright’. Many of these disabled were burned alive during the Inquisition.
Although the ‘Malleus’ was the handbook of the Inquisition, its contents were widely accepted by Christendom of the time. Martin Luther repeatedly affirmed deformed children were fathered by the Devil; killing them was not a sin. In 1540, Luther spoke of a 12-year old boy (at Dessau) who ‘did nothing but eat and excrete’ – and recommended he be suffocated “because I think he is simply a mass of flesh without a soul”. Elsewhere, Luther tells us, “in all grave illnesses the devil is present as the author and the cause … this is what God intended when He prohibited the blind, the lame, and those having any defect at all from ministering at the altar ….” When somebody asked whether monstrosities (e.g. looking like a mouse when it was born) ought to be baptised, he replied, “No, because I hold that they are only animal life”. ‘Have they no souls?’, he was asked. “I don’t know”, he replied, “I haven’t asked God about it.”
As T S Eliot put it so succinctly, “Christianity is always changing itself into something that can be believed” – hence with the increase of human knowledge related to the physiology of disablement, the overwhelming majority of present-day ‘Christians’ now reject 99% of ALL beliefs insisted upon by the medieval fathers. Hence, like you, when they look at this gravestone to which you have drawn our attention, they are stunned by the injustice and absurdity of the beliefs and practice of the priesr (or congregation) that rejected the poor boy’s corpse. I’m sure there is not a single Christian ‘believer’, belonging to any of the multitude of sects or congregations currently in service, whose current beliefs would not have guaranteed them a place at the stake, had they lived in those times, espousing their current theological beliefs!
I’m sure there is a lesson here for such people – my guess, however, is that in hoping they might consider this fact and draw a rational conclusions there-from …. is surely expecting too much of them !
A well chosen thread, Roy. Let's hope lots of us read it !!!!