Regarding the Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee University:

TS: The Lee Chapel has no Christian iconography. The only sculpture in the apse is Lee lying on the altar. When the Lost Cause is a civic religion, you need saints for that religion. Lee was revered in his lifetime, but he was a cruel enslaver. Why did he choose the Confederacy? Because of his undying belief in human enslavement. There were eight U.S. colonels from Virginia in 1861, and Lee is the one and only one who did not remain with the United States. I use the Lee Chapel as a way of getting at the Lee reverence. In the 1870s, Jubal Early and his people created the Lost Cause. By the early 20th century, President Taft and Theodore Roosevelt join in. The Lost Cause myth becomes a White American phenomenon. I grew up with the belief that the greatest gentleman of all was Robert E. Lee. That is just not the value that we should be teaching to U.S. Army soldiers. The only way to prevent a racist future is to first understand and acknowledge our racist past. We have got to be honest about who we are and who we’ve been if we want to make sure we aren’t this way going forward. Who we commemorate should represent today’s values.

-Retired Brig. General Ty Seidule