New Tourist Video at Lincoln Memorial to Highlight Historical Role of Whites, Men

A conservative group says that a videotape being shown to tourists at the Lincoln Memorial implies that President Lincoln would have supported a laundry list of radical causes. They're urging that the National Park Service edit out the offensive scenes of civil rights marches and replace them with less celebrated moments from American history.

Offensive images of Rev. Martin Luther King, homosexuals, women to be edited out

By Deanna Swift

WASHINGTON, DC—Until recently, visitors to the Lincoln Memorial were treated to a unique video presentation in the Legacy Room, a historical summary of the nations greatest civil rights moments: Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, and marches for women's rights, homosexual rights, and reproductive freedom. But a powerful conservative group, the Traditional Values Coalition, headed by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, is urging the National Park Service to press the "stop" button on the video.

Instead, TVC wants the Park Service to "show a more balanced presentation", one that highlights less celebrated moments of our nation's history. Renegade Christian filmmaker Jed Rausch has been brought in to consult on the project. He says that he's hoping to construct a filmic testament to the powerful role that ordinary people have played in shaping this country, not just the elites.

"There are so many moments that are just begging to brought into the light," said Rausch, by phone from his home in California. "There are the valiant men and women who led the great crusade for temperance. There are the brave missionaries who brought Christianity to the pagan slave population. What about the untold stories of heroic mothers like Betsy Ross and Mamie Eisenhower? These are the narratives and images that we think should be shared with visitors to the Lincoln Memorial," said the filmmaker. Rausch's credits include, among others, the 2000 sleeper hit "Something About Mary: The Immaculate Conception."

In an interview with Peter Jennings on ABC World News Tonight, Rev. Sheldon said that the current Park Service video represents not the values of Lincoln, but those of the Clinton administration, which he regards as actively pro-homosexual and pro-abortion. Traditionalists felt like "exiles in Siberia" during the Clinton years, Sheldon told Jennings. But under the current administration, they feel like they've "died and gone to heaven."

The National Park Service has agreed to modify the current video, but hasn't said yet whether it will consent to air Rausch's version of the nation's history. But Sheldon and his group have good reason to be hopeful. The Park Service recently moved to allow a creationist account of the origins of the Grand Canyon, dating it back to the Great Flood, after a Christian employee joined forces with traditionalist groups to demand that the park stop privileging science over other accounts of history.

On a cool November evening, though, there was little sign of the turmoil that has surrounded the Legacy Room and its video projector. A sole protestor kept up a lonely vigil outside the memorial, urging the Park Service to "tell the truth." "Just because Lincoln was the president who ended slavery doesn't mean that he supported civil rights," said the demonstrator, 39 year-old David O'Toole from Fairfax, VA. "We need a more balanced perspective to our nation's history."   

Deanna Swift can be reached at deannaswift1@yahoo.com

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