100 years before our declaration of independence from England, racism was alive and sick in the church in North America. In England, slavery of a Christian by another Christian was prohibited. In America, this caused a conflict for plantations which were dependent on slave labor. A slave-owning Christian, feared that if his slaves became Christians, he would lose his means of producing wealth.
In Virginia, the assembly addressed this issue by enacting a law stating “the conferring of baptism, does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom.” They even had the audacity to add “Masters, freed from this doubt, may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity…permitting baptism.”
From the beginning, there were church leaders who allowed and even promoted owning slaves using scripture to defend their positions. Then there was Bishop Stephen Elliot (1806-1866) of the Episcopal church in Georgia who used the rationale that, attempts to civilize and Christianize Western Africa had not been very successful, but through African slavery, millions have “learned their way to heaven”.
At least three different denominations split over the issue of slavery in America-the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Baptists. You had people on both sides thinking they were following God and attending church each Sunday. Being completely ignorant of this history growing up, I did not realize the origin of the Southern Baptist Convention which I always viewed in a positive light.
The most important evangelist of the Great Awakening in the 18th Century was George Whitefield. He drew crowds in the tens of thousands and in addition to telling the gospel, he also spoke out regarding the mistreatment of slaves by their masters in the South.
While he was against their mistreatment, he was not against slavery as he accepted slaves from some of his converts, and fought against Georgia’s ban of slavery until it was overturned. He started an orphanage in Georgia, but said that the only way to make it fiscally viable was to use slave labor.
Racism continued in the church during the Second Great Awakening. Charles Finney (1792-1875) was one of its leaders and is commonly referred to as the Father of Modern Revivalism. While he did push for social reforms such as abolition and education for African Americans, he did not believe they were equal and kept black worshippers in his church separate from whites. He also did not allow them to have the same membership rights such as voting, etc.
Then in the Civil War, you have devoted Christians who fought and died to preserve slavery. For those who maintain that the war was primarily over states rights, I would just ask the question–what state right was the focus at the time? Then, following the civil war, the KKK was founded by six former officers of the confederate army. It identified as a Christian organization and only allowed native-born, white protestants to join. In fact, many pastors (40,000 by some estimates) and parishoners were dedicated members of the KKK. Their cited principles were great–“to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal”. In fact, had they truly followed those principles, their mission would have been just the opposite of what it was in practice.
And this is not just ancient history as the picture above is from a church in Portland, OR in 1921.
Reviewing the work of the white churches, Frederick Douglass had this to say: “Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity…”
It is sad to me that the followers of the book that from cover to cover expresses concern and care for the poor and the powerless has not taken more of a leadership role in addressing such changes. But instead of crucifying the church in the past, I will ask myself, what am I doing to show true compassion to those groups. My wife is always a great reminder for me to not get so filled up with knowledge, it prevents me from getting up off the couch and doing something about it.
Hazy memory here, but IIRC, “race” was coined by Europeans during colonial times.
Certainly, bigotry and discrimination based on ethnicity existed from ages past, and exists today even among homogeneous groups since man is a sinner by nature and by choice. Man has always puts others down to elevate himself.
There is no “race”. There is one blood, one human species. There are multiple blood types, but all blood types are found in all ethnic groups worldwide.
Personally, I try to avoid using the word “race” because I think is a made-up and untrue concept, and because I think it is a word that tends to sanitize the sin of discrimination in spite of the uproar over “racism”. For example, I recently saw a post in which a black man referred to his “race”, thus condoning the concept of there being a difference between blacks and whites.
Thank you, Bruce, for engaging. The history of the word race is interesting. It is my understanding that from the beginning it was intended to identify groups of people based on their physical characteristics and perceived abilities and thereby concluding that some were superior to others.
I respect your efforts to not use the word racism and and agree that there is just one race–the human race.
But as so much discrimination is based solely on physical characteristics, I find it a useful word in that discussion. I have heard and often use the phrase “people who don’t look like you” which I view as being synonymous terms.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.