I’m very disappointed that I have to write this particular post, and I’m a bit disappointed in the people who have made this post necessary. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess I retain a little optimism that people will show enough historical knowledge and intellectual honesty and humility to avoid saying stuff like this, but I guess not.
This isn’t something that bothers just me. I have talked about the issue with my wife, and with some friends, and we found this concerning, both because of its cavalier disregard of actual historical truth, and for its breathtaking arrogance.
So here it is (paraphrased):
“Christianity ended slavery, reduced violence against women, and as Christians lose their influence, our nation will go to hell.”
This is, simply put, bullcrap on a stick.
And I am embarrassed both for those who keep saying it and for those who nod along and say “amen.”
So, let me offer my rebuttal and my argument why we Christians need to stop saying stupid lies like this.
Saying “Christianity ended slavery” is like saying “Humans ended slavery.”
Both statements are true in the most technical of senses, but highly misleading, and therefore untruthful.
Yes, William Wilberforce (a hero in the truest sense) was a Christian. So was Abraham Lincoln.
But, so was Robert E. Lee and so was Jefferson Davis, and nearly everyone who owned, sold, and traded slaves.
The vast majority of those on both sides of the Civil War were Christians.
But it is more than that.
The arguments against the abolition of slavery were made by extremely devout Christians. The ones who took the Bible the most literally. And they accused the abolitionists of being a bunch of apostates, Unitarians, and atheists. (Certainly there were “free thinkers” as atheists were called back then on both sides as well.)
So sure, some Christians helped end slavery. And some Christians fought to the death to fight against the end of slavery. Some Christians enlisted the Bible as a source for abolitionist views. And some Christians used the Bible in support of slavery. (I don’t have room for a comprehensive list of these, but a bare minimum of research will turn up numerous primary sources.)
For example, this gem from Jefferson Davis:
"Slavery was established by the decree of Almighty God. It is sanctioned in the Bible, in both testaments, from Genesis to Revelation."
So, this wasn’t a “Christians versus Atheists” thing. It wasn’t Christians on one side against the atheists over slavery.
It was “Abolitionists versus Supporters of Slavery.” And we need to be honest about that.
Here is a great money quote from Abraham Lincoln, from his second inaugural address:
"Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
Devout Christian.
His troops slaughtered thousands to preserve the right of white men to own black men.
His chaplain, Robert Lewis Dabney, - also a devout Christian - would later write A Defense of Virginia, a book acknowledged in its time to be highly racist. It made an argument from the Bible for the inferiority of Africans and women to white men.