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This religious leader believed passionately that Black Lives Matter, well before almost anybody else in the English-speaking world. And he identified evil as evil, even among his fellow Christian ministers.
Benjamin Lay, 1737
Benjamin Lay, 1737
These Christians lamented “systemic racism” avant la lettre:
“We have long beheld with sorrow the complicated evils produced by an unrighteous commerce which subjects many thousands of the human species to the deplorable State of Slavery.”
1783 Anti-Slavery Petition to Congress
“We have long beheld with sorrow the complicated evils produced by an unrighteous commerce which subjects many thousands of the human species to the deplorable State of Slavery.”
1783 Anti-Slavery Petition to Congress
Striving mightily against those who did not believe Africans carried the full Image of God, Christian artists entered the fray early to fight for Universal Human Dignity:
“Am I Not a Man and Not a Brother?”
Josiah Wedgwood, 1787
“Am I Not a Man and Not a Brother?”
Josiah Wedgwood, 1787
“Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic”
Wm Wilberforce, Speech to Parliament on Social Guilt, 1791
Wm Wilberforce, Speech to Parliament on Social Guilt, 1791
English Baptists also railed against human slavery. They warned Baptists in America to stop it. But America refused to repent.
Abraham Booth, “Commerce in the Human Species, and the Enslaving of Innocent Persons, Inimical to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ,” 1792
Abraham Booth, “Commerce in the Human Species, and the Enslaving of Innocent Persons, Inimical to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ,” 1792
May one claim to be orthodox in Theology if one is in gross error in Anthropology?
May one claim to worship the true God if one dominates, dehumanizes, and denigrates those who are made in the Image of God?
“Am I not a man and a brother?”
May one claim to worship the true God if one dominates, dehumanizes, and denigrates those who are made in the Image of God?
“Am I not a man and a brother?”
May we classify slavery advocates as defenders of biblical orthodoxy?
The Apostle Paul identified certain immoralities as “contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the gospel.” He then placed “slave traders” between “murderers” and “liars.” CSB
Farewell, Jonathan Edwards
The Apostle Paul identified certain immoralities as “contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the gospel.” He then placed “slave traders” between “murderers” and “liars.” CSB
Farewell, Jonathan Edwards
In 1731, he took “a receipt for a slave, ‘a Negro girle named Venus,’ whom this man of God was buying.”
In 1741, Edwards wrote privately of his doubts about slave trading but still defended slave ownership.
A slave child was part of his estate’s “quick stock” at his death.
In 1741, Edwards wrote privately of his doubts about slave trading but still defended slave ownership.
A slave child was part of his estate’s “quick stock” at his death.
Why rehearse these things?
“Those bleeding children of sorrow.”
“To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.”
Frederick Douglass
“Those bleeding children of sorrow.”
“To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.”
Frederick Douglass
“Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion! Be gentle towards men. And see that you invariably do unto every one, as you would he should do unto you.”
John Wesley, “Thoughts upon Slavery,” 1778
John Wesley, “Thoughts upon Slavery,” 1778
By “Farewell,” please know I do not mean “Cancel.” It is my way of speaking, perhaps too provocatively, to my profound disappointment when finding major theologians like Edwards (or Yoder or Barth or Augustine, etc) made horrible errors. Read them! Take the good! Reject the evil!
