My son is studying the Civil War in school, and it just led to a sad yet powerful discipleship moment I would like to share.

Son: Dad, would (his AA friend) have been a slave back then?

Me: Sadly, yes.

*processing pause*

Son: Dad, would we have owned slaves back then?...

...That's the real question, is it not? And how we answer it reflects our willingness to truly repent. What I want to say is no way. We would've known better, the one righteous exception. As Christians we would have stood against it. But that's simply not the truth...

...and my kids deserve the truth. I'm a pastor of an affluent southern Presbyterian church. Perhaps I would not have had the means to own slaves, but my church would have been full of slave owners. And I told him that. I told him how so many Christians failed Jesus, but also...

...that same Jesus was the one who sustained the slaves and lit the fire of their abolition. Friends, it's important how we speak of history. Don't hide. Don't whitewash. Tell the truth, knowing that after the truth disturbs us, it shall set us (and those harmed) free.