February 24, 1861 (Sunday)

Reflections on Sunday

Being Sunday, we look at several past articles over the last week on the Baptists and the American Civil War Site:   

"Southern white Christian ministers -- Baptists included -- provide ongoing theological cover for the institution of black slavery that the Confederacy is devoted to defending.  Adiel Sherwood, longtime and renowned Georgia Baptist minister and religious educator, tackles the subject of religious liberty as it relates to black slavery: 

'I cannot see sin in the institution itself, if the slaves are properly treated ... Show that the Bible condemns or censures the relation of master and slave, and my tongue is silent; but I am not to be driven from my position, impregnable as the everlasting hills, by fashion, fanaticism or ridicule....the slave enjoys soul liberty, a much higher privilege than mere bodily freedom...If I must have an enslaved body or mental vassalage, and a fettered conscience, give me the former, for it will soon to cease...thousands [of slaves] belong to the various religious persuasions and are traveling to the promised land, better off than the free in many lands...I regard abolitionists as the 2nd or 3rd edition of the Salem Witchcraft.' "

More from Georgia Baptist minister Adiel Sherwood as he defends the practice of African slavery:
"Nor would I own [a slave], yet I cannot see sin in the institution itself, if the slaves are properly treated.  Neither the Saviour nor the Apostles condemn the relation of Master and slave:  Paul teaches both their duty -- the former to treat the subordinate properly, and the latter to obey for conscience sake.  The lawgiver of the universe and the church shuts the gates of heaven against drunkards, adulterers, and other wicked classes, but never censures slaveholders.  Tens of thousands were in bondage in apostolic times, but if the relation were criminal, would the New Testament not condemn it?"

"While Baptists of the South have the luxury of discussing the fine points of faith and doctrine, while African Baptist slaves, viewed by whites as less than human, are denied the right to learn to read and study the Bible.  Lacking the input of enslaved Baptists, the voices within the Baptist newspapers in the South during the war reflect a racially-imbalanced Christianity that enthusiastically defends the Baptist faith against other denominations while offering scarce criticism of the proverbial elephant in the room -- the white supremacist culture of the South."

In rebuttal:   A Northern preacher lays out with scripture the basis for his anti-slavery position, contrary to the Southern church.     A sermon preached on "Does the Bible Sanction Slavery?" by Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge, Congregational Church in Norfolk, CT., Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection.         -----Hat tip to The American Interest--The Long Recall, February 24, 1861