tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post6738852618346471765..comments2024-03-28T10:44:30.518-06:00Comments on American Creation: Were Colonial American Slaves Christians?Brad Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-72577326120199585752008-06-18T11:00:00.000-06:002008-06-18T11:00:00.000-06:00Lori,I agree with you that pro-slavery Christianit...Lori,<BR/><BR/>I agree with you that pro-slavery Christianity was awful, but I think it is not quite right to call it a mockery of Christianity.<BR/><BR/>Obedience to temporal authority has been a very important part of Christianity over the centuries. Even if we don't recognize those structures of authority as valid today, it doesn't mean that they are un-Christian. The advice to serve God by obeying your master is advice that spiritual leaders have given to millions of slaves, women, apprentices, and children over the centuries. I haven't seen this particular catechism, but it sound like it isn't too different from John Cotton's "Spiritual Milk for Babes" (1646), which has similar exhortations, such as this exchange on the fifth commandment:<BR/><BR/>"Q: Who are meant by Father and mother?<BR/><BR/>A: All our superiours, whether in Family, School, Church, and Common-wealth.<BR/><BR/>Q: What is the honour due to them?<BR/><BR/>A: Reverence, Obedience, and (when I am able Recompense."<BR/><BR/>Proslavery Christianity seems horrifying and cruel to me and to many modern Christians, but proslavery Christians built their arguments on solid Biblical evidence — at least more solid than modern Christian arguments against gay marriage or drinking. I disagree with what they said, but I can't deny that they were genuine Christians. They used their faith as a political cudgel, but I can't see how that invalidates its sincerity or sets it apart from other manifestations of Christianity.<BR/><BR/>I'm not trying to defend proslavery Christianity or say that it was exactly the same as 17th-century Puritanism (though both systems of belief valued obedience to superiors). Rather, I am trying to say that historical versions of American Christianity may seem foreign to modern Christians, but I don't think that that means that they should be dismissed as false Christianities. If we go down the road of declaring people to be false Christians because they use Christianity in repugnant ways, we set ourselves up as the arbiters of true religion. That's not an historian's job.Caitlin GD Hopkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05317897772288904474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-63251259699887799942008-06-13T20:53:00.000-06:002008-06-13T20:53:00.000-06:00An excellent post! What a perfect way to introduc...An excellent post! What a perfect way to introduce yourself to the blog readers! I look forward to your future work.Brad Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-24931313002295573402008-06-13T15:02:00.000-06:002008-06-13T15:02:00.000-06:00I once ran across a "Slave Catechism" from the ear...I once ran across a "Slave Catechism" from the early 1800s, written especially for slaveholders to use with their enslaved people. It was so horrible; it mimicked a traditional catechism for children (Who is God? God is the creator of all things on earth and heaven. Did God make you? Yes. etc.), but it was skewed to not just entrench slavery but rip the very souls right out of the enslaved.<BR/><BR/>Questions like "How can I serve God?" were answered with "By serving my master without question." "Why did God make me?" "To faithfully serve my master all my days."<BR/><BR/>Even if enslaved people exposed to this version of Christianity from childhood accepted it, what they were learning was not real Christianity but a horrible mockery of it. So it is indeed hard to say that most enslaved people were Christians, since they were never really exposed to real Christianity but a political tool called Christianity.Lori Stokeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15564577844724131369noreply@blogger.com