"Slavery itself...is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law...The purchaser [of the slave] should carefully examine whether the slave who is put up for sale has been justly or unjustly deprived of his liberty, and that the vendor should do nothing which might endanger the life, virtue, or Catholic faith of the slave." 9
The British outlawed slavery in 1833, followed by the US in 1865. Brazil was the last in the western hemisphere in 1888-an overwhelmingly catholic country.
D'Souza then goes on to claim that the slaves "went to" the bible for comfort. I don't know if he thinks that they had entire libraries at their disposal, particularly since it was illegal to teach slaves how to read in some states, but if they were allowed any book, it was the bible. Why? Because passages like these helped to propagate the slave trade and keep them relatively docile:
Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. (Matt. 24:45-46)
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. (Eph. 6:5-6)
Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:9-10)
Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. (1Pet. 2:18-29)
Kenneth Stamp wrote in The Peculiar Institution that:
...when southern clergy became ardent defenders of slavery, the master class could look upon organized religion as an ally ...the gospel, instead of becoming a mean of creating trouble and strive, was really the best instrument to preserve peace and good conduct among the negroes.
If anything, the bible caused the civil war. Outside of financial issues, the fact that both sides were using the same evidence to bolster their case made it impossible to negotiate.
Led by Mark Noll, a body of scholarship [29][30][29] has highlighted the fact that the American debate over slavery became a shooting war in part because the two sides reached diametrically opposite conclusions based on reading the same authoritative source of guidance on moral questions -- the King James Version of the Bible. After the American Revolution and the disestablishment of government-sponsored churches, the U.S. experienced a massive protestant revival -- the Second Great Awakening. Without centralized church authorities, American Protestantism was heavily reliant on the Bible, which was read in the standard 19th-century Reformed hermeneutic of "common sense," literal interpretation as if the Bible were speaking directly about the modern American situation instead of events that occurred in a much different context, millenia ago. [29] By the mid-1800's this form of religion and Bible interpretation had become a dominant strand in American religious, moral, and political discourse, almost serving as a de facto state religion. [29]
The problem that this caused for resolving the slavery question was that the Bible, interpreted under these assumptions, seemed to clearly suggest that slavery was Biblically justified:[29] (from wikipedia)
I certainly don't disagree that the basis of democracy is that all men are equal, but unfortunately, that didn't come to pass for African-Americans until the 1960's or for women until the 1920's, but D'Souza's assertion that the abolitionist movement was dominated by christians would only be a result of demographics. At that time, people were unlikely to identify themselves as atheists. Deists weren't uncommon, but even so, if 95% of your population is Christian or religious, then naturally any group would have more christians. The quote that he uses from Thomas Jefferson seems to be much more a deist's perspective than a biblical one as D'Souza claims.
To add insult to injury, as I'm sure that more than a few people did the face-slap while reading his article, D'Souza uses the primitive understanding of evolutionary science to falsely conflate atheism with eugenics and racism. He then claims that atheists today still harbor these feelings since they are intrinsic in his mind to acceptance of evolution.
Ultimately, D'Souza is doing nothing more than belated damage control for his belief of choice. In order to achieve that, he uses deception and rhetorical ploys. Apparently Dinesh hasn't discovered that repeating lies to a crowd of bobble-headed lemmings will make any of this rubbish less ridiculous. What I will do, given the fact that I am not an outright liar, is deny that christians were involved in the abolitionist movement. There were many. There were atheists and freethinkers as well. For him to pretend that it was all because of the Jesus worshippers, while the atheists "stood by and watched," is nothing short of blatant dishonesty. I honestly pity anybody who believes this load of drivel, and any newspaper that prints it should be relegated to the tabloid section.
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