Slavery and Christian America

 It’s 2020, so all things are extreme and insane, making this year extremely insane. 

One of the raging debates in the streets, around the virtual water cooler, and overwhelming the conversations in the community square, is the issue of slavery and how it relates to our modern context. The debate is centered around the lie that America was founded by racist men who implemented slavery as a means to build individual and national prosperity. The lie continues that this foundation created “systemic racism,” which now permeates all of life and the subconscious bias of white people. The phrase “America’s institutions were built on the backs of slaves” adds fuel to the fire, and creates the perception that white Americans are only prosperous because they abused black people. American expressions of Christianity (revealed in local churches) are even criticized as exhibits of this injustice, as some argue that the culturally or stylistically “white” expression of Christian faith is itself racist. 

A prominent Democrat politician was quoted earlier this week supporting his party’s platform as the moral authority which can finally right these alleged wrongs of our founding, by finally addressing what he called, our original sin of slavery. One party says America is racist, the other says that some individuals are racist and that cannot be blamed on all America. Last night, as the result of people drawn to extreme anger that stems from this “systemic racism” belief, there were riots in the streets in cities all over America, with the rioters calling on each other to “burn it all down,” because they didn’t get what they wanted; an injustice that would satisfy their hate-fueled demands for revenge. And so 2020 goes.

While this “race” debate is going on, I happen to also be reading through the words and work of our nation’s founding fathers. I will not claim to be an expert in early American history, but I am certainly a student of it, which means I actually read about it from the original point of view of those who were there. As my wife and I homeschool our children, we also happen to be studying the US Civil War at this same time, immersed in stories from people who lived it. 

While it is somehow controversial to say this, it is absolutely true to say, that the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and with it solidified American values, were staunchly anti-slavery. These men who were the chosen delegates selected to represent each of the thirteen colonies in a new Congress, were united in their view that all men are created equal by God, and that no man should own another. While slavery was common in their time of the late 1700s, they inherited it from the generation before. However, slavery was not part of the founding of the New Word (which birthed the Revolution), as Pilgrims traveling to America did not own slaves, nor did they have the wealth or opportunity to import slaves. Slavery came to America from England between the times of the Pilgrims (1607) and the Revolution (1775), and by the time the Declaration of Independence was written (1776), it was well established as a cultural norm. 

Never being satisfied with this, the struggle of slavery was a constant source of tension in early America, which culminated in the definition of the Republican Party which elected President Abraham Lincoln, who went to war with fellow Americans in 1861 to force an end to the debate, and who ended slavery in America with the Emancipation Proclimation (1862). Interestingly, the pro-slavery south argued that the anti-slavery north lacked the moral authority they claimed, because “free” factory workers of the north were often treated far worse than slaves in the plantations of the south. Regardless, the issue that could not be resolved in the Declaration of Independence, was resolved with the Civil War, yet it took more time to normalize society, to shake it from a culture that it inherited from all previous cultures that had existed to that point on Earth. 

It took roughly 170 years for slavery to be firmly established in America (before her founding), and 86 more years to legally end it, and another 100 years to achieve civil rights parity. Clearly, America has been fighting, from her core values, to achieve equality among all men since her founding and for over 200 years.

Yet somehow today, that history is forgotten. I have read recent headlines from pundits, quotes from politicians, summaries in a Chrisitian book, and words from fellow believers, all claiming that the founding of our nation was rooted in the evil establishment of slavery. Their criticisms hint that establishing slavery was a motivation of the founding fathers; a reflection of their racism. These critics call it our nation’s “original sin,” and our founding fathers are today “canceled” because they didn’t abolish it with the Declaration. People today, look back at the founders and argue, “well, they had slaves, so obviously they didn’t believe all men were equal, or they didn’t regard black people as humans, revealing their true racism.” Christians today even use these arguments to conclude that America’s founding was not “Christian,” and that we are therefore not a “Christian nation.” These are simply ignorant and quite frankly stupid conclusions to draw. But rather than debate what is quite obvious if you actually study those men and read their words, and examine their lives, I want to point something else out.

If we should today cancel America’s founding values and the culture they established, because the Founders didn’t abolish slavery, then we should cancel Jesus and the founding of Christianity, because neither He nor His Disciples nor His Apostles spoke against slavery, nor did they, as they established Christianity and the church, attempt to abolish slavery in the context of the church. In fact, they did the opposite.  

While giving instructions to help the early church understand how to operate in unity as a new family of God, Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesian church (chapter 6:5-8), 

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free.”

Paul followed this with instructions to slave owners, that they treat their slaves well, in fact, “in the same way” as he encouraged slaves to act.

Later, in the book of Philemon, we see Paul sending a runaway slave back to his master, with an appeal that the master accept the slave as a fellow brother in the Lord. 

“I am sending him - who is my very heart - back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.”

In Luke chapter 7, we see Jesus heal the servant of a Roman officer. The officer, being well respected in the Jewish community, even had leaders from the community appeal to Jesus on his behalf. After hearing the words and seeing the faith of the Roman officer, Jesus’ response is recorded as,

“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” 10 And when the officer’s friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.” 

Note that neither did Jesus, nor Paul, rebuke slave owners for the practice of slavery. 

There is no mention of an anti-slavery movement in the New Testament. Quite the opposite, as early Christians were encouraged to bring the gospel into their lives as slaves or slave owners, and to allow the gospel to redeem the context and culture itself. Paul used slavery as an analogy to illustrate our relationship with sin and Jesus; he called unbelievers slaves to sin, and himself a slave to Christ. Today, we look back at these words and accept the cultural norm that had established slavery and to a certain degree, we recognize that it was necessary in that place in history. We see that slave owners are encouraged to treat their slaves more like servants and brothers and sisters in Christ. Some Biblical scholars comment that this dynamic was more like permanent employment, and it was often instituted through personal debt. However, we see no attempt whatsoever from Jesus, Peter, Paul, or any other founding father of Christianity to end human slavery. They didn’t even rebuke it. 

If you read the work and words of the likes of John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others, you will see a strong parallel, in fact, a continuation of this New Testament Christian perspective on slavery. Adams rejected slavery as evil, period, but he was born and raised in a poor family that did not have the means nor necessity for slavery. Still, his wife, Abigail Adams, who was equally against slavery, did grow up with servants in her house. Jefferson owned many slaves which he inherited through his family’s wealth, but regarded them as servants for his house and laborers for his farm. Jefferson’s slaves were regarded by him as similar to today’s day laborers or migrant farmers, except back then there was no concept of daily work or seasonal migration. These slaves were totally dependent upon Jefferson, and he on them. George Washington’s closest friend and companion was also his slave, and he treated his slaves as servant members of his household, another employer/employee-like relationship, that clearly extended beyond that in many ways. In these ways, our founders followed a culture more like the NT church, than we do today, further solidifying their parallel with the founders of Christiantiy.

Our founding fathers originally sought to abolish slavery with the Declaration of Independence, and Thomas Jefferson had that explicitly written into his first draft. However, it was a point of debate (seemingly with 3 other delegates), which at the time did not rise above the surface of the urgent issue of pending war with England, and unified government among the colonies. The urgent issue, was declaring the colonies independent from England, and united together as one new nation. Instead of outright abolishing slavery, the founders established the legal and moral framework that would ensure an anti-slavery culture in America. They did this with the words, 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

This cultural truth and Biblically rooted understanding is the cornerstone of our political system in the United States; a “self-evident” and obvious given that requires no qualification or debate. The founders simply agreed. Some people today claim that if the founders said this, and still owned slaves, then that means they did not believe slaves qualified as men created by God. This is a profoundly ignorant perspective, that requires those holding this point of view to ignore the words and works of the founders. They were well aware of the evils of slavery. They were well aware of the evils of the importation of slaves and the dangerous journey that brought men from distant shores to America. Their eyes were wide open, and their hearts for equality among all humans, including people with dark skin who descended from African tribes. 

In fact, Abigail Adams pointed out that the members of Congress would be hypocrites if they claimed the liberty they were enumerating for America didn’t extend to slaves. They well understood this. 

However, I want to draw your attention back to the parallels between the founding fathers of Christianity, and the founding fathers of America. Both inherited slavery from the cultures and generations that preceded them. Interestingly, the writings in the New Testament do not contain nearly the anti-slavery commentary and passion that fills the writings of America’s founding fathers. However, in the New Testament, Christians are encouraged by Jesus and His Apostles to redeem slavery by applying the gospel to it. This is what the founding fathers of America did; they implemented this guidance in stark contrast to the generations that preceded America’s founding, by using it as the basis for their argument that established independence. They actually lived the words of Jesus and the Apostle Paul in this way. 

Living the words of Jesus, is to me the ultimate expression of the Christian life, as you cannot live Jesus’ commands, unless you accept Him as Lord. Our expressed life represents our spiritual act of worship, and we only worship what we believe is worthy of submitting to. In this way, I can confidently say that America’s founding was indeed a Christian expression, and ending slavery was and is an American core value. Slavery was not our nation's "original sin." Actually, our core values regarded slavery as a sin, and our founding fathers paved the way out; a journey that has taken over 200 years, but a fight that has always been truly American.