In World magazine, I chide University of Virginia student newspaper editors who urge removing public acknowledgment of their school’s slave owning founder Thomas Jefferson. Christians and other providentialists know that God uses sinners to advance His work. Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly quoted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence as America’s “promissory note” for equality and liberty.
Read here.
Comment by David on September 1, 2022 at 8:40 am
“God uses sinners to advance His work.”
Biblically, one cannot say that owning a slave is a “sin.” This is especially pointed out in Ephesians 6:5 where slaves are instructed to serve their masters as they would Christ. This was frequently quoted in opposition to abolitionists in the pre-Civil War era. Of course, people pick and choose which verses are agreeable to their thinking and ignore the rest.
Many of the Founding Fathers were involved with slavery either directly or in their business activities. This should be recognized. At least Franklin came to consider slavery a great evil and worked for its end late in life. People tend to be prisoners of the era in which they live. The future may look back at us with disgust.
Comment by David S. on September 1, 2022 at 10:59 am
“Of course, people pick and choose which verses are agreeable to their thinking and ignore the rest.”
Speaking of picking and choosing, as usual David, it seems that you pick and choose. A reading or Mr. Tooley’s article, makes it clear that he is dismissive of that fact by focusing on the inconsistencies of Mr. Jefferson and slavery. In fact. Mr. Tooley is practicing a more accurate historical analysis. That said, I do acknowledge that history may look back at us in disgust, but unfortunately, in the present era, I don’t think it is for the reasons that the current revolutionaries may think. (Not saying that you are one of the those for clarity’s sake.)
Nevertheless, regarding the revolutionaries, which is why I wanted to comment. Their actions really are not much different than certain of those on notably the Christian right these days (I see it most in Reformed circles, though it probably exists within the other Protestant Traditions as well), who have decided to start saying that Dr. King was not a Christian but merely a community activist or something along those lines. Their reasons usually start with his own moral failings regarding fidelity to his wife, which like that of Carl Barth must be acknowledged, but quickly move to those aspects of his views on race beyond basic civil rights matters rooted in Scripture, and especially socio-economic matters, particularly towards the end of his life when focusing on the poor, with which they disagree on seemingly more political than biblical grounds. At the same time, given how the revolutionaries, like the French immediately before and during the Terror, start to eat their own, I expect that it is only a matter of time before they start denouncing Dr. King for some contrived societal sin.
I, for one, would not judge Dr. King too harshly, as opposed to my views on those who claim to be his heirs but demonstrate they are not, as to whether or not he was one of Christ’s sheep, whereas the historical evidence indicates Mr. Jefferson, like Mr. Franklin, was not one of Christ’s sheep; however, that doesn’t mean that we should be dismissive of the whole man in any of these cases. Regarding Dr. King he had his flaws, like Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Franklin, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, and others up to the present, and should be judged accordingly. However, to the extent that he confessed and proclaimed a genuine faith in Christ, even as he increasingly felt the call to address certain societal wrongs and demonstrated certain moral failings, I will accept that he was Christ’s and leave the other matters ultimately to God, while acknowledging any areas of failing and disagreement. (And to be clear, his self-proclaimed heirs that I refer to are those, who claim Christ, but have no problem with tolerating those who promote all sorts of modern day heresies, which the Apostles and Church Fathers already dealt with, as long as one holds to the “correct” socio-political views, or even proclaim them themselves, .)
Unfortunately (and Mr. Tooley is not the first to allude or explicitly state this), the modern revolutionaries, including those who claim to come in Christ’s name but really don’t, like all revolutionaries before them, have no concept of grace and mercy. At best, they worship and proclaim a false Christ and a false gospel of salvation, while using Christian terminology that at best is merely a very thin veneer of the remaining vestiges of Christendom or cultural Christianity, whichever term you prefer. At worst, they flat out proclaim a false religion without even that veneer.