Rev. Lumpkin

[Gaffney, Edward]

Thanks for this thought about the masters' intent of fostering
submissiveness in the slaves.  Gene Genovese and others have shown that in
the more complicated  experience of the slaves, Christianity unleashed a
powerful rhetoric of liberation that shows up, for example,  in the sermons
and slave songs appropriating the exodus as a paradigm of hope for release
from their own bondage under the peculiar institution.  And the Bible was
used by both sides of the abolitionist debate.  I give some examples of this
in an article in Tulane L. Rev. in 1990.   Cheers, Ed Gaffney
 ----------
From: Robert O'Brien
To: Multiple recipients of list RELIGIONLAW
Subject: Re: Rev. Lumpkin
Date: Wednesday, December 03, 1997 5:07PM

 George Dent offered:
> But Christian doctrine has always opposed racial discrimination (e.g.,
the
> Parable
> of the Good Samaritan), so the challenge there was to bring practice into
line
> with doctrine.

I do not know how you got this idea.  Southerners struggled with the issue
of whether to allow slaves to be Christianized.  The decision to allow
slaves to be baptized was made because Christianity taught submissiveness.
For decades Christianity was part of the foundation of the peculiar
institution.

Robert O'Brien                        West Virginia Wesleyan College
obrien at .wvwc.edu