In 1963 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made the statement, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.” And because many Christians refused to discuss race, instead of things getting better, racial relations remain the same or even get worse.
Some would say racism is a problem of society and not the Church. However, it was the theology of the Church in the South that endorsed slavery, and at the end of slavery there were prominent theologians who wrote in support of strict segregation of the races.
Some will often use the excuse that the Bible endorses slavery. While I don’t feel that God endorses slavery, the Bible clearly states how one that is enslaved must be treated. Exodus 21:26-27 requires that a slave be set free if his or her treatment results in bodily harm.
Exodus 21:2 also sets a time limit of six years for slavery. The enslaved in the United States not only endured a great amount of physical and mental trauma, their bondage in most instances was for a lifetime.
Even though English Common Law prohibited the enslavement of people who had been baptized, in the September 1667 session of Virginia’s colonial government, the legislators enacted a law stating that the conferring of baptism does not alter the condition as to their condition of bondage…
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