For So. B's: How do you defend a church founded on slavery and racism?

Question

So. B's (Southern Baptists) formed the Southern Baptist church in 1845 to defend the antebellum practices of slavery and racism. It wasn't until 1995 that they renounced their racist roots.

So how do you defend the existence of such a church?

Sources:
Horace Greeley's "The American Conflict: Volume I"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_baptist#Birth_pains

re: sources
I used wikipedia because Horace Greeley's book was published in 1867 (a retrospective of the Civil War and its roots). The cause Wikipedia provides is well-founded in historical documents.

Poetic1:
"...no similar [abolitionist] declaration has been made by any Southern Baptist State Convention since field-hands [experienced slaves] rose to $1,000 each, and black infants, at birth, were accounted worth $100. On the contrary, the Southern Baptists have for thirty years been among the foremost champions of slaveholding as righteous and Christian..." - Horace Greeley "The American Conflict, Vol. 1" - 1864.

Savannah River Baptist Association, 1835, regarding new marriages for slave husbands and slave wives who are separated by sale:
"such separation, among persons situated as our slaves are, is civilly a separation by death, and they believe that, in the sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages, in such cases would be to expose the parties...to church censure for acting in obedience to their masters..." - Ibid

Answer 1

The Southern Baptist denomination has no right to exist, but then again neither does any other denomination. Christ started on church founded on freedom, and no man has the right to start any other.

Answer 2

I'm not a baptist,, but I would assume that just because the church was wrong, doesn't necessarily mean that all So.B agree with what they did. I'm sure you will always have bad churches in the world, and preachers.. So if they still believe that, then I would say I have a problem with their church..

I think the promblem might be, that they don't understand what slavery was for the Israelites. Slavery was a place for people to come for security, and work. They were not abused, and were freed every 7th year if they desired. Most decided to stay, since they were like a family. Whenever Satan corupts something then it becomes a problem which he did.

Answer 3

hmm.. there sure are more predominately black Southern Baptist churches than white ones.. how do you explain that one?
did they miss the memo? did someone forget to tell them?

I have been a southern baptist my whole life (way before 1995) and this is the first time I have ever heard of this one. you would think I would have heard about this seeing as I'm not only a member of the church but also in the S.B. association.
this is not a true statment. and for the person that wrote that we killed non-believers and scientist and went on a witch hunt, your information is not correct, that was the Catholic church, they hung the heads of Baptist and other religions on the fence posts.. re-read your history book one more time, this time with your eyes open.

Answer 4

Well I am not a Southern Baptist, though when I lived in the South I attended Southern Baptist services and do not recall the minister standing before us in a white robe and hood. Nor was the cross on the altar ablaze. Indeed the minister was up there preaching "love thy neighbor" and such other principles as would seem to contradict your premise.

Still, let's look at that premise and see if it follows logically.

Slavery has existed in nearly every major culture at one time or another. Yet, those cultures contributed to the advance of civilization and human rights as they advanced systems of government, production to produce surplus in economies that allowed people more freedom of action, and so on. As a consequence of their advances, for example, neither you nor I have to hunt for or grow our own food, make our own clothes, fend off the next door neighbor who is bound by the laws of civilized society to respect our rights, etc.

This is all shorthand, but I am sure you will get the drift of it. We stand on the shoulders of giants and reach for the stars as a consequence of that which has come before us. Not all of it was pleasant, nor in keeping with our modern views. Nor will that which we now espouse seem so 100 years from now.

The Southern Baptist church does all sorts of noble acts these days, including mounting an enormous relief effort for the Hurricane Katrina victims, many of whom were poor blacks in New Orleans. Do they really need to defend the sins you attribute to their forefathers?

Some while back, when I was a young firebrand, I thought to myself that my family was driven from England under religious persecution, and I should be entitled to some sort of recompense. And then, it seemed to me to also follow, that when my ancestors were in England they had been subjugated by the Norman conquest, the Viking invasions and the Romans and there too I was deserving of some recompense. Going a little further back, it seemed to me that women also owed me something as their original forebear got me thrown out of Paradise owing to the seductive importunings of that snake in the Garden of Eden. And what about that snake? Well the snake lobby these days does not appear to have very deep pockets, but I suppose there must be some sort of Serpentology Society somewhere, and I thought perhaps while I was at all of this I might as well set my attorney to filing suit against them as well. While life is pretty good for me these days, what with all of the advancements made in the past half dozen or so millenia, it's still not quite Paradise, now is it? So damages there should be easy to prove.

But then, after some musings over these various follies, I came to the conclusion that how something came to pass may be instructive to its present nature, but hardly defining of it. Perhaps if you think about it a bit, you may arrive at the same conclusion or something like it.

Answer 5

No person/christian is perfect. I can add to your list of injustice "caused" by the church: the inquisition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition), the salem witch hunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_hunt) and many others. Some are modern day.

I believe that the main problem can be traced to the human race. Extremely prone to error, human pride, selfishness and the list goes on... Whether southern baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Budhist, Muslim, Jew or any other faith, one can probably name numerous gross injustices performed in the name of our/their God. All advocate goodness and purity.

Answer 6

Simple, have they done good things recently? Do they still espouse slavery? Georga used to allow slaves to be bought and sold, legally. Should we not defend the existence of the state of Georgia?

You could have answered this question yourself if had learned to think for yourself.

Addendum: People.., FYI, slavery is condoned in the Bible.

Answer 7

In Europe the church murdered thousands in gods name, scientists were burnt alive, yours is just another example showing the true face of churches and there followers doing work in supposed gods name, what a farce

Answer 8

It's not racist. You are just being politically correct and that's another one of the many ways the devil corrupts a person.

What they did in 1995 was a disgrace. They called God a liar and spat in his face!

Answer 9

How do you defend a nation founded on slavery and racism?
The Souther Baptists are a product of their environment.

Answer 10

if they have already renounced their roots, it is not necessary to defend their history.

Furthermore, I wouldn't rely on wikipedia as a primary source. I'm not saying the article is wrong, but Wikipedia at its roots is user-edited without oversight and thus is subject to errors.