If American Christians are so moral and superior, Why did they condone slavery and segregation for so long?

Question

Why wasn't a morally righteous white Christian and his followers the leader for civil rights instead of people like MLK and his followers?

Too bad white America did the right thing on equality only after a gun was held to their head by the oppressed minority group.

And some whites are still kicking and screaming. Republicans mostly.

Kinda figured there would be a bunch of Christian apologists talking about how they were just as bad as other people.

Great moral defense!

And of course, no one is addressing segregation. Which occurred during my lifetime!

Answer 1

Because they were conservatives and conservatives don't know their history.

If you don't know your history, you are bound to repeat it.

Southern christian conservatives (like the Southern Baptists) used the Bible to support slavery. Sixty years later they did it again with their opposition to women's rights. And in the 60s again, in their opposition to civil rights. Read about Jerry Falwell, christian conservative, and his defense of segregation in the 60s.

And today they are doing it with gay marriage.

You'd think they learn from mistakes and be on the winning side of history for once.

Answer 2

I wouldn't generalise about American Christians. Many of them opposed the slave trade, including William Penn, a Quaker originally from Bristol, England, who emigrated to the New World to escape persecution for his beliefs.

Again, please don't generalise about 'white America'. Many white people, Christians and other denominations, supported MLK. The campaign against racism at the time could have had a white leader but MLK just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

White people who cling to outdated, racist ideas do so because they are afraid of change and they think they have something to lose. They are by no means representative of all white people, in the US or anywhere else.

Answer 3

That's right, keep revising history to your own liking. Eventually you might come up with somehing that makes some kind of sense.
Or maybe not. Did you know that it was Republicans who pushed that legislation forward, and Democrats who were screaming and kicking? Did you know that even today, some Dems are STILL members of the KKK?
I was there during the Watts Riots. Trust me, it wasn't the Blacks who were holding the guns that week!
And Christians aren't called to fix the world's problems. We are called to fix the problems in our OWN neighborhood. Eventually, that will include everywhere. But until then, if you have a problem, FIX IT YOURSELF and stop whining about not getting enough of a handout.

Answer 4

I'm an American Christian, and I don't think I'm morally superior to anyone. Way to generalize, buddy. Oh, and BTW, whites were not the only ones responsible for slavery. I don't see the whites kicking and screaming as much as the blacks. What happened in the past shaped who we are today, but people like you continue to propagate the victim mentality. You are what's wrong with America.

Answer 5

We could have expelled all of the former slaves from the country as had every other nation before us.

The Gun was against the head of those who sought their rights not those that finally gave them.

You seem to be a tad confused it was after all the republicans that saw to it that women got the vote and civil rights was passed.

The man who tried to filibuster civil right out of the picture is still in congress and still a democrat.

You are a hypocrite!

Answer 6

Slavery and the democrats.......


The democrats did not support Abe Lincoln, they called him a stupid warmonger, they did not want to go to war with the South, they wanted to keep the slaves in slavery because it was good for the economy.

As for the Civil Rights bill, it was blocked for a year by a democrat.

The bill was sent to the House of Representatives, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Emmanuel Celler. After a series of hearings on the bill, Celler's committee greatly strengthened the act, adding provisions to ban racial discrimination in employment. The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in November 1963, but was then referred to the Rules Committee, whose chairman, Howard W. Smith, indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely.

Howard W. Smith- democrat-Virginia.

You need a history lesson.

Answer 7

Obviously, being a Christian doesn't make you a moral person. But I daresay that no other religion guarantees that it's followers will be moral people. Recently I read a little about the Sikhs of northern India. They seem to be very moral as a group, but who knows what goes on in families behind closed doors?

Answer 8

EXCUSE ME...!!! Don't put everyone who's Christian and Republican in the same category and quit $itching about the Slavery. Those people are DEAD AND GONE, it's HISTORY, I'm a poor WHITE so GET OVER IT!! We OWE YOU NOTHING! Get an education, it's FREE to everyone who isn't too lazy to get off their dead behinds and get. Generations of people have sucked off the welfare systems of this country. I'm busting my behind trying to get ahead, so quit your complaining and go doing something about the life you seem to hate so much.

Start by reading the HISTORY of how Lincoln began emancipation and how Kennedy finished it and all the Amendments to the Constitution. Then come back here and complain.

Answer 9

True Christians were against slavery since the founding of the USA. Quakers wrote several letters to the legislate to abolish slavery. The Republican party under Lincoln preserved the Union and abolished slavery.

A well known southern Democrat stated "Segregation now and segregation forever" (G. Wallace). He was the governor of Alabama.

In the 70's, the racist Dems who were upset at the Civil rights movement and women's rights crossed over into the southern, republican party. Thus the birth of the neo-conservative movement. Reagan was their first champion.

His legacy of big government, huge deficit, high inflation and open borders negatively affect us till this very day.

Answer 10

Nobody ever claimed MORAL SUPERIORITY that I am aware of . The way things are going now, I AM ALL FOR SEGREGATION AGAIN !! Not as a racist, just seeing that there is TOO MUCH RACISM and segregation could solve that.....everyone having their own places, etc...
We have white supremacists, we have mexican supremists, muslim supremists, etc.....if everyone segregated, only supremists would be those that soared in their own races !! It is becoming racial, revolutionary,and civil and leading to wars.......
Permanently, I just dont see this working,,,and has it really ever ?

Answer 11

Justifications could be found for both in the Bible, and slavery and segregation were part of the economic system that profited the upper class.