Six Reasons We Can't Change the Future Without Progressive Religion

[Deep13]

74. Sorry, I assumed you knew the current state of the argument.

You cannot give credit to religion for something good unless you also acknowledge all the harm that it causes on the same matter. Otherwise you are not making an honest argument. Without Christian support first for slavery and then for segregation, there would have been no need for a Civil Rights movement. Claims that prominent Catholics, for instance, were instrumental in advancing science has to be weighed against the the overall suppression of scientific inquiry by the same church. You can't give religion credit on the one hand and ignore the damage it causes on the other and still make a valid, honest argument.

King himself expressed himself in religious terms, which became the lingua franca of the Civil Rights movement. Still, his message was purely humanitarian. There is nothing in Christian dogma that contradicts segregation. In fact, it openly condones slavery telling slaves to obey their masters and especially their Christian masters.