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

[On the Road]

95. The OP Asked "What Religion Offers That Progressives Need to Make Our Movement Work"

and I referenced the civil rights movement. How does that require a discussion of "all the harm" religion causes?

OK, so Christianity is responsible for slavery, segregation, and bigotry. How it then also responsible for abolitionism in civil rights in the US and the UK? Rather than try to disentangle how the same belief system can be responsible for two polar opposites, perhaps it would be worth considering that it isn't the belief system itself but the the individuals and groups that are responsible regardless of what belief system they might profess.

Yes, there is a certain sense in which Christianity "openly condones slavery telling slaves to obey their masters." Here is the passage that claim is based on in its entirety. Paul is writing to Philemon, a slaveowner, on behalf of Onesimus, an escaped slave:

⁸ Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, ⁹ yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— ¹⁰ that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. ¹¹ Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

¹² I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. ¹³ I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. ¹⁴ But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. ¹⁵ Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— ¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

¹⁷ So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. ¹⁸ If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.

Now, how did the early church apply that? There were a lot of upper-class adherents -- were they known for defending the institution of slavery? When European traders started enslaving people of other races over a thousand years later, did Philemon have anything whatsoever to do with it? No one is defending the European monarchs or the East India Company -- they acted like their counterparts on any other continent.

Let me repeat -- and this is a warning -- if the progressive movement does not learn from the Christian qualities displayed in the abolition and civil rights movements, it is going to be condemned to futility.