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SLAVERY: A VIOLATION OF GOD'S LAW (PART 1)
When Abraham Lincoln assumed office in 1861, he faced a Herculean task—a divided nation! A few months before his inauguration, seven Southern states had repealed its ratification of the Constitution. As any President would, Lincoln tried to reassure the Union that he would not “interfere with slavery where it already existed” (The Baptist, Anne Devereaux Jordan and J. M. Stifle, Hippocrene Books). However, while unity was the desired goal, he stressed to the states that had seceded that he would not tolerate any violent acts against the United States (Baptists). Unfortunately, the hatred of Lincoln only added fuel to the greater hatred held by Whites against Blacks. The stage now set, the fire kindled and now nothing less than a Divine act of God could prevent the impending civil war. All wars are terrible, undesirable and costly in blood and suffering. But civil wars by far are the worse kind because it divides families, friends and neighbors against one another. Cords holding societies together are wrenched from their foundation by civil wars. Even churches were not exempted as displayed by Baptists’ churches during this period. Baptist unity, already strained by divisions and schisms resulting from the Great Awakening did not need another controversy, especially one as hot as slavery. Yet, they like everyone else had no choice but to face this issue head on. The preoccupation with doctrinal issues and religious freedom had pushed slavery to the background. It was accepted and not seen as being immoral or wrong. Furthermore, many Baptists ignored the issue because they owned slaves. As a side note, Baptists in England were aggressively putting forth measures to abolish the slave trade in London and would succeed in doing so by the early nineteenth century (A History of the Baptist, Revised Edition, Robert G. Torbet, Judson Press). This is not to condemn all Baptists, since did show concern about the plight of slaves, but apparently lacked the courage and conviction to do anything about it, rationalizing it to be more of a civic “rather than a church issue” (Baptists). In retrospect and from a historical perspective, this writer believes the Great Awakening and resulting revivals prepared the minds and conscience of Christians for the Civil War. Because one thing it did was to prick the hearts of slaveholders and caused them to questioned the morality of the practice. This with the fact of many blacks choosing to join Baptist churches forced the issue to the point that by the end of the Revolutionary War, many Baptist churches were ready to take action. A resolution drawn up by Pastor John Leland expressed the seriousness of some Baptist abolitionists. It read in part that, “…slavery is a violent deprivation of rights of nature and inconsistent with a republican government, and therefore, recommend it to our brethren to make use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrid evil from the land…” (John Leland, A Biographical Sketch presented by Emerson Proctor). Leland’s committee made this resolution in 1789 and received just as much opposition as a previous denouncement made in 1787 by the Ketocton Association of Baptists in Virginia. They sternly denounced slavery “as a violation of God’s law” (Baptists). They further organized a committee to study ways of achieving emancipation. The combined efforts of Leland, Ketocton and other Baptist associations did not immediately bear fruit. Almost a decade would pass before the injustice, inhumanity and unrighteousness of slavery would prick minds and hearts to the point of further actions. As opposition against slavery increased, Baptists began to align themselves with the abolitionists. As the country began to grow, the first and most pressing issue for new states and territories was whether they should be free of slave states. The strongest advocate of freedom for slaves was the Baptist preacher and his pulpit. At the close of the eighteenth century churches had formed emancipation parties. In 1805, the Elkhorn Association of Baptists urged ministers to “refrain from meddling with slavery or any other political subject” (History of Baptists). However, thank God this advice went unheeded. Instead of refraining from further involvement, Kentucky Baptist churches came together and organized an Abolition Society of Baptist churches and ministers called the “Friends of Humanity Association” in 1807. Churches belonging to this association forbade slaveholders from becoming members. The other important fact about this association was its later involvement in the Underground Railroad (Baptist History). However, these seemingly positive steps by some Baptists resulted in a thirty-year schism among Kentucky Baptists (Baptist History). On the bright side, it also paved the way for a new and powerful voice for the abolition of slavery—the Black Abolitionist.
In Christ, Minister John Cobb
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