Dwindling In Unbelief: Collision: Are Douglas Wilson's beliefs good for the world? Part 1

I came across a blog article attempting to systemize the "cultic" beliefs pf Doug Wilson. I like Doug Wilson and I have been blessed to hear some of his lectures and debates and I am quite impressed. The writer of this particular article is not impressed or happy in the slightest regrading what Dr. Wilson stands for. I'd like to respond to this writer because I want to affirm that about a great many things Wilson is correct. This first post will address the firestorm that has followed Wilson concerning his public words concerning slavery. However I think I need to start with a general observation. The reason I like him so much is the reason why his critics hate him: He's sold out on the Bible. He says it is true and right even if he doesn't like what it says. The article provides a link to a transcript of a booklet that Wilson co-wrote about slavery called Southern Slavery, As It Was. Most of my remarks for this post will come from this link.

Many attack Christianity and the Bible that point out that the Bible condones slavery whenever they find a Christian standing against abortion or the homosexual agenda. This is a smoke screen. In this booklet, Wilson co-wrote:

This points to the need for Christians to learn the biblical way of avoiding “problem texts.” This is the way of a priori submission. Christians must recognize that they are under the authority of God, and they may not develop their ideas of what is “right” and “fair” apart from the Word of God. And when the Bible is our only standard of right and wrong, problem texts disappear. This entire issue of slavery is a wonderful issue upon which to practice. Our humanistic and democratic culture regards slavery in itself as a monstrous evil, and it acts as though this were self-evidently true. The Bible permits Christians to own slaves, provided they are treated well. You are a Christian. Whom do you believe?

I believe the Bible. And as much as it pains me, I have to concede the possibility that a man in the mid 19th century could have been a Godly, born-again, Bible-believing Christian, just as much as I am, and yet held slaves. Wilson is right. For me to admit that is difficult because it was my ancestors who were slaves not his. I have a very much personal stake in the question. I like this article because it points out that the kind of slavery practiced in America cannot be equated with the slavery in the Greco-Roman world or of Ancient Israel. I totally agree with this.

I must however disagree with the attempt in Southern Slavery, As It Was to basically say that Southern Slavery was not as bad as the secularized modern media has portrayed it. I'm not naive nor biased. I do not think that every white male who owned slaves in the south beat, mutilated, raped, and mistreated their slaves. However, though publication does not try to pretend that none of my forebearers suffered, it does suggest that most of the horrors were exceptions and not the rule. Evidence provided for their view was that there was few revolts and uprisings, and the Slave Narratives recorded during the depression contains relatively few horrors of being a slave. Wilson takes these as reasons to think that things weren't really that bad. I have a few very good reasons to disagree.

At least for the people I am directly descended from I can say because of the oral history that has been passed down to me, that their lives were not comfortable nor very happy. For the women who had children by their masters, I can't say whether or not they were raped...at best it was "sexual harassment" by today's standards. Sexual Relationships where one person has that much power over another, where one could not possibly had felt safe enough to say "no", could ever be ethical. One of my great-great-great grandmothers was kept chained because she would not submit to being mistreated. She wasn't the only one.

Also further consider that some of those former slaves who recounted their lives as slaves could surely have been afraid to to tell everything that happened to them because they didn't know if some people (remember the Klu Klux Klan) would take offense and kill them or loved ones. They knew the government would do nothing to protect them. I mean it hadn't, why would it start? In addition that was a generation that didn't always talk about the past. It was almost as if (at least in my family) they didn't talk about the unpleasantness of their lives they could move past it.

The contention, that the black family was stronger during slavery than today might be a valid point. But it was strong despite slavery not because of it. People then were way more willing to live up to their responsibilities even when they didn't always feel like it. I think it was because they were really trying to follow God with all they knew how and believed that God would save them from slavery just like my father's great grandmother, Mary Lucas. I have not really tried to find out how many families were broken because people were sold away from each other. It happened to my great-great-grandparent. Mary thanked God that was able to get her husband back. Me too. MY great grandmother was born soon after that. So, yes, I have a personal stake in that.

American Slavery was based on skin-color racism. The slavery of Ancient Israel was not. Under the Biblical rules for slavery there were commandments for treating slaves as people and joint-heirs in the gifts of God! I'm willing to bet that Mary did not get that kind of treatment.

One last point. Wilson contended that the majority of slaves were content being slaves and that was why there were few uprising. I disagree. He mentions slave mentality but does not really explore what that does when applied to a single segment to a society for generations. My ancestors were stripped of the languages, culture, denied the right to an education, emasculating and humiliating men and women, and told that they were inferior. In effect they were told that God loved them less. Not all people fell for it but is has had devastating results, reverberating to this day. The Bible never said it was right to treat slaves in this way. If you want a good idea from a contemporary source on how they kept slaves in check read the Autobiography of Frederick Douglas and Willie Lynch's Speech On His Methods For Controlling Slaves which says:

Gentlemen:

I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you The Gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest and still oldest methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its old highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion.

I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hanging, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the field too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed, gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them.

In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling Black Slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed correctly, it will control the slaves for at least 300 years. My method is simple and members of your family and any Overseer can use it.

I have outlined a number of difference(s) among the slaves; and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and [they] will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences, think about them. On top of my list is "Age" but it is there only because it begins with an "A." The second is "Color" or "Shade," there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owner, whether the slaves live in the valley , on a hill, East, West, North, or South, have a fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action but before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy is stronger than adulation, respect and admiration.

The Black Slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generation for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.

Don't forget you must pitch the old black versus the young black and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slave vs. The light skin slave and the light skin slaves vs. The dark skin slaves. You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect and trust only us.

Gentlemen, these Kits are keys to control, use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. My plan is guaranteed and the good thing about this plan is that if used intensely for one year the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.

Thank you gentlemen.

In conclusion, I agree that a person can be a Christian and a slave holder. However Christian lives his life with the intention of pleasing God. And I just don't see how the American system of slavery pleased God. He used it alright for his ultimate purposes that are still unfolding for us today, but I doubt He had joy over the sorrows and plights of so many. I agree with my Great-Great-Grandmother, Mary, who saw the Civil War as God sovereignly and decisively freeing our people from servitude and judging America - North and South for sins. I know she saw it that way (though she didn't quite say it that way) based on what knowleged of he has been passed through my family.

Dwindling In Unbelief: Collision: Are Douglas Wilson's beliefs good for the world?