An Open Letter to Evangelical Christian Leaders;
It appears once again that changing times are forcing you to decide which side of history will you be on. If history is any guide, many Evangelical leaders and ministers will once again be on the wrong side of history.
Lets look back into history for major examples of where - at the time of the social change - the majority of Evangelical ministers stood.
Slavery
Southern Evangelicals ministers played a key role in defending slavery against people who argued it was morally wrong.
[What] was a characteristic of them all [Southern Evangelical religions] that they asserted, and that their communicants unquestionably believed, the voice of their minister to be literally the voice of God. (1)
Clergymen played a prominent role in defending slavery using the Bible. Ministers cited biblical examples of Christianity and slaves, quoted Old Testament approvals of slavery and interpreted passages from Genesis to mean that blacks were descendants of the sinner Ham and destine to be a slave forever. (2)
James Smylie, a prominent Presbyterian minister from Mississippi, owned 30 slaves, argued in 1836 that slavery was God’s will, to worry about slavery was to doubt God. To oppose it was heresy. (3)
My guess is most Evangelicals ministers today would agree with me that their counterparts of the 1800’s were on the wrong side of history.
Second Rise of the Ku Klux Klan Fueled by Evangelical Ministers
In 1918, WW1 came to an end. This resulted in the labor boom ending. Resentment against foreigners spiked. Klan enrollment, which had dropped by 1915 to under 100,000 rose to over four million by 1925.
Protestant ministers jumped on the Klan band wagon. As many as 40,000 ministers joined the Klan. In Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland and Georgia they became Grand Dragons of the entire state. Of the 39 Klokards (national lecturers) employed by the Klan, 26 were fundamentalist ministers. Support of the clergy was instrumental in Klan growth. (4)
Church visitations, the Klan came during the middle of a sermon, would come in full costume and award pastors some money. It was very popular with the pastors. (5)
The Klan was also anti-Jew and Catholic. Because Catholics were spread out more evenly than Jews, Catholics became the major thrust of Klan bigotry. Catholics had their own schools, Bibles, and not allowing inter marriage to a non Catholic. To The Klan, the Pope was as dangerous as the Kaiser. (6)
When the leader of the Klan - Stevenson, raped a woman who subsequently poisoned herself, he was convicted of second degree murder and the Evangelical ministers left the Klan quickly and membership plummeted.
My guess is most Evangelicals ministers today would agree with me that your counterparts in the 1920’s were on the wrong side of history.
Segregation
Many Evangelicals ministers throughout the country argued that segregation and the Jim Crow laws were based on the Bible and therefore were steadfastly against the changes moving to equal rights for black people.
On a sermon given on Easter Sunday in 1960, famous Evangelical Bob Jones argues segregation is based on God’s plan. From his sermon “Is Segregation Scriptural?” …
- “White folks and colored folks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not the purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race.” (7)
- “Every good, substantial, Bible-believing, intelligent, orthodox Christian can read the word of God and know that what is happening in the South [Civil Rights Movement] now is not of God.” (7)
- “If you are against segregation and against racial separating, then you are against God Almighty because He made racial separation in order to preserve the race [Jewish] through whom He could send the Messiah and through Him He could send the Bible. God is the author of segregation. God is the author of Jewish separation and Gentile separation. God made one blood all the nations, but he also drew the boundary lines between races.” (7)
My guess is most Evangelicals ministers today would agree with me that their counterparts of the 1950’s - 1960’s and Bob Jones were on the wrong side of history.
I could go on. Evangelical ministers were against giving black men the right to vote, giving women the right to vote, allowing women to wear pants, inter-racial marriage, non-segregated schools and supported white supremacy and lynching. I will be merciful and spare the details.
Gay marriage
Like slavery and segregation being OK in the Bible, Gay marriage was not. As a result, Evangelical ministers are a major part of the effort to continue discriminating against Gay people because “it is a sin in the Bible.”
Isn’t working on the Sabbath a major sin and one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible? When Moses asked God for guidance on what punishment he should melt out for a man found working on the Sabbath, God told Moses to stone him to death! (Numbers 15:32) (9) Why aren’t people working at Walmart Sundays taken out onto the parking lot to be stoned? It is in the Bible.
What human decides what part of the Bible should be forced on all people of all faiths and no faith and what part of the Bible are things people can ignore? Is it an Evangelical minister?
I have faith in Christians. It was not that long ago when Christians were burning people at the stake for proclaiming the earth was not the center of the universe. Now, reading the same Bible most Evangelical’s read, United Methodist Church leadership has proposed admitting gay ministers.
My advise all Evangelical congregation’s is live and let live. Do onto others as you would want them to do onto you. Doing this would put you on the right side of history!
History tells us - the question is not IF evangelical Christianity will accept gay marriage but when.
(1) W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South ( Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1941 ), 56
(2) Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood ( The Univ. of Georgia Press 2009 ), 4
(3) Edward Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told ( Basic Books, 2014 ), 211
(4) Wyn Craig Wade, The Fiery Cross ( Oxford University Press, 1997 ), 171
(5) Wyn Craig Wade, 176
(6) Wyn Craig Wade, 179
(7) Is Segregation Scriptural? Sermon given by Bob Jones on April 17, 1960
(8) Washington Post, Pastor refuses to mourn Orlando, Lindsey Bever, June 15, 2016
(9) The Apologetics Study Bible, Ted Cabal General Editor, Page 227