{"id":2174860,"date":"2024-02-13T07:34:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T12:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/christians-were-historys-true-anti-racists\/"},"modified":"2024-02-13T07:44:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T12:44:07","slug":"christians-were-historys-true-anti-racists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/christians-were-historys-true-anti-racists\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians: History&#8217;s genuine anti-racists"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchristians-were-historys-true-anti-racists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2174860&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Revising History: Uncovering the\u2063 Untold Stories<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In itself, there\u2019s actually nothing wrong with the idea \u200dof revising history to suit modern audiences. Too often, history is told from\u200d the perspective of the winners, silencing so many voices on the\u2063 margins. Thus, it follows that recovering these voices will give a fuller\u200c view of history, making it more inclusive \u2063and shared.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In practice, however, most historical\u200d revisionism does the opposite. Instead of adding perspectives and forging a \u200cshared\u200d identity,\u200b most revisionist historians \u2062reduce history to a narrative that caters to\u200d anti-Western intellectuals. This work inevitably involves a fair amount of exaggeration and fabrication. For unsuspecting students exposed to this pseudo-scholarship, they will know far less \u200dabout their history,\u2063 and what little\u2064 they do know will \u200dbe factually inaccurate and politically skewed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1992827416\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a9e40d3a1da257832a84a8685d11fbc8 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a9e40d3a1da257832a84a8685d11fbc8\"><\/div>\n<p>This is especially the case with the subject of slavery. Although slavery has touched all known civilizations in humanity\u2019s \u2064history, \u200cmost Americans today believe that this institution has only existed in the United States from 1619 to 1865. And despite Christians being at the forefront of the American abolitionist movement, many Americans are\u2062 often taught that most forms of\u2062 Christianity\u2063 condoned \u2064and legitimized slavery. This is\u2062 partly why slavery is called America\u2019s \u201coriginal sin\u201d as though it was a unique struggle for Americans failing to uphold freedom for its people, not a universal problem afflicting all nations in \u200dthe process of mass industrialization and liberalization.<\/p>\n<p>To set the record straight,\u200d Paul Kengor has\u200b written <a href=\"https:\/\/stpaulcenter.com\/product\/the-worst-of-indignities-the-catholic-church-on-slavery\/\"><em>The Worst of Indignities: The Catholic Church on \u2063Slavery<\/em><\/a>. Half of the \u200cbook examines \u2062the history of slavery for the past 2,000 years; the other half \u200cfunctions as a rebuttal to the historical revisionism that distorted so many people\u2019s understanding of slavery. In both regards, Kengor is not only successful at\u2062 debunking popular \u2063falsehoods about the church and slavery, \u2064but he also makes a strong case that Christianity was altogether necessary for ending slavery in the West.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inherent Dignity<\/h2>\n<p>Kengor begins his argument \u2064with the myth that no one, Christian or otherwise, really addressed the problem of slavery until the 19th \u2064century: \u201cI found countless statements from scholars insisting that the Catholic\u200d Church did not get around to recognizing the evils of slavery until the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-catholic-and-historically-black-colleges-were-denied-covid-relief-the-naacp-and-its-georgetown-legal-team-fought-to-make-that-happen\/\" title=\"These Catholic And Historically Black Colleges Were Denied COVID Relief. The NAACP And Its Georgetown Legal Team Fought To Make That Happen.\">late nineteenth century<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-the-left-fears-cats-quizzer-more-than-mein-kampf\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: The Left Fears \u201cCat\u2019s Quizzer\u201d More Than \u201cMein Kampf\u201d\">early twentieth century<\/a>.\u201d On the contrary, Kengor is able to cite the innumerable instances of church leadership issuing statements condemning the chattel slavery of European colonists as \u2064early as the 15th\u200c century along with statements condemning slavery in general from the \u2062sixth century.<\/p>\n<p>As Kengor explains, there was \u2062never a time when the church endorsed\u200b slavery because this goes against the very message of the Christian gospel. This began in pre-Christian times with God\u2019s\u200c commanding\u2062 the pharaoh through Moses to \u201cLet my people go!\u201d \u200bAfter this,\u2063 God continued to prescribe\u200b limits on slavery, setting Israel apart from its neighbors. These events in\u200d the Old Testament laid the groundwork for Jesus\u2019 work of freeing souls from\u2064 sin and death. In this \u2064way, slavery took on a spiritual dimension as well as a physical one. True, some \u201cPro-slavery Bible preachers cherry-picked verses, quoting them very selectively and twisting them to their perverse preferences,\u201d but\u2062 most Christian churches, particularly the Catholic Church, provided the requisite context of such verses to guard against such\u2062 interpretations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c178658b85a1a8f00579e8ef2ff968d0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c178658b85a1a8f00579e8ef2ff968d0\"><\/div>\n<p>In contrast to\u200d this, slavery was commonly\u2062 practiced in\u200b non-Christian \u200ccultures where the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ben-shapiros-guide-to-huckleberry-finn\/\" title=\"Ben Shapiro\u2019s Guide To Huckleberry Finn\">inherent dignity<\/a> \u200dand value of human life was not a given. Dispelling the notion that slavery was something Christians introduced to the places they\u2063 colonized, Kengor brings\u2064 up counterexamples from every continent.\u2064 Native\u200b Americans in the Americas engaged in slavery as well as human sacrifice. Ancient Chinese dynasties had slavery for millennia \u2014 the construction of the Great Wall alone took the lives of \u201cfour hundred thousand\u2064 to possibly more than a million\u201d slaves. And slavery was, and still is, prominent in many parts of\u200c Africa and the \u200dMuslim \u200bworld.<\/p>\n<p>Of course,\u2063 two wrongs don\u2019t make a right, and slavery in \u200cnon-Christian societies does not excuse slavery in Christian societies. \u2063Recognizing this, Kengor considers the most notorious groups of slaveowners in the popular imagination: the American Founding Fathers and the first Europeans to\u200d colonize the \u200dNew World.<\/p>\n<p>While most of the Founding Fathers were not Catholic,\u2063 all of them held the Christian view that\u2064 slavery was evil. \u200cThe most\u2064 proactive abolitionist among them was John Jay, the first governor\u200d of New York and one of the writers of the Federalist Papers. He was called \u201cAmerica\u2019s Wilberforce\u201d for his \u2063staunch advocacy and ending slavery in New York.\u200b Along with\u2063 Jay, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton were also vocal\u2064 critics of slavery.<\/p>\n<p>As\u2064 for Thomas\u2064 Jefferson and George\u200d Washington who did own slaves, they were well aware of their own hypocrisy. Kengor does not deny this but explains\u2062 that their circumstances forced them to choose between abolishing slavery or\u200d having\u2063 a country. While Washington freed \u200dhis slaves upon his death, Jefferson contributed to the abolitionist cause by establishing liberty as an inalienable right in the Declaration of \u2064Independence: \u2064\u201c[Jefferson] might \u200bbe a personal failure in the matter of slavery, but politically, even morally, his accomplishment of July\u200b 4, 1776 was monumental, whether he personally owned slaves or not.\u201d Both the abolitionists of the 19th\u2063 century and \u200dthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/civil-rights-attorneys-submit-letter-to-manhattan-da-claiming-nypd-fbi-conspired-in-malcolm-x-assassination\/\" title=\"Civil rights attorneys submit letter to Manhattan DA claiming NYPD, FBI conspired in Malcolm X assassination\">civil rights activists<\/a> \u2063of the 20th century\u2064 would build their case \u2064on Jefferson\u2019s famous words.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-81794e79026dbb45e2b993981002b82c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-81794e79026dbb45e2b993981002b82c\"><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, the biggest practitioners of slavery in the\u2062 Western Hemisphere, the Catholic kingdoms of Portugal and Spain, cannot make the \u2062same redeeming claims. Therefore, Kengor juxtaposes their abuses with the objections of the Catholic Church, which were early and often. Starting with Pope Eugene\u2019s papal bull <em>Sicut Dudum<\/em> in 1435, \u200cwhich denounced the trafficking of African slaves in the Canary Islands, popes and missionaries were \u2062constantly at odds with the imperial colonizers who had little to no \u200dregard for the indigenous people of South America or Africa. \u2063Evidently, the classic film \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091530\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\">The Mission<\/a>,\u201d which beautifully dramatized the conflict\u2064 between\u2063 Jesuit missionaries and Spanish conquistadors, was a regular occurrence \u200bin South American colonies.<\/p>\n<p>Kengor then couples the list of official statements from various bishops and popes with short\u200c accounts of major Catholic \u2063figures in the fight against slavery, many of whom were saints. \u2062Beginning with St. Onesimus in the \u2063first century A.D., \u200bhe highlights heroic Catholics who were themselves slaves, like St. Felicity and St. Patrick, or \u2063liberators\u2064 like\u200b St. John de\u2063 Matha and \u201cThe Ransomer\u201d St. Peter Nolasco. After this, he tells the stories of later Catholics like St. Peter \u200cClaver and Bl. Francisco de Paul\u200c Victor, who actively fought against chattel slavery happening in South America.<\/p>\n<p>It should be said that although these middle chapters detailing these texts and holy men provide strong support for Kengor\u2019s argument, they become tedious after a while. \u2064From a historical standpoint, Kengor\u2019s thoroughness effectively illustrates a consistent pattern \u200cof\u2062 church policy and smothers any opposing claims, but from a narrative standpoint, these subsections start feeling\u2063 repetitive. It would have been better if this information were condensed and \u2062the numerous relevant block quotes were included in an appendix.<\/p>\n<p>That said, if\u200d readers make \u200cit through these chapters, they are treated to the best part of \u2064the book, Kengor\u2019s biographies of three\u2063 former slaves in the 19th century: Ven. Pierre Toussaint, Ven. Augustus Tolton,\u200b and St. Josephine \u200cBakhita. In \u2064the stories of \u2064these \u200bthree individuals, one can finally see the liberating \u200dand empowering force of the Christian gospel working through households and communities.<\/p>\n<p>Toussaint was a Haitian slave who moved \u2064to New York City, made \u200ba small fortune becoming a \u200bhairdresser, and paid off his master \u2063and mistress\u2019s debts after he was free. Tolton was an\u2062 American slave from Missouri who eventually became the first black priest\u2062 in the United States. Bakhita was a slave in Sudan\u2064 who ended up moving to Italy and joining a religious order in Italy. Even \u200bthough all of them encountered racial discrimination, their faith and fellow Christians enabled them to rise above it.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Preserving the Narrative<\/h2>\n<p>Finally, Kengor concludes his argument with\u2063 a\u2062 discussion of modern slavery and today\u2019s racialist ideologies. According to \u200ca recent study, \u201c40.3 million people worldwide\u200d live \u2064in slavery today, and 89 million in total over the previous five years.\u201d As in previous centuries, \u2062the Catholic Church continues to lead the\u200c charge by speaking out against this injustice. Pope Francis continually raises this issue in his speeches and encyclicals while many other\u200d writers \u200dand \u2063journalists do the same.<\/p>\n<p>So why does this not receive more attention\u200c from today\u2019s self-identified anti-racists? Kengor suggests their Marxist commitments will not allow it. It\u2019s \u200dmore important to preserve the narrative of white oppressors exploiting nonwhite victims\u200d than to acknowledge the millions of souls who don\u2019t fit this \u200dnarrative. By \u200dthis point, Kengor has \u200bmore than proven just how hypocritical, ahistorical, and gravely immoral these people are to maintain this fiction at all costs.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Kengor\u2019s book is an important \u2064one that succeeds in its mission to correct the many mistakes of today\u2019s historical revisionists and make \u2062a persuasive case that converting to Catholicism (or at least adopting its wisdom and example) is the best way to combat \u2064slavery and racism. The history might be complex,\u2062 but the \u200dfacts \u2063are\u2063 clear: Christians were the true anti-racists.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-067e9a3dee8c90a557c3e26945593f94 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-067e9a3dee8c90a557c3e26945593f94\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How did \u200dthe experiences of Tolton and St. Josephine Bakhita \u2062challenge the \u200cnarrative that Christianity condoned slavery?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Debts. He\u2063 dedicated his life to\u200c helping the poor and oppressed, and his charity work earned\u2062 him the title of &#8220;the Saint \u200bof New York.&#8221; Tolton was born into slavery in Missouri and faced immense\u200d discrimination as he pursued his \u200ddream of \u200dbecoming a\u2062 Catholic priest. \u200dDespite the obstacles, \u200che persevered and became the first African American priest in the \u200cUnited States. St. Josephine Bakhita \u200bwas kidnapped as a child in Sudan and sold into slavery.\u2063 After enduring\u200b years of abuse, she eventually found freedom \u2064and converted to Christianity.\u200d She became a nun and dedicated\u200c her life to helping others who had been enslaved.<\/p>\n<p>These stories highlight the transformative power of Christianity and its\u2064 role in the abolitionist movement. Contrary to the\u200d revisionist \u2064narrative that portrays Christianity as condoning slavery, Kengor&#8217;s \u2063research shows that\u2064 the \u200cChristian faith has always been opposed to the subjugation of human beings.\u2063 From\u200d the early days of the Church to the modern era, Christians have been\u200d at the forefront of \u200dthe fight for freedom and human \u200bdignity.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, revising history to include marginalized voices and\u200c provide a \u200cmore inclusive\u2063 view of the past is a noble endeavor. \u200cHowever,\u2064 it is important\u2062 to ensure that \u2064this \u200brevisionism is based on accurate information and not influenced\u200c by political agendas. Paul\u200b Kengor&#8217;s book, &#8220;The Worst of\u2064 Indignities: The Catholic \u2064Church on\u2064 Slavery,&#8221; effectively\u2063 debunks the false narrative that Christianity supported \u2063slavery. Through thorough research and compelling stories, Kengor demonstrates\u2062 that the \u200cChristian faith has always condemned slavery and played a vital\u200b role in its abolition. By shedding \u200clight on the untold stories \u200bof Christian abolitionists\u2064 and \u2063former slaves, Kengor reveals \u200ba \u200dhistory that is both inspiring \u2063and empowering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Revising history for modern audiences, we can correct the bias of winners and include marginalized voices, creating a more inclusive and shared understanding of the past<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":2174861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Book-Cover-Featured-Image-3.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2174860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Book-Cover-Featured-Image-3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2174861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}