Obnoxious Bitch

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The Bible Tells Me So

Ran across this on one of the History Channel boards, and had to post it here as one of those examples of biblical justification for denying human rights to someone…

When the good Reverend Dr. Wilson was contacted requesting permission to publish his sermon, he replied:

AUGUSTA, January 8th, 1861.

Gentlemen:--I confess to an honest reluctance in allowing the publication of the sermon, a copy of which you politely request. It was not written with a view to wide circulation, nor was it prepared with exclusive reference to the present unhappy agitations of the popular mind. You are aware that it is the closing discourse of a series upon “Family Government,” intended for my own church, and for immediate effect at home. But, still, its discussion may be the means of doing a service to my slaveholding brethren throughout the State, by promoting intelligence upon a momentous subject of practical interest to them and the whole world. It is surely high time that the Bible view of slavery should be examined, and that we should begin to meet the infidel fanaticism of our infatuated enemies upon the elevated ground of a divine warrant for the institution we are resolved to cherish. My sermon is, therefore, placed at your disposal. (emphasis mine)

Joseph Wilson’s full sermon here: http://docsouth.unc.edu/wilson/wilson.html

I am sure that you will bear with me while I take another step in this great argument, and show how completely the Bible brings human slavery underneath the sanction of divine authority, upon other and stronger grounds. Indeed, my text compels me to take this course--for, if our domestic servitude be essentially different from that to which the Apostle’s exhortations refer, we do but beat the air with empty sounds when we endeavor to apply them to the masters and servants who compose the christian congregations of this section of our country. If Paul, or rather the great God, speaking by his inspired lips, meant to confine his evangelical teachings to a state of things wholly unlike that under which we live, then this portion of Scripture is to us a dead letter, and can have no influence upon our consciences or conduct. If we preach from it at all, therefore, it must be employed for the practical benefit of hearers now as much as when the Ephesian church opened their ears and hearts to its reception. And, in truth, in the suggestions of this very thought, there is a remote scriptural plea to be found for the divine sanction of slavery.

And further:

Does this great, beneficial, civilizing institution of slavery live beneath the light of His face, with no fault to be found with it upon the part of His infinite holiness, except when and wherein it may suffer abuse at the hands of the parties concerned? Surely the Bible is clear enough upon this point to satisfy the most sensitive conscience. Light cannot shine with greater brightness than does the doctrine of the sinlessness--nay, than does the doctrine of the righteousness--of an institution, which, besides being sustained and promoted by a long course of favorable providences, besides being recognized as a prime conservator of the civilization of the world, besides being one of the colored man’s foremost sources of blessing, is likewise directly sanctioned by both the utterance and silence of Scripture.

Well… that plan for controlling the darkies didn’t work out very well for the bible-thumpers of the 19th century; nor did their attempt to similarly keep the girls in their place in the 20th.  And they’re in for one hell of a fight in the 21st century, because most of us don’t give a flying fuck WHAT their buy-bull says about the homos… or anyone else for that matter.  It’s embarrassing enough to have to admit that such a large number of our adult citizens consider the myths of ancient goatherders to somehow be “true,” without allowing their fairy tales to hold any sort of sway or influence in public policy.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.—Voltaire