Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #slaveholderreligion
Most recents (10)
"This misuse of religion is, sadly, an American tradition. Colonists who cheated Native Americans out of land and forced enslaved Africans to build a new nation worshiped a God whose demand for justice troubled their conscience." - @RevDrBarber /1
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
One of the things I love most about the #PoorPeoplesCampaign is its willingness to appropriately and bluntly name the stark hypocrisy that has always been present in broad swaths of American religious life. /2
It's something media needs to do a much better job contextualizing in their reporting on evangelical support for Trump.
So many stories act as if this Christian hypocrisy is a new development, or that—by simply pointing out the contradiction—it will shame folks into changing. /3
So many stories act as if this Christian hypocrisy is a new development, or that—by simply pointing out the contradiction—it will shame folks into changing. /3
Those who claim Jesus didn’t have anything to say to Caesar not only dismiss 2000 Scriptures about justice, but also equate our government & its leaders w/ Rome. Really? I thought we were striving for democracy.
Some one said the church must care for the poor, not government. So you believe Social Security, Medicaid, roads, schools & gov regulation on price scalping are all socialism? When companies fail & are broke, why shouldn’t the church bail them out?
Jesus not only critiqued Caesar; he says all nations will be judged by how they treat the poor in Matthew 25.
To all the people, designated White by colonizing nations, who are becoming disillusion by your evangelical or Christian faith: When you walk away from Jesus you are not #woke. You are operating out of the white supremacy you say you abhor. 1/ #LiberatingEvangelicalism
When you walk away from Jesus and Christian faith to be “woke” you are walking away from a faith that sprang from brown, indigenous, colonized people. You’re walking away from faith born on the underside of empire in the context of oppressed peoples. 2/ #LiberatingEvangelicalism
You’re walking away from the faith of enslaved people who found such profound liberation in Jesus that they broke laws to gather together and worship in #trees! 3/
I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to name & unlearn the habits of #SlaveholderReligion that I inherited as a child of the SBC. I published a book about this earlier this year. So I’ve spent much of today reading closely the @SBTS report @AMBankstw is reporting here...
I expect @albertmohler will get some pushback from angry white nationalists for simply telling the truth about the seminary’s deep complicity in America’s systemic racism. But on the whole, this is the kind of lament that makes white Christians feel good about ourselves.
It confesses that the plantation economy relied on #SlaveholderReligion to justify human bondage, but doesn’t examine the ways that false teaching distorted the hermeneutic the seminary taught. In 72 pages, the report doesn’t mention a single black theologian. 
The Bible that was abridged to assuage the fears of slaveholders after the Haitian revolution has been in the news. There’s much more to this story. As faith-rooted abolitionists fought to end human bondage, #SlaveholderReligion built its own denominations in the 19th cen...
As Rev Robert Dabney of Richmond, VA confessed mid 19th century, pro-slavery advocates had to “push the Bible argument continually” to try to take the moral high ground from abolitionists.
The Union won the Civil War & officially abolished slavery w/ the 13th amendment, but #SlaveholderReligion won legitimacy by claiming the moral high ground in the crusade for Redemption.
#SlaveholderReligion today works much as it did in 19th cen. Here’s @terripearsons using the prophet Isaiah’s promise that righteous judges would be restored to Israel to ask Christians to vote for Republicans.
But she never notes what the prophet said was wrong w/ Israel’s judges: “Woe to unjust judges & to those who issue unfair laws, says the Lord, so that there is no justice for the poor, the widows, and orphans” (Is 10:1).
Advocacy groups that have opposed Trump’s judicial nominees are, fact, those that promote justice for immigrant children, poor people, & women.
So, about these Religious Right spokesmen who claim to speak for Christians every election. They seem bothered by Jesus & the Bible. Here’s Jerry Falwell, Jr., speaking to the @nytimes. “I don’t look to the teachings of Jesus for what my political beliefs should be.”
And here, bearing witness on @cnn, @tperkins says he is not, in fact, trying to hold onto the essence of Scripture. Instead, he’s trying to uphold the “rule of law”—but can’t think of a Bible verse to back that up.
For his part, @Franklin_Graham & the @BGEA decided to anoint Brett Kavanaugh as an evangelist in the line of his father. But, again, no Bible—he’s just defending his own good name w/ all the passion of a revivalist preacher.
Jesus was a refugee & did break the law. He was crucified as a felon under Roman law. Christian nationalists like @Paula_White are enabling injustice w/ biblical interpretations that echo #SlaveholderReligion. christianpost.com/news/paula-whi…
If we don’t help people name & condemn #SlaveholderReligion, they are left to believe this is the teaching of the church. Trump & the GOP have elevated Christian nationalism to a place where many confuse it w/ orthodox faith. ivpress.com/Media/Default/…
I’m prayerfully joining @liztheo, @holynerd & @wilsonhartgrove to challenge Trumpvangelicals to a public conversation about what the Bible really says. medium.com/brepairers/the…
AG Jeff Sessions used the Bible to justify policies like closing our borders to those in need of refuge & tearing children away from their families.
Twisting the Word of God in defense of immoral practices is a tactic that has been used to justify keeping Black people in chattel slavery, committing genocide against native Americans & segregating people under Jim Crow. #SlaveholderReligion
Sessions’ comments are anathema to any person of faith. And those politicians & clergy who support him & this policy are accessories to these immoral crimes against children, families & humanity.
The story of America is not a struggle b/w liberal & conservative visions of common life; it’s the story of a plantation economy struggling against everyday people for power & control.
Every successful effort to expand democracy—from abolition to women’s suffrage to labor & civil rights—has been driven by a moral movement among everyday people.
The plantation economy resisted moral movements by investing in #slaveholderreligion. Preachers who defend anti-democratic policies are well-funded by the corporate elites & those who remain quietly apolitical are rewarded.
