A little background as to how I found the letters by Machen in which he staunchly upheld segregation:
In a class on the church in the modern age in my last year in seminary, one of our professors was teaching on Abraham Kuyper and his legacy and theological contributions.
In a class on the church in the modern age in my last year in seminary, one of our professors was teaching on Abraham Kuyper and his legacy and theological contributions.
In the middle of class, one of my classmates on a whim asked if Kuyper had anything to do with the institution of apartheid in South Africa. Our professor, without hesitation, said "no." The next class, this same classmate brought quotes upon quotes showing Kuyper's influence...
on the creation of apartheid. Needless to say, my professor was publicly caught in a bold-faced lie.
Shortly after class, I decided to do a quick Google search on the topic of "Kuyper and racism," "Kuyper and segregation," and "Kuyper and apartheid."
Shortly after class, I decided to do a quick Google search on the topic of "Kuyper and racism," "Kuyper and segregation," and "Kuyper and apartheid."
Very quickly, I found an article or two online that mentioned Kuyper, Van Til, and Machen and allegations of racism and pro-segregation sentiments. I was immediately intrigued about the idea of Machen and racism/segregation since that was never the story I was told about him.
A second google search for "Machen and racism" and "Machen and segregation" led to two monographs that briefly mentioned letters that Machen wrote to his mother and a huge disagreement he had with Warfield about the integration of the Princeton Seminary dorms.
Wanting to give Machen the benefit of the doubt and wanting to do my due diligence with going to the original sources, I contacted the Montgomery Library's Archives and Rare Books Librarian at Westminster Theological Seminary to get copies of these letters.
The librarian was very kind and answered my email request within 24 hours. I had scans of these two letters in hand and quickly began reading them in the handwriting of Dr. Machen himself. Everything I quoted in my previous thread came from these two letters.
My retracing of my steps of "research" is to make the point that it took me a total of 30 minutes of simple Google searching, a 24-hour wait period to get publicly available documents, and another 15 minutes to read the letters firsthand. It did not take a PhD to find this info.
In fact, the ease with which this information was accessed - mainly Google - leads me to question why critics of Christians of color who point out racism in the church can't find this info on their own. Basic internet and email familiarity is all the "research" skills you need.
