The irony is that the so-called theological "conservatives" in the modern Western church were actually the ones going down the slippery slope of revising historic doctrines to fit their cultural & social agendas and preferences. The "conservatives" were the "liberals" all along.
The "conservatives" invented a two-tier baptism that applied the sacrament differently to slaves vs masters. The "conservatives" created slave Bibles that literally tore out passages that referred to liberation, Exodus, and equality in Christ.
The "conservatives" invented a version of the curse of Ham among other novel interpretations to argue for the supremacy of the White race and the inferiority of Blacks. The "conservatives" who adamantly held to inerrancy also pushed that the innerant, common sense reading of...
Scripture commanded segregation as a societal good. The "conservatives" barred people of color from entering their churches or forced them to give up their seats for Whites. The "conservatives" invented a rendition of the "spirituality of the church" to protect the racial caste.
The "conservatives" were strong advocates of colonization and then fought tooth and nail against the idea of disciplining slaveowners. The "conservatives" argued that non-white Christians were too intellectually inept to stay orthodox and blocked them from their movements.
The "conservatives" administered communion to masters first them slaves second instead of as one body. The "conservatives" attempted to block Black students from living at seminary dorms.
The "conservatives" called interracial marriage Marxist, communist, socialist, and anti Christian. The "conservatives" created seminaries and private Christian schools for the express purpose of responding to integration policies and keeping their communities separate from POCs.
The "conservatives" sent missionaries who obliterated native cultures and evangelize western civilization more than the kingdom of God. The "conservatives" saw civil rights and the recognition of the imago dei as a danger to White men.
History is full of these examples. The narrative of "conservative" = orthodox and "liberal" = culturally captive is not just hyper simplistic, but it is also historically misleading and inaccurate. It's easy to believe in a myth. It's difficult to seek out the truth.
As my seminary professor taught us throughout all of his classes, "history is telling the truth about the past the best that we can." If we took this seriously, we may end up realizing that the theological narrative we've imbibed needs to be thoroughly reviewed and revised.
