The biggest single issue
hamstringing the growth of American political thought is the confusion
surrounding the twin issues of slavery and racism. While it is undeniable that racism is an
indelible stain on the American past, and will be addressed in a bit, the new
assertion here is that it is time we moved from thinking slavery is a stain on
our past to instead realizing that the issue of slavery redounds to the eternal
glory of the United States of America. There are two reasons for this.
First, it is beyond dispute that
our founding document, the Declaration of
Independence, was THE spark which ignited a worldwide movement to
abolish slavery. 1776 was followed by
Vermont, in 1777, becoming the first governmental body in modern times to
abolish slavery. They were followed by
Pennsylvania in 1780, Massachusetts in 1783, and then many other states and
countries. Spain, France, Great Britain,
Mexico and many others. Yes, America was a little late to the party, as a
nation, but that only brings up the second reason slavery redounds to America's
glory.
When founded, the most idealistic
hope the best of our founders intended was to be like the small, local city
states of ancient Greece and Rome. This
was because those forms of government
were noted for tending to produce the best citizens, the populace with
those powerful republican virtues that make any government work well. At its' best it was hoped this architecture
of government might induce an elevated moral awareness in the hearts and minds
of the citizenry, an elevated moral consciousness. Yet because those local communities are bound
in a federal system of checks and balances, they could live peacefully with
each other. Hence, that positive social
dynamic symbiotically generated in local small republics could remain peaceful
and growing on a continental scale and over the long term. That, in a nutshell, was the idealistic
intent of the American experiment in self government.
In 1776, the day before the
Declaration was published, slavery was accepted in this country with little
opposition or criticism. By 1861,
eighty-five years later, just a long lifetime, America had become a nation
which produced millions of us who were willing to fight, die, and indeed even
kill to end the institution of legal slavery.
The question must be asked. What other nation, in the entirety of human
history, has brought themselves through such a huge cultural elevation,
affecting so many lives, and done it in such a short period of time?
The answer is obviously none, since
no other people has ever experienced a comparable change. Ought we not therefore give ourselves a little more
credit, and declare the American experiment in self government a raging
success? I say we should. We should give ourselves a hearty pat on the back.
The fact that our raised social consciousness grows organically from our system
of government, our architecture of government if you will, when we use our
system the way it was designed to be used, is a strong reason to return to an
originalist, strict interpretation of the Constitution, as written. Only then will that most important blessing
of liberty, the fact that being free and self governing causes the normal human
to want to be a more moral person, begin to get strong purchase. Honestly taking on even just some of the
duties of self government induces in the individual a recognition of the
importance of moral behavior in the people.
This in turn causes many individuals to seek to lead more moral lives, to
be consistent in public and private life.
When a people seeks to regain
moral continence, then the Gospel can be heard most clearly. It's like you know you're in love when love
songs start making sense. It is only
when a person is seriously wrestling with the power sin has over us all that said
person is primed to hear the hope of forgiveness in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. The normal person is most likely
to start wrestling with those issues of personal morality when they are given
some real part in the powers of their own self governance, when they start
thinking like a governor.
That, I think is the long term connection between America and
Christ. Liberty on the American plan is
both enabled by the Christian mind, and it greatly encourages that same Christian
mind to grow in her citizens.
Now let us, while in the glow of
feeling a little good about America again, face the shame of racism, and the damage
it has done to all of us. What's more,
we should realize the reason American racism has been so toxic is tied directly
into that same Declaration of Independence.
Those representatives traveling
from the 1776 congress for their homes must have had some very interesting
conversations. On the one hand, any of
them honest and free in their analysis would have instantly seen that a
government dedicated to all men having equal liberty could not be reconciled
with the existence of legal slavery, especially hereditary slavery. No person can honestly say they would like to
have been born into slavery. So it is
probably accurate that the seeds of many anti slavery initiatives were planted
in some of those conversations.
For the congressmen returning to
states which conceived themselves as being dependent on slavery, it can be,
again probably accurately, imagined that the conversations went in a different
direction. For them, the easy and evil
solution which presented itself was simply to consider that the African slaves
were not really men. They had merely to
officially dehumanize their African family.
Then they could proudly join in
the effort to establish liberty and justice for all men, and yet still maintain
their wicked slavery. All they had to
do was pretend that people they interacted with daily on deep, intimate levels,
with whom they shared both traumatic and joyful experiences, people with whom
they often fell in love, are not really people at all, but instead some kind of
intelligent animal.
All it took for us to believe,
and to continue to believe, these obviously wicked lies was calling down on
ourselves, on all of us actually because us Northerners were happy to join in,
an immense cloud of delusional demonic forces. It is such a huge cloud that it
amounts to a spiritual principality. That is why the only way we can get rid of
it is to have some kind of national exorcism.
More on that in a bit.
Before looking for possible
remedies, let us linger for a moment on just exactly how bad American racism
has been. For a variety of reasons white
American racism towards African America has been the most virulent and
destructive strain of racism this world has ever seen, which is saying a lot
because this sorry planet has seen some terribly vicious and destructive
outbreaks of the viral spiritual disease known as racism. The way we treated Africans in this country
is arguably worse than how the Nazis treated the Jews. It has lasted longer and has caused much more
damage. There is so much more that I
can, should and will say on this, but time constrains this discussion to focus
on remedies for the spiritual virus of racism.
I term racism a spiritual virus
because like the common cold, it is always around in some mild form or the
other. Everyone is susceptible to it's
logic that the more like me a person is, the more truly human they are. There are, what's more, a lot of different
degrees of virility in the various strains of racism around the world. Nonetheless, the American strain does seem to
be the absolute worst, probably because we so consciously called these
delusional spirits down on our own heads to gain that wicked power.
However, the fact of our having
consciously chosen this path in our forgotten past leads one to hope that this
principality we invited to deceive us will be highly susceptible to our
consciously casting it off us in the name of Jesus. So let's get to it.
Oops, sorry, forgot to
mention. Everybody has to be with us all
together, casting this demonic power off as the united American people. That is because this spiritual disease, like
all spiritual diseases, has always been highly contagious. This repentance has
to be universal because everybody in this nation has some share in carrying
this disease, and some role in casting it off us. All of us have some of the virus of racism in
us, even if dormant.
Dealing with racism as a disease
has a lot of advantages. Instead of focusing
on the past, trying to assign relative blame for ancient crimes, we can unite
in calling us all to come together to heal ourselves of a disease, thereby
ending the disease and eliminating the breeding ground of division with one
wise change of focus.
Now before I go any further, let
me add this. I have lived in the heart
of the Black community (17th and San Pablo in downtown Oakland,
85-89, McMillen in Nashville 2010-) more than seven years of my seventy year
long life, and I must testify that I was received in the hood with more
tolerance and welcome than I have usually seen black guys receive in white
neighborhoods. So even though the
disease is rampant in all of America, it seems to be far more deeply rooted and
virulent in whites, especially in some select white areas, than in black, or
other minority neighborhoods.
Exorcising this demonic
principality will take all of us working and praying together, but it can be
done. I am certainly not the guy to
conduct such a national event, but I do think that the right leaders, as God
will select them, could come together, and bring us all together, as a
nationally connected mind, and thereby nationally connected heart. Together we must pray
mercy of our Creator, that He would pull this hideous spiritual virus off us,
because we can't seem to get it off by
ourselves. Nonetheless, I believe the vast majority of us are ready for this change because we totally and for all time renounce racism. So help us God. Pray for such an event.
I think we will be nicely
surprised how much this national exorcism, if we seek God for it and follow His
guidance to achieve it, could improve our lives.
I do hope, that at the least, this essay helps to
clear up some of our thinking about slavery, racism and America.
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