6 March, 2022
CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY
Hypocrisy is the offence that Christians are most often charged with. It is a powerful and effective cudgel to beat them over the head because it appears to be self-evidently true: everyone can give you examples of Christians behaving badly, now and throughout history. It is a charge that is immediately persuasive to the undiscerning and especially attractive to the enemies of religion, yet it arises from ignorance, whether wanton or innocent.
The weakness of the accusation is that it fails to distinguish the claims of a perfect God from the imperfection of mankind. The force of the accusation depends on the contrast between the demands of Christ and the actual performance of his would-be followers in the world. The latter always fall short.
No believing Christian ought to be surprised by the existence of evil within the human community of the Church. Let them be angry, by all means – they should be – but not surprised: the image of weeds sown among the wheat is part of the mental furniture of anybody who has had a smattering of religious instruction. The doctrines of death, judgement, heaven and hell are known to all, whether believed or not.
It may seem harsh to accuse the enemies of Christianity of ignorance, as I did above, but there are various kinds of ignorance. Firstly there is the blameless ignorance of those who are (rightly) outraged by the misbehaviour of many who claim to be Christians. Secondly there is culpable ignorance that deliberately disregards the good and seeks out the bad. An example of ignorance in action would be the claim sometimes made that Hitler and Stalin were Christians. Both had probably been baptised (Stalin certainly, Hitler possibly), but their lives and deeds were so utterly at variance with everything that Christ taught as almost to beggar belief. Religious people were the primary victims of their persecutions. The idea that they were themselves Christians is beyond absurd, yet some people will choose to believe it wilfully or accept it gullibly.
The hypocrisy charge thrives on bad history. Nowadays pretty well everything that Europeans did during the past few centuries attracts heated criticism, especially if there is a religious component. The Crusades usually come high on the list, the Inquisition not far behind, and witch-hunting is a sturdy perennial. The blame for the two World Wars is often imputed to Christianity, because the primary belligerents were nominally Christian countries. Missionaries are almost always bad-mouthed, even if in fact they protected people from the exigencies of their conquerors.
In the catalogue of human wickedness slavery ought to hold first place. For the enormity of its scale (it has been practised by all races and cultures, and people of all races and cultures have been its victims) and the utter greed of its motivation has no equal. Wars can sometimes be explained in terms of justice, but slavery never.
In 1537, 45 years after Columbus ‘discovered’ America, Pope Paul III issued the bull Sublimis Deus which contains the following words:
Satan, who envies the human race, promotes the false belief that the Indians of the West and the South, and other peoples of whom we have come to know in these times, should be treated as dumb brutes to be subjugated for our service. We recognise that these same Indians are truly human beings. We declare that the said Indians, and all other peoples who may later be encountered by Christians, must not be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ, and that they may and should, freely and lawfully, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property, nor be reduced to slavery.
There is absolutely nothing ambiguous about this. It is not hypocritical. It was simply ignored by those who placed self-interest above the claims of their religion and have thus forfeited any claim to be counted among Christ’s faithful. And it is being ignored still.
Yours sincerely,
David Daintree
COLLOQUIUM 2022 – DATE CLAIMER
The 2022 Colloquium will take place on Saturday 16 July on the theme Freedom of Speech and Religion: the Essence of Western Civilisation.
Freedom of Speech and Religion: the Essence of Western Civilisation
Freedom of speech has never been a secure human right. But one of the great achievements of the West has been a gradual increase in the legal and constitutional protections offered to citizens in all areas of their civil and religious lives. Yet it appears to be the case that this hard-won right to free expression in religious matters is being eroded at an alarming rate as new social movements push for legal restrictions on the public expression of beliefs, particularly as they relate to human sexuality and the family. In some Australian states the public expression of religious belief on topics such as human sexuality is already subject to prosecution under anti-discrimination or so-called ‘conversion therapy’ laws. This has already produced a ‘chilling’ effect, which has largely silenced those with traditional views. How are we to respond to this predicament?
On Saturday 16 July the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies will host its seventh annual colloquium in Hobart, Tasmania. The Dawson Colloquium is a conversation, rather than a multi-stream conference. There are no keynote speeches, as all are considered important to the flow of ideas, and speakers are encouraged to attend all papers. The colloquium will conclude with a panel discussion.
CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite submissions from persons interested in addressing the topic. Speakers should not only identify and evaluate challenges to freedom of speech and religion but propose practical solutions.
Total time allocation for each paper will be 45 minutes, which should include time for questions and discussion (the proportion at each presenter’s discretion). Proceedings will be recorded and posted on the internet, and published late in 2022 or early 2023.
Proposals should be sent to Dr David Daintree, Director, Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies director@dawsoncentre.org, 0408 87 9494.
PROF IAN PLIMER TO SPEAK IN HOBART
For your diary: hear Ian Plimer on
‘Green Murder: how green energy policies destroy the environment, employment and people’
Thursday 21 April, 6.00 pm
(venue to be finalised)
RETHINKING THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
‘I can no longer see the Church as a select group of people called out from unbelievers. Rather, the Church is the whole of creation seen eschatalogically; from which we already see islands in the present… Any attempt to say that the Church can be defined by institution, organization, offices etc, rather than by the new life, is simply wrong.’ (Fr John Behr). Read more here.
LIBERAL ARTS
Another new discovery is the King Alfred Primary School in England. It’s a Christian school in the protestant tradition with a strong focus on classical education. It’s ‘value statement’ is very succinct: Truth, Goodness and Beauty. You can’t say better than that! King Alfred, after whom the school is named, strove to extend education in his own day, personally translating major Latin works to make them accessible to English readers.
LOOKING TO THE EAST
As Western Civilisation faces its enemies in an increasingly hostile post-Christian world, the Shen Yun dance company strives to defend the ancient culture of China against perhaps even greater odds. Spectacular performances have attracted audiences worldwide. We are not alone.
FIRST WORLD VALUES
Someone sent me this – I don’t know where it originates – and I think it’s very clever –