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Southern Baptist Seminary Reviews Its Legacy Of Racism
Some people try to deny or minimize the role of Christianity in slavery in the United States. It makes Christians look bad, they think. Well, it's real. It happened. To its credit, a Southern Baptist Seminary has gone into its records to look into this. What they found demonstrates just how pervasive the church was in supporting and even encouraging slavery in the past. There's no denying this any longer, it seems.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676346779/southern-baptist-seminary-reviews-its-legacy-of-racism
Southern Baptist Seminary Reviews Its Legacy Of Racism
The seminary that trains many Southern Baptist preachers is acknowledging something about its history that was widely known but often ignored. It was founded by men who owned slaves and defended slavery. Later leaders preached white supremacy. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary reviews its legacy of racism in a new report. And we have more now from NPR's Tom Gjelten.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: The 71-page document is thoroughly researched and unsparing. In an introductory letter, seminary President Albert Mohler summarizes. The founding fathers of this school, all four of them, were deeply involved in slavery and deeply complicit in the defense of slavery, Mohler writes. Many of their successors, he says, advocated segregation and the inferiority of African-Americans.
ALBERT MOHLER: We knew, in generalities, that the founders of the seminary owned slaves. We knew, in generality, that they've been very much a part of southern culture, the culture of reconstruction and even legal segregation. But it had never been documented.
GJELTEN: The report, written by six current and former faculty members, draws heavily on the seminary's own archives. It acknowledges, the only reason a separate Southern Baptist denomination was formed back in 1845 was because northern Baptists refused to appoint slaveholders as missionaries. The Southern Baptist Convention, more than 20 years ago, apologized for its connection to slavery. Last year, it passed a resolution condemning white supremacy.
The seminary that trains many Southern Baptist preachers is acknowledging something about its history that was widely known but often ignored. It was founded by men who owned slaves and defended slavery. Later leaders preached white supremacy. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary reviews its legacy of racism in a new report. And we have more now from NPR's Tom Gjelten.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: The 71-page document is thoroughly researched and unsparing. In an introductory letter, seminary President Albert Mohler summarizes. The founding fathers of this school, all four of them, were deeply involved in slavery and deeply complicit in the defense of slavery, Mohler writes. Many of their successors, he says, advocated segregation and the inferiority of African-Americans.
ALBERT MOHLER: We knew, in generalities, that the founders of the seminary owned slaves. We knew, in generality, that they've been very much a part of southern culture, the culture of reconstruction and even legal segregation. But it had never been documented.
GJELTEN: The report, written by six current and former faculty members, draws heavily on the seminary's own archives. It acknowledges, the only reason a separate Southern Baptist denomination was formed back in 1845 was because northern Baptists refused to appoint slaveholders as missionaries. The Southern Baptist Convention, more than 20 years ago, apologized for its connection to slavery. Last year, it passed a resolution condemning white supremacy.
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