Keeping the "Old U.S. Democratic Values"


As the Trump trial focuses on whether or not he used a condom when cheating on his wife, there are those who long for a return to the way politics used to be." The link refers to modernity as a "shipwreck." Then the author goes on to talk about what he remembers as the past U.S. and what was good about it.

We can't think about "who we were" versus "who we are" without thinking about winners and losers. Who we were included slavery and segregation. There is a conventional wisdom that the impulses to put Christianity into government were good ones but the past version put limits on how far this point was pushed. Reading books about the time of slavery makes me wonder whether there ever was a U.S. where there was a limit on how far Christianity can be drilled down into government and whether there exists any such limit now.

The last two large books I've read about the time of slavery were by authors who searched every source available for news accounts and material written by prominent people of the time. Today, one can read the conventional wisdom of right-wing Christians who claim slavery ended because of Christians. Certainly, we know there were prominent Christians who believed slavery was not approved of in the faith. The Quakers took risks against slavery. But, across the South were vast areas and millions of Christians who believed God approved of their ownership of human beings in slavery. God wanted one race to reign over the other and not mix. A small army of preachers made a living preaching this message. In this version, God approved of taking away legitimate rights of human beings. 

Does God approve of taking rights away from human beings? Even though this idea was ultimately abandoned in slavery and segregation, it lives on robustly in other issues. Slavery was replaced by gay people and trans. Add to that, women who need abortions. Women had the right to abortion across the U.S. when Roe was the law of the land. Then came Trump and that right was taken away in some states. Religion is being used today against women the same way religion was used against black people during slavery and segregation. The "old society," with religion used against one group, has merely been reestablished against another group. 

Today's Christianity includes the same flaws it had during its 400 years of slavery.

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