RIVERS RELIGIONS AND SLAVERY
As a number of streams and rivers flow into major tributaries like the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, and Amazon rivers, so, too, do many tributaries supply the sublime consciousness of mankind. For this reason, the interrelatedness of all such tributaries to the 'rivers' must be all factored in, if not all understood.
Langston Hughes' epochal poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was written when he was a mere 18 years old boy, riding a train through the City of St. Louis, at sunset, besides the Mighty Mississippi River. That moving poem rafts upon a spiritual reality of rivers as reverie, history, magic, possibility.
Like rivers, religion has many sources that flow into it, that sustain its power, its potent vitality the divine thresher of grains of truth, from husks of untruth.
Mankind is primarily rational unlike spiders, beavers, fish, fowl, plants, bacteria; neither are we designed nor equipped by instincts alone to guide.
One source of religion is allegorical history. As used here, allegory means stories, aphorisms and parables applied analogously to man. The object of admixtures of myth historical allegory is to instruct, to educate mankind: answering who they are and where they fit in the scheme of things.
Such knowledge is instinctual in plants and animals. But mankind is unique upon the earth. Mankind is gifted by God in some respects, and made vulnerable in others. Mankind is an amalgamation of matter and spirit, with the power to imagine and implement.
Therefore, religion, philosophy, science, mathematics, government, arts, crafts, agriculture, education, music, poetry, literature, stories, etc., must supply mankind's deficiencies as we lack fully capable natural instincts.
These reverent reflections were in part precipitated by my reading on the topic today in A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1853), a reference work by Harriet Beecher Stowe to her novel:
"It is a well-known fact that the influence of our clergy is looked upon by our statesmen as a most serious element in making their political combinations; and that that influence is so great, that no statesman would ever undertake to carry a measure against which all the clergy of the country should unite. Such a degree of power , though it is only a power of opinion , argument and example, is not without its dangers to the purity of any body of men. To be courted by political partisans is always a dangerous thing for the integrity and spirituality of men who profess to be governed by principles which are not of this world. The possession, too, of so great a power as we have described, involves a most weighty responsibility; since, if the clergy do possess the power to rectify any great national immorality, the fact of its not being done seems in some sort to bring the sin of omission to their door...
"What then is the influence of the church on this great question of slavery?
"Certain things are evident on the very face of the matter.
0. It has not put an end to it.
0. It has not prevented the increase of it.
0. It has not occasioned the repeal of the laws which forbid education of the slaves.
0. It has not attempted to have laws passed forbidding the separation of families and legalizing the marriage of slaves.
0. It has not restricted the internal slave trade.
0. It has not prevented the extension of the system with all its wrongs, over new territories....
"It may be well now to consider more definitely and minutely the sentiments which some leading ecclesiastical bodies in the church have expressed on this subject....
"1. The Presbyterian Church...
"'2. 'Resolved ', that slavery has existed from the days of those good ole slaveholders and patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who are now in the kingdom of heaven ), to the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master Philemon , and wrote a Christian and fraternal letter to this slaveholder, which still stands in the canon of the Scriptures; and that slavery has existed ever since the days of the apostle, and does now exist.
"3. 'Resolved ', That as the relative duties of master and slave are taught in the Scriptures, in the same manner as to those of parent and child, and husband and wife, the existence of slavery itself is not opposed to the will of God; and whosoever has a conscience too tender to recognize this relation as lawful is 'righteous over much ', is 'wise above what is written,' and has submitted his neck to the yoke of men, sacrificed his Christian liberty of conscience, and leaves the infallible word of God for the fancies and doctrines of men."
P. 103-104, "The Influence of the American Church on Slavery."
In light of the foregoing facts , it is well that one "study to show oneself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." For if not studious, one is likely to be swept away, washed away, in epistemological confusion!
Briefly, since according to the second Presbyterian precept "that slavery has existed from the days of the apostle," it is well to reflect that man existed long BEFORE "the days of the apostles," as well as long BEFORE the days of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," who went into Africa, Mizraim, Kemet, Egypt, themselves for sustenance, and whose epic excellence inspired them!
Be not deceived by false bottoms!
Saturday, July 7, 2018
RIVERS RELIGION SLAVERY
RIVERS RELIGIONS AND SLAVERY
As a number of streams and rivers flow into major tributaries like the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, and Amazon rivers, so, too, do many tributaries supply the sublime consciousness of mankind. For this reason, the interrelatedness of all such tributaries to the 'rivers' must be all factored in, if not all understood.
Langston Hughes' epochal poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was written when he was a mere 18 years old boy, riding a train through the City of St. Louis, at sunset, besides the Mighty Mississippi River. That moving poem rafts upon a spiritual reality of rivers as reverie, history, magic, possibility.
Like rivers, religion has many sources that flow into it, that sustain its power, its potent vitality the divine thresher of grains of truth, from husks of untruth.
Mankind is primarily rational unlike spiders, beavers, fish, fowl, plants, bacteria; neither are we designed nor equipped by instincts alone to guide.
One source of religion is allegorical history. As used here, allegory means stories, aphorisms and parables applied analogously to man. The object of admixtures of myth historical allegory is to instruct, to educate mankind: answering who they are and where they fit in the scheme of things.
Such knowledge is instinctual in plants and animals. But mankind is unique upon the earth. Mankind is gifted by God in some respects, and made vulnerable in others. Mankind is an amalgamation of matter and spirit, with the power to imagine and implement.
Therefore, religion, philosophy, science, mathematics, government, arts, crafts, agriculture, education, music, poetry, literature, stories, etc., must supply mankind's deficiencies as we lack fully capable natural instincts.
These reverent reflections were in part precipitated by my reading on the topic today in A KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1853), a reference work by Harriet Beecher Stowe to her novel:
"It is a well-known fact that the influence of our clergy is looked upon by our statesmen as a most serious element in making their political combinations; and that that influence is so great, that no statesman would ever undertake to carry a measure against which all the clergy of the country should unite. Such a degree of power , though it is only a power of opinion , argument and example, is not without its dangers to the purity of any body of men. To be courted by political partisans is always a dangerous thing for the integrity and spirituality of men who profess to be governed by principles which are not of this world. The possession, too, of so great a power as we have described, involves a most weighty responsibility; since, if the clergy do possess the power to rectify any great national immorality, the fact of its not being done seems in some sort to bring the sin of omission to their door...
"What then is the influence of the church on this great question of slavery?
"Certain things are evident on the very face of the matter.
0. It has not put an end to it.
0. It has not prevented the increase of it.
0. It has not occasioned the repeal of the laws which forbid education of the slaves.
0. It has not attempted to have laws passed forbidding the separation of families and legalizing the marriage of slaves.
0. It has not restricted the internal slave trade.
0. It has not prevented the extension of the system with all its wrongs, over new territories....
"It may be well now to consider more definitely and minutely the sentiments which some leading ecclesiastical bodies in the church have expressed on this subject....
"1. The Presbyterian Church...
"'2. 'Resolved ', that slavery has existed from the days of those good ole slaveholders and patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who are now in the kingdom of heaven ), to the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master Philemon , and wrote a Christian and fraternal letter to this slaveholder, which still stands in the canon of the Scriptures; and that slavery has existed ever since the days of the apostle, and does now exist.
"3. 'Resolved ', That as the relative duties of master and slave are taught in the Scriptures, in the same manner as to those of parent and child, and husband and wife, the existence of slavery itself is not opposed to the will of God; and whosoever has a conscience too tender to recognize this relation as lawful is 'righteous over much ', is 'wise above what is written,' and has submitted his neck to the yoke of men, sacrificed his Christian liberty of conscience, and leaves the infallible word of God for the fancies and doctrines of men."
P. 103-104, "The Influence of the American Church on Slavery."
In light of the foregoing facts , it is well that one "study to show oneself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." For if not studious, one is likely to be swept away, washed away, in epistemological confusion!
Briefly, since according to the second Presbyterian precept "that slavery has existed from the days of the apostle," it is well to reflect that man existed long BEFORE "the days of the apostles," as well as long BEFORE the days of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," who went into Africa, Mizraim, Kemet, Egypt, themselves for sustenance, and whose epic excellence inspired them!
Be not deceived by false bottoms!