Religion & Morality

-Frank Bidart, Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016

In recent years, I’ve heard many Christians ex­press concern about the religious and moral fi­ber of America. Most of the time, America’s reli­gious fiber and moral fiber are treated as one and the same. The concerns that people express usually go something like this: The American public, and especially the younger generation, are increasingly areligious and anti-Christian. If this country turns away from God, then what will become of us?

Slavery

This view implicitly holds the belief that non-Christianity will certainly lead to moral decay; and conversely, it claims that Christian devoutness is the same as moral uprightness. Indeed, as Christians, we believe that all that is good comes from God. However, does it necessarily follow that believing in God will lead us into becoming good people? His­tory suggests the answer is no. In fact, history shows us that the church more often than not has used Christianity to justify the greatest wrongs of its times.

To take one example, today it is common sense that slavery is wrong; even during America’s age of slavery, there were many abolitionists and civil rights activists who could see this. However, in the South, the church did not. In fact, the overwhelm­ing majority of the church used the Bible to endorse and justify slave-holding practices. As noted by the scholar Elizabeth L. Jemison, “Southern ministers had written the majority of all published defenses of slavery,” supported by a strong conviction in the “divine sanction” of the institution of slavery[1]. After all, Christian anti-abolitionists argued, in Ephesians, Paul bid slaves to obey their masters, and in Philemon, he returned a runaway slave to his master. Furthermore, slavery was common in the Roman world, but Jesus never spoke against it—so didn’t that mean that slavery had God’s approval?[1] For every Christian abolitionist whose conscience urged them to speak against this cruel and inhumane institution, there was a Christian anti-abolitionist who staunchly believed in its righteousness.

Women’s Suffrage

Similarly, the church at large was in opposition to the women’s suffrage movement. Anti-suffragists were quick to point to Biblical passages such as Paul’s declaration in 1 Timothy that he would “permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man” as justification; or to the story of Genesis, saying that it was only natural to deny women political autonomy due to Eve’s sins in the Garden of Eden.[2] Even today, decades after women have been granted the right to vote, the majority of women in America belong to a religious community that prohibits them from being leaders.[3] I’ve observed that the Western Christian world is quick to denounce Islam, Judaism, and “pagan” religions as barbaric and backwards for oppressing women’s rights, but strictly speaking, many Christian denominations do the same. As Jesus said, should we not first take the plank out of our own eye before we remove the speck from our brother’s eye?

Colonialism

The history of Christianity is rife with examples of the injustices the church upheld. There is its role in justifying European colonialism, such as the Catholic Church’s papal decree in 1452 bidding King Alfonso “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed […] and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”[4] There is its role in the genocide of Native Americans—in taking their land, in kidnapping their chil­dren, in enslaving them in missions. In more recent history, there is the fact that almost all Nazis were Christians[5], and the fact that many modern-day white supremacy groups justify themselves through the Bible too[6]. It is clear that being a Christian state did not preserve these groups’ moral characters. As such, when in pursuit of moral clarity, it is not sufficient to pursue “Christian values.” A Christian value, historically, could mean anything. But what is really the right thing to do? Could you do what you believed was right, even if your pastor, your church, and your community were all telling you that you were in the wrong?

Confronting Those in Power

Perhaps this is too great a challenge to start off with. Let us reduce the difficulty, then. Could you con­front your pastor if he was doing something that the entire community agreed was wrong? For example: what if your church leader had been sexually abusing members of the church? What would you really do?

Sexual Abuse in the Church

It is easy to agree that sexual abuse within the church is wrong, but it seems that it is much harder to do something about it. Just two years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention—consisting of over 15 million members—was rocked by the release of a 205-page report that named hundreds of Baptist leaders and members who had been accused or found guilty of sexually abusing children. This alone was devastating enough. However, the nail in the coffin was the fact that leaders of SBC’s executive committee had focused for decades on trying to “protect the SBC from liability for abuse in local churches,” rather than prioritizing justice and healing for the victims.[7] This pattern of sexual abuse is not unique to SBC, either. A study of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in America found that some 55% of priests between 1950 and 2002 had at least one allegation of abuse.[8] Furthermore, a 2019 study by Lifeway Research found that 5% of Protestant churchgoers they surveyed had experienced sexual misconduct from a pastor, church leader, or staff member of the church; a similar number had stopped attending a church because they felt like sexual misconduct had not been taken seriously.[9] If the church is to be a moral authority, surely we can do better than an in­cidence rate of one in twenty.

I recently heard someone’s remark about the Christian church, which went something like this: Once you notice that there’s a new church sexual abuse scandal every week, you can’t stop noticing it. What a sad remark—and yet it has remained with me since then. In my personal experience, this maxim has been true more often than not. Every time I look up this topic on Google, it inevitably turns up at least one news article from within the past two weeks. In light of this ongoing and systematic problem, I can’t be surprised when people turn away from the church.

Does Being Christian = Being Morally Superior?

It is a mistake to think that being a Christian be­liever, church, or nation means that we will have a stronger moral character or a clearer conscience. It is even more of a mistake to think that one’s be­liefs are right because they are “Christian.” His­tory shows us that Christians are capable of using Christianity and Christian institutions to perpetuate slavery, abuse, and genocide; and it follows that we, too, are capable of perpetuating monstrous in­justices under the same name. It is easy to dismiss the examples I’ve given by claiming that the people who perpetuate such evil aren’t real Christians—but this is only an attempt to escape from having to con­template difficult questions. We are none of us free from social pressure, ingrained cultural biases, or the desire to believe what’s easiest to believe. If that is the case, then how can you be confident that you are a “real” Christian who is doing the right thing?

Where Do We Go From Here?

I can’t offer answers on how to decide what is right. I can only point to the obvious—that we should think independently, be careful of blind faith, and be wary of excessive confidence in our own correct­ness—and offer one last anecdote.

During Nazi Germany’s era of power, a small sub­set of the population chose to heed their conscience and place their moral values over their community bonds, legal protection, and physical safety. These rescuers were oftentimes Christian—just like the many Christians who helped carry out the Holo­caust. This, scholar Robert P. Ericksen notes, shows that “some set of universal Christian values was not the only motivating force at play. […] [R]eligious motivation does not seem to be the most important variable in differentiating between those who did and those who did not risk their well-being to save Jews.”[10]

Then what was it?

The answer, perhaps, can be found in the story of Le Chambon, a small Protestant village in France that banded together to shelter thousands of fleeing Jews. When interviewed, the individuals who par­ticipated in this rescue effort tended to explain their decisions in terms of simple humanity, rather than in terms of Christian values.

Or, in the words of the local minister’s wife, Magda Trocmé:

Those of us who received the first Jews did what we thought had to be done—nothing more complicated. […] Sometimes people ask me, ‘How did you make a decision?’

There was no decision to make.

The issue was: Do you think we are all brothers or not? Do you think it is unjust to turn in the Jews or not?

Then let us try to help!”[11]

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The author of this article is a writer, artist, and engineer living on the west coast of the U.S. after graduating from college, with a deep in­terest in language, philosophy of consciousness, and the interplay between fantasy and reality. They enjoy looking for wildlife while on walks in nature.

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*The following is a free resource you can download here and work through with your church or small group.

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References

1. (a) Jemison, Elizabeth L. Proslavery Christianity After the Emancipation. Accessed May 14, 2024. https://daily.jstor.org/how-antebellum-christians-justified-slavery/. and 

   1. (b) Editors, The. “Why Did so Many Christians Support Slavery?” Christian History | Learn the History of Christianity & the Church, January 1, 1992. https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-33/why-christians-supported-slavery.html. 

2. Gardner, Steve. “Church of Christ Opposition to Women’s Right to Vote: A Look Back and Echoes Today.” Authentic Theology, June 25, 2020. https://authentictheology.com/2019/06/06/church-of-christ-opposition-to-womens-right-to-vote-a-look-back-and-echoes-today/. 

3. Grant, Tobin. “Most Women Belong to a Religious Community That Prohibits Them from Being Leaders.” Religion News Service, July 9, 2015. https://religionnews.com/2015/07/09/most-women-belong-to-a-religious-community-that-prohibits-them-from-being-leaders/. 

4. Stone, Selina. “Can Christian Ethics Be Saved? Colonialism, Racial Justice and the Task of Decolonising Christian Theology.” Sage Journals. Accessed May 14, 2024. https://journals.sagepub.com/. 

5. “The German Churches and the Nazi State.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed May 13, 2024. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state. 

6. Johnson, Daryl. “Holy Hate: The Far Right’s Radicalization of Religion.” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 10, 2018. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/holy-hate-far-right%E2%80%99s-radicalization-religion. 

7. Helmore, Edward. “US Southern Baptist Churches Facing ‘Apocalypse’ over Sexual Abuse Scandal.” The Guardian, June 12, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/12/southern-baptist-church-sexual-abuse-scandal. 

8. Terry, Karen J. “Sexual Abuse of Youth in the Catholic Church: A 2019 ...” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/Nov-2019-Dr-Karen-Terry-Presentation.pdf. 

9. Earls, Aaron. “Churchgoers Split on Existence of More Sexual Abuse by Pastors.” Lifeway Research, May 8, 2023. https://research.lifeway.com/2019/05/21/churchgoers-split-on-existence-of-more-sexual-abuse-by-pastors/. 

10. Ericksen, Robert P. “Christian Complicity?” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, November 8, 2007. https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/Publication_OP_2009-11.pdf. 

11. “Le Chambon: A Village Takes a Stand.” Facing History & Ourselves, May 12, 2020. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/le-chambon-village-takes-stand.

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