The Donnor Expedition is infamous
in American history as an expedition that was caught in the high Sierra Nevada
Mountains in the midst of a terribly harsh winter. Many of the members of the expedition died
in the frigid cold. Some of those that
survived did so by eating those that died.
In an act of compassion, the bundles of human flesh were labeled in such
a way that no one would eat a family member. Ironically, one of the survivors of the
ill-fated expedition, after being rescued, opened a motel and restaurant. The events of the Donner Expedition are infamous;
what is perhaps less well known, is that this tragic suffering was the result
of trying a short cut, the Hastings’ Cutoff.
Short cuts can be dangerous and
take us to places that we do not want to go.
Unfortunately, the allure of short cuts is often times so great that it
seems impossible for us to say “no”, especially when faced with the hard work
of going the long way. I have spent
countless gallons of gas, all wasted, because I was looking for a short
cut. It is not only true in issues of
transportation, but also in issues of behavior and ethics.
The allure of a short cut is
powerful. They seem to promise a much
anticipated and much desired reward and with less effort. They seem to offer fulfillment much sooner
than we would other wise experience. The
harder and the longer the ordeal we face, the more alluring a short cut seems. Just the other side of the mountain is the Promised
Land. But crossing the mountain will
leave us stranded, dying, and doing things we don’t want to imagine.
I believe this is true in our
efforts to see a Christian ethic and morality in our society. The current racial tension we have in the
U.S. can serve as an example. By
contrast, the tension and relationship between the decedents of slaves and the
general white population in Great Britain is less volatile than is the case in
the U.S. I would argue that this is the
result of a short cut in U.S. history.
Slavery in the British Empire
ended as the result of the life long work of abolitionists, personified and led
by William Wilberforce. Wilberforce and
the abolitionists ended the slave trade after a long battle fought for the
hearts and the minds of the people. The
realization of the gross immorality of slavery was faithfully and consistently
presented to a Christian nation, and ultimately the moral character of the
people and the immoral character of slavery could no longer coexist. After many years and struggles that took an
emotional, physical, and mental toll on Wilberforce and the other abolitionists,
the slave trade was ended in the Empire.
The battle was won in the battlefield of the heart; as the hearts
changed the nation changed. While Great
Britain is not a racial paradise, it can teach significant lessons to those of us
on this side of the Atlantic.
In contrast, slavery in the U.S.
ended, not because of a moral revival, but because of a bloody war and a
political move. The “War to Preserve the
Union”, more commonly known as the American Civil War was the end of slavery in
the U.S. But unlike the end of slavery
in Great Britain it was a by-product of a political decision.
Let me interject here a few words
of rebuke for the American church. I am
not attempting to justify the position of southern states on slavery. In fact, I believe that the greatest moral
failure of American Christianity may be the failure of the American church, especially
in the south, to speak out passionately concerning the evils of slavery. The failure of the church in America to end
slavery means that, not only does the church carry much of the guilt of the
institution of slavery, but also the church has blood stained hands. The war to preserve the Union might have been
avoided were it not for the one issue about which there was no room for
compromise-slavery. The church,
especially in the south, did not address the moral transgression of American
Slavery and American’s killed each other in unimaginable numbers.
Since the war, the church’s
history in the south has been little more than abysmal. Instead of the civil rights movement finding
a passionate ally in the Evangelical church more often than not it found an obstruction. If you want to know why 11:00 on a Sunday
morning is the most segregated hour of the week, it is because when black
Christians needed help, white Christians, especially in the south (with few
exceptions), rejected their brothers in need.
Nor, am I trying to determine the
political machinations of the Union. Only
President Lincoln knew the heart conviction of Abraham Lincoln concerning slavery
and this is a question that is better answered by historians. While I believe the emancipation proclamation
was a carefully calculated political instrument, it was for many in the Union
the deeper stirrings of conscience. I
will not try to divine the demarcation between political contrivance and
impassioned moral conviction.
What I am saying is that the ending
of slavery by force of arms was a short cut toward racial equality. With the emancipation proclamation, the end
of the War, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, blacks and
white were legally equal. But it was an equality
that came not from the heart nor did it come by godly men and women under moral
persuasion. It was an equality that came
at the point of a bayonet and was recognized only in public, while rejected in
secret. The generation that lived through
Reconstruction saw the rise of legalized prejudice in the form of Jim Crow
laws, and the expansion of only slightly secret hate from the Ku Klux Klan.
As freed slaves moved to northern
states seeking a better life they found that prejudice did not have geographic
boundaries. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan had
its largest membership in Indiana in the 1920’s. The KKK infiltrated every level of government
with noted figures such as Sen. Robert Byrd, Chief Justice Edward White,
Associate Justice Hugo Black, Sen. Theodore Bilbo, and Gov. Edward Jackson etc. Both major political parties are well
represented in the KKK. The KKK even infiltrated
the church. It would even have
cornerstone-setting ceremonies for new church construction, show up
unexpectedly at a church for the worship service, and make denotations to the
church. On some occasions congregations
would burst into applause for the KKK.
When a Klansmen was naturalized into his order he swore loyalty to his
nation and Christianity. The founder of
the second Klan was a former minister. Rather
than the evils of slavery ending by the power of a moral church a short cut in
some cases, by no means all or even most, turned the church over to the powers
of evil.
To be continued……
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