History Lessons the Christian Right Doesn't Want You to Know

In this post, I will present 3 important examples of the impact of Christianity in America that the Christian right doesn't want Americans to remember. I have selected these examples out of many possible choices because they represent important chapters in American history in which atheists played a role and because they can easily be validated from newspaper articles, books, and sermons published at the time each event was happening. Thus, the revisionist history presented by the modern Christian right is simply ludicrous.

Example #1: The majority of American Christians opposed the abolition of slavery and defended the institution of slavery as being the will of their god and justified by their bible. The more conservative they were in their religious beliefs, the stronger their opposition to abolition.

Example #2: The majority of American Christians opposed suffrage. Again, they used their bible to argue that women should not have the right to vote. And again, the more conservative they were in their religious beliefs, the more vehement their opposition.

Example #3: The overwhelming majority of white American Christians opposed the civil rights movement. While some Catholics supported the goals of the movement, fundamentalist Protestants did not. The few white Christians who supported the movement were thrown out of their churches, demonized as atheists and/or communists, and deluged with hate mail from their Christian neighbors. In each of these cases, we witnessed "culture wars" with secular freethinkers, repressed groups, and select liberal Protestants on one side and conservative Christians on the other. It really helps put today's culture war in perspective, doesn't it? It also demonstrates a pattern of fundamentalists Christians being fundamentally wrong on important issues.

www.atheistrev.com...

Altho there trying to push a book . I have found numerous places that have said most of these things but not all together. The conspiracy is .
Are they really the moral majority? Or just big fat opportunists. ?

[edit on 3-7-2008 by d11_m_na_c05]

Who were most of the vocal Abolitionists?
Christian preachers.
Many of the suffragettes were Christian.

Many involved in the civil rights (both black and white) were Christians.
That's not to say many churches were against it.
The Red Scare had many people up in arms, much like today with muslims.

I mean no disrespect to Ms. Jacoby, but I will not accept those examples as they are stated. I need something more than words when you are characterizing an entire class of individuals based on their creed. Scientifically speaking this is all atheist fluff and not much better than the Christian version of evolution.

reply to post by d11_m_na_c05


Interesting. Before we continue, as the original poster, the onus is on you. I need you to please provide us with detailed statistics. This will be crucial to the growth of this discussion.

What are the statistics of beliefs in terms of atheists vs. Christians in regards to supporting or opposing the following:

Slavery vs. abolition.
Women's rights/Suffrage.
Civil Rights.

I keep seeing the word 'majority' in the article and would like to see some detailed statistics.

And although it would stand to reason Christianity has always been the majority religion in the United Sates so Christians will almost always make up the majority of anything, I would still like to see some statistics to demonstrate the following part from the OP:

"I have selected these examples out of many possible choices because they represent important chapters in American history in which atheists played a role..."

I would like to see some statistics of how many atheists were fighting for abolition vs. slavery and the other two issues as well.

Thanks. I can't move onto my next point without those stats. Without the stats, it will just turn into another Christian vs. atheist hate fest.

Also, if you could provide me with stats of what percentage of each belief group were fighting for each side of each issue.

Examples:

50% of atheists opposed slavery, 50% of atheists supported slavery.
50% of Christians opposed slavery, 50% of Christians supported slavery.

50% of atheists opposed the CRM, 50% of atheists supported the CRM.
50% of Christians opposed the CRM, 50% of Christians supported the CRM.

Added to the basic percentage of atheists and Christians on each side. That will be great. Thanks.

reply to post by AshleyD



Thank you for being more direct. My point exactly.

I have to agree, your source is kind of useless without actual data. I mean, I can make a blog post saying that reptilian aliens fought in the civilw ar and freed the slaves, and in a month someone would stumble across it and post it to ATS

Every now and then a post like this comes along,. One that is so monumentally wrong in it’s premise, so manifestly misinformed in it’s basis, so inconceivably misguided in it’s train of logic, that it cannot be ignored. It’s like a incontinent Great-Dane in your living room - you must do something to correct it.

Originally posted by d11_m_na_c05
Thus, the revisionist history presented by the modern Christian right is simply ludicrous.

Example #1: The majority of American Christians opposed the abolition of slavery and defended the institution of slavery ,,, The majority of American Christians opposed suffrage…The overwhelming majority of white American Christians opposed the civil rights movement

I don’t know from what piece of yellow-stained rag you got the idea from that American atheists were ever a significant enough proportion of the population to make such grand and sweeping changes in the very foundations of our society. Even if atheists were influential in the formulation of such ideas, they could only be implemented and enforced by the majority, who were in fact Christians. Maybe at one point it was true that the majority supported such ideas - and that is so. But there is no way, that without majority support, these things would have ever have been undone. It wasn’t atheist accomplishments that got things changed, it was the will of the majority, who were in fact Christians.

Originally posted by d11_m_na_c05
In each of these cases, we witnessed "culture wars" with secular freethinkers, repressed groups, and select liberal Protestants on one side …

I hate to tell you this, but an unassailable, unalterable fact is that the majority of Americans were, and still are, Christian - especially at the time that these things occurred that you mention. And what you term as a Conservative Christian, in the modern sense, would have applied to most Christians, of all denominations, at those times. The groups that you mention and give credit to, at those times, never had enough weight to change the things as they were. Would you really claim that the Union was victorious because of “secular freethinkers” and “repressed groups,”? No my friend, it was staffed top to bottom with Christians, and mostly “conservative” ones at that.

Now don’t try and come firing back with slanders and libels against me, accusing me of being the kind of Conservative Christian you are talking about. Please don’t claim that I am trying to unreasonably defend my cult ( And I know that’s exactly what you’re thinking as you’re reading this. Isn’t it?) Because my dear Friend, I am NO Christian. In fact, I think most of it is superstitious nonsense. But I am not silly enough to think that Christians, and Christian thought, and Christian influence, and Christian Blood, did not play the major and most significant part in our countries history to this point. I may not like that prickly fact and I can tell you certainly don’t, but that doesn’t make it untrue.


[edit on 3-7-2008 by passenger]

This is not true. Although many christians used the idea of the "divine right" to justify slavery, there is no way to rationally prove the "majority" of the christians believed this.