Who Owns Slavery?

Beware Biased Reporting on Racial Theories That Ignores History

In a July episode of All Things Considered, NPR religion correspondent Tom Gjelten argues that "White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots in U.S. Christianity."¹ The piece focuses first on two nineteenth-century Southern pastors, Henry Lyon, Jr., and James Henley Thornwall, who defended slavery from their pulpits. A review of these men and others leads Gjelten to conclude, "Elements of racist ideology have long been present in white Christianity in the United States."

He goes on to catalogue a few other historical and living Southern clergy, whom he believes have focused on the salvation of souls to the detriment of social justice. "Evangelicals in particular generally prioritize...