Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.
Well, this year as America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Breakpoint will examine aspects of the American story through the lens of a Christian worldview. Today, why was slavery established in a country built on such a strong Christian consensus? Thomas Jefferson is rightly called a hypocrite. In the Declaration of Independence, of course, he wrote these famous lines: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And yet, Jefferson was among America's founders who owned slaves.
From thousands of his writings on the establishment of the United States, it's clear that Jefferson understood his moral breach. He held aspirations that slavery would end, but maintained a different reality. Slavery, he once wrote, is like holding a wolf by the ear. We can neither hold him nor safely let him go. According to the Jefferson Monticello Project, and I quote, he thought that his cherished federal union, the world's first democratic experiment, would be destroyed by slavery.
To emancipate slaves on American soil, Jefferson thought, would result in a large-scale race war that would be as brutal and deadly as the slave revolt in Haiti in 1791. But he also believed that to keep slaves in bondage, with part of America in favor of abolition and part of America in favor of perpetuating slavery could only result in a civil war that would destroy the Union.
Now, a helpful framework to understand the gulf that often exists between ideals and practices for a civilization, and certainly in America's founding, comes from the eminent sociologist Petirum Sorokin.
Sorokin described three types of cultures. Ideational cultures, he thought, see reality in terms of eternal and transcendental ideals. With knowledge coming from revelation or mystical experience and values as absolute and eternal. Sensei cultures, on the other hand, focus on the material world, the here and now. They emphasize values that are situational and relative.
Idealistic cultures somewhat combine the two, seeing life as both physical and spiritual, balancing reason with intuition, and with values blending ideals and practical concerns. Jefferson's famous line in the Declaration is certainly ideational. It's an aspiration. It was not yet a reality on the ground in the colonies. On the contrary, the arguments made by pro-slavery factions were most often sensei.
What mattered most to them was the protection of immediate economic interest. Not to mention, those who justified slaveholding by appealing to the New Testament argued contrary to over 1,500 years of the Christian doctrine of the image of God.
Now, for his part, Jefferson just did not see a way to maintain his home at Monticello without slavery. He was $100,000 in debt when he died. Yeah. As such, Jefferson falls into Sorokin's idealistic category. consisting of the ideal that all people deserve liberty, but also unable to see how to make the ideal a reality in the here and now.
The gradual elimination of slavery was most often offered as the common solution, such as what would happen in the northern states. That view is reflected in his words that are described on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.: God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism.
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate. Than that these people are to be free. In a moving film called Amistad, John Quincy Adams' character reflected on his nation's struggle with the ideal of freedom. His words in the film were taken from real historical speeches given by this son of John Adams. Including this plea to the Founding Fathers: quote: We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, ourselves.
Give us the courage to do what is right, and if that means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be finally the last battle of the American Revolution. In fact, the Civil War was fought in defense of the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence, however hypocritical its author was. Still, isn't a culture that has in its creeds the idea that all men are created equal better than a culture that does not have it in its creeds or anywhere else? Of course, no culture has ever lived up to that ideal, but most throughout history never imagined it as an ideal.
Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence were aspirational. It was an ideal for a nation to work toward. Though the country certainly had a lot to work out, it aimed it beyond the moment to a better future. All ideals do that, and the very best ideals are those that are anchored in the truth, especially the truth that human beings are created in the image of God. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources, or to share this commentary with others, go to Breakpoint.org. Hi there, I'm Michael Craven, Vice President and Dean of the Coulson Fellowship.
Does this sound familiar? You're a Christian who wants your faith to inform every part of your life. but you're not sure how to make that connection, especially in the chaotic culture we find ourselves living in. That's where the Colson Fellows program can help. Colson Fellows invest time over 10 months to study how Christianity is so much more than a private, God-in-Me only faith.
It is, as Coulson Fellows discover, the only way of seeing and comprehending reality as it actually is. In other words, it is the truth of reality. The result is a much more confident, courageous faith that's equipped for this and every other cultural moment. And this could be you. Applications for next year's class are now open and you can learn more at colsonfellows.org.
That's colsonfellows.org. I hope to see you in the next class.
