Christianity and Civil Rights

We're here.

And treat. Two, one. Happy Wednesday, everyone.

It is February the 1st. I'm Ryan Hill. I want a new producer. You've got to leave.

What's that? I'm John Galantis. Oh, my goodness.

We're going off the rails right out of the gate. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidjan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayshow.com. Or if you have a question for Dr. Shah or suggestion for a future episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayshow.com.

That's right. And you guys can help us keep the conversation going by liking this podcast. You can support us online, share it with someone who needs to hear the Gospel today. And listen, leave us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, Audible, anywhere that you get your podcasts from. I say Audible every week because it just still hits me crazy that our podcast is on Audible. Especially, it's not really something that we pursued.

We didn't say, Hey, check. We'd like it on Audible. She's like, you're on Audible now.

Right. I feel like Audible really should be sponsoring us. I could read an Audible ad at the top of every podcast. Audible, send us an email about sponsorship. And then send us a check. And we're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so y'all can do that. Oh, an email from Audible.

It's a cease and desist. Oh, no. Why don't you read them the verse of the day?

I would love to. The verse of the day today comes from Psalm 56, verse four. In God, I will praise His word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear.

What can flesh do to me? Yeah. I mean, we live in a world of constant change. But there's always a constant, and that's God. And that's a constant that we can trust. And that helps me because I fear change.

I do not like change at all. Yeah. I love that this is the second verse of the day this week that has dealt with fear. And listeners at home, if you've been listening this week and you've had both of those verses and they've kind of hit your ears, perhaps God is trying to tell you something.

I know for me, anytime I have multiple verses back to back that deal with the same thing, it's God trying to get my attention. Yeah. And fear is something that I have struggled with in the past. It is something, you know, thinking ahead toward the future. We've talked about that on the show before. Like, I often will get locked down and worry, like, what if this happens?

What if this doesn't happen? We don't have to fear change. We don't have to fear the future, because we know who God is. He is our constant. His word is our constant. And that is the foundation upon which we build our lives. That's exactly right.

Well said. I hate to shift into negativity now, but I'm about to care. I don't know how long. I am ready to shift into negativity. Yeah, how long I got? I got maybe three or four more minutes.

Why don't you go get you a cup of coffee? Because I'm about to address the listeners, because apparently my comments last week have invited some backlash on Star Wars, which I should have known was going to happen. The Star Wars fandom, I'm not going to say toxic, but they are vocal and they don't like it when you criticize Star Wars. So again, I'm going to say this as a Star Wars fan. I like Star Wars.

Strong within the toxicity. I love Star Wars. But Star Wars is boring. I'm not going to apologize for that. So, let's just break it down.

I don't have very long. Let's break it down. Number one and number two. Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones.

They have no story whatsoever. Tell me the main character of Phantom Menace. Can anybody in this room tell me the main character of Phantom Menace? I mean, I would say if anybody, it would be Anakin. Okay, what's Anakin's goal?

To be a Jedi? We don't meet him until 45 minutes into the movie. The movie has no plot. It has no main character. Number two, Attack of the Clones has a plot, but it's so incomprehensible that nobody knows what's going on.

It's ludicrous. Jar Jar Binks is fine. Everybody says he's the reason the movies stink, but he's the only person in either of those movies that has any life at all. Revenge of the Sith, it's pretty good.

I'm not going to lie. Revenge of the Sith is fine, but it's way too little, way too late, because Anakin turns evil just like that. He's good in movie one, movie two, halfway through movie three, and then all of a sudden he's like, I'm evil. I'll be bad now. And the whole trilogy is about his downfall.

So it's way too little, way too late. Original trilogy has pretty good characters, but again, Return of the Jedi. Boring.

It's boring. Most of the movie is the Ewok sequence. Does anybody in this room like Endor? Did anybody like when they were on Endor? For most of the movie, you liked the Endor sequence? I liked the little Ewoks, but I didn't. Get in your mic and tell them why you like Endor.

Don't you remember when they were like racing on those little like air bike, hover bike things? Yeah, that's a cool sequence, but that doesn't make a good movie. Most of the movie is boring. Also, Anakin brought peace and prosperity to his new republic.

What about it? That doesn't make the movie not boring. I'm not even going to touch the Disney trilogy because I think I'm out of time. But what I'm saying is, stop texting in here saying that I don't know what I'm talking about when I say Star Wars is boring. It is boring. I still like it. I'm just not going to say they're good.

Sure. Yeah, you can like it. You can like boring movies.

I watched a documentary the other day about an aluminum can factory that was going out of business. It was boring, but it was still good and I liked it. So stop atting me. You got so heated about Star Wars. Dude, Star Wars fans, man, they just don't want you to tell the truth.

You have to be brainwashed into thinking that it's fun. Well. Sorry. I'm coming across like someone who doesn't like Star Wars.

I hate to hear that for you guys. Stop writing in those angry comments for time. It's going to be okay. You can love your Star Wars. You can dress up in your Jedi robes.

It's fine. Nah, don't do that. Don't do that.

Maybe don't do that. We've got an exciting show planned for you guys today. Lots of fun stuff that we're going to talk about. We're going to get Dr. Sean in just a minute. But if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, write in and let us know.

252-582-5028. And I'm going to be calm after this. I'm going to be calm.

I'm done. You're good. You're fine. I'm good. You're okay. Give me a water. Give me a water.

We'll be back after this. Start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

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Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shaw is with us in the studio today. Welcome to the studio, Dr. Shaw. It's great to be here.

I hope you guys are doing well. Hey, man, it's hump day. Everybody knows you just need that little Clear View Today boost just to get you over that hump in the week. Midweek slump, not on Clear View Today. Somebody's like, I got that hump in my back, man.

Hey, guess what? Clear View Today is going to help you get rid of that. But you do see a chiropractor.

Yeah, we are not licensed chiropractors, but we can help you get over the hump of the week, especially if you're new and joining with us this morning or this afternoon, this evening, whenever you might be listening to. Dr. Abaddon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Now, I know what you're thinking. I know what they're thinking.

What are they thinking? I want to follow Dr. Shaw's work online. Well, you can do that at his website.

That's AbaddonShaw.com. That's right. And on today's episode, we're on February the 1st. So, this is the start of Black History Month.

Yes. And it's a chance for us to reflect over American history, reflect over some notable people who've made an impact, and a chance for us to really think about progress in America. Now, our nation is not a perfect nation.

I don't think there are any. And ours, we've got a ways to go. But we can celebrate things like this in America because of progress.

And that's only possible through our nation's foundation upon biblical values. That's the only reason we can even have this discussion. Yeah. It is very tragic. It's sad. And I would also add the word ignorant when people almost make it look like Christianity is the cause of the problems we have.

I'll go ahead and say it. Intelligent people don't say things like that. So, if you're saying things like that, you haven't really done your homework.

So, study. And even secular scholars who are objective—there's a difference there—secular scholars who are objective do recognize the impact that Christianity or the Judeo-Christian foundation has made on American culture or Western culture. And so, when we talk about the evils of our society, right, there were Christians who had slaves. And that's wrong. They shouldn't have done that. It's wrong.

And it counts. You can't justify slavery. Okay, so don't do that.

I know some people try to make it look like, well, life there versus life in America. Let's not do that. That's not very nice. People who have been hurt by racism or prejudice or those kind of things don't find that as, well, you know what? That's a good point you made there. They actually look at it and go, how dare you?

Yeah. Well, it's one of those weird things, because I think when Christians are confronted with stuff like this, they tend to become very apologetic, or they tend to become really almost scared and defensive. Like, they have to apologize for the sins of the Father type thing. You know what I mean by that?

Instead of standing on their biblical convictions and defending them, it's almost like they're ready to agree with something they don't even believe in. Right, right. So definitely condemn slavery, condemn racism of any kind. But at the same time, be objective when you talk about the scripture really was a source of this. Of course, there were people who used it the wrong way or tried to, you know, we heard about the slave Bible and things like that. Yeah, that was totally wrong.

Should have done that. There's no justification for it. Having said that, true biblical Christianity, everywhere it went, it liberated people. And people will buck that, because people will say that Christianity is not the liberator, it's the oppressor, and that the nation would have flourished way more, or the world may have flourished way more if Christianity had never existed.

Right. That's exactly the opposite of what happened through Judeo-Christian values. Everywhere the Judeo-Christian values went, they brought dignity to human beings, whether the human beings are women, or the human beings are slaves, or the human beings are any marginalized people anywhere. Christianity actually brought a sense of respect to people. Where does this idea come from, that Christianity is the oppressor? Like, do they point to specific examples? Or is this just sort of like a fabricated like, we want to place the blame on somebody, so we're going to place the blame on you?

Yeah, I think it's taking examples of people who claim to be Christians, or they use the Bible to oppress others, and they make it look like that's what Christianity is. Well, shucks, I could do that too. I can just guilt by association, just make everybody look like, oh, you're just the worst person in the world, because you're connected to this, or you come from this side of town. But we don't do that. We know like, no, no, that's that.

But this person is not that way. Right? So, so also, if you study the history of Christianity, I mean, that's what I want us to focus on. Everywhere it went, especially in those early centuries, it changed the lives of people for the better. You know?

Yeah, I wonder, I wonder how many people would say that, well, it's only that that did happen. But it's only because in that time, technology wasn't as advanced. Now that we've become a more enlightened society, we really don't need Christianity anymore. It was only because those ancient people, yeah, they had nothing at all, but because they had, because now they're getting technology or whatever, now because they're getting smarter, we really don't need to use Christianity as a crutch. Not understanding or not realizing that the reason they have that technology and that scientific advancement is because of Christianity in the first place. If only knowledge, if only technology, if only advancement could solve the problem of the human heart, there would not be a Nazi Holocaust. Germany was on the top of the world when it came to advancement and technology and education and accomplishments. And look what the society did.

It's terrible, right? Millions of Jewish people sent to the gas chamber. So let's not talk about technology as being the source of hope for us, because that doesn't work like that. In fact, technology comes because Christians began to see the world in a whole different light. Like, for example, let's talk about science for a moment. Although there were a lot of advancement throughout history regarding architecture, mathematics, medicine, as Stanley Jackie in his book, The Savior of Science, says that science was a standstill, a stillbirth as far as science was concerned. That's what he says.

Because, you know, modern science came out of the middle ages when Western Christians began to see their world as a rational, ordered cosmos that can be probed, okay? Harnessed and improved. Yeah. We talked about that a little bit in the content series. We went through step-by-step scientifically through Genesis.

Right. So yes, there are a lot of wonderful architecture out there in ancient times, medieval times and all that. Yes, you know, mathematics and medicine, you know, you hear of a lot of progress made in different cultures, the Chinese culture or the Arab culture or the Indian culture.

Yes, there are a lot of wonderful things there. But science, how can we see the sun, not as a god to be worshipped, but as a burning star that gave light and energy? That way of, that shift in thinking, that came from a Judeo-Christian background.

So even the whole idea of scientific reasoning, science, you know, the discovery of things or the inventions, they were patterned after theological reasoning, just the way, say, Augustine or Aquinas or Anselm of, you know, the way they made theological arguments is what they used to make scientific arguments with propositions and then conclusions and things like that. Yeah. I'm glad you bring that up because I feel like there's a lot of times where people think of Christianity or even just religion and science as enemies. They're opposites.

They don't get to enter into the same playing field. Right. But it's clear, and you've brought this out multiple times, it's clear that the more you study science, it really supports the Bible. It supports Christianity because God is the one who authored science.

Right, exactly. So let's not look at Christianity or biblical values or Judeo-Christian principles as inhibitors to progress. To the contrary, science came about because of Christianity and Judeo-Christian values.

Right. Well, you even say stuff about like scientific reasoning and how people learn to ask these questions. You know, I think a lot of misconceptions that come out of Christianity is really coming from people's access to education. People will say all the time that Christianity was in the Bible was just for the elite. It wasn't for the public to be able to learn. People used the Bible as a tool to oppress because they had the enlightenment and the common people didn't. Right. But I mean, that's not true.

That's not true. I mean, in fact, Jewish people or even Christians were known as the people of the book because they were students. They studied things.

And when they studied the Bible, let's start with the Bible, and they saw how the world was created and how we are all made in the image of God, it changed the way they saw the people around them. So in the Roman Empire, Christians were the ones who outlawed infanticide, you know, like killing of children. Abortion is nothing new.

It was happening back then too. Child abandonment, they would take a baby girl, right? If it's a girl, then, oh my goodness, so much, so much we have to pay in dowry and blah, blah, blah. So they would take that little child and just leave them out of the elements to be eaten by wild animals or to be killed by the rain or winter or heat, whatever.

That's what they did. And abortion, you know, this is about 83, 74. It's a great book out there. It has been for many years called How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin Schmidt. And I know you guys have read that book. I think I read that for school.

You lent it to me. Yeah. Great book. Great book. Very good read.

And another good one out there is by D. James Kennedy. What if Jesus had never been born? It's sort of elementary, but it still does a great job. Yeah. So that's a hard-hitting question. What if Jesus had never been born? How would our world be different? How would our lives, how would our perspectives be different? Well, I mean, even on the surface, I mean, think about how we structure our year.

Think about how we structure time. All of human history is structured into BC or AD, you know, all based on his birth. Agree with it or not, it's the most influential event to ever, like his birth, his coming is the most influential event to ever grace human history, I guess you could say. And to say, I think to say that we'd be better off without it is so disingenuous because even then there's no hope, there's no value on human life at all. There's nothing that cements us into morals or to, I mean, where do any of that stuff come from without him?

Yeah. It's coming from scriptures. It's coming from the Sermon on the Mount. It's coming from the golden rule, you know, so kind of backing up a little bit, talking about the dignity that Christ and his word or the Judeo Christian values brought. Christians were the first ones to outlaw the brutal battles to the death.

This was about 8404. You know, gladiators would be in this ring or in this pit. And whether it's an animal or whether it's a slave or whether it's just two, you know, very accomplished gladiators or whatever, the crowd would sit there and watch them kill each other, kill each other and be okay with that.

That was the entertainment. Yeah. Now for those of you who think like boxing or martial arts is the same, no, no, it's not the same. There are rules there for that. Okay.

There's somebody stops it here. It's like, go ahead and kill him. Yeah.

The whole point was for them to kill each other. Somebody's not walking out of that arena. Yeah. Yeah.

There's no training. There is no, oh, he's making this money. Well, no, no, you kill him. Yeah. We get joy and pleasure after watching you take that man's life.

And then we go out and drink and have a good time. And Christians said, that is not right. They began to not only walk out of these gladiatorial games, but they even began to challenge the government and they stopped them. And then there were prison reforms by separating male and female prisoners. Imagine, imagine that.

Imagine, you know, some, some of the crazies thrown in there with women. Now, of course, women did something wrong too, but can you imagine what these men would do? And in 8361, because of Christians and their beliefs about the human dignity, they separated them. They also abolished human sacrifice.

This was not just among, you know, some third world countries past, no, no Irish, the Prussians, the Lithuanians and others. They practiced human sacrifice. Wow. And Christians said, no. Okay.

We're done. You don't think about that. You'd never think about human sacrifice existing post Jesus, right? You always think of it as some old Testament, ancient, lost civilizations. In many parts of the world, they were happening right up until, you know, past 100 years or so.

Wow. You know, the British government, you know, coming to India was one of the reasons why, you know, things like polygamy and, and even the practice of burning widows alive, we call it sati, when the woman would die. And usually the bride would be much younger. So she's still alive.

So it was expected for her to jump onto her husband's funeral pyre. When was this? When the British came?

Yeah. Well, that's when they outlawed it. But when that was like, what, the 1800s or something like that? 1800, 1716, just keep going. I mean, that's what they did. That's like, that's like what civil war time, right?

Civil war in America. That's about the time when they, 1829 is when they tried to outlaw sati. And so that's, it was happening up until that point. Right. And, and beyond that. Okay. So it didn't stop just because the British outlawed it. It continued. Wow.

In the villages. And if I'm not wrong, even up until the past three, four decades, it was happening. Wow.

Yeah. And so we would hear that here and there in the newspaper papers about, you know, so-and-so and so-and-so village, this woman was burned alive. Because, you know, sometimes the women didn't want to jump in the husband's funeral pyre. But it was socially expected that they did. Expected?

How, how, what kind of a wife are you? Yeah. Unreal.

So we'll push you on there. So that seems bizarre. Yeah. Well, that's just saying you're talking about it, but then that goes back to what we're talking about.

Christianity put a stop to all that. Yeah. And I'm not going to for a moment, because I know somebody's out there is going to say, well, are you telling me everything the British government did in these countries was right?

No, not for a moment will I say, oh, colonialism was the best thing that happened. Of course not. Yeah.

Yeah. I wouldn't say, you know, again, I wouldn't say that British colonialism was, you know, right in everything that they did. Of course not. Of course not. But there are other some things that they brought, which I believe was very beneficial, at least to the life of that woman who, who was like, thank goodness.

I don't have to down this. You just don't think about stuff like that happening in this day and age. Like I said, I feel like that's something that would happen in like ancient Mesopotamia or like the Canaan lands or something like that in India in the 1800s. Yeah.

Well, and it shows. Or 1900. Or the 1900s. Wow. It shows, it shows how far gone those places were until Christianity came in, until those biblical influences came in and sort of brought things back to the right track. That's what I don't understand about people who say that we can have morals without Christianity, but where does it come from?

Yeah. How do you define morality? Those people who were doing that in India were like, we're good people for this. This is a tradition.

This is a good choice for you as the wife to jump on your husband's funeral pipe. This is culturally appropriate for us to be doing and outsiders should not be coming in and telling us how to do it. So I don't understand where morals truly come from, if not for Christianity or if not for the word. Now let's shift our gaze towards, you know, we're talking about being Black History Month and racism or how is Christianity the cause? Let's study history. In the Roman Empire, Christians fought to abolish slavery. I mean, if you back up a little further, I mean, think about Paul's letter to Philemon, right? About Onesimus is about slavery. But the way he did it, it's so good.

It's not like he said, thou shall not. He just said, this is my brother. Yeah. Right. Right. Receive him as a brother.

That's right. Now, what are you going to do? Can you imagine enslaving your own brother? So what a powerful way that Paul did that.

So no one can accuse him and say, well, you're trying to dismantle the institutions of our culture or civilization. No, no, no, I'm not. I'm just calling him my brother. Yeah.

And he's your brother too. Yeah. So now you work it out.

So smart, so clever in how he presented that. Right. Is there any defense for people to say, but yeah, but 18th century America, slavery, not the same thing. I mean, Christians still fought to abolish that slavery as well. Right. Right. Of course, like if you go to England, you know, names like William Wilberforce helped abolish the slave trade and slavery in the British empire by 1840. You know, names like John Newton, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.

All right. He was a captain of a slave ship. He was not a good man, but when he got saved from there on, he began to work towards abolishing slavery. And of course, John Wesley, all these people were part of the church who fought against the system, the corrupt system. And then of course, in the United States, there were Christians who supported slavery and that was wrong, but a vast majority fought to abolish it. I mean, two thirds were Christian pastors speaking against it, you know?

So how easy it is for this woke world to start claiming that we're the problem when travel back in time and see who are the ones on the front lines, right? Who are the ones who are fighting against slavery? And even, I mean, take for example, people like Stonewall Jackson, right? From the Confederate side, I mean, you know, was teaching Sunday school to his slaves, to the African American, which was unheard of anywhere. But he was doing that. Now, was he right about being part against slavery?

Of course not. And, you know, in time, you know, the way I believe as John brought us, who I believe said that, he said, you know, Providence has changed our minds. Now we see scripture in a whole new light and we know that slavery was wrong. So there you have it.

Amen. That's awesome. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, or you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

You can visit our website, ClearviewTodayShow.com, to support us financially. We're grateful for you as giving partners. And we're thankful for the impact that you're making through this radio show, Reaching People with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Shah, today's closing question comes from Jason G. What is the most difficult part of preaching? To me, the most difficult part is finding that one statement. That is the main point of the message. Because I have so much, right? I don't have to worry about making the word relevant. I, you know, the word of God is powerful, living and powerful, sharper than two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and in a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the word of God will do its work. But to get my, the point of my message in that one statement or two, three statements, a short paragraph, is the hardest thing to do.

But once I have that, it's good. Wow, that's awesome. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.