President Barack Obama Calls Out Christianity

canada goose coats on sale Conflicts that happened about a thousand years ago don often make news, but on Thursday President Obama brought the Crusades back into the spotlight. lest we get on our high horse and think buy canada goose jacket this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ, he said. our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Canada Goose Coats On Sale Christ. Opponents quickly jumped on the remarks as offensive to Christians, arguing that the Crusades happened so Canada Goose Jackets long ago that they not worth mentioning. But, even so, the history behind the relationship between slavery, Jim Crow and religion is one that certainly illustrates Obama point. And, while the President opponents seem to have largely ignored that part of the sentence in their responses to the Prayer Breakfast, that canadian goose jacket more recent past offers parallels for today especially because the President only told half of the story. canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Parka It no slander to say that slavery and Jim Crow were often justified the name of Christ, since that true. It wasn even Canada Goose online very long ago that such justifications received legislative attention. Though slavery itself may, to some, fall with the Inquisition into the too long ago to matter category, faith inspired reasons for racism persisted long into the 20th century. Canada Goose Parka

canada goose black friday sale Take, for example, Theodore Bilbo. The powerful Southern politician was named by TIME as 1946 of the Year. really savor the fulsome putrescence of Bilbo bigotry. Bilbo had been Governor of Mississippi and a Senator for the state, as well as the frequent protagonist of smaller dramas, having been tried over the years on charges that ranged from contempt of court to bribery. He had been trained as a Southern Baptist minister, though not ordained, and was buy canada goose jacket cheap also a Ku Klux Klansman. He never made any secret of his feelings against both Jews and African Americans he was Canada Goose Online so well known for his racism that in 1945 the cheap Canada Goose Broadway play Strange Fruit, which was about race relations, used a negative quote from Bilbo as part of an advertisement but it was in 1946 that he published canada goose factory sale a screed he titled Separation or Mongrelization, Take Your Choice. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose clearance sale The book central canada goose outlet argument was that he didn actually hate any race, but rather that he believed they should be canada goose black friday sale kept entirely separate, an idea that he supported with spurious historical examples of race mixing causing various civilizations from canada goose uk outlet ancient history to canada goose store collapse. The reason seemed obvious to canada goose clearance sale him: fact that God did ordain the division of the people of the earth into separate races as a part of the Divine plan is sufficient for our purpose, uk canada goose he wrote. In a chapter called Concepts of the Christian Religion, he continued the point, arguing that God had placed the races canada goose coats on sale in different parts of the Earth canada goose uk shop in order to keep them separate, and citing scriptural passages bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord to support the importance of that separation. And, though he claims Canada Goose sale that he bears no ill will toward the other uk canada goose outlet races, he makes clear that he knows that separate does not mean equal. canada goose clearance sale

canada goose coats Bilbo was not alone in his belief that religion mandated racism. And remember, this is 1946, not Medieval times or even the antebellum era. If chronological closeness is the barrier for comparison, then certainly the President is justified in drawing a connection between such deeds justified in the name of Christianity back then and deeds justified in the name of Islam or any other religion today. canada goose coats

buy canada goose jacket cheap But it also interesting to note that that particular chapter of Bilbo book was addressed specifically to those who believed the exact opposite a group that was growing in strength. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose store Even though Obama argument about Jim Crow holds canada goose true, it also true that Christianity (and other religions, though less so due to demographics) was used as an argument against Jim Crow too. And, as time progressed, that side began to prevail. canada goose store

Canada Goose online In fact, a mere two years after the publication of Bilbo book, the Federal Council of Churches officially denounced segregation, stating that Jim Crow was violation of the gospel of love and human brotherhood. Though many Southern churches did not desegregate after that declaration, Christian conferences and councils over the next decades made equality their focus. In https://www.getcanadagooseoutlet.com 1957, for example, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church told its ministers that is unthinkable that a Christian should join himself to Klan or Council whose purpose is to gain its point by intimidation, reprisal and violence, or that he should lift no voice of protest against those who appeal to prejudice and spread fear. As the Civil Rights movement continued, Christianity especially via dedicated organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was one of the driving factors in protest against discrimination. It no coincide that Martin Luther King, Jr., was canada goose uk black friday a minister. Canada Goose online

cheap Canada Goose So Jim Crow was both a perfect example (and a recent one) of the religious rationalization that Obama mentioned Thursday and an example of the way religion can help the world. Which, in the end, although he didn actually get into the details of the complicated relationship between civil rights and Christianity, makes it an even better historical illustration of his point: that faith has often been used to justify cheap canada goose uk evil, so it all the more important to make sure it used to do good instead. As the President put it, the reality is that profound good, the canada goose clearance strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths [operates] canada goose coats alongside those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends cheap Canada Goose.