get donkey!

So is this what “Moral Values” means?

It seems that the moral folks at the Cary Christian School down in NC would like to teach the children that slavery was just peachy…

Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using “Southern Slavery, As It Was,” a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren’t treated as badly as people think.

Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery.

“You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective,” he said.

Check out the skinny on one of the authors of this booklet…

The booklet’s other author, Steve Wilkins, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.

“Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement,” said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report.

Potok said people who argue that the South should secede again have latched onto the writings of Wilson and Wilkins, which portray the Confederacy as the last true Christian civilization.

ugh. More…

Until two years ago, Stephenson said, middle school students also had read excerpts from “Southern Slavery.” He said the booklet was a counterpoint to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which he said portrayed all Southern whites as treating their slaves badly.

Once the Civil War was no longer taught in middle school, Stephenson said, Cary Christian stopped using the booklet in those grades.

But the 43-page booklet is still read in its entirety by ninth-graders when they study the Civil War. Stephenson said the booklet can help students formulate arguments when taking the pro-Southern side in debates.

“A student may be assigned an opinion they may not agree with, so they will understand both sides,” Stephenson said.

Okay, then I suggest that the school have their ninth-graders read Hustler in case they have to take the pro-pornography side of a debate. Or maybe they could spend a two-days studying the works of Anton LeVay in case they have to take a pro-Satanism side of a debate. Finally, maybe the ninth graders can take a few hits off a crack-pipe in case they have to take a pro-drug-use position in a debate.

Here’s my favorite part from one of the moral parents at the moral “Christian” school…

“They really do get both sides of the story,” Kennedy said. “In public schools, all they get is one side of the story. That’s not education. That’s indoctrination.”

And just so you don’t think I am making stuff up, here are some snippets from the booklet:

‘SOUTHERN SLAVERY, AS IT WAS’

Here are some excerpts from the booklet:

* “To say the least, it is strange that the thing the Bible condemns (slave-trading) brings very little opprobrium upon the North, yet that which the Bible allows (slave-ownership) has brought down all manner of condemnation upon the South.” (page 22)

* “As we have already mentioned, the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery was not perfect or sinless, but the reality was a far cry from the horrific descriptions given to us in modern histories.” (page 22)

* “Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence.” (page 24)

* “There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world.” (page 24)

* “Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care.” (page 25)

* “But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends.” (page 27)

* “Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South — and had a much easier existence.” (page 30)

But guess what, after attempting to defend the indefensible, the school pulled the booklet based on “faulty footnotes and citations”. I bet they are really sorry…

That they got caught, that is.

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December 10th, 2004 Posted by Rob | General comments | one comment