Joanna
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer - December 9, 2004
>
> School defends slavery booklet
> Critic says text is 'window dressing'
>
> By T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer
>
> Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a
> controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery
> with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."
>
> 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.
>
> The booklet isn't the only connection its two co-authors have with the
> school.
>
> One of the authors, Douglas Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, wrote a
> book on classical education upon which the school bases its
> philosophy. Wilson's Association of Classical and Christian Schools
> accredited Cary Christian, and he is scheduled to speak at the
> school's graduation in May.
>
> Some school leaders, including Stephenson, founded Christ Church in
> Cary, which is affiliated with Wilson's Idaho church.
>
> 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.
>
> At a time when a number of Triangle Christian schools have lost
> enrollment and even closed, Cary Christian has seen rapid growth since
> it opened in 1996.
>
> The school has 623 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. With a
> relatively low tuition -- up to $5,000 -- it has attracted families
> from 55 churches. At least one parent must be a regular attendee of a
> church.
>
> *Classical education*
>
> Stephenson said the school's growth is based on parental desire for a
> classical education founded on the basics of phonics, grammar, logic
> and rhetoric. Students read many classics, such as the writings of
> Plato and Socrates.
>
> "As a classical Christian school, we think it's important for our
> students to be able to think and not be slanted to a particular
> position," Stephenson said. "We want them to think for themselves."
>
> 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.
>
> Angela Kennedy, whose daughters have attended Cary Christian since
> 1996, said all the booklet does is help students learn about both
> sides so that they have a basis to form their own opinions. She
> pointed out that the students also read Abraham Lincoln's speeches.
>
> "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."
>
> Stephenson said the booklet is discussed for two days. Even as they
> read the booklet, he said, students are told slavery was wrong.
>
> "Slavery is wrong," Stephenson said. "That's not debatable about
> slavery. The South was wrong about the slave trade."
>
> *Parent's support*
>
> Marcus Ranch, who has three daughters at Cary Christian, said he has
> no problem with the school using the booklet. He said it offers an
> accurate portrayal that is overlooked of how many slaves were treated
> kindly by their owners.
>
> "That book is fine," Ranch said. "It does a good job with that
> particular perspective."
>
> But Potok questioned how the school can use a booklet that asserts
> that slavery "was a relationship based upon mutual affection and
> confidence."
>
> "What these men have written is an apology for slavery," he said.
> "They're putting window dressing on an abhorrent institution."
>
> Potok also blasted the booklet, which was published in 1996, for
> plagiarizing a previous work. The booklet has received criticism from
> a number of historians.
>
> Wilson declined to comment and referred questions to his assistant,
> Mike Lawyer. Lawyer said the booklet has been pulled from publication
> because of faulty footnotes and citation errors.
>
> Lawyer said he thinks few schools use the booklet, which is published
> by a company owned by Wilson's Idaho church.
>
> But Lawyer said the authors stand by their central belief that the
> Civil War didn't have to happen and that slavery would have ended on
> its own.
>
> "The Southern Poverty Law Center is just trying to make money out of
> this," Lawyer said. "The Southern Poverty Law Center is totally off
> base to think in any way that the book is neo-Confederate."
>
> But the use of the booklet is leaving some area pastors concerned that
> it could promote intolerance.
>
> "If there's any attempt to divide us, it's totally un-Christian," said
> Richard Dial, pastor of Cary Church of God.
>
> Mike Woods, administrator of Wake Christian Academy, said he couldn't
> see his school using "Southern Slavery, As it Was," especially with
> younger students.
>
> "It's so easy for some of them to take something they read and assume
> you're in favor of it," he said.
>
> ----
>
> '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)
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