I would like to answer one question here that was raised over in the World cafeteria, now that the sweeping up over there must be started. The question was raised as to whether Steve or I have backed away from the argument of our little booklet. First, I would like to answer the question for the obvious reason that it is a most pertinent question. And second, some folks in the right-wing fever swamps are saying that Steve and I are now kowtowing to the pc-police, falling all over ourselves to repudiate racism. We have taken a little heat, the thinking goes, and so we are backing and filling, waffling and noodling.
Not at all. My position on the lawfulness of Philemon’s slave-holding have not changed in the slightest. My view that American slavery was more benign than the ancient forms of slavery that St. Paul addressed has not changed. My view that slavery as an institution is contrary to the logic of the gospel, and that the progress of the gospel will result in the elimination of all slavery, has not altered. The gospel really is good news — a jubilee for all men in Christ. My position that racism is a grotesque form of idolatry has not changed, not even a little bit.
In everything I have written on this subject, from the beginning, I have always been very careful to not only repudiate racism, but also to insult it. The leftist jihad-johnnies did not catch those caveats because they can read but cannot think. Those in the white skinist movement did not catch them because they can think but not read.
I have taken this stand, not because I am a Southern jingoist, and not because I am clamoring for a “do over” at Gettysburg. The South was right on the constitutional issues surrounding that war and, had I been back there with my current convictions, I would have fought for the South. In fact, since I am doing a historical thought experiment right now, Terry Morin would have been in the same regiment with me. He didn’t leave us until after Chickamauga. But I am not back there, and in the providence of God, the Lord Jesus judged the South (along with the rest of the nation) for a reason.
This stand on slavery has been taken because I am a biblical absolutist. That is the issue, and that is the only issue. I made a determination many years ago that I would not ever be embarrassed by anything in the Bible, and — bad news for a lot a pc-Christians — there is a lot about slavery in the Bible. But there is bad news for the skinists as well — there is lot about racial reconciliation in Christ. A good portion of the New Testament is dedicated to it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is one of the main points. Not the vain unity of statist Babel — rather Pentecost.