[Vision2020] The Cary, NC--Moscow, ID link

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

Larry Stephenson, now principal of Cary Christian School (CCS) in Cary, NC, 
was once employed at Moscow's Logos School.  Here is CCS's position on 
slavery.  Does this language remind you of anyone?

Position Statement
Preamble:
This statement is intended to provide direction to any CCS schoolteacher 
who in the course of his or her duties at CCS is addressing the subject of 
slavery. In the course of directing class discussion, we would like the 
teachers to bring the students to the following conclusions.

Purpose:
The students should be taught that the reason for studying this issue is to 
remain faithful to the teaching of scripture. By seeing how obedience to 
scripture could quite possibly have protected our fathers (both North and 
South) from a costly and bloody war, had they only obeyed, we may be 
assured of the importance of submitting to the scriptures when it comes to 
our controversies (e.g. abortion, homosexuality), whatever the unbelieving 
world may say about them.

Slave Trade:
Students should learn that the slave trade was an abomination, and that 
those evangelicals in England who led the fight against it are rightly 
considered heroes of the faith. The Bible clearly rejects the practice of 
slave trading (1 Timothy 1:10, Ex. 21:16). In a just social order, slave 
trading could rightly be punished with death.

Hebrew Slavery and Pagan Slavery:
The students should recognize the difference between slavery regulated by 
the Mosaic Law, that is, a slavery that was little more than an indentured 
servant-hood, and slavery as it existed in a pagan empire such as Rome. In 
ancient Israel, it was the duty of those who feared God to simply obey the 
law as God gave it. But when the existing law was that of an unbelieving 
pagan order, it was the duty of Christians living within that system to 
follow biblical instructions carefully so that the Word of God would not be 
blasphemed (1 Timothy 6:1).

Racism:
The students should know that as a matter of biblical principle, and as an 
integral part of our official school position, we denounce every form of 
racism, racial animosity or racial vainglory. God created man in His own 
image, and has made from one blood all the nations of the earth (Acts 
17:26). We believe firmly that in the gospel God has reversed the curse of 
Babel, and that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, 
slave or free, black or white, Asian or Hispanic (Galatians 3:28).

Slavery as an Institution:
Christ died on the cross to set all men free from their sins, and all forms 
of external slavery build on the bedrock of slavery to sin. Therefore, the 
logic of the Great Commission requires the eventual death of slavery as an 
institution in every place where it might still exist. While Christian 
slaves were commanded to work hard for their masters, Christian slaves were 
also told to take any lawful opportunity for freedom (1 Cor. 7:20-24). This 
indicates that slavery as an institution is inconsistent with the 
fundamental spirit of the gospel, and as such it should be considered a 
sinful institution generally, one that invited the judgment of God.

Reformation or Revolution:
The godly pattern of social renewal is never revolution. The revolutionary 
insists on immediate action, through coercive, bloody, and political means. 
In contrast, the work of the gospel is done as silently as yeast working 
through the loaf, and the end result is liberation from sin, love for God, 
and love for one's neighbor. This love for neighbor necessitates the 
recognition that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, 
male or female, white or black (Galatians 3:28). But those revolutionaries 
who are impatient in their spirits always refuse God's teaching in such 
matters. They are proud and ignorant, loving verbal strife, envy, railing, 
and perverse disputes (1 Timothy 6: 3-5).

Just one of Wilson's banshees,

Nick Gier


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