[Vision2020] Slavery, their way

[J Ford]

ToeKnee and others;

Thought you might like to see how others in the country see this issue.  
This is an article that came out a couple of years ago (NOTE - Wilson 
declined to make a statement even when asked to):

In American schools, they do teach the history of their own nation with 
multiple viewpoints:

(Raleigh-Durhan News Observer)  School defends slavery booklet.  By T. Keung 
Hui.  December 9, 2004.

    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.

    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."

    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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J  :|

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