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School defends slavery booklet<br>
Critic says text is 'window dressing'<br><br>
By T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer, <i>NewsObserver</i>, Raleigh, Durham,
Chapel Hill<br><br>
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." <br>
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. <br>
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.
<br>
"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a
Southern perspective," he said. <br>
<br>
The booklet isn't the only connection its two co-authors have with the
school. <br>
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. <br>
Some school leaders, including Stephenson, founded Christ Church in Cary,
which is affiliated with Wilson's Idaho church. <br>
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. <br>
"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. <br>
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. <br>
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. <br>
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.
<br>
<b>Classical education</b> <br>
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. <br>
"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." <br>
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. <br>
Once the Civil War was no longer taught in middle school, Stephenson
said, Cary Christian stopped using the booklet in those grades. <br>
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. <br>
"A student may be assigned an opinion they may not agree with, so
they will understand both sides," Stephenson said. <br>
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. <br>
"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." <br>
Stephenson said the booklet is discussed for two days. Even as they read
the booklet, he said, students are told slavery was wrong. <br>
"Slavery is wrong," Stephenson said. "That's not debatable
about slavery. The South was wrong about the slave trade." <br>
<b>Parent's support</b> <br>
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. <br>
"That book is fine," Ranch said. "It does a good job with
that particular perspective." <br>
But Potok questioned how the school can use a booklet that asserts that
slavery "was a relationship based upon mutual affection and
confidence." <br>
"What these men have written is an apology for slavery," he
said. "They're putting window dressing on an abhorrent
institution." <br>
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. <br>
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. <br>
Lawyer said he thinks few schools use the booklet, which is published by
a company owned by Wilson's Idaho church. <br>
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.
<br>
"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."
<br>
But the use of the booklet is leaving some area pastors concerned that it
could promote intolerance. <br>
"If there's any attempt to divide us, it's totally
un-Christian," said Richard Dial, pastor of Cary Church of God.
<br>
Mike Woods, administrator of Wake Christian Academy, said he couldn't see
his school using "Southern Slavery, As it Was," especially with
younger students. <br>
"It's so easy for some of them to take something they read and
assume you're in favor of it," he said.<br><br>
Staff writer T. Keung Hui can be reached at 829-4534 or
<font color="#0000FF"><u>khui@newsobserver.com.</u></font> <br><br>
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<font size=2>"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any
system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and
studying each part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on
the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true
of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between
science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of
its various parts." --Max Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm</a><br>
208-883-3360/882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
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