Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/69

Rh Church declared "slavery is contrary to the laws of God," and "hurtful to society;" in 1784 it refused to admit slave-holders to its communion—passing a vote to exclude all such. But in 1836 the general conference voted "not to interfere in the civil and political relations between master and slave," and exhorted its ministers "to abstain from all abolition movements." The general conference since declared that American slavery "is not a moral evil." The conference of South Carolina has made a similar declaration.

In 1794 the Presbyterian Church added a note to the eighth commandment, bringing slavery under that prohibition, declaring it manstealing and a sin. Yet, though often entreated, it did not excommunicate for that offence. In 1816, by a public decree, the note was erased. Numerous Presbyteries and Synods have passed resolutions like these: "Slavery is not opposed to the will of God;" "It is compatible with the most fraternal regard to the best good of those servants whom God may have committed to our charge." Even the Catholic Church in the United States forms no exception to the general rule. The late lamented Dr England, the Catholic bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, undertook in public to prove that the Catholic Church had always been the uncompromising friend of slaveholding, not defending the slaves' right, but the usurped privilege of the masters. What a difference between the present Christian Pope of Rome, and the bishop of a democratic State in a Christian republic!

It has been currently taught in the most popular churches of the land, that slavery is a "Christian institution," sustained by the apostles, and sanctioned by Christ himself. None of the theological parties has been so little connected with slavery as the Unitarians—perhaps from the smallness of the sect itself, and its northern latitude—but, for years, one of its vice-presidents was a slave-holder.

While the Southern churches teach that slavery is Christian, the Northern join in the belief. Here and there a few voices in the North have been lifted up against it; seldom an eminent voice in an eminent place, then to be met with obloquy and shame. Almost all the churches in the land seem joined in opposing such as draw public attention to the fact that a Christian republic holds millions of