A few events in history are so emblematic of their times that we rightly call them keys to understanding something larger. The Clinton Massacre of 1875 is one such event. Clinton was a small town in Mississippi in 1875. In September of that year, Republican supporters organized a large rally in support of their candidates […]
Tag: Providential Design
The Bloody Sunday Attack at Pettus Bridge – Who Was Edmund Pettus?
The Bloody Sunday Attack at Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is a signature event from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It proved important enough to feature in a Hollywood movie, Selma, that appeared over the winter of 2014-15. While the Bloody Sunday attack at Pettus Bridge is famous, the person for whom […]
American Christianity & Providential Design, Part 2
In our last blog, we introduced the religious doctrine of providential design. Now, it is time to examine all the ways this religious viewpoint poisoned attitudes in American Christianity toward African Americans in the US for many years. We left off by stating that it absolved slaveholders from individual responsibility for the horrors of slavery. […]
Providential Design & American Christianity, Part 1
The doctrine of providential design arose in the United States after the Civil War and the end of slavery. It was, perhaps, the most perfect combination of racism and religion ever created in the United States. To understand the full importance of this pernicious doctrine, let us lay out what its beliefs were. How to […]