Yeah, I too long for the days past when the US had less cultural problems/conflicts due to high church attendance numbers.
You're just picking and choosing. In reality, religious organizations, like the Catholic church for example, were fighting the opposite fight. Perez v Sharp in California was orchestrated by the church: http://ccgaction.org/node/1011
Of course, if we encourage community involvement, there will be good organizations and bad ones. For example, we provide 501(c)3 status to both Planned Parenthood as well as a pro-life organization.
The SBC was and remains the largest christian organization in the US, and it was founded for the express purpose of defending slavery.
The Catholic church is by far the largest christian organization in the united states.
SBC is a distant second:
https://theosophical.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/top-10-largest...
The SBC was and remains the largest protestant organization in the US, and it was founded for the express purpose of defending slavery.
If you dismiss such things as mere "picking and choosing", you're unlikely to to be able to understand viewpoints to which you're inclined to disagree.
You said the SBC was the largest Christian denomination. Then, when that was false, you changed it to 'largest Protestant organization'.
I mean, you can restrict things down to anything to prove a point. Did you know my McDonalds down the block has the highest sales revenue of any McDonalds in inner NE portland between the hours of 5 and 7PM? It's just crazy that we're blessed with such a prestigious example of fine business in my area.
If your argument mainly focuses on whether the SBC is the first or second largest American religious organization, then I guess you win. Congratulations!
It pains me to point out something so obvious, but the SBC was only one of the large mainstream Christian denominations to actively support slavery, and to later actively oppose civil rights for non-whites. But if you're able to dismiss the entire tortured and complicated historical relationship between American Christianity and racial oppression with a handy comparison to a neighborhood restaurant, then I guess you win again.
And my point was that it's a mixed bag. While a lot of support for slavery was nominally Christian, so was a lot of opposition.
For example, the Battle Hymn of the Republic is just that -- a hymn -- and its words on slavery are absolutely brutal. You can say 'christianity was a force for slavery' but you can't say that while not also acknowledging christianity was behind abolition as well.
:)
> my point was that it's a mixed bag. While a lot of support for slavery was nominally Christian, so was a lot of opposition.
Ok, but that's not what you said. You objected, without qualification, to the notion that large mainstream christian denominations supported white supremacy. IIRC, you said such talk was "picking and choosing".
Now, if the new location of your goalposts is their true permanent home, I'm happy to report that we agree with each other!
And I mean, this even comletely ignores blacks who form their own groups definitely not united all that much with above.