[ExI] History of Slavery

[Lee Corbin]

gts writes

> A couple of years ago I happened to watch Dr. James Kennedy on television...
> 
> Wow, he lost me there. I didn't know God did not like or did not want to  
> be in the presence of liberals. :)

Well, now you know.  I am sure that if He existed, he'd have no more use
for them than I do   :-)

> That comment also made his speech seem to me a bit hypocritical. He was  
> applauding the anti-slavery efforts of William Wilberforce, a conservative  
> Christian and a member of the conservative Tory party in England in the  
> 1780's. Wilberforce, Kennedy suggested, was a Good Christian who deserved  
> most or all the credit for abolishing slavery in England.
> 
> I didn't know much about the history of slavery in England, but I thought  
> it odd that ultra-conservative Dr. Kennedy was speaking about a basically  
> liberal idea even in a speech in which he suggested political liberals  
> were heathens.

Sounds to me that you may be confusing "liberal" as in 18th century
opposition to Tories, which is what Hayek would call a "classical
liberal", with what passes for "liberalism" today, with its decidedly
left-leaning tilt.

> Anyway...to make a long story short.... it was while studying Wilberforce  
> that I learned that the humble, peace-loving Quakers played an important  
> major role in abolishing slavery in England just as they did here in the  
> USA.
> 
> The Quakers were way ahead of their time, both here and in England. I  
> think American Evangelicals would do well to study and emulate their  
> Quaker brethren.

The Quakers started it, but it spread quickly (because of the reasons, I
guess, that Thomas Sowell puts forth), and the most important point is
that for some reason it really galls the left  that anti-slavery was solely an
invention of the West, and even today is only vaguely supported by
non-Western cultures. Moreover, any support for anti-slavery in non-
Western countries can be traced to Western influence.

So much for their demonization of the West.

Lee