Lest we forget
James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, was speaking at an event commemmorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK, when he strayed away from what he might have been expected to say. Far from remembering the undoubted part Christians played in abolishing slavery, he reminded those present of the part the Church played in maintaining it.
“The fact that William Wilberforce became a committed Christian and championed the passing through Parliament of the Bill to abolish the Slave Trade could be, and indeed has been, taken by Christians to be both evidence and example of how Christianity inspires radical social action and transformation. Although that is an attractive thesis and has within it seeds of truth, the fuller picture is much more complicated.
“The Establishment countenanced both slavery and the trade, fearing that abolition would threaten the British Empire with economic ruin. The Bishops, with the notable exception of the Bishop of Chester, Reilly Porteus, who later went on to become ‘Bishop of London’ sided with the Establishment.”
(From Ekklesia.)
(Maggi also has some thoughts on the issue.)
pax et bonum
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