Juneteenth: The Triumph of Radical Christianity

For [Pilate] knew that it was out of envy that they had handed [Jesus] over (Matt 27:18).

Juneteenth, and the Emancipation Proclamation which it celebrates, would have never happened but for the persuasive and tenacious actions of a small minority of ardent abolitionists. While these men and women lived in the Northern states, the vast majority of Northerners were not abolitionists, and most considered them to be far too radical. Of a total population of over 31 million in 1860, of which nearly 4 million were slaves, it was estimated there were only approximately 250,000 abolitionists—those Americans who actively worked for the end of slavery—in the US. That is less than 1% of the population.

Abolitionists

It was those abolitionists, black and white, working feverishly through the publication of hundreds of newspapers, letters, and speeches, and subject to much antagonism and even death, who brought about the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect in January 1863.

In the US, the entire abolitionist movement began in the various Christian churches throughout the North: Quaker, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian ministers and congregants came together in the 1820s and 1830s. Their meetings combined men and women, white and black, and their demands for the immediate abolition of slavery were based upon the teachings of Jesus.

“If a law commands me to sin I will break it; if it calls me to suffer, I will let it take its course unresistingly.” Angelina Grimké, abolitionist.

Pope Gregory XVI Condemned Slavery

While Catholics made a very small minority of Americans before the Civil War era, Pope Gregory XVI condemned all slavery in his 1839 encyclical:

The slave trade, although it has been somewhat diminished, is still carried on by numerous Christians. Therefore, desiring to remove such a great shame from all Christian peoples . . . and walking in the footsteps of Our Predecessors, We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare to bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery (in servitutem redigere) Indians, Blacks or other such peoples. Nor are they to lend aid and favor to those who give themselves up to these practices, or exercise that inhuman traffic by which the Blacks, as if they were not humans but rather mere animals, having been brought into slavery in no matter what way, are, without any distinction and contrary to the rights of justice and humanity, bought, sold and sometimes given over to the hardest labor.

Emancipation

The abolitionists, together with members of the Free Soil Party and anti-slavery Democrats, created the Republican Party on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. By 1860, they were able to elect the President of the United States, and by 1863, achieve emancipation for all slaves. While total emancipation would not take effect until the war’s end in 1865, it was achieved only through the tireless efforts of Christian abolitionists.

Juneteenth

On Juneteenth, therefore, let us celebrate those outspoken and strong-willed women and men, black and white, who were willing to fight for the God-given rights of all people. Let us be strong in the face of the shouts and taunts, for, in the words of Frederick Douglass:

The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side has a majority against the universe. Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.

Let us be fearless in standing up to those who submit that some humans are less human and unworthy of life itself.

But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5:44).