Faith and the Civil Rights Movement

[Phatscotty]

Do you think Christianity helped the civil rights movement? Maybe you think it hurt it? I wonder what people today in 2012 think about the role religion played during the movement. Would it have turned out the same way? How might it have ended up if there was no faith, not just in God or Jesus Christ, but even faith in the principles of Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution?

[Frigidus]

People make their religion fit with their political agenda rather than the other way around. I imagine it would have progressed at about the same rate.

[PLAYER57832]

Do you think Christianity helped the civil rights movement? Maybe you think it hurt it? I wonder what people today in 2012 think about the role religion played during the movement. Would it have turned out the same way? How might it have ended up if there was no faith, not just in God or Jesus Christ, but even faith in the principles of Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution?

It did both. Many people were moved to change by reading Christ's words, but many others saw much of what he said as exclusive of whites. They saw blacks as the "others".

As for the second... Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution were each based partially upon the Bible, so you are just asking the wrong question. Christianity is inextricably tied to the history of the United States, in both good and bad ways. Attempting to seperate them is a fool's game ... or something done by people trying to rewrite history.

In truth, the most likely thing would have been another religion would have taken the place of Christianity, but that would have required much change in the history of Europe and probably the world as a whole.

[Phatscotty]

People make their religion fit with their political agenda rather than the other way around. I imagine it would have progressed at about the same rate.

You don't think people gained strength and courage through their faith?