1970 Don’t ask don’t tell--Christians in U.S. history.

This is a paragraph from an Ohio history teachers’ website. I was looking through it after reading about John Bennington Mahan whose story is told in our January book club choice, “Beyond the River” by Ann Hagedorn. Virtually all the abolitionists were devout Christians, and often they were battling Christian slave holders. The abolitionists' homes and businesses were destroyed, their lives and families were threatened, they were whipped, imprisoned and "egged." Both sides used the Bible to defend their own morality. The slaveholders were motivated by economics, but why leave out what motivated the abolitionists? They believed in the common humanity of blacks and whites; that Jesus had died also for the black slave, that they were their brothers and sisters, and that slavery was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, a insult to a holy God. Their commitment and beliefs are reduced to “conscious choice to break the law” in this passage--sort of a "values clarification" exercise. Mahan died a few years later, probably as a result of his imprisonment.

“Rev. John Mahan, Rev. John Rankin, and others in Brown County, Ohio were not just making a choice to help slaves to freedom; they were making a conscious choice to break the law. The case of abolitionist John Mahan illustrates the fine line between —doing the right thing“ (his conscience) and —breaking the law,“ his capture, arrest, trial, and the results that followed. People involved with the Underground Railroad broke the law every time they helped a runaway. This not only put them in danger of going to jail but also their family (some were left destitute).” Case histories, Underground Railroad

Ohio history
slavery
abolitionists
Presbyterians