From a twenty-first century perspective, it is difficult to imagine that any American could make a defense of institutionalized slavery as it existed in the United States from before its inception, as an independent nation, until 1865. Looking back through history, it is easy for anyone living today to see that slavery was wrong and that there is no Biblical, humanitarian, or rational defense for its practice. People living today might easily make such a judgment because they do not have their entire lives and livelihoods dependent upon it and because it is easy for anyone to make judgments about the ills of others while completely ignoring one’s own transgressions. All of us need to be mindful of these two facts when considering the issue of slavery in America. That being the case, the South was wrong about slavery, but it was right about secession, and frequently these issues are conflated in the minds of modern Americans.
Western Christian orthodoxy, in which American culture is rooted, came out of the dispute with the eastern Christian Church. There was a time when Christianity was the predominant faith throughout what is now known as the Middle East and it reached all the way to modern China. The eastern Christian empire, however, did not hold to the same beliefs as the western one. Today, except for a few pockets of Christians in what is now an Islamic dominated region, Christianity in that area has all but disappeared. The eastern Christian empire and their different understanding of the nature of Christ are vital, not only to the story of Christianity, but to the understanding of American culture and reasonable expectations concerning the future of our nation given its present political course.