Religious Hypocrisy- Frederick Douglass
Pointing out the flaws within an individuals’ faith and spiritual practice has clearly become a significant form of social taboo, as political correctness has driven the thoughts and conversations of today. However, an influential abolitionist and American social leader such as Frederick Douglass who held the intentions of ridding society from the horrors of slavery, shows no hesitation towards criticizing the “Christian” slave owners for their façade of Christ-like behavior. After years of personal experience of servile actions, Frederick Douglass writes this narrative in order to highlight the two forms of Christianity that have flawed society, exacerbated the promotion of slavery within the South and have corrupted the interpretation of God’s Word, as he juxtaposes the wicked “southern Christianity” to the redemptive true Christianity.
Throughout this narrative, Douglass centers his argument on the idea that the white slave owners willingly justified their cruel affliction and oppressive behavior by practicing a false version of Christianity. He points to the interesting idea that the version of Christianity practiced by the slaves and black community was a far different version of Christianity than that which was viewed and implemented by white slave owners. Essentially, masters would use Christianity to promote and excuse the brutal ways in which they treated their slaves. Unfortunately, the fact is that slavery was at its highest point at the same time the United States represented Christianity as the country’s primary religion. Although this time in US history would have most certainly not been an optimistic one, this growth of the Christian faith reached not only to whites but to the thousands of slaves, as they began to develop it into a central practice of their culture. In the eyes of Douglass, he saw the existence of “the Christianity of Christ”, as opposed to “the Christianity of the land”. He...