Enough gaslighting about the clear facts within our history. It does not serve Christ to deceive...

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But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. - 1John 2:11 (ESV)

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As the title reveals, this is a subject that continues to be drubbed into the flock by the NAR, dominionist, apostate church. The above link is the latest attempt by Eddie Hyatt, rabid dominionist, trying to convince us all that this country has always been a Christian Shangri-La when founded until some nefarious point where the evil lefties took over somehow. Fortunately, Eddie is so transparently bad at both understanding the bible and American history that debunking him is very easy. Let me preface this with the usual context. I think in the history of secular governments, that America stands out as the best try humans have made. I think America has done a lot of good in this world over her 200 + years. That however, does not prevent me from being honest that not everything was and is good. It certainly was never Christian in the ways the NAR wishes to believe. Yes, there were plenty of Christians amidst the Founding Fathers but to pretend they were all Evangelicals singing How Great is Our God while they drafted the Constitution is absurd. Most of those that people like Eddie Hyatt exalt as Christians were clearly not. Thomas Jefferson for example rewrote the bible, removing all references to the deity of Christ and His miracles. Most of these folks were deists, meaning they believe in a God, but not necessarily the God.

One of the areas that the NAR desperately wishes to rewrite in our history is related to racism and slavery. They try to parse out the meaning of words to pretend that the sins of our past were somehow not as bad as they appear in history books. Let me be very clear. Slavery is the absolute height of racism. It was based upon the fundamental false believe that black people were inferior to white people. Not just marginally either but in every imaginable way. Slavery was not somehow beneficial for the slaves either, as some of the idiots on the right recently proffered. Trying to relitigate this and somehow split the bill is to enslave people all over again with the ultimate version of gaslighting. I say this as a backdrop because in the above article from Eddie Hyatt, he cleverly tries to slip in another whitewashing of slavery and racism in between two other unrelated talking points about "awakenings" in this country that may have their own level of dubiousness to them. Eddie buries the lead though to try and throw off the criticism he deserves for his ridiculous statements on race found in his second point in the article. It is only this point that I will deal with here. Let us reason once more beloved:

'Fact No. 2: America's founders were not racists. Out of the Great Awakening, an anti-slavery movement was ignited that led to virtually every Founding Father, including those who owned slaves, taking a public stand against it. George Washington declared, "There is not a man living who wishes more than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."' - Eddie Hyatt

This is a famous Eddie Hyatt tactic. He scours history for individual quotes that support a point he is trying to make but ignores the rest of the body of evidence. George Washington was so opposed to slavery that he owned 123 of them. Not only that but he did not free them at his death but passed them on to his wife. Eddie also left off the rest of that quote from Washington, which read:

"there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority;" - Geroge Washington

So, Washington was not saying this is some clarion call of righteousness but rather making a political statement basically saying that as long as Congress was not going to do anything, oh well. By the way, there may very well have been plenty of Americans who came out of the awakening convinced to end slavery and who probably fought passionately for that end. That does not remove that there were equally passionate forces on the other side, who used the bible itself to justify their racism. All of the fathers denounced slavery? Odd because 50% of them owned slaves. To make the case Hyatt is making is to slap all African Americans in the face in the name of God no less. Taking a public stance is meaningless and an empty gesture if you cannot even back that statement up with your life.

"The Declaration of Independence, with its colorblind language and statement that "all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," was understood by the founding generation to be a statement against slavery." - Eddie Hyatt

There are just so much wrong with this level of gaslighting. First of all, Eddie was not around in 1776 so he has no idea what they understood those words to mean. One must remember that most people who were not slaves back then did not look upon slaves as fellow human beings let alone in any way "equal." The very same people at the Constitutional Congress just a few years later, would declare that African American slaves were worth 3/5 of a white person. That was the infamous three-fifths compromise where three out of every five slaves were officially counted, resulting in a disproportionate representation in the government to the slave states. Is Eddie Hyatt actually making the argument that slaves had any unalienable rights at all? It just is not a serious position to stake out historically, let alone morally.

'Indeed, abolitionists used both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, which came 11 years later, as weapons in the fight against slavery. Because the founders took this stand at a time when slavery was accepted and practiced in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and most of the world, Frederick Douglass would declare, "Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too"great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men."' - Eddie Hyatt

Yes, ABOLITIONISTS, certainly did. They were of course opposed by the other half of this country, who used the same documents to support slavery. For goodness sake, the three-fifths compromise was written into our documents. This whitewashing of our history simply flies in the face of basic math. Eddie sells the notion that 1726 was the start of the Christian undoing of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation however would not be for another 137 years. That does not sound very "awake" to me. I might add that we had to fight a bloody Civil War just to win that freedom. I add further that the marginalization of the former slaves as less than human would go on for over 100 more years. Realize it was only a lifetime ago that African Americans were routinely lynched, had to sit on the back of busses and had to go to different schools.

Look, I understand this is a touchy subject for many. My objection is to trying to gaslight the church into thinking that they are being told something false about our history. They are not. I am sure our Founding Fathers did the best they could. They established this fine government plan amidst a culture that still accepted slavery, which is the height of racism. It is what our country was founded upon. It drove the economy. Were there folks fighting against this? Absolutely and they deserve all the credit for doing so. That does not change the fact that there were many, many people on the other side and that includes many of the founders. It does not change the fact that they used the bible to defend their reprehensible view of our fellow human beings, all of which created in the image of God. It does not do any good to pretend our history was as pure as a rerun of Leave it Beaver. It is insulting to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ and the church should categorically reject such obvious racism, that unfortunately still lives today, especially when people try to pretend it never did. Make no mistake beloved. Racism is hate and we would do well to read the key verse above for what God has to say about that. Let no one blind you.

Reverend Anthony Wade - July 5 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.