Thursday, April 7, 2011

FD Appendix Study Guide, due 4-8-11

  1. Why do you think Douglass added the appendix?
  2. What does he mean by “slaveholding religion”?
  3. Why does Douglass contend that the church turns the other cheek on the treatment of slaves?
  4. How does he compare the slaveholding Christians to the Pharisees and ancient scribes?
  5. How does he criticize the church of the north?

QUOTES - You do not have to explain each quote. Instead, use these quotes to summarize, in one paragraph, FD's feelings on religion and slavery.


“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognized the widest possible difference-so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land” (p. 120).

“The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time” (p. 121).

“The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity” (p. 121).

“They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping a sheep-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a man-stealer” (p. 123).

“They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (p. 123).

“They are they who are represented as professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother whom they have seen” (p. 123).

“They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors” (p. 123).

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