BBC: Christianity and slavery

Update: thanks to complaints, the BBC have changed the name of the web pages to 'Atlantic Slave-Trade and Abolition', removing the implication that they present an assessment of Christianity on the issue. Here's their response to one complaint:



This article was written on our behalf by the author Richard Reddie in the context of the current commemorations of the bicentenary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Throughout the article he seeks to present, in a balanced and fair way, the contradictions within Christianity in relation to the Atlantic slave trade. He does not discuss whether certain denominations within Christianity officially condoned or did not condone slavery, indeed the conduct of Church bodies is not the subject of the text. Instead the author shows how the Scriptures were interpreted and used to support different stances on the issue by both Christians who participated in the Atlantic slave trade and those who stood against it.

That said, we do take on board your comments and in order to clarify the perspective of the piece we will change the title from 'Christianity and slavery' to 'Atlantic slave trade and abolition'.

We will also look at our coverage and see whether additional material is needed.

I hope that this will address your concerns. Thank you for your helpful comments.

Religion Online team

Action, please: the BBC is trying to portray Christianity as complicit in modern slavery, in a web-page devoted to the issue. Please point out to the BBC (here) that the Catholic Church, through the papal magisterium, repeatedly condemned slavery.

Hat-tip to Hermeneutic of Continuity, where there are further details, and links to papal documents.