Oh That Is Rich... Christians, Constitution Freed The Slaves, Not The Federal Government - RawStory

[WillyT]

Conservative activist: Christians, Constitution freed the slaves, not the federal government
By Travis Gettys - RawStory
Wednesday, April 9, 2014 13:53 EDT



<snip>

The head of the conservative Heritage Foundation claimed the Constitution and people of conscience freed the American slaves, reported Right Wing Watch, not the federal government.

Jim DeMint, the former Republican senator from South Carolina, told a religious broadcaster last week that liberals were fundamentally wrong about everything – even demonstrable historical facts.

“No liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves,” DeMint said during an appearance on Vocal Point.

In fact, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the rebellious Confederate States of America, and Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery originally permitted by the founding document.

These federal government policies were enacted during and after federal troops fought and won the Civil War, which began in DeMint’s home state.

“The reason that the slaves were eventually freed was the Constitution, it was like the conscience of the American people,” DeMint told host Jerry Newcombe, of Truth In Action Ministries. “Unfortunately there were some court decisions like Dred Scott and others that defined some people as property, but the Constitution kept calling us back to ‘all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights’ in the minds of God.”

DeMint insisted the end of slavery was the result of a grass-roots movement driven by Christians.

<snip>

More: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/09/conservative-activist-christians-constitution-freed-the-slaves-not-the-federal-government/

[VanillaRhapsody]

1. That's why I voted for Alvin Greene as opposed to Demint when I was there...

because I said "belly button lint is better than Jim Demint!"

[WillyT]

4. "belly button lint is better than Jim Demint!" - Outstanding... ROFLMAO !!!

I might have to steal that.

[Initech]

20. Hey! That rhymes!

[montanacowboy]

2. And, Heritage is the "brain trust" for the righties

OMG OMG OMG

[WillyT]

5. Yeah... Huh ???

[SummerSnow]

3. Whats with Rethugs obsession with slavery and vaginas?

[WillyT]

10. I Think I Get What You're Saying... Would It Be Inappropriate To Ask For More Info...

Or a rephrasing...

[SummerSnow]

12. Its two of their favorite talking points.

[WillyT]

13. Gotcha... They Want To Go Back... Not To The 1950's... But The 1850's...

Thank You !!!

[CTyankee]

6. So I suppose the Union Army was just "helping the Constitution" along when they fought and died for

black citizens of DeMint's state. What a sad case of revisionism of American history...

[VanillaRhapsody]

7. No those Yankees were the Aggressors....they were oppressing the Southerners with their

fancy Northern ways....They teach down there that the Civil War had nothing to do with Slavery only calling it the "War of Northern Aggression" (seriously they believe this)

[CTyankee]

8. Yep. I grew up in Texas so I know this stuff...ACK...

[WillyT]

9. Pssst... Isn't The U.S. Constitution... The Federal Government ???

Or did I miss something?

And... "What a sad case of revisionism of American history..."

EXACTLY !!!

[CTyankee]

11. The fricken' Union Army...sheesh...

when ya got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow...

sorry to be so graphic but it took a war to do this thing and that's is what happened...or does DeMint have another explanation for the Civil War?

[Stuart G]

15. CTyankee is correct..."fricken Union Army" freed the slaves.

They won an area, went to where slaves were, and freed them. The South lost, but the Army actually did the freeing of the slaves.
You know, you put a gun to the head of a slave owner, and oh well................It was a awful war, beyond almost all thoughts of current people.. (I used to teach that section, that is it.)

[SevenSixtyTwo]

14. Meanwhile back at the house

cleaning and doing yard work for sub poverty wages...

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. Jim Dimwit talking

Enough said.

[rurallib]

17. soon enough Lincoln's campaign will have been financed

by one donation from a Koch ancestor.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. He doesn't know the difference...

between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And this man was a United States Senator.

And "movement driven by Christians"? Not so much. The Southern Baptist Convention (which is one of the dominant Christian churches in the South) only exists at all because they split from the National Baptists over...slavery. The Southern Baptists used that bit about the children of Ham being "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to justify slavery. So did DeMint's own denomination, the Presbyterians (another denomination that split between north and south over slavery).

[Initech]

19. There aren't enough facepalms to describe this kind of bat shit insanity.

[AverageJoe90]

21. C'mon, Jimmy boy, open up a history book.

Yes, it may be true that quite a few abolitionists were religious, and that there was a general movement of conscientious Americans opposed to slavery even if they didn't consider themselves overt abolitionists.

However, though, he gets everything else rather wrong: There were those abolitionists who were *not* all that religious at all. And churches actually split over the issue of slavery. And also, Lincoln did in fact, free the slaves on his own initiative. And it was the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments that put this into action, but only nearly 80 years after the Constitution was first signed.

[steve2470]

22. I can't believe that he's that stupid and/or uneducated

A bald-faced liar, that I can believe.