It seems there are numerous ways to misuse scripture and the trappings of religion, and men and women have discovered all of them to the detriment of their souls and the souls of their fellow human beings. It is unimaginable to many Christians today how creative church authorities were just a couple of hundred years ago in using scripture to justify white supremacy and the immoral institution of slavery (Morrison, 1981). The largest Baptist denomination today, the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 mainly through the efforts of Rev. Basil Manly, Sr., a wealthy slave owner, as a reaction to the increasing insistence of northern Baptist churches that slavery and Christianity are incompatible. The new Christian denomination was explicitly founded to insulate southern slave-holding Baptists from northern anti-slavery attitudes and to protect and support the institution of slavery (Christianity Today, 1992/2021). Southern Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches have a similar sordid history and bear much of the same responsibility for the systemic racism that still pervades American society today. Manly, who preached that God ordained white supremacy and black slavery, guided the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, vehemently argued for the succession of southern slave states from the union, was the official chaplain of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, and was a prominent religious voice in the administration of Jefferson Davis and the Confederate States of America.
The legacy left by Rev. Manly and his followers can still be seen in many Evangelical and mainstream Protestant churches where covert racism still is visible just beneath the surface and expresses itself as continued resistance to desegregation through redlining practices directed against African-Americans and reverence of Confederate statues and flags despite the pain they inflict through their symbolism. Independent and non-partisan research and statistical surveys conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute during the past decade have definitively shown that white Christian Americans consistently have much stronger and blatant pro-racist attitudes than white religiously-unaffiliated Americans and that southern Evangelicals and northeastern Catholics are the most racist groups nationwide (Jones, 2020). It is a sad commentary on American religious institutions that un-churched people are much more racially tolerant than active church members that vocally profess allegiance to Jesus.
In the last few decades the merging of systematically racist religious groups, alt-right extremist organizations and right-wing politicians has given strength and encouragement to white supremacist groups and fueled a resurgence of racist attitudes and attempts to suppress the votes of African-Americans. As a consequence of these persistent attitudes, a man with a long history of dishonest and racist business practices and blatantly anti-Christian behavior whose corrosive rhetoric divides the country was embraced and adored by national Evangelical leaders and conservative Christians who showered him with titles like "God in the White House" and "Righteously chosen by God" (Butler, 2020). The legacy of Rev. Manly, the Southern Baptist Convention and other like-minded mid-nineteenth century denominations and church members continues to roll through the nation in wave after wave of intolerance and racism, a latent attitude embedded in the psyches of incarnated souls who previously perhaps enjoyed special privileges under the institution of slavery or were victims of its cruelty. History that begins with the evil intentions and selfish actions of incarnated souls, even when packaged and hidden within inspiring sermons that use words like God, Jesus and love, doesn't end with the death of the original actors, but unfolds through generation after generation until that evil is purged from the minds of those souls who perpetrated evil and those that blindly followed them (Jones, R.P., 2020). If these attitudes and actions are not purged, sooner rather than later, then America will risk losing its leading, but precarious, position as a beacon of democracy, tolerance and righteousness and will enter a decline from which it may never recover.
Readings in 1943 (3029-1_5) and 1932 (5748-6_3) state that there has been and will be a greater influx of souls from the Atlantean and other ancient civilizations entering the earth that will be the beginning of the change in the races (probably not meant to indicate skin color; the readings also refer to the Atlantean race). To what extent are the present racial problems and sense of entitlement inherent in blatant white-supremacy movements a continuation of the same conflicts between the Sons of God and the sons of Belial that led to the destruction of the continent of Atlantis? The phrase sons of Belial is also used in the Bible (for example Judges 19:22, 1 Samuel 2:12, and 1 Kings 21:10) and refers to a person who is worthlessness, good for nothing, wicked or godless and likely to lead himself and others to ruin and destruction. The sons of Belial in Atlantis had little concern for the rights of others; they abused those they deemed inferior and engaged in activities that fostered an atmosphere of disrespect, distrust and denigration of others. They attempted to gain control and power over the minds and bodies of those they demeaned by subjecting them to forced labor, servitude and slavery.
References
Butler, Anthea, 2020, White Evangelical Racism, The Politics of Morality in America: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Christianity Today, 1992/2021, Why Did So Many Christians Support Slavery?: Christian History magazine, Issue 33, December 2021.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-33/why-christians-supported-slavery.html
Jones, R.P., 2020, White Too Long: Simon and Shuster, New York, New York.
Morrison, L.R., 1981, The Religious Defense of American Slavery Before 1830: Journal of Religious Thought, 37(2):16–29, 1981
https://www.kingscollege.net/gbrodie/The%20religious%20justification%20of%20slavery%20before%201830.pdf