Douglass felt that Christianity was used by slaveholders to justify the cruelty of their actions and to somehow purify them against the evilness of their hearts.
He felt that being the slave of a Christian slaveholder was as bad as slavery itself. “Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. ” (p. 731)Douglas points out in his appendix that the Christianity of Christ and Christianity of this land are at opposite points on the spectrum of good and evil.
Douglass writes that the Christianity of Christ as being pure and the Christianity of this land as being purely evil. (p. 749) Douglasscriticizes the Christian slaveholders of the same kind as the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time. They use their religion to deceive themselves and others of their truly wicked ways. Douglass describes them as hypocrites that fill the pews on Sunday with their pious talk and loud, lengthy prayer.
“We have men-stealers for ministers, women-worshippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. ” (p. 749) Douglassexpressed that the Christian slaveholders use Christianity as a tool to show they were doing the work of God by driving out laziness or evilness from the slaves. I believe they also felt they were somehow showing compassion by having slaves who they consider chattel or heathens and giving a better life of penitence for their savagery. Douglass, I feel believe in Christianity and I know he felt he was call by God to be more than a slave and that he felt a divine intervention that led him through life. After reading his narrative, I believe he was more of a Christian than his proclaimed slaveholders.
His writing reflected I believe a sortof pity towards them in that he did not depict them as the animals I believe they really were.
