I need to confess how naive I am about the Civil War. Being from WV the Civil War was taught in a very basic way: The good guys won, the bad guys lost, and somewhere in the middle of it all Abraham Lincoln, a man 2nd only to Jesus Christ, created us, extracting us from the evils of Virginia. So realizing that the South justified slavery using the bible is a bit shocking.
In Broken Churches, Broken Nation, Goen quotes Robert Lewis Dabney "push the Bible argument continually, drive Abolitionism to the wall, compel it to assume an anti-Christian position"
His use of the word 'compel' is provocative. It seems as if he wants to manipulate the bible for his own purposes. But it also seems as if people from both sides manipulated the bible for their own purposes. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe, according to Noll, hints "that the bible was easily manipulated to prove anything with regard to a problem like slavery…"
If both sides used the bible to justify their opinions/arguments does that mean that the bible, ultimately, held no power for either side? Or did it hold extreme power for both sides, having the ability to "prove" the other side were sinners?
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