Lies in Time

When I was very young, the Roman Catholic Church was still fond of teaching that all peoples beyond their belief system were condemned to hell. This included my playmates who happened to be Protestants - or "Publicans" as we called them, since they attended Public School.
This may have been my first serious disagreement with the Church and dogma: this condemnation of my childhood friends to perdition; at least, it was certainly the most important pre-pubertal issue I had with the Church. By the time I was 14 I had repudiated this pernicious bit of doctrine, struck it from my manual for catechumens, and posted my One Thesis on the cathedral door: All Mankind may go to Heaven. They may have to go in through the service entrance - like the more extreme Protestants sects, Holy Rollers come to mind - but I came down firmly on the side of St. Paul and affirming that we may not all die (for Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot, was he not?) but we will all be changed, and for the better.

Now I am reading about the Religious and Churchly defences of Slavery in pre-Civil War America. It was all very clear back then that Slavery was moral and good, and much was made of its regulation in the Bible. There is much made of an intolerable science of the inherent rectitude of Slavery for certain races of Mankind, too, and this pre-destination by the genes worked out well with the Word of God as it was seen at the time. A long time ago I learned that although the Word may be inspired, my or any particular reading of the Word has no guarantee of being inspired.

I stand in the face of this Religion and Morality and am speechless, for I am not able to judge. I can see how the evil was woven into the fabric of the time and place and could not easily be extricated, and thus the economically necessary became the Moral Law in the minds of men... for we find it hard to imagine a Morality which denies us economic well-being and wealth and riches!

Now just as the RC Church changed with regard to the possibility of non-Catholics getting to heaven, the religions of the South changed in their view of slavery.
Since I no longer consider my own place in history as a privileged viewing spot, I cannot merely dismiss their belief so easily. It seems that the notion of Absolute Morality stems from this type of experience: to accept the unacceptable. As mentioned above, we cannot conceive of a Moral Law which is truly inconvenient for us: thus, we must make accommodations for evil within the pantheon of our moral laws; we must slide down the pew to make room for the devil.
Thus, we say the churches were mistaken, and that the real moral law holds that slavery is evil, and this real moral law is more inclusive than law on our level of being; there is a moral higher up and more general which resolves the opposites and paradoxes of life: impulse to evil - agent and society - is resolved to Crime & Punishment, and this itself falls under the rubric of God' Law or God's Plan.

Every Lie is a Truth somewhere in Time. In the unfolding of the History of Mankind, Lies and Truths are changelings and cowbirds.