I just finished a deeply disturbing book: “The Slavery Question,” written in 1852 by one of my predecessors as the United Brethren editor, John Lawrence. It’s comprehensive, looking at many aspects of slavery. Lawrence describes how American laws treated slaves as livestock. He republishes ads like this: “Large sale of negroes, horses, mules, and cattle.”

Slaves had no rights whatsoever. Legally, anything they acquired or owned belonged to the master. Their marriages had no legal recognition. They had no right to even their own children. A mother could return from the field and find that a child had been sold, never to be seen again. Slaveholders had the legal right to abuse them in any way they wanted. They were, after all, just livestock. Think on that: livestock.

One story shows how deeply the Christian mind can be corrupted.

A southern church needed new silver for serving the communion elements. So they sold a slave, a man, to raise the money. A slaveholder member probably “donated” the slave for that purpose. Every Sunday, when people came forward to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they took the juice and bread from silver purchased by selling a human being. And it didn’t bother them. They saw it as no different from auctioning off a cow.

I can’t get that story out of my head. These were American Christians.