The natural pleasures of slavery

I've been thinking about fundamentalism quite a bit lately, both the Islamic and Christian versions. Both want a return to a glorious past that never really existed, with societal norms and laws based on a strict literalness of sacred texts. For instance, if one accepts the argument from the Christian right that the Bible explicitly condemns sodomy and gay unions, then how much of a stretch is it to accept the argument made by Southerners, pre-Civil War, that slavery was prevelant in the Old Testament, and is therefore sanctioned by God (an attempt to defuse the moral arguments of Northern clergy).

In fact, I was wondering when something like this would come along:

Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."
Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using "Southern Slavery, As It Was," a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people think.

Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery.

"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said.

It gets even better.

The booklet's other author, Steve Wilkins, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.

"Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

Potok said people who argue that the South should secede again have latched onto the writings of Wilson and Wilkins, which portray the Confederacy as the last true Christian civilization.

At a time when a number of Triangle Christian schools have lost enrollment and even closed, Cary Christian has seen rapid growth since it opened in 1996.