Uncle Tom's forgiving nature is surprising because Mr. Shelby's act of selling Uncle Tom, totally unravels his current way of life. This reminds me of the Bible when Jesus was being crucified and he said to God to forgive these men for they knew not what they were doing. It will be interesting to see his attitude and feelings towards slavery and whites stays the same throughout the novel. Yes, I have the same feeling of interest in seeing whether Soulforce's attitude stays the same throughout 2000-2002. Mammon redux The more that one observes organized religion as a loyal opponent, the more deeply one is struck by its essentially capitalistic workings.
Exploitation is how missionaries build empires.
In the context of an urban church competing to stay alive, this can translate into what is essentially product development, advertising, and an effort to steal market share. The problem as I see it is that, despite the great advances White is making, we are still locked in an uncomfortable missionary position with the strait agenda on top. This remains ever so much more true as White summons the heirs of the Martin Luther King, Jr, legacy in his effort to establish credibility with the mass media. Because the discourse is mostly restricted to the self-serving confines of conventional Protestant theology, one might as well imagine that we are attending the first suffrage convention where women are not allowed to conduct any business or even to speak, because only men are still believed capable of that. Or perhaps that we have arrived at the same moment of decision that black Americans faced when Malcom X challenged King's assimilationist politics.