The reason for placing the sins of the South in this kind of context is straightforward. The southern treatment of their slaves (as it generally was) shows that the situation was the kind of situation which required that the teaching of the New Testament be followed because it was preeminently applicable to that situation. If St. Paul returned Onesimus to Philemon (and he did), what would he have us do when a similar scenario played out in Virginia in 1856? So then, here is our argument, presented as though it were a juice concentrate:
Christians must live or die by the Scriptures, as they stand. Compromise on what the Bible teaches about slavery is directly related to the current pressures to compromise on abortion and sodomy. Southern slavery was an example of the kind of sinful human situation that called for diligent obedience to St. Paul’s directives, on the part of both masters and slaves. Because this did not happen, and because of the way slavery ended, the federal government acquired the power to impose things on the states that it did not have before.Douglas Wilson. Black & Tan. (P.65-66)
