We should praise Christians for the Civil Rights Movement!

From this article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/16/sunday/main3174781.shtml

But Stephen Prothero, who chairs the religious studies department at Boston University, says that atheists miss the fact that religion, while being a source of some terrible evil, is also the greatest force for good.
"And so, if you're gonna criticize — you know, religious people for the Inquisition, then you need to praise them for the civil rights movement," he said. "You need to praise them for getting rid of slavery in the United States, which they did. You can't sort of have it both ways."

Excuse me? Civil rights and an end to slavery were brought about by religious people? Uh, I'm thinking no. The religious people were just as likely to bring the verses from the Bible about slavery to justify slavery as those who used the Golden Rule to justify ending it. A few choice examples:
However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
Oh, look! It's Leviticus! That very same chapter which they use to enforce their homophobia. Can you really insist on the literal and still applicable truth of one verse while insisting that another is outdated?

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)
Exodus. That's a credible book, for sure. No nonsense about the inferiority of gays there. Just good ol' slavery.

And here's a quote from a God-fearing gentleman of the time:
"[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts." Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.
Obviously he sees his own beliefs backed up by the highest form of religious law.

The same could be said about justifying the continuing racism of the US post-slavery using the Bible. Anyone familiar with the curse of Ham? It was incorrectly interpreted time and time again to justify the subjugation of dark skinned people, having been said to translate to "dark" or "black", rather than its currently accepted translation of "hot" or "multitude".
Here's an example:
"The doom of Ham has been branded on the form and features of his African descendants. The hand of fate has united his color and destiny. Man cannot separate what God hath joined." United States Senator James Henry Hammond.

Interpretation has always been the fault of any sort of literature or media. One can certainly take whatever one wants from a source to enforce a certain agenda. This being said, I think it's ludicrous to assume that it was Christians who ended slavery and began Civil Rights because it seems to me just as likely that their individual faiths would be interpreted to encourage these things.
I think it would be safer to say that these movements came around due to ethical, secular considerations of equality and human rights. Let's not give too much credit, here.


http://www.religioustolerance.org/sla_bibl.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham