The Church of Scotland has formally apologized for its historical role in the slave trade, a move an Oxford professor called 'well-intentioned woke folly.'
Apology Issued at General Assembly
During its General Assembly meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday, the church apologized in a statement, acknowledging its role for the suffering while recognizing some of its members would have benefited from slavery. The church said it 'grieved beyond telling by the extraordinary suffering we have inflicted – through our actions and our inaction – on our brothers and sisters.' The statement concluded, 'We repent, committing ourselves to changing course and bearing fruit worthy of repentance,' as reported by the UK Telegraph.
Rev. Sally Foster-Fulton's Remarks
Rev. Sally Foster-Fulton read the apology during the meeting. 'The history we consider today continues to shape our world in ways we cannot ignore,' she said. 'Its consequences touch communities near and far, influencing the structures, attitudes and inequalities that persist around us. The legacy of slavery stretches like a shadow over our local, national and global landscape.' Foster-Fulton added that 'naming that is not about blame, but about faithfulness,' and it is about 'recognizing that healing begins where truth is spoken.'
Scottish Assembly Joins Other Institutions
The Scottish Assembly is the latest institution to apologize for its historical link to slavery. Edinburgh and Glasgow councils previously apologized in 2022, the Telegraph reported. The apology comes after research published by the Church of Scotland in 2023 revealed that the institution was associated with slavery in a 'broad' range of ways. It also highlighted research that the General Assembly never once petitioned Parliament about slavery, despite condemning it.
Criticism from Detractors
The apology was rejected by detractors, who believe it overlooked the role Britain played in ending the slave trade and that African slavery existed before the country's involvement in it. Lord Nigel Biggar, emeritus theology professor at Oxford University and author of Slavery and the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt, said the apology is an example of a 'well-intentioned woke folly.'
'The Church's apology assumes a narrative of white oppression and black victimhood, that its wealth owes much to profits from historic slavery, and that its involvement is the root of its present racism,' Biggar told the Telegraph. 'Yet, Africans had been busy enslaving other Africans and selling them to the Romans, and then the Arabs, for centuries before the British arrived. Of the total of more than 40 million African slaves traded across the Atlantic, the Sahara, and the Indian Ocean, the British were responsible for under 8%.'
Biggar said the British were the first people in the world's history to deny both the slave trade and slavery in the early 1800s, while also using their dominant imperial power to suppress them from 'Brazil, across Africa and the Middle East, to India and Australasia.'
