While the Emancipation Proclamation may have held similar religious meaning for opponents of slavery in the North and those who had been active in the abolitionist movement, who thanked God that their nation at last was purging itself of its most detestable sin, for some others, and Episcopal clergy among them, they were feeling that God had deserted them. Episcopal priests in the South had been pretty successful in getting African Americans into their churches, but while white clergy taught that all people were in equal in God’s sight, they also stressed the need for slaves to remain obedient to their masters.

Historically, the Church has been double-minded about evangelizing the poor, the disenfranchised, and the “other,” that “other” often meaning anyone unlike the majority or the accustomed-to.  It has wavered between practice and principle as to whether the cooling, cleansing waters of baptism are to provide the same assurances for all, and whether the freedom they offer can be experienced by all alike here on earth or for some can only be fully claimed once they have crossed the waters of Jordan.