A display near the entrance to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's new exhibition, "Faith and (in)Justice," features a bible once handed out by Christian plantation owners to slaves. A number of passages mentioning freedom have been excised from the book 鈥� an effort to keep the holy text from inspiring slaves to seek their own liberty.
"It's what people choose to do with their religions," Freedom Center Exhibit Content Director Katie Stockdale says. "These enslavers were trying to convert enslaved people to Christianity. But they were also realizing there were verses in the Bible that were against 'manstealing,' which is what they were doing."
Next to it, there's a display of the prominent Christian leaders who risked their lives and livelihoods around the same time as they advocated an end to slavery.
The tension between the two is central to the exhibit, which explores the ways in which religion has inspired social justice movements 鈥� and the ways in which people have used religious beliefs to justify grave injustices.
Throughout its five sections, the exhibition gathers stories from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity to illustrate those ideas. Curator Stephanie Lampkin says the faith traditions have been at the forefront of struggles for better working conditions, LGBTQ equality, women's rights, access to health care, and many other struggles for a fairer world.
"All of these can be explored and viewed through this lens of faith and social justice," she says. "I think our visitors will be surprised to see that there's a long history of connections between these movements."
Lampkin says many features of the exhibition are designed to spark conversation and deeper contemplation about our perceptions of major faith traditions 鈥� and about how visitors can take actions to make their communities stronger and more just.
"This exhibition asks a lot of questions," she says. "We really want visitors to not just learn, but also to reflect and hold dialogue with each other in the spaces we've created for them and to share what they're passionate about."
Stockdale says "Faith and (in)Justice" has been two years in the making and involves contributions from the Cincinnati Museum Center, visiting curators, religious scholars, community members, and more. It opens Friday, May 23, and runs until Dec 7. You can find out more at
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