The University of Richmond has announced plans to change the names of six buildings on campus that paid tribute to slaveholders and supporters of racial segregation. The university, a private institution originally founded by Baptists, long resisted the name changes, as have many other colleges and local governments, especially those in the southern states. My alma mater, Baylor University, also founded by Baptists, only recently changed the names of some buildings, though not the name of the university itself, despite the connections to slavery. And the school from which I received two degrees, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, continues to honor slaveholders with names on some of its most prominent buildings.

Slavery was common in the Old Testament, and in New Testament. As I note in the Introduction to Spelunking Scripture: The Letters of Paul, using “selected scripture passages, many southern preachers—including some esteemed Baptist seminary professors—defended the institution of slavery as ordained by God. How could they have so missed the mark? Their biblical interpretation was a matter of failing to distinguish between the cultural conditions of the time and God’s eternal intentions for human life. It took a long time, but eventually most Christians came to realize that slavery is abhorrent to the will of God.”

It is still taking a long time for us to distinguish between cultural conditions and God’s eternal truth. The legacy of slavery is still with us, not only in the names on buildings, but in the racial inequalities that persist in many aspects of our culture. Two other cultural conditions long presumed to be supported by the Bible are the subjugation of women, and the condemnation of persons of a different sexual orientation (such as the “don’t say gay” ordinances recently passed in Florida).

One of the goals of the “Spelunking Scripture” series of Bible study books is to explore beneath the surface of biblical passages to seek to discover how God wants us to live. A part of that discovery is to recognize where cultural mores conflict with God’s purpose for our lives. Changing the names on buildings does not change the entire culture, but it’s a step. Those whom we choose to honor reflect our values.