equivocation: the use of the same term in two different senses in an argument
"I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land."
-Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass
In the Appendix to his autobiography, Douglass uses the term Christianity in two ways. The term is used as the Christianity as the Bible teaches it and as Christianity as the slave owners teach it. Douglass does this to show that the slave owners still call themselves Christians, they deceive themselves and attempt to deceive others. Douglass also wants to point out the differences in the tow Christianities. Douglass wants his audience to see how slavery has its grip on everything, even what should be a loving religion.
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