Uncle Tom isn't one

This week I finally finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, to whom Abraham Lincoln referred upon meeting her as "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." Given that it was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, I'm inclined to agree with Lincoln's assessment. At the very least, it would be very difficult for any Christion to read this book and still advocate slavery.

What impressed me most about the book is that the primary character named Uncle Tom in the book is not an "Uncle Tom" in the perjorative sense often used in discussions of race.

Rather, he is something even worse (in the views of some moderns) - an authentic Christian. Moreover, he isn't the only one described in the book. And that's the second thing that impressed me about the book - that it makes a very full defense of the practicality of Christian faith, even in the hardest of situations, and for all kinds of people.

Finally, I was impressed by the author's clear understanding of the danger of unlimited power in the hands of most people. I've heard it said that the best form of government is a benevolent monarchy, but how, pray tell, do you ensure the monarch remains benevolent?

In our day, I would ask the same questions of those who think our problems can best be addressed by giving more power to government. I refer to people who (for instance) claim with a straight face that the solution to the terrible care provided recently at government-funded-and-run Walter Reed Army Medical Center would be more government-funded-and-run medical care, run by the same unaccountable bureaucrats who ruined Walter Reed.

Here's how Stowe explained the problem in Chapter XXIX: "The number of those men who know how to use wholly irresponsible power humanely and generously is small."

Any book that still sells well 150 years after it was written is likely worth reading, Better, such books can usually be read for free here on a PC or Mac, or here on a Treo, PDA or iPod..