From
Wikipedia:
.....Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion.
On his Fox News show on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010, Glen Beck said, "Two generations later his great grandson plants the seed that leads to progressivism, eugenics. You know who Wedgewood's grandson was? Charles Darwin, the father of modern-day racism."
I hate quoting the same person from the same source again so soon, but Mr. Beck, who seems to feel that the end of the practice of slavery started when religion began to question the government-sanctioned practice of commerce, deserves an answer; and so, once again, I give you Mr. Samuel Clemens.
.....The methods of the priest and the parson have been very curious, their history is very entertaining. In all the ages the Roman Church has owned slaves, bought and sold slaves, authorized and encouraged her children to trade in them. Long after some Christian peoples had freed their slaves the Church still held on to hers. If any could know, to absolute certainty, that all this was right, and according to God's will and desire, surely it was she, since she was God's specially appointed representative in the earth and sole authorized and infallible expounder of his Bible. There were the texts; there was no mistaking their meaning; she was right, she was doing in this thing what the Bible had mapped out for her to do. So unassailable was her position that in all the centuries she had no word to say against human slavery. Yet now at last, in our immediate day, we hear a Pope saying slave trading is wrong, and we see him sending an expedition to Africa to stop it. The texts remain: it is the practice that has changed. Why? Because the world has corrected the Bible. The Church never corrects it; and also never fails to drop in at the tail of the procession—and take the credit of the correction. As she will presently do in this instance.
..........— Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910), American writer.
Europe and Elsewhere (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1923), pages 389-390[
1].
[1] Publication Information: Book Title: Europe and Elsewhere. Contributors: Mark Twain - author, Roy J. Friedman Mark Twain Collection (Library of Congress). Publisher: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1923. Page Numbers: 389-390. Information supplied by Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com, 20 Aug. 2010.