George Whitefield

Indiana University East associate professor of communications Jerome Mahaffey will be a guest on the Glenn Beck show, "Founding Founders' Friday" at 5 p.m. Friday on FOX News, Channel 52 on the Richmond Comcast cable system.

Mahaffey was a guest on the series to discuss the founding fathers of the American Revolution. The episode, which was filmed at Fox Studios in New York Tuesday night, involved a conversation on George Whitefield, an influential minister in America from 1740 to 1770 - a time when there was no "separation" of church and state, Mahaffey said.

Whitefield (pronounced Whit-field) was a forgotten founder, without whom there would have been no American Independence in 1776, Mahaffey added.

Generally, Whitefield is justly criticised in connection with his work amongst the first Africans in America.

He did not fight against slavery. At the Orphanage he built in Bethesda, Georgia, he purchased slaves, who although they were treated well, were nevertheless, slaves.

Whitefield felt his responsibility was to preach to slave owners, and to correct abuses.

He certainly didn’t agree with the harsh treatment of slaves, but whether he acquiesced with the institution, or whether he merely felt he could do nothing, his failure to use his influence to end slavery, or even begin a serious debate to end slavery, was certainly a sin of omission on his part.