God Favors Slavery!

[CJK]

"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: You may buy your male and female slaves from the nations that are round about you ... You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession forever." Leviticus 25:44-46

The slaver holders being the upstanding followers of a sadistic God, and the slaves the sub-human heathens.

How interesting.

"When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, he shall not be punished: for the slave is his money." Exodus 21:20

[Lotan]

HA HA!

You said "logically consistent Christian"...

[McCulloch]

Since the Christians here have been reluctant to speak on this issue, I have searched for other Christian voices on this issue:From Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
19th century quotations

[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.

The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.

21st century quotation

...the campaign to end slavery in the United States was for many years largely the work of a small number of Christians who opposed slavery on explicitly religious grounds and who at the time were regularly condemned as fanatical zealots, bent (as indeed they were) on imposing their religiously based views regarding this particular issue on all those who disagreed.

...Although slavery was widespread in Palestine during Jesus' ministry, the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) does not record his opinion of it. Slavery was casually mentioned without criticism in the various books of the Bible. It was accepted as a natural part of life by almost all Christians until the 19th century CE.
Anabaptists started to criticize slavery in the late 17th century. They were joined by Quakers and Mennonites. It was only when John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of the Methodist movement, became concerned about slavery that the small protest became a mass movement for the abolition of slavery.

Biblical justification for slavery:
The Christian church's main justification of the concept of slavery is based on Genesis 9:25-27. According to the Bible, the worldwide flood had concluded and there were only 8 humans alive on earth: Noah, his wife, their six sons and daughters in law. Noah's son Ham had seen "the nakedness of his father." So, Noah laid a curse -- not on Ham, who was guilty of some type of indiscretion. The sin was transferred to Noah's grandson Canaan. Such transference of sin from a guilty to an innocent person or persons is unusual in the world's religious and secular moral codes. It is normally considered highly unethical. However, it appears in many biblical passages. The curse extended to all of Canaan's descendants:

• Genesis 9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave'. "

Christians traditionally believed that Canaan had settled in Africa. The dark skin of Africans became associated with this "curse of Ham." Thus slavery of Africans became religiously justifiable.

This reading of the Book of Genesis merged easily into a medieval iconographic tradition in which devils were always depicted as black. Later pseudo-scientific theories would be built around African skull shapes, dental structure, and body postures, in an attempt to find an unassailable argument--rooted in whatever the most persuasive contemporary idiom happened to be: law, theology, genealogy, or natural science -- why one part of the human race should live in perpetual indebtedness to another."

By today's secular and religious standards:

• slavery is immoral.
• cursing all of an individual's descendents into perpetual slavery because of an inappropriate act by an ancestor is immoral.
• laying a curse on the son of the person who committed the act is immoral.

But in ancient times, cursing a whole race into slavery was considered acceptable because it was in the Bible. The American slave owner felt that he was carrying out God's plan by buying and using slaves.
Slavery was also condoned and regulated in many passages of the in the Bible. There is no record of Jesus having commented on it. Paul had every opportunity to condemn slavery, particularly in his Epistle to Philemon. But he remained silent, except to urge slaves to be content with their lot and to obey their owners....
Attitudes towards slavery in the Bible and the early Christian movement:
Slavery was sanctioned and carefully regulated by many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) largely in the Pentateuch - its first 5 books. Although slavery was widespread in Palestine during Jesus' ministry, he is not recorded as having expressed any opinion on it. Slavery was casually mentioned without criticism in the various books of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). The authors appeared to accept slavery as a natural condition -- as a universal institution that was not particularly immoral.
Many of the early Christians were slaves. They were treated as equals within the church. Perhaps because of their close contacts with slaves, the early Christian movement appears to have opposed slavery as an immoral institution:

• 30 to 330 CE: Many of the early Church fathers promoted the abolition of slavery:
  • The Christians in Asia Minor "decried the lawfulness of it, denounced slaveholding as a sin, a violation of the law of nature and religion. They gave fugitive slaves asylum, and openly offered them protection."
  • According to a 19th century author Edward C. Rodgers:
  • Maximum preached and wrote against it.
  • Those who entered upon a religious life gave freedom to their slaves.
  • Theodorus Studita gave particular directions, "not to employ those beings, created in the image of God, as slaves."
• Polycarp [69 - 155 CE] and Ignatius of Antioch [circa 50 - circa 10 CE] manumitted their slaves on realizing the equality of the Christian law.
• Emperor Constantine [306 - 337 CE] gave authority to the bishops to manumit slaves, and, as Emperor, granted Roman citizenship to many of those set free.
• Another 19th century author, August Neander wrote that the early oriental Christians "...declared themselves opposed to the whole relation of slavery as repugnant to the dignity of the image of God in all men."

Christian attitudes towards slavery: mid 4th to late 17th century CE:
The Christian movement gradually reversed its stance on slavery, starting early in the 4th century CE. This reversal may have been influenced by the establishment of Christianity as the only allowable religion in the Roman Empire by the late 4th century. This subsequently created a close integration of church and state. Since the Empire was dependent on slave labor, it was reasonable for the church to support the institution. The church became generally supportive of slavery, even as a very few of its theologians wrote in opposition to it:

• Circa 340 CE: Manichean Christians had been inciting slaves of the Roman Empire to take charge of their destiny and emancipate themselves. (Manichaeism was a widespread Christian heresy based upon the teachings of a 3rd century Persian philosopher, Mani.) In response, the Christian Council of Gangra issued a statement supporting slavery: "If anyone, on the pretext of religion, teaches another man's slave to despise his master and to withdraw from his service, and not serve his master with good will and all respect, let him be anathema." This resolution became part of the Catholic church's canon law concerning slavery and was quoted as an authoritative source until the middle of the 18th century.
• Circa 400 CE: St. Augustine [354 - 430 CE] speaks of the granting of freedom to slaves as a great religious virtue, and declares the Christian law against regarding God's rational creation as property.
• 595 CE: Pope Gregory dispatched a priest to Britain to purchase Pagan boys to work as slaves on church estates.
• Circa 610: Isidore of Seville wrote: "I can hardly credit that a friend of Christ, who has experienced that grace, which bestowed freedom on all, would still own slaves." In his writing "Regula monachorum" which describes the monastic life, he wrote that "God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman."
• Circa 600 CE: Pope Gregory I wrote, in Pastoral Rule: "Slaves should be told...not [to] despise their masters and recognize that they are only slaves."
• 655 CE: In an attempt to persuade priests to remain celibate, the 9th Council of Toledo ruled that all children of clerics were to be automatically enslaved. This ruling was later incorporated into the canon law of the church.
• 13th century CE: Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) accepted the teachings of the ancient Greek Pagan philosopher, Aristotle, that slavery is "natural."
• 1404 CE: After Spain discovered the Canary Islands the Spanish colonized the islands In 1435 Pope Eugene IV wrote a bull to Bishop Ferdinand of Lanzarote titled "Sicut Dudum." In it, he noted that the black inhabitants of the Islands had been converted to Christianity and either baptized or promised baptism. Subsequently, many of the inhabitants were taken from their homes and enslaved. He commanded that all enslaved Christians who were inhabitants of the Canary Islands be freed from slavery. The Pope's concern appears to have been over the enslavement of Christians by Christians, not the institution of human slavery itself.
• 1452/4 CE: Pope Nicholas V wrote Dum Diversas which granted to the kings of Spain and Portugal the right to reduce any "Saracens [Muslims] and pagans and any other unbelievers" to perpetual slavery.
• 1519: Bartholomew De Las Casas, a Dominican, argued against slavery. "No one may be deprived of his liberty nor may any person be enslaved" He was ridiculed, silenced and ignored.
• 1537 CE: Pope Paul III wrote in Sublimis Deus that Native Americans were not to be enslaved. Only hostile non-Christians, captured in just wars could become slaves. However, in later years, the enslavement of Native people became quite common. Jeanne Mance, (1606-1673) co-founder of Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal and founder of Hôtel-Dieu of Québec City in Canada owned one of the largest group of slaves in what is now Canada. Almost all were Natives. Her cause has been "introduced to the Vatican for elevation to sainthood."
• 1548 CE: Pope Paul III confirmed that any individual may freely buy, sell and own slaves. Runaway slaves were to be returned to their owners for punishment.
• 1660: Charles II of Britain urged the Council for Foreign Plantations to teach Christianity to slaves.
• 1629 to 1661 CE: Pope Urban VIII in 1629, Pope Innocent X in 1645 and Pope Alexander VII in 1661 were all personally involved in the purchase of Muslim slaves.
• Late 17th century: The institution of slavery was a integral part of many societies worldwide. The Roman Catholic church only placed two restrictions on the purchase and owning of slaves:
  • They had to be non-Christian.
  • They had to be captured during "just" warfare. i.e. in wars involving Christian armies fighting for an honorable cause.
  Late in the 17th century,

  It is certainly a matter of faith that this sort of slavery in which a man serves his master as his slave, is altogether lawful. This is proved from Holy Scripture...It is also proved from reason for it is not unreasonable that just as things which are captured in a just war pass into the power and ownership of the victors, so persons captured in war pass into the ownership of the captors... All theologians are unanimous on this.

  We have been unable to find anyone other than St. Augustine and Bartholomew De Las Casas, opposing the institution of slavery prior to this time. People considered it quite appropriate for one person to own another human being as a piece of property. Paul's comment in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free...for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." did not appear to have been followed, except perhaps spiritually. Neither were the statements by Jesus about treating one's fellow humans accepted and applied.
• 1667: The Virginia Assembly passes a bill which denied that a Christian baptism grants freedom to slaves.
• 1680: The Anglican Church in Virginia started a debate, which lasted for 50 years, on whether slaves should be given Christian instruction. They finally decided in the affirmative. However the landowners and slave owners opposed this program. They feared that if the slaves became Christians, there would be public support to grant them freedom.
• The Roman Catholic church in South America insisted that slaves be allowed to marry. They forbade "promiscuous relationships between slaves as well as between masters and slaves, and it encouraged marriage instead of informal mating."
• In the predominately Protestant North America, slaves were considered property and were not allowed to marry. The courts decided that a slave owner should be free to sell his property has he wished. This overturned laws which prevented slave families from being broken up and the individuals sold separately.

Throughout most of the colonial period, opposition to slavery among white Americans was virtually nonexistent. Settlers in the 17th and early 18th centuries came from sharply stratified societies in which the wealthy savagely exploited members of the lower classes. Lacking a later generation’s belief in natural human equality, they saw little reason to question the enslavement of Africans.

...The rejection of slavery as a profoundly immoral practice became gradually accepted by Christians throughout Western countries. This had a serious negative effect on the Christian faith. By rejecting the validity of the pro-slavery passages in the Bible, they were forced to accept that the Bible could not be considered a totally reliable guide on civil and moral topics. This created a serious disillusionment among 19th century Christians. The authority of the Bible became suspect for the first time. ... However, the Bible could no longer be fully accepted as a guide for public and personal morality, equally applicable for all societies and all eras. Some Biblical moral truths became widely accepted as true only for a specific group or for a specific time in history. ...

emphasis mine
Page 3
Passages from the Hebrew Scriptures which sanction slavery
Passages from the Christian Scriptures which Sanction Slavery

[McCulloch]

HA HA!
You said "logically consistent Christian"...

I have yet to meet a Christian who will admit openly that the Christian faith is not logically consistent. I know a few who will under pressure, admit that it is not provable, but none who will admit that it is logically inconsistent, therefore impossible.

[Lotan]

Hi McCulloch,
I thought I might drag this one to the top of this list one more time.

Having, hopefully, exonerated Paul, I don't deny for a minute that numerous bible references can be seen to accommodate and support slavery, as the quotes from Jefferson Davis and R. Furman show quite clearly. This, by itself, disqualifies the Bible as a source of moral authority or the Word of an 'all-loving' deity. FWIW, I do have a few observations...

-Anti-hamitism is no bowl of cherries. I think I'll remember this the next time some Christian complains of persecution because their local retailer is selling 'holiday trees'.

-A common theme from the OT is that some individuals are 'favored by god'. Slavery makes perfect sense according to this view. The Romans, in their own way, believed the same thing. Christianity was based on egalitarian principles and not surprisingly, was embraced at first, primarily by the disenfranchised. The message of universal equality would have been unpalatable for a Roman audience without being watered down by the addition of a pro-slavery message. I would even conjecture that any strong anti-slavery statements in Paul's authentic writings might have been edited out for that same reason. We will probably never know.

-The scary conclusion here is that if some Christians felt that the Bible justified or even demanded slavery in the past, those same arguments could be made in the future, especially with regard to the enslavement of non-Christian, Hamitic (as defined by the Bible-believing religious freaks, not me) people. It's God's will...

[McCulloch]

Thanks,
And will anyone who believes the Bible weigh in on this topic? Please?

[meeble]

I have yet to meet a Christian who will admit openly that the Christian faith is not logically consistent. I know a few who will under pressure, admit that it is not provable, but none who will admit that it is logically inconsistent, therefore impossible.

It's not provable because it's not meant to be provable. I'll admit that my faith is likely to be illogical but unfortunately (for anyone scared of irrationality) I'm not all that fussed. It makes me feel good and warm and fuzzy and it makes me happy so, personally, being logical about it isn't all that important to me.

[Lotan]

Looks like Jesus had something to say on this subject after all...

Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. Matthew 23:10

[1John2_26]

So Lotan, let's drag this back up to the top. I do get tired (sometimes) of proving the incompatibilty of Christianity with promoting sexual deviance.

The fact is that at least some professing Christians supported slavery in to the mid 1800's. With hindsight, I suppose that modern Christians would condemn those slave-holding Christians as wrong, sinful or mistaken.

Nope. Even Roman's freed slaves they cared about. Slaves should have been treated like family members by the "Christians" that believed the New Testament.

No, to be fair, at the time the anti-slave movement was also strongly based on Christian values. The slavery issue split churches and pitted Christian against Christian.

Of course. The real "real world."

I guess that discerning the correct teaching from the scriptures was more difficult for them than it is now.

There is nothing new under the sun. "Back in the day" just didn't have cell phones and computers. Everything else looks eeirliy similar.

What I would really like to see is a response from a Bible believing Christian who believes that slavery taught against in the Bible. What do you do with the passages in the NT which support slavery?

Treat slaves like Christ taught His disciples. Those that were "slaves" to Christ.

Are you with Lotan and "the consensus of scholars" that parts of the Holy Bible are false and misleading?

Lotan does not exist. I have never seen a Lotan.

I have spoken to many Christians whose family members were slaves in America. These people are Christians now whose family members were owned by Christians then.

What's the difference between slavery and a "ho" being sold by a "pimp" that will beat her a$$ if she tries to hold out?

A pimp wearing a big shiny gold cross?

Life is just a big Christian debate.

[Lotan]

So Lotan, let's drag this back up to the top.

OK, but I don't have too much to add. I actually agreed with you somewhat on this issue. Paul's letter to Philemon represents (to me, at least) the genuine Christian position regarding slavery. Since "all are one in Christ Jesus" then it makes no sense for a Christian to keep a Christian slave. Rather they should be "treated like family members", as you say. I'm not aware of Paul's opinion as to whether or not Christians should keep non-Christian slaves. Maybe you will enlighten me.
Where we will probably disagree is that I think that those NT passages that promote slavery are later forgeries and interpolations created for the very purpose of silencing Paul's original statements. The kind of egalitarianism that he proposed was too radical for most to live up to and so, pro-slavery ideas were added.

[1John2_26]

Lotan,

Look at your signature slogan. The God with us drama shows a continuing saga. My only dread in writing that is the sickos jumping on the "well what about same-sex marriage" band wagon. Or, the "we're believers too," heresy train. Sorry that ship done sailed. Chaos is for Darwinist's not the rationally minded human.

Slavery Old testament style is not the kidnap and terrorize version of the Muslim to Dutch to England slavery of the Christian-Abolitionist-Civil War fame.

Christians that "own" slaves would treat them as their family. Freedom would be the condition.