Fuck Katt Williams

[Ben Davis]

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Of course I would change my position to the supported evidence. However, your question does not answer my three key questions.
I will list them again:

1. Are you asserting that the Bible doesn't actually condone slavery and that the original Hebrew text of the Bible actually calls these people "indentured servants" rather than "slaves?"
2. Are you making the claim that the Hebrew did not endorse the beating of slaves and that the Biblical text is a lie and furthermore, that anyone who bashes Biblical slavery is an idiot who doesn't realize that "slavery wasn't really all that bad" ????
3. He's not lying or bending the truth about what is written in the good old King James Version is he?

I'm not ignoring your questions, just want to make sure we're on the same page. Here I'll respond:

When we are talking about slavery, we're talking about a historically, ethically and anthropologically complex topic that simple soundbites do not capture. When people talk about slavery, particularly people with an American or western-centric worldview, we think of the experience and treatment of blacks. But slavery throughout history, and what has been referred to as slavery can be very different from American slavery.

So, referring to question (1), where you ask me "Are you asserting that the Bible doesn't actually condone slavery," I would defer to the experts on the issue (of whom I am not). But as an untutored layman, my first question would be "What kind of slavery are you talking about? Do you have an America-centric view of slavery, where the word evokes Roots or Django Unchained?" It's entirely possible that the Bible condones slavery of one sort but not another. And what that slavery looks like might be very different from what Roots looked like.

Secondly, pertinent to (1) you go on to ask me "[does] the original Hebrew text of the Bible actually calls these people "indentured servants" rather than "slaves?" " I don't believe so. I believe indentured servanthood is a much newer concept, having arisen long after the events depicted in the Bible. So the text would not have those words. Secondly, the text was written in Hebrew, which wouldn't say "indentured servants", or "slave" for that matter, but something like שִׁפְחַ֥ת or מֵעֲבָדֶ֖יךָ which could be translated as manservant or maidservant.

Rather, what I mean is that the depiction of slavery in the Bible, the Torah in particular (since I'm more familiar with that) resembles indentured servanthood much moreso than slavery.

Why do I say that? Because there are features of the text that describe a situation that is very different from American slavery:

-Kidnappers who enslave people against their will face a death sentence. (Ex 21:16)
-People often sold themselves into slavery (Lev 25:35)
-Slavery was not coerced (Deut 23:15)
-Some slaves end up with the same rights as the master's children (Ex 21:9)
-Slaves can take part in sacred religious practices that even the Priest's children cannot take part in (Lev. 22:11)

An informed view of the nature of Biblical slavery tells us that it's nothing like American slavery.

Pertaining to (2), you ask me "Are you making the claim that the Hebrew did not endorse the beating of slaves and that the Biblical text is a lie and furthermore, that anyone who bashes Biblical slavery is an idiot who doesn't realize that "slavery wasn't really all that bad" ????

WTF kind of bullshit question is this? Did they endorse the beating of slaves? When did I say anything about that? It's possible the Biblical text is a lie, I have no idea. If you read my post carefully so far, consider yourself too educated to ask the final part of your question here.

As far as (3), who knows? I'm not a religious expert. But one thing I know is that history tells us that slavery in the ancient near east was nothing like American slavery, and peddling historical ignorance to make your point is downright embarrassingly idiotic.

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Seriously?!? You're claiming that there's a context in which it's ethically acceptable to own another human as property?

Shit Vinny, that's a new low.