(January 10, 2015 at 4:50 am)robvalue Wrote: We don't think Christianity created evils like slavery, we think people used Christianity as a way to justify slavery. If God had anything like the power he is meant to have, he could just stop slavery in the blink of an eye. Or just do what he did with everything else, tell them what to do, or in this case not do. You've tried hard, but I'm afraid this is the general kind of apologetic answer to slavery and it's not very strong in my opinion. The bible never condemns slavery because people at that time didn't think it was wrong. The bible tells you that you can buy slaves from the countries around you. They are your property, and you can beat them within an inch of their life without having committed a crime. This is a God, or more accurately the people speaking for God, who were perfectly fine with it. The fact that morality has since changed is not surprising, yet the book is stubbornly kept the same. The problems between the rift of two thousand years just becomes more and more apparent.
If you want to know what really happened regarding slavery, here's some footage:
http://youtu.be/dDgCnoCMf9k
Well I didn't watch the video but about what you wrote. I have to disagree. There are many verses about divorce too. God said he hated it but still gave guidelines on the subject because he knew that not everyone would be able to make it work. Likewise, if you told ancient desert dwellers to not have slaves (note- different from roman slaves) while the rest of the world did, chances were they weren't going to comply. So guidelines were given. if you hit your slave hard enough to permanently damage him, he was set free from the owners monstrosity. Hebrew slaves were released after 6 years. Just because regulations were given doesn't mean God actually approved of it.
Yes people have used the old testament to justify horrific things but that could've been done with any damn thing found in nature.
As for jesus speaking about slavery. He did say slaves should obey their masters, but he also commanded to love others. And if a slave works for 6 years under a christian master who is kind to him- call me evil but I don't find anything wrong with that. You need to look at how someone's words must've affected the populace at that particular point in history without any preexisting bias. You get what I'm saying don't you?
The Atlantic slave trade was not in any way justified by Christianity. Correct me if you think I'm wrong in any way
