-Caveat Lector-
"Howard R. Davis III" wrote:
>
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> Hawk wrote:
> >
> > > But slavery was an evil institution.
> >
> > That is merely your opinion, and it does not comport with the Bible. You are
>welcome to it, and you are
> > certainly not alone in that opinion. But I base my criteria on "stronger stuff"
>than personal opinion.
> > By the way, at one time I would have agreed with you. I was "compelled" to study
>slavery in order to
> > support my position that it was evil, but my study resulted in forcing me to
>reject my initial beliefs
> > concerning it. As you may have gathered, I am VERY libertarian in my political
>philosophy. As a
> > libertarian, I would have to reject slavery, either an an owner or a slave. But
>as a Christian, I
> > cannot condemn it.
> >
>
> In his long post there is much which I am in total agreement with.
> However, the above is not my view. I believe that Hawk would be correct
> if he were only to use the old testiment as reference.
No. He'd be wrong if he used the old testament as a reference. The OT
is
a celebration of freedom from slavery, and a proclamation that the
Israelites
would serve no earthly masters. This is quite revolutionary
considering that
all the established agrarian societies were based on slavery. The OT
also
had very strict rules pertaining to the ownership of servants ( slaves
).
If a slave was physically damaged by a master, for example, the law
set him
free. This was a far cry from the treatment of slaves in other
cultures at
that time.
The Jubilee set all slaves free on the 50th year. Also no one could be
a slave
for more than seven years even if they wanted to.
> However, I
> believe that Jesus set a higher standard when he said that we should do
> unto others as we would have them do unto us. I don't believe the
> ownership of slaves is compatable with that admonishment.
But Paul, the real founder of Christianity, and knee bender to the
Romans
admonished the slaves of the empire to obey their masters. This set in
motion the justification of slavery by Christians who profited from
the
labor and misery of others.
> (Though I can
> understand the problem of those who (like Jefferson) inherited slaves
> and did not understand what to do about the situation). I don't,
> however, believe that Jesus would have called upon his disciples to take
> up the sword against their owners.
That's exactly what he did.
Joshua2
>
> best wishes, Howard Davis
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