THE BIBLE, CHRISTIANITY, AND SLAVERY: ACCEPTANCE, OPPOSITION, & RE-ACCEPTANCE 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." 1 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. More on slavery in the Bible. 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." 2 According to a 19th century author Edward C. Rodgers: 3 Maximum preached and wrote against it. 4 Those who entered upon a religious life gave freedom to their slaves. 5 Theodorus Studita gave particular directions, "not to employ those beings, created in the image of God, as slaves." 6 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. 7 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." 8 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." 9 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." 10 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. 11 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. 3 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." 12 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, Leander, a Roman Catholic theologian, wrote: "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." 13 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. 14 "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." 14 The "most abominable aspect of the slave trade, was fueled by the idea that Africans, even children, were better off Christianized under a system of European slavery than left in Africa amid tribal wars, famines and paganism" 15 http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_slav1.htm Bacalah artikel tentang Islam di: http://www.nizami.org __________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Get on-the-go sports scores, stock quotes, news and more. 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