Slavery -An Atheist Reads the Bible.

by whereami 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BurnTheShips

  The OT law also made legal provision for divorce, yet Jesus said that was put in there out of the hardness of human hearts.

  I would describe the slavery situation, especially in the NT, as one akin to tolerance of an existing institution, and not one of endorsement.

  Taking the idea behind Jesus' words on divorce in the Law, and applying them to slavery, would also make it a provisional arrangement in light of a flawed humanity that wasn't ready for universal manumission.

  Remember, in the US it was in Christian churches that the Abolitionist movement was born, and the idea traces its roots to a Colonial era Catholic priest. The equal rights movement was Christian also. MLK himself was a Christian minister, and couched his language in religious terms.

  BTS
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  PSacramento

  Considering the persecution that the christians were going through, maybe speaking up for an open revolt of slaves wasn't the best wat to go about things.

  Slavery was, quite unfortunetly, an institution that the "civilized" world could NOT do without.

  Untill it was able to do without and we can, like BTS pointed out, thank Christians for that.

  I don't see it as a "better late than never" thing, it was truly a "now is the time and we are the ones to do it" thing.

  It would NOT have happend in the ancient world, no way.
• 

  tec

  The OT law also made legal provision for divorce, yet Jesus said that was put in there out of the hardness of human hearts.

  I would describe the slavery situation, especially in the NT, as one akin to tolerance of an existing institution, and not one of endorsement.

  Well said.

  PSac also.

  Tammy
• 

  snowbird

  I don't see it as a "better late than never" thing, it was truly a "now is the time and we are the ones to do it" thing.

  It would NOT have happend in the ancient world, no way.

  So true. So very true.

  Ecclesiastes 3:1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: The Message Bible

  Syl
• 

  beksbks

  Remember, in the US it was in Christian churches that the Abolitionist movement was born, and the idea traces its roots to a Colonial era Catholic priest. The equal rights movement was Christian also. MLK himself was a Christian minister, and couched his language in religious terms.

  BTS

  Those the Abolitionists fought against were equally religious. In the American South, religious leaders used the bible to support slavery. It was more a matter of Enlightenment and regional attitudes.
• 

  undercover

  In the American South, religious leaders used the bible to support slavery.

  It seems that anyone can use the Bible to support whatever they want.

  From slavery to racism to virgin births to end times to snake handling to refusing medical treatment...it's all there. You just gotta find the right person to explain it to you.
• 

  thetrueone

  Still waiting Perry but I'll be patient

  Well Perry if you don't imagine him also give us viable physical proof of his existence so that we too can not just place him into human imagination.

  And isn't equally disturbing that organizations like the JWS are still trying

  to emulate the social behavior moral standards of the ancient Israelites, thousands of years after that civilization has dissolved.

  Talk about a digressive human folly.
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  beksbks

  Explain UC, I'm listening

  
• 

  thetrueone

  The exploitations out and from the bible are ominously varied depending what the agenda is pushing from underneath.

  Look what the Watchtower Publishing corporation has done as an provable example .

  Many times the hidden agenda is this $ with a good portion of accommodating and accumulative power.
• 

  cofty

  And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his property. .... “If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth" . - Numbers 21:20-27

  “ When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her ." - Deut 21:10-14
  
  What a delicate euphemism, "after that you may go in to her and be her husband". God gave his blessing for slaves to be bought, sold, humiliated, dehumanised, beaten and raped as their owners saw fit.