If you examine the questions I have asked today, you will see the theme of my questions for today has been about Christianity sanctioning slavery. It's a historical fact that Christianity has sanctioned slavery (my questions provide the evidence for this).
Several people have had trouble with this, insisting Peter and Paul were speaking of maids and butlers, and not slaves.
My question for those who have this difficulty is, have you never been taught that Rome practiced slavery? Have none of you heard of Spartacus, a gladiator who led a slaves' revolt against Rome and defeated several Roman armies before finally being put down? Are you unaware that this occurred before the birth of Jesus?
In light of these facts, how do you justify Peter and Paul telling slaves to accept their fate as slaves? Peter goes so far as to say "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh." (1 Peter 2:18).
2006-10-23 07:12:32 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I neglected to mention the individual who claimed that the Christians of the North fought the Civil War to stop slavery. This individual seems unaware that the churches and Christians of the South fought to preserve slavery.
2006-10-23 07:14:18 · update #1
Apparently, you didn't read my answer to one of your original questions. Read the Epistle to Philemon, authored by Paul. He CLEARLY tells slave-owner Philemon that his slave, Onesimus, should be set free.
In order to understand this subject, you must also read things that may disprove your argument.
Peace.
2006-10-23 07:17:38 · answer #1 · answered by Suzanne: YPA 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are a lot of things that Christians condoned over the years for various reasons. I believe that Christians condones slavery because it was so embedded in the culture of the early Christians and also the culture of the South before the Civil War. The sad thing is that the Bible can be used to defend most anything you want to defend. So it was during the early part of our history that people used certain scriptures to defend having slaves, while others saw other parts of Scripture to oppose it. For the record I don't condone slavery of any kind. The culture has to change a lot of times before something like slavery can be changed. The sad thing is that slavery still exist in some countries today.
2006-10-23 14:24:53 · answer #2 · answered by brother g 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Slavery, in the time of Peter and Paul, was not the slavery we think of today. People running off to Africa to abduct innocent tribes.
Slavery in the time of Peter and Paul - and indeed all the way back through the earliest of times - meant indentured servitude. Someone owed you something so they worked off a debt.
The verse you mention pertains to indentured servants. Not hired hands.
The Jews themselves had been slaves. Slaves to the Egyptians. Slaves to the Babylonians.
God proclaimed the "jubilee year" - a year to forgive debts. The Jews forgave their slaves for just one day before rounding them back up again to serve out their time. That being the case, God gave the naughty folks over to slavery at the hands of the Babylonians.
Roman slavery was a very different thing. Many Christians died at the hands of Romans. Remember, until around 350 AD, Christianity was illegal. Many Christians died as slaves and entertainment for the Romans.
It's true that Christians fought on both sides of the slavery war. I find it absolutely disgusting that the American Anglican Church just pulled two abolitionist women out of a hat, as it were to make them Anglican saints. Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Neither were Anglicans and Church of England was born out of one of the worst slave traders ever. Elizabeth I, who actually named her slave ships the Jesus and the Mother of God.
But the Quakers worked hard as both abolitionists and suffragists. They were seen as heretics by the Puritans of their day. They were tortured and jailed, but still fought hard.
So today women have the right to vote and others have the right to be free.
2006-10-23 14:35:01 · answer #3 · answered by Max Marie, OFS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All agrarian civilizations depend on some kind of slave labour to keep the system going. Even today, look at China with its one child laws except for farmers who are encouraged to have many children because they are needed to work the fields. Its only when mechanization starts to take over that slaves are no longer needed because machines take over, and don't need sleep. Its just a fact of life.
2006-10-23 14:23:26 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were talking about slavery because it was practiced back then- just as it is now.
As far as the civil war- there were northerners who did not want the slaves to be free- and there where southerners who wanted the slaves to be free.
In the civil war if you understand it- it was not states rights as southerners love to say ( and yes I am southern- all my life ) it was simple economics.
2006-10-23 14:23:06 · answer #5 · answered by IN Atlanta 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They insist it because to admit otherwise would reveal that their religion is the invention of men.
They euphamistically substitute "manservant" and "maidservant" in the 10th commandment as well instead of the proper translation, which is "slave" and "concubine".
2006-10-23 14:16:25 · answer #6 · answered by lenny 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Maybe the maids could be slaves... and while we're at it, could we make them a little sexier?
2006-10-23 14:17:14 · answer #7 · answered by Bran McMuffin 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christian approved slavery was around for many, many centuries
2006-10-23 14:15:39 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christianity, in attempting to survive, has EVOLVED to become more politically correct, in line with today's thinking.
2006-10-23 14:15:30 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋