The Bible condones slavery

Among the many things I don't like about that book, this one is one of the worst.

The damn thing condones slavery! What kinda crap is that? And no, I don't wanna hear any "well, those were the times" crap either. People say it's the literal word of the Christian god, who is perfect and all that, so it has to be held to a higher standard.

Just look at this garbage

Ephesians 6: 5-8 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

Really? Obey your masters with respect and fear, like Jesus himself is whipping you. Slave as if you were slaving your way into heaven, with zest and gusto! Crap.

Colossians 3:22-24 Says basically the same thing here.

Timothy 6:1-2 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.

Aww, look at that. Not only is it ok to have slaves, but if you are Christian, your slaves should work even harder for you! It also doesn't matter if they are fellow Christians, they can still be your slaves. Wonderful.

Matthew 20:26-27 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave

Hey, this is Jesus talking! Oh, sure, he means slave in a way like serving people, sure. It's the message that counts, right? Notice the use of servant and slave.

Timothy 2:9-10 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Well, what can I say? It pretty much speaks for itself.

Exodus 21:2-11 Long, but lays out a list of things to do with your slaves and their kids. Excellent.

This is obviously a super-effective means of control. You tell people "hey, my god says you must obey me, slave, so obey." And it's even better if they believe as well as you. "You're a Christian, so you gotta serve me even better than my heathen slaves." For real, though, how can someone say no to being your slave when God says they have to obey you?

You know what the most ironic thing of all about this is? The OVERWHELMING majority of black Americans are Christian! Imagine that! I bet half of them don't realize that the book condones slavery. This would explain why slavery was so effective in the US. I don't think the Romans told their people that Zeus said they were slaves; they probably just heavy-handed them. See, if it's in your religion, you can't question it. That is great!

What a perfect way to enslave someone. First, convince yourself that it's ok, then convince them. That's like a double conspiracy there! After you convince yourself God said it, you convince your slaves because you make them Christians. No, wait, it's a triple whammy of a conspiracy; after you convert your slaves, you tell them that it's ok for Christians to enslave each other. You tell them that they have to break their backs for their Christian brothers and masters. Damn, what a deal!

And if you make some excuse for it, remember that this is the Christian god's words here. Also keep in mind the consent of the Catholic church during the African slave trade. You would think "the" religion would have set an example and spoke out during the slave trade. Guess not.

Arab slavers, Roman slavers, hell, even African slavers weren't this good. I guess that is genius...ok, maybe not. It's just taking advantage of what your God says to do...wait, it's OBEYING your God.

But, I guess this is one of those things Christians can disregard about the word of God...like killing gays, sorceresses, people who have sex with animals, kids, etc...



[edit on 23-2-2006 by truthseeka]

Didja' ever notice God is supposedly good and Satan is evil, right. But God kills scads of people, demolishes whole cities, killls almost the entire planet at one point. Can't find anywhere in the Bible where it says Satan killed anyone. Strange.....

Well, yes it does, and was used as an instrument to support slavery in the southern United States and elsewhere.

It also has instructions on how to sell your daughter (but not your son) to another person.

Originally posted by truthseeka

But, I guess this is one of those things Christians can disregard about the word of God...like killing gays, sorceresses, people who have sex with animals, kids, etc...

You hit the nail on the head here .I worked in a church. There are too many passages to list that are not considered "appropriate" for sermons, church discussion groups, sunday school, etc.

Still, people that read it objectively, as you do, are going to see it one way and those with "faith" are still going to believe it anyway. At least the parts that they find comfortable.

Not much different than the "people controlling governments" of today, is it? There has always been this sort of control exercised in societies, and probably long before the Christian bible existed. Does the Jewish or Muslim "good book" have these sort of references? I would think they do.....

Originally posted by Byrd
Well, yes it does...

Sorry, was this directed to the original poster or in reference to my post?
If you do have a passage that says Satan killed someone, I'd appreciate it.

Well, it looks as though those who enjoy bashing God/Christ/Bible have free reign on this board. I just received a U2U stating that my reply was deleted for name calling or something...that's funny...the ONLY name that I might have called anyone was a liberal...go figure. I guess it's okay to make obsurd statements like THE DAMN THING (Bible) CONDONES SLAVERY! But when a CHRISTIAN tries to make a reply asking why anyone would make a foolish statment like that, it can in no way upset or offend the God/Christ/Bible basher at all.
Oh, THAT name...God/Christ/Bible basher!!! I get it now!!! I apologize for offending those who like to bash God/Christ or the Bible.

-Sincerely, Quin

Well, let's be honest... the damn thing does condone slavery. In fact, there are more verses of god being in favor for slavery then there are for him against. If you'd like to get into the many other immoral aspect's of god that a 'good christian' won't talk about in church, we could easily do so here. If your comfortable with knowing your god of course ...

Alright produkt, I'll bite, show me ONE immoral reference in the Bible that shows God is "immoral".....I can't wait for this!!!!!!

-Quin

Originally posted by mytquin
I guess it's okay to make obsurd statements like THE DAMN THING (Bible) CONDONES SLAVERY!
-Sincerely, Quin

What, are you stoned? Or maybe I'm illiterate.

I could have sworn that those passages I listed smack of slavery condonement. Can you re-educate me, ya know, teach me how to properly read the King's English? I thought I did pretty well in English classes, but apparently not.

truthseeka??? You wouldn't know TRUTH if it bit you on the arse!

-Quin

Well, like I said, god does indeed condone slavery. Now unless your a racist pig like god, I would assume you consider slavery an immoral practice. I could be wrong and you could indeed be a racist pig, which would negate the concept of slavery being immoral to you.

Killing innocent people per gods order's. Now unless your a barbaric sadist, I would assume you would also consider this an immoral act. I could be wrong and you could indeed be a barbaric sadist, which would negate the concept of killing innocent people as being immoral to you.

This site here is rather good about immorality and god.

atheism.about.com...

I'll dig up some quote's from the bible in a few mins, just got home after buying a shiny po-lice car.

Originally posted by mytquin
truthseeka??? You wouldn't know TRUTH if it bit you on the arse!

-Quin

Maybe you should read the verses yourself instead of making dee dee dee comments like that. It seems like you're a Christian, so you ought to know what your holy book says better than me. Don't get mad at me; like Produkt said, it's the Christian god who told people to write this crap down and is the bad guy. Not me for pointing it out.

You have voted passenger for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have two more votes this month.

Man, though I've seen examples of the Christian deity being not so nice, I have never made this connection. Satan is the ultimate boogeyman, the al-Qaeda of the Bible, but as far as I can tell, all he has done is lie and get people to eat an apple. That's a far cry from torching cities, sending bears on little kids, and drowning an entire planet.

This is deffinitely a challenging subject for Christians but this is the angle I prefer:

www.carm.org...

Don't get confused.. There is a difference between what God approves of and what he "allows".


God is pretty clear about what He 'ordains' in the Bible and what He doesn't. Did He ordain slavery in the Bible? Nope.. don't think so. Did he allow it? Yes.. because of SIN.

I'll explicate more later if I get the chance.

You must've forgotten to read the whole bible my friend.

The Bible says in Leviticus 25:44-46 that God told them: "As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: You may buy your male and female slaves from the nations that are round about you ... You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession forever."

According to Exodus 21:20: "When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, he shall not be punished: for the slave is his money."

Just two example's of god 'ordaining' slavery. Doesn't sound like he's allowing slavery, sound's very much like he's saying hey go ahead, but make sure it's done my way.

Produkt

"Now unless your a racist pig like god"

That's extraordinarily sad. If you had any idea what kind of portrait that kind of statement paints of your character....


Instead of 'cherry picking' what you want out of the Bible why don't you sit down and read through the whole thing. You need to find the 'broader context'.




[edit on 24-2-2006 by TxSecret]

Not only the Bible condones Slavery, Islam condones slavery, and the Hindus have the caste system which is basically categorized slavery. Even Judaism condoned slavery, however slaves were treated much better than in the other religions, because Jews remember they were once slaves.

shamash.org...

answering-islam.org.uk...

www.mukto-mona.com...

If you're going hold slavery against the Bible and the God of the Bible, you also need to apply to all other major world religions and their gods.

Produkt, do you even know the deffinition of ordained?? Doesn't sound like you do. And BTW, I HAVE read the entire Bible.. (More than once)

I'm sticking to my guns. I will not argue the point that slavery was allowed in the Bible but that is ALL it was..


It was ALLOWED. (Just like God allows other bad things in the world to happen) If you think otherwise you are light years off the mark and very spiritually inept.


You just assumed that I've never read through the entire Bible.. You were wrong. Have YOU read the Bible in it's entirety?

Instead of bleating desperate atheism why don't you help people understand why God allows bad things to happen in the world. Now THAT would be a great discussion.

Also, it seems spiritual discernment is not one of your strong suits, you might try working on that. This also might help you more in the situation you are creating for yourself here.



[edit on 24-2-2006 by TxSecret]

worldwatcher,

I'm aware of all that, but this topic is god and slavery is it not? And I do believe I'm well within my right's to correct those of faith who come in here and say the good lord doesn't condone slavery when he clearly says he does in their own bible.

TxSecret,

What does it paint of my character? They were all legitiment statements. Either he agree's with his god or he doesn't. Now that there would say alot of his character. But me saying 'racist pig' in a bad manner paint's my character was one who doesn't agree with slavery of any kind. IDK, call me crazy, but I don't exactly view that as a bad thing.