jmoon@lehi3b15.csee.lehigh.edu (Jonggu Moon [890911]) (03/16/90)
Last night, my housemates and I got into a discussion about slavery. We knew that slaves were supposed to be obedient to their masters and master were supposed to treat slaves with loving kindness. Then the question was brought up: Does God think slavery is good ? Unlike the other sins, we could not find a verse that specificly commands us not to subjugate our fellow men. There are plenty of commands to love one another and treat each other as equals, but slavers can always work their way around such ambiguous commands. One in our group suggested that, just like death, slavery is an unavoidable sin. God realized this and so did not bother trying to stamping it out directly, since He knew it would just alienate everyone in that time. Instead, He worked slowly and from the inside, culminating in today's accepted view that slavery is wrong. Similarly, God did not originally say that divorce was wrong. Only until Jesus' arrival did he change His Law to make divorce wrong. ^>*<^jon
tbvanbelle@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Terry Van Belle) (03/19/90)
In article <Mar.16.03.47.23.1990.26573@athos.rutgers.edu> jmoon@lehi3b15.csee.lehigh.edu (Jonggu Moon [890911]) writes: >Last night, my housemates and I got into a discussion about slavery. >We knew that slaves were supposed to be obedient to their masters >and master were supposed to treat slaves with loving kindness. >Then the question was brought up: Does God think slavery is good ? I was always under the impression that the reason Paul wanted slaves to be obedient to their masters is that it is the highest state of Christian ethics to be subservient to those who oppress you, hence Jesus' statements about giving your cloak if someone sues you for your tunic, etc... Of course, that doesn't explain why Paul didn't ask the masters to free their slaves, instead of merely being kind to them. >^>*<^jon Terry Van Belle tbvanbelle@watcgl.Waterloo.edu