To: 
From: "Vern Humphrey" 
Reply-To: r_catholic-l{at}yahoogroups.com

To: goffscalif{at}aol.com [mailto:goffscalif{at}aol.com]
>
> > Recall that neither the Old of New Testaments condemn slavery,
> but rather
> > speak approvingly of it.  Saint Paul urges slaves to be obedient.
>
> Not approvingly, but as an extant reality.  It is the NT's
> doctrine that in
> Christ there are no human distinctions, but all are one in Him,
> that directly
> led to Christians such as John Newton and William Wilberforce
> working to end
> slavery.  True, some professing Christians believed in slavery and owned
> slaves - and some professing Christians also believe in
> euthanasia or a flat
> earth.

Yes -- but there is a great difference between believing the world is flat
TODAY, and believing the same thing 10,000 years ago.  For people born into
the modern world, it would require rejection of overwhelming evidence.  For
people born long ago, it would require a leap of genius to NOT believe the
world was flat.
>
> The Bible acknowledges slavery as a fact.  Given that slavery was a fact
> during the time God was inspiring the Bible, it provides
> guidelines for both
> slaves and owners.  But one cannot truly believe that all are one
> - brothers
> and sisters - in Christ, and consistently believe at the same time that
> slavery is right.
>
Actually, many people could and did consistently believe exactly that.

Look at it this way -- would you deny that a child is as true a brother or
sister in Christ as you and I?  And would you espouse a system that
"liberated" children from their parents?

Of course not!!  Children need supervision.  So do many other people -- the
mentally retarded, the sufferers from Alzheimer's, and so on.

People of an earlier age simply believed the category of those needing
supervision was much broader.

Look at Greek Drama -- slaves are often portrayed as stupid, bumbling
characters, clearly not able to live without supervision.

For people who were born into that world, it took a great mental wrench to
think that slavery wasn't a "naturally established" institution.

look at how Tertullian viewed the Emperor -- he was "ours"
because God sent him to us.  He was chosen to rule over us.  It isn't a far
stretch to imagine that many other people are appointed to rule, like
fathers over their households, masters over their slaves, and so on.


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