Christ's 'silence' on slavery.

tec

One of the accusations against Christ that some people make to me from time to time is that Christ never spoke out against slavery, and so He must condone it.

I would submit that slavery (the forcible enslaving of your fellow man)... is not the root problem. It is merely a symptom of the root problem. Christ came to deal with the root. This is why he does not address many things that people find objectionable today; that is why he did not have to address every law that had been twisted or handled wrong. How many lifetimes would these things take, and how many people would be unable to hear because the root problem is still there?

The two most important commandments were to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Every other commandment stemmed from these. A refinement, if you would. Because if you love your neighbor, you do not steal from him; you do not covet his wife; you do not murder him; you do not lie about him or bear false witness against him; strike him; beat him; stone him; show him no mercy.

You do not enslave him.

If you understand love, if you have that love within you, then you don't need the other commandments. You don't need the law at all. Because the law is written on your heart... and we act upon what is within us. If we have light within us (and Christ is light/love/life/truth), then our actions toward others will reflect that light. If we have darkness within us, then our actions toward others will reflect that darkness. If that is light and love, then what you do reflects that light and love. If what you have within you is anger and darkness, then what you do will reflect that.

Light chases away the darkness. So seek that light. In the same way as this: "Seek first the Kingdom, and all other things will be given to you as well."

Cure the root problem (lack of love), and the symptoms disappear on their own.

Christ was not silent. He came and spoke Truth; shedding light on the darkness that people had within them, due to their own nature or due to what they had been wrongly taught God wanted and was. And in addition to such teachings as love one another as He loved us; the golden rule; the direction to follow Him, and He came here to serve US; so we must also serve one another (not enslave one another)... in addition to these... He simply went to directly to the root of the problem, and dealt with what is within.

I stated elsewhere that if people had listened and understood Christ (and therefore love); then slavery would have ended without even a drop of blood being spilled. But as always, it is our choice to hear... or to refrain.

Peace to you,

tammy

cofty

That doesn't even begin to work as an excuse for Jesus' tacit approval of slavery.

It would work if all he ever did was go around making vague noises about loving everybody like some 1st century hippy but he didn't. He had plenty to say about all sorts of things but a few simple words about slavery are not to be found among his, sometimes vacuous, pronouncements.

edited to add - the "golden rule" was one of the few great things he uttered. In this he was merely repeating what other great minds had said previously.

"Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself."
-Confucius, circa 500 BCE

breakfast of champions

COFTY you "hateful" atheist! Is this where your fear of the future has lead you? Awful. . .

cofty

I know I'm such a hateful bastard

Hortensia

as far as we know, Jesus didn't exist. So the views presented in the bible represent the writers, who were people of their time and who were very accustomed to slavery. I think the idea that slavery is bad wouldn't even have occurred to them.

cofty

the idea that slavery is bad wouldn't even have occurred to them

I agree.

As a species we are evolving socially. Jesus (I do think there was such a man) would have a lot to learn from us.

tec

That doesn't even begin to work as an excuse for Jesus' tacit approval of slavery.

Not an excuse.

It just IS.

If you love someone (as Christ loved us, or even as one loves oneself), how then could you enslave that person? Or beat them? Or show them no mercy? Or separate them from their family? Or lie about them? Or any of the other things that comes from a decided LACK of love? (or lack of understanding of love... to whit one could look to Christ to understand that love SERVES... it does not dominate)

The golden rule goes even farther back than Confuscious (well, the negative version of it at least). Seems more like a universal law to me. If Christ was here from the beginning, then who exactly taught who?

Peace,

tammy

cofty

Tammy you ignored the main point of my answer as you always do.

It would work if all he ever did was go around making vague noises about loving everybody like some 1st century hippy but he didn't. He had plenty to say about all sorts of things but a few simple words about slavery are not to be found among his, sometimes vacuous, pronouncements.

tec

I think the idea that slavery is bad wouldn't even have occurred to them.

Agreed.

They would have had to learn; to see; to completely change the way they thought of something. Learning to love one's fellow man (male/female/slave/free) would have taught them that, from within. And without a bloody revolution that might have swallowed the Truth (and therefore the root) altogether.

Peace, tammy

tec

It would work if all he ever did was go around making vague noises about loving everybody like some 1st century hippy but he didn't. He had plenty to say about all sorts of things but a few simple words about slavery are not to be found among his, sometimes vacuous,

pronouncements.

I did address some of this in my response to Hortensia above.

As well, slavery was the system that mankind had chosen for themselves. It was a means for some to get out of debt; as well as a means to dominate and conquer and keep more of one's money to oneself. It was not a system that God gave to us. It was one that man made for Himself. Christ came to show the truth about God. His example (his serving others and teaching his followers to do the same) showed God... and neither one of them enslaved others. That is the Image Christ gave of God. That is what we look at, if we want to know what God wants.

Peace,

tammy

Christ's 'silence' on slavery.

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