Quote:
Originally Posted by lagtight
The Bible does in fact endorse certain types of slavery*. But chattel slavery, as that which existed in Pre-Civil War America, is specifically condemned in the Bible.
The Scriptures specifically condemns manstealing. It is even a capital crime:
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21:16
Kidnapping someone for slavery was condemned in Exodus, although in the Deuteronomic Code it was okay to conquer other people and take them as slaves, but only if you were feeling merciful and didn't want to just kill them all.
Quote:
Deuteronomy 20:10-18
When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace. If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you in forced labour. If it does not submit to you peacefully, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; and when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. Thus you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of the nations here. But as for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord your God.
Moreover, banning kidnapping for slavery is not the same as condemning chattel slavery. The US banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, but chattel slavery continued for almost sixty more years because of blood slavery, something endorsed in the Bible:
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Exodus 21:2-6
When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s and he shall go out alone. But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person’, then his master shall bring him before God.* He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life.
Also, while in Exodus this six year rule applied to male Hebrew slaves, the author goes on to note that female sex slaves could be kept for life:
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Exodus 21:7-11:
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife.* And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lagtight
The Scriptures specifically states that all workers are to receive a fair wage:
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due (Romans 4:4 ESV)
Uh, no. Here is the passage in context:
Quote:
Romans 4:1-8:
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works:
‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.’
Paul here isn't laying out a principle of fair compensation for work, but making a point about earning forgiveness vs being given it as a gift and pointing to the common principle that wages for work is not considered a gift but something you are due for your work. I see no implication here to fairness in wages or that slaves are supposed to be paid for their labor.
Last edited by Original Position; 02-25-2021 at 04:07 PM.
Reason: accuracy