“The institution of slavery is not inherently evil. It is not inherently evil to own another human being.”
In a nation based on the idea of personal freedoms, I must say that it really seems, to me, to be evil incarnate. It’s an absolute removal of freedoms, of choices.
I’m not sure how the OP justifies it, but in the American South, they spent a LOT of time dehumanizing Negroes in order to justify enslaving them.
“It is very important that every Christian affirm what I just said. Not only should they affirm it, every Christian in today’s society should be able to defend what I just said. Every Christian should be able to defend it ...”
Okay. I think it’s indefensible, but go ahead. Defend it.
“Christians in America have been led astray on this topic. They’ve been led to believe things that the Bible doesn’t teach, and when we go beyond the Bible, there are dire consequences.”
I’d think slavery is a dire consequence of believing what the Bible DOES teach.
“We must also acknowledge that men like our Founders, men like Jonathan Edwards, who owned slaves, could in fact treat their slaves the way the Bible tells them to treat their slaves and that they weren’t living in grave sin. They weren’t living in unrepentant grave sin.”
How about a founding father that moved slaves around for the labor needs of each site, forcing family separation, sometimes for years?
I mean, ‘you guys’ are all the fucking time talking about ‘The Family,’ as the basis of civilization.
“Do not condemn our forefathers who may have been treating their slaves biblically.”
Part of the Bible treatment of slaves includes letting the man go free, but keeping his wife and kids. If he wants to stay with his family (‘The Family!’ again!), you can drive an awl through his fucking ear, keeping him as a slave for the rest of his life. That sure sounds like abuse, but it is biblical.
“But we cannot condemn the entire institution of slavery outright; we just cannot do that because the Bible does not do that.”
Okay, well, lucky for me, I think the Bible is a man-made product of the times it was written and can be sent packing without prejudice. Fuck
All the way off.