An Honest Debate.com

In my debates with skeptics I have often heard the charge that the Bible endorses slavery.  Here is an example from the website, EvilBible.com

“Except for murder, slavery has got to be one of the most immoral things a person can do.  Yet slavery is rampant throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.  The Bible clearly    approves of slavery in many passages, and it goes so far as to tell how to obtain slaves, how hard you can beat them, and when you can have sex with the female slaves.”

One is struck by the irony of skeptics relying on a Biblically informed value system to condemn the very source which forms the basis of their moral reasoning.  One is also struck by the truth of the unbeliever’s inability to separate the story from the details; to see the forest through the trees.

As I prepare this post I am reminded of a book I read in my High School English class, Huckleberry Finn.   Taken out of its context, with no regard for the entire story, it might be possible for someone to make the case that Mark Twain’s masterpiece is pro-slavery.  But those who actually understand the book would realize that the author intended the exact opposite.  Yes, the story is set in the context of a racist slave culture, and Huck and others say all sorts of racist things.  But as the story unfolds we understand that the author is actually telling us story within the context of racism and slavery that when properly understood, is in fact a powerful attack on both institutions.

The Bible is much the same way.  Taken in a segmented way, EvilBible’s analysis may have some merit.  But looked at as a whole, and as a record of the progressively unfolding moral will of God, the reader sees a completely different story.   Read in its historic and logical progression, with an eye to the overall story, more discerning readers will realize that the moral foundations the skeptic stands on were laid by the very book they seek to discredit.  After all, it is no coincidence that slavery was first condemned and abolished in cultures which have been most directly impacted by the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Interestingly, it was uneducated slaves living in one of the cruelest manifestations of the human race’s impulse to enslave on another that may have come to understand this best.  I am referring to the American slave culture of the south.  While their master’s, like our modern skeptics, went to the Bible to find proof texts to defend the “peculiar institution,” the men and women they enslaved turned to the same book for strength and hope.     One needs only to read the lyrics of their “spirituals” to see this hope. 

As a soloist in our college choir I had the privilege of singing some of these songs.   I was always moved by them as I reflected on their words and the circumstances that produced them.  What a pleasant incense these heartfelt expressions of faith and hope must have been in the nostrils of the God when they first flowed from the hearts of his enslaved children. 

In my mind’s eye I can see a gathering of men and women in a simple shanty.  I can imagine and almost hear this group of slaves clothed in rags singing their songs,  songs that reflect the overall message of the Bible,  a message their educated masters and our modern over-educated skeptics were — and are — unable and unwilling so see: God is in favor of freedom.     

Let us now move on to a second, related principle:  “The laborer is worthy of his hire”.   Here is another way of stating it: The man who mows the rich man’s field (his private property) is entitled to a proportionate share of the wealth he helped create, and withholding his compensation is theft.

One of the principles I will be trying to demonstrate in future posts is the unalienable right of private property.  This right is implicitly and explicitly taught in scripture.  It is the basis of the free enterprise system and a market based economy.  I believe it is the basis of all other secular freedoms.  However, the unalienable right to private property can lead to tyranny and slavery unless it is tempered with an understanding of another equally important right; the laborer’s right to his hire.  The capitalist’s blind spot is his inability to understand this.  The socialist’s blind spot is his inability to see the enslaving power of government.

In a bold confirmation of this theological perspective James boldly warns the rich men of the last days to weep and howl for the miseries that are going to come upon them.  He accuses them of over hording gold and silver, and of living lives of luxury and wanton pleasure while withholding the wages of those who have mowed their fields.   Then he warns them that the cries of the workers they cheated have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.   And so they will be judged. (James 5:1-6)

Now we go back to the place we ended our last post, the Exodus.  As we observe their departure we note that they are spoiling their masters’ wealth.  Are they thieves?  No, they are not.  Is not this a crime against the private property rights of the Egyptians?  No, it is not.   What then is it?   It is justice.  It is the slave finally receiving his wages.  It is Israel leaving Egypt with their rightful share of the wealth they helped create.  

Now we look at the events that destroyed slavery in the United States, the War Between the States.  We look at the horror of Sherman’s march to the sea.  We look at Sheridan’s rampage through the Shenandoah Valley.  We watch as the Old South burns to the ground.  And what are we seeing?  The same thing that happened in Egypt.  In this country as in that ancient land, the cries of oppressed workers reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  A terrible judgment ensued.  This was the opinion of Abraham Lincoln, clearly stated in what I consider his greatest speech, his second inaugural address:

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass     away.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two     hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn     with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years    ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

The sentiment is also reflected in the words of that great Civil War anthem, The Battle Hymn of the Republic:

                Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,

                He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

                He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword –

                His truth is marching on!