OK, now I have officially seen the Worst Thing Ever.

[lunadelcorvo]

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/slavery/southern_slavery_as_it_was.htm

This is a Christian Slavery Apologetic. No, really. This article is a diatribe about how slavery in the south wasn't all bad, only the parts that were not in conformity with 'biblical slavery,' and 'biblical slavery' is OK, and fine and good because the Bible says so.

I quote:

"Provided he owns them in conformity to Christ's laws for such situations, the Bible is clear that Christians may own slaves."

And

"Today if an abortionist sought membership at either of our churches, he would be refused unless he repented and abandoned his murderous practice. But if our churches had existed in the ante bellum South, and a godly slave owner sought membership, we could not refuse him without seeking to be holier than Christ. Such a desire would be wicked, and this wickedness was at the heart of the abolitionist dogma."

This nutjob claims that Southern slave owners vigorously opposed the slave trade as 'wicked,' but evinced no hypocrisy by owning slaves. After all, they were doing the poor slaves a favor by taking them into Christian homes...

"The slave trade was an abomination. The Bible condemns it, and all who believe the Bible are bound to do the same. Owning slaves is not an abomination. The Bible does not condemn it, and those who believe the Bible are bound to refrain in the same way. But if we were to look in history for Christians who reflected this biblical balance — i.e. a hatred of the slave trade and an acceptance of slavery in itself under certain conditions — we will find ourselves looking at the ante bellum South."

I mean, wow. Seriously?

Read the article - I can't begin to relate how mind-boggling it is. The level of mental contortion required to actually advance such a position is... well, it's bloody insane.

Comments

[virginia-fell.livejournal.com]

Christians must recognize that they are under the authority of God, and they may not develop their ideas of what is "right" and "fair" apart from the Word of God. And when the Bible is our only standard of right and wrong, problem texts disappear. This entire issue of slavery is a wonderful issue upon which to practice. Our humanistic and democratic culture regards slavery in itself as a monstrous evil, and it acts as though this were self-evidently true. The Bible permits Christians to own slaves, provided they are treated well. You are a Christian. Whom do you believe?

All it takes is faith.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Right, because regarding the owning of another human being as property as "self evidently evil" is clearly skirting the lunatic fringe. Only with a conscious rejection of reason (i.e. faith) can one actually choke this horseshit down. Oi!

[nygoldfish54.livejournal.com]

nothing like a nice hot helping of lunatic at lunch...

I don't know if these people are misguide, or stupid, or just doing it for the shock value, but like, really...I can't believe them.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

As much as I wish it were otherwise, given the things we're seeing politically at present, I think it's unwise to not take them at what they say. I doubt the higher-ups believe half of it, but they sure as hell mean it, and the sheep absolutely believe it.

I think the 'liberal' (for lack of a better term, maybe 'sane' or 'rational' might serve) tendency to dismiss extremist positions like this one has given those positions an awful lot of freedom to grow and spread outside the public eye. And I also think this is something on which those advancing such positions rely - knowing full well no one on this side of the sanity line will take them seriously.

[donerleg.livejournal.com]

people have been using the bible to justify their crap for a long long time honey....

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

...which is why I routinely question its value as anything other than mythology. Things like this only reinforce my feeling that it's time we shelved this millenia-old work where it belongs, on the same shelf as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Hesiod's Theogony, and the Epic of Gligamesh - lovely literature to read, helpful in understanding history, but nothing we have any need or desire to live by...

To make it relevant, we are forced to either interpret, cherry-pick and selectively ignore bits an pieces of it, or else we end up stuck with outrageous positions like this one.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

Because obviously slaves spring from the head of zeus, pre-marked to be owned by their specific owner, so that you can have slavery without a slave trade.

What the fucking fuck?

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

No kidding... after all, the kind and beneficent Christian slave buyers are only rescuing the poor helpless slaves and promising them a life of gentle Christian tutelage.... Whatever!

[samuraiartguy.livejournal.com]

WOW.. just wow.
That's beyond crazy.

The optimist exults that we are created in God's image.
The pessimist fears that this is true.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

...and the realist is forced to accept that we are nowhere near as removed from our cave-dwelling forbears than we like to think. With this on the one hand and the "GLBT people are possessed by demons" on the other, it seems we really haven't progressed very far at all.

(P.S. Love the icon!)

[celtickittenmew.livejournal.com]

It is at moments like these that I am at once confused, angry, and amused. Let's see, the Bible gave guidelines for those who already owned slaves (not those seeking to purchase them) in order to promote kindness and a change of heart from the slaveholders in a time when the practice was common. Secondly, this has absolutely nothing to do with the slave-trade practices of Europe or America as it relates to the Antebellum South and in no way condones the practice. To say so would be uneducated cherry-picking by a desperate believer in the idea that the "War of Northern Aggression" continues to the present. Third, the idea that abortion and slavery are comparable is ludicrous as the one item deals entirely with one's own body and functions; whilst the other deals with the issue of owning and controlling another human being's body and functions. To say that abortion is murder while slavery is mere folly is like saying that alcohol imbibed while driving is a killer but cigarettes are a harmless vice. Give me a break. These weekend wiseacres make far more money than they should off of people's pain, ignorance, and gullibility.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

"uneducated cherry-picking by a desperate believer"

And there you have the Right Wing/Neo-Con/Fundie/Dominionist/Millenial philosophy summed up quite eloquently. "We have to live by Biblical morality, and not interpret it in any way, except for those parts we really don't like."

I'm not sure which are worse, the cherry-pickers, or the ones who *really* do want to follow all of it....

[sentimental13.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Right? I mean, SRSLY?!?!?

Sometimes, people scare me. Sometimes they scare me a lot. Life in the Netherlands is looking really good right about now.... LOL