I had yesterday off to clean my house to get ready to put it on the market. Good thing to as it took all day to finish everything. In fact, my wife still has a few minor things left to do this morning. The great thing is the house looks good. We are now where we should be able to keep it clean with minimal input. Now that you know why I didn't post yesterday, I will do yesterday's post today.
So for this late installment of manic Monday, I have decided to tackle a topic that has been bothering me for a while. It seems that every time someone mentions something the bible says we should do, a dozen people come out of the woodwork and mention a half dozen things that most Americans would find repulsive that are in the bible. Most of them you can ignore as you find that not only are they being taken out of context but are blatantly wrong. There are others though that need addressing and that is where we are today. I can't address them all, so I will address the one that irks me the most, Slavery. The first thing you need to understand is the image most people get when you mention slavery. Most people get the image of an overloaded sailing ship packed with human beings, slaves being beaten, families separated, and all other kinds of horrendous treatment. Thus when someone says the bible condones slavery, it immediately turns people off. The fact is, that the slavery practiced in the 1800's, the slavery we most associate with the word, is completely contrary to biblical slavery.
The first thing you need to understand is the rules associated with slavery that the bible lays out. First off the bible forbids kidnapping for the purpose of procuring slaves. Slaves were either bought, voluntary, or captured during time of war. At the time, if you were unable to pay a debt, you became a slave to the person who held your debt. If your country was conquered, you became a slave to your conquerors. If you were bought, it was the purchasers responsibility to ensure the slave wasn't kidnapped.
The next thing you need to understand is that slavery wasn't permanent. The bible required that all slaves be freed every 50 years, no matter when you acquired them. Slaves were then given the choice of remaining free and responsible for themselves or returning to their masters as slaves for life. If you became a slave due to a debt, your master was required to give you a wage so you could eventually pay back your debt and be freed.
Thirdly, treatment of slaves was not to be cruel. Slaves had to be clothed properly. In fact, how well your slaves were dressed was a direct reflection on how well you off you were. If your slaves wore rags, you were obviously poor and to be pitied and probably would be a slave yourself soon. You dressed your slaves as well as you could afford to. Your slaves had to have proper housing of the same type you had. If you lived in a stone house, your slaves had to have a stone house. You had to feed them properly. You weren't allowed to give them scraps, you had to feed them decently. You were also forbidden from beating them without cause. Not working as fast as you wanted them to is not considered cause. Theft, refusal to work, and the like, things that would get you fired today, were cause.
Further, if you sold slaves, you couldn't break up families. Until the children were old enough to be considered adults, they stayed with their parents. Further, if the slaves were slaves due to debt, the children were freed upon adulthood as it was the parent's debt and not the children's
Finally, you were required to give them wages for their work. You could subtract the cost of keeping them from their wages, but you couldn't add onto their debt by charging them more than they made. Further, if a slave were to save their wages and pay their master the equivalent of their worth, they were to be freed.
With all this data, it sounds to me like biblical slavery and employment are awfully similar. Most of what we make goes to paying for our housing, food and clothing. What little we have left we can either save for retirement (freeing ourselves from our masters), or spend on frivolous things. this sounds nothing like the slavery practiced in the 1800's.
There were even different levels of slavery. There were slaves, people who were bought or captured, servants, people who owed debts and were working them off, and bond servants, people who chose to be slaves as a way of life. Why would you choose to be a slave you ask. The simple answer is, it simplified your life. You didn't have to worry about where you lived, or where your next meal was coming from. In fact, you weren't reduced to begging for a living. Further most masters went beyond what the bible required and treated their slaves well. If you were a top performing slave, is was perfectly acceptable for the master to not only free your family upon his death, but to leave you a part of his estate.
Next time someone tells you that the bible supports slavery, remind the speaker that by biblical definitions, we are all slaves, we just have a little more freedom to choose our master. Those of us who have signed contracts (military, professional athletes, etc) have a little less freedom than others and would fall into the bond servant category.
Well, that's my two cents for this week. If you feel I overcharged, by all means make a withdrawal and give me yours. Thank you.
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