@Frank Apisa,
Frank Apisa wrote:
My guess...as has been offered earlier is that Jesus never condemned slavery because the god of the Bible specifically said that slavery was fine with him. The god of the Bible says that you can own and trade in slaves...so why would Jesus condemn it?
The distinction between wage labor and slavery is a nuance of post-feudal industrial culture.
When Jesus tells the rich man to give up all his possessions if he wants to become perfect, that implies that he would no longer command anyone's labor, either his own slaves in order to make money, or anyone else's by spending money on what someone else's slaves produce.
Jesus knew that people wouldn't be able to give up all their possessions and slaves, and that was when he said that it's harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
If you wanted to eliminate all reliance on coerced labor, you would have to stop buying anything produced by people whose labor was coerced in any way, including by charging them rent to live, etc.
Just because laborers get paid in money and then hand the money over to their landlord doesn't make them any more free to quit their jobs. Slavery is a state of labor-obligation, whether the obligation is achieved by debts, physical violence, or some combination of the two.
You may say you're rather be evicted from your apartment than beaten into submission, and I would agree with you that the beating is a worse form of labor-discipline, but the fact is that if you know you're going to end up homeless if you don't pay your rent, you're going to keep showing up at your current job even while you look for another employer to take you on. You are simply not free to quit unless you have some way to live that doesn't require you work to pay for your right to sleep, eat, etc.
