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Wed 5 Jun, 2013 12:41 pm
"DARK sweating bodies bent almost in two shuffle up gangplanks under the crushing burdens of enormous bales of cotton. Ruthless overseers drive them on with rawhide whips. Screaming children are torn from the arms of weeping mothers and sold to the highest bidder in auctions. These are likely the stark, brutal images that come to mind when you think of slavery.
Ironically, it is said that many slave traders and slave owners were deeply religious individuals. Historian James Walvin wrote: “There were hundreds of such men, Europeans and Americans, who praised the Lord for his blessing, giving thanks for profitable and safe business in Africa as they turned their slave ships into the trade winds and headed for the New World.”
Some people have even asserted that God condoned the slave trade. For example, in a speech to the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1842, Alexander McCaine stated that the institution of slavery was “ordained by God Himself.” Was McCaine correct? Did God approve of the kidnapping and raping of girls, the heartless separating of families, and the cruel beatings that were part and parcel of the slave trade of McCaine’s day? And what of the millions who are forced to live and work as slaves under brutal conditions today? Does God condone such inhumane treatment?" (emphasis mine)
This was copied from the AWAKE Magazine of Sept 08, 01. p 20. Sorry, I can't find an online link.
@neologist,
God thinks whatever the individual who invokes him thinks. That's the funny thing about God he always agrees with people that want to use him to justify what they are doing.
@parados,
Had you spelled god with a lower case 'g', I would agree 100%.
Still value the opinion, though.
@neologist,
And God agrees 100% with you about the lower case 'g'.
@neologist,
neologist wrote:
Had you spelled god with a lower case 'g', I would agree 100%.
Even when used at the beginning of a sentence?
@neologist,
I'd still agree with Parados even when God appears in the middle of a sentence. The Methodist preacher you quoted was referring to God not a god. That is not to say God, if he existed, would approve. Maybe you'd be happier with, Men think they know what God wants when they use him to justify what they want.
@neologist,
Why would anyone claim god agrees with them when they can claim God does?
No one who invokes God would bother to reduce it to invoking god. While you might think they don't believe in God and when it comes to them it should be god that would be you imposing your own God in the argument.
Which takes us back to my original statement.
@izzythepush,
I have a thing about the so called 'men of the cloth', in case you haven't noticed.
Wow! 4 down votes. Looks like I'm creating quite a stir.
@neologist,
neologist wrote:
I have a thing about the so called 'men of the cloth', in case you haven't noticed.
Just for you, the current and previous ABofC.
@izzythepush,
Gawsh. The look so positively regal.
@neologist,
I'm sure it was Nimrod who started it right?
@neologist,
from my basic knowledge of the man, so it is brief and lightly sprinkled with speculation.
Nimrod was great grandson to Noah, founder and ruler of most of the ancient mesopotamian cities, with a nickname like "hunter of men" I can't imagine him building the wonders that he did with willing volunteers
By my reckoning, his rule and the construction of babylon of old would be the earliest known incidents of forced labor. Id welcome correction
@Smileyrius,
Abraham had slaves. He was younger than Nimrod, I think. Both were contemporaries of Shem, however. I also would think Abraham a more kindly slave owner than a 'hunter of men'. But research is in order.
Neologist wondered- "Did God Condone the Slave Trade?"
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The issue is confusing because the words "slave" and "servant" were to a large degree interchangeable over the centuries, but no honest decent person would want to keep slaves. For example Moses in the Old T murdered an Egyptian slave-driver (Exodus 2:11), and also in the Old T we see-
"He that steals a man and sells him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death " (Exod. 21:16; Deut. 24:7)
The New T is also quite clear-
"We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers.... for slave traders and liars and perjurers..." (1 Tim 1:9)
And Livingstone hated the African slave trade-
"It is impossible to overstate the evils of slavery"- David Livingstone
@neologist,
"
Did God Condone the Slave Trade?" - DUH!
A slightly better question would be "Why did God Condone the Slave Trade?" My guess is slavery was "ordained" by Satan, the other player in the game of good vs. evil. I'm backing God as being the better player; although it seems He made a level playing field.
@neologist,
neologist wrote:
Ruthless overseers drive them on with rawhide whips.
I bet rawhide makes a truely lousy whip.
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