Why don't conservative Christians support slavery?

This has always baffled me.

The bible has almost an entire book supporting slavery; telling who you can enslave, how to treat your slave and how much you can sell them for.

It just seems strange to me that this mound of information is ignored, while homosexuality (which is included in exactly 1 sentence in the bible) is discussed as though it's a central tenant to hate certain people.

So why? Why is slavery ignored which takes up a lot of the bible?

@MakeMeaSammitch: If you've ever heard of G-Man on youtube he actually does. But there are so many contradictions in the bible and just overall bad things that anyone who takes it literally is ignorant as hell

Why don't conservative Christians support slavery?

Cuz they lost the civil war ?

the religion still follows it

Because many Christians like to cherry-pick which Bible passages they choose to support.

For future posters in this thread, please try to get big of "meat" in your posts so that this doesn't just become a religion-bashing thread and ends up getting locked.

It's a Sammy thread, its purpose is bashing religion.

@chessmaster1989: Well, you can't accuse me of not trying XD

Uh huh.....his tolerance is a beacon to us all....

This is bad

I'm a conservative, no slavery supporters around where I live which is almost all conservative/republican/libertarian

Because conservatives are, and always have been, guided by opportunism, and not ideals. 2 centuries ago you could score by advocating slavery, nowdays not only you can't score with it, you go to prison for it.

For the same reason people are currently shitting themselves over the south romanticizing slave owners while they themselves have a wallet full of images of romanticized slave owners.

We all believe whatever the hell we feel like believing and neither logic, common sense nor the holy word of motherfucking god his damn self can get in the way of that.

The warm comfy blanket of personal moral certainty trumps all.

In the 1800s Christians tried to stop slavery, and ran the "underground railroad" to help them escape.

Scientists at the time said that Christians "didn't understand science", because they thought black people were human beings, and science "proved" that black people hadn't "fully evolved" yet.

Atheists - always the last to catch up.

Why don't "liberals" support North Korea?

I know some that do. I think it is dependent on the area.

So slave owners weren´t Christians ? on the contrary, specially in the South not only they were Christians but CHRISTIANS that beat up and raped their slaves, how many times those rapes ended with women getting pregnant ? well now the had a little mulato kid which was also their property ( your own children ) to be sold, traded and mistreated.

I fail to follow your point.

@MakeMeaSammitch:You seem to have a problem with Christians. Yet you never say anything about Islam that engages in slavery today and kills homosexuals. Is it because you are afraid? 80% of Mosques in US want to liver under Sharia Law that seems to escape your attention.

Well you could ask Muslims the same thing.

Personally the way I see it, it's been a fight against slavery ever since Moses. Yeah you read the old texts and then you may say some of the laws seem harsh but well it's been a long road really and the laws seem pretty progressive for their age. It's been like that till Muhammad. He too couldn't abolish slavery. The prominent reason I can think of is that people were poor and the economics were different. They simply couldn't attend to their lives without a slave. That's just how the economics of those eras worked. But Muhammad did denounce it even though he didn’t abolish it. For instance there’s a narration that says: “Two jobs are frowned upon. That of the butcher and that of the slave trader.” We also have another narration a weaker one that says: “Even if a man is a slave trader, his love for me will save him.” These all prove great opposition to slavery but there’s so little that can be done when minds are unprepared.

because they're not really Christians, nor are they really whatever they say whether they claim to be patriotic and love the country then they talk about moving out of the country to one of those "socialist" counties they always vilify

Well, a lot of people were Christians back in the era of slavery. And because there were some slave owners that happened to be christian, you think they all, even to this day, support slavery? That is the definition of stupid right there.

And I thought minimum wage was the modern world slavery. (from earlier discussions here in OT)

last time i checked around 80% of americans believe in the skyperson ruling everyone

Considering that only 0.9% of the US population is Muslim, there isn't anything to really fear when it comes to a Islamic theocracy http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/12/5-key-findings-u-s-religious-landscape/

Considering also that roughly 71% of Americans are Christian, yeah, it's easy to see why there is more focus placed on Christians who have a significant political pull in this country.

If you've ever seen a thread on Islam, you would know I'm not a fan to put it lightly, there just hasn't been a topic on it lately.

you also did not answer my question.

and in their religion, the skyperson supports slavery.

but why don't they, their religion tells them too.

Conservative Christians, and I mean real Christians who have actually read and understand their bible, not the pretend Christians who make up a majority of "Christians" who have never read their bible and just claim they are Christian because they were conditioned to do so, or are just fearful that it "might be true", do support slavery, though they will deny it, claiming that it's isn't really slavery, but indentured servitude or some such bullshit. These are the true magic believers and they have a fundamental disconnect with common sense the ability to reason.

Yes he does, he also supports torture, rape, genocide, murder, etc

@MakeMeaSammitch

Well gee, I don't know, why don't you ask some more stupid questions that piss people off and make no sense. Whats next, "the republicans caused ISIS"?

Slavery was part of the early economic industry of the Roman Empire. Christians in those days actually had no power to effect change of that. Thus nothing was actually said about slavery in the NT. Not sure why you think that means Christian support it. Some early Christians were slaves.

I guess because they're fucking human beings and are able to make up their own minds about things.

Religion has always been used to manipulate and control people. The old testament is supposed to be the old laws and Jesus died for those sins because we lacked understanding of ourselves. Self awareness is not so common.

The Bible actually does not support slavery as we would know it. This is why Christians do not support slavery.

Exo 22_23 “You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exo 21-16 “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.

Deu 23:15-16 “You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. “He may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to him; you shall not oppress him.

The verses above is what God says about slavery as we are familiar with here in this country. Those verses that would seem to condone slavery need to be understood in the context of the culture at that time. The Jews were at war with the neighboring peoples as they were traveling to their homeland. They did not have prisoner of war camps, so those people that were captured in these wars were allowed to be made slaves. This was also part of the judgments against those peoples for the evils they practiced. The practice of taking slaves from the surrounding peoples was only applicable in that time because of the circumstances the Jews were in with those wars. And it was only applicable to the Jews. Those verses cannot be used just by anyone that wanted slaves to justify themselves. The verses above would be applicable to them.

The other form of slavery people can get confused about was actually more of a work contract, not slavery as we would know it. These were bond servants that willingly became slaves, most of the time to pay off a debt, or because they had no other recourse because of the poverty of their situation. They did not have a welfare system like we do so sometimes the poor would become bond slaves to a wealthy family.

Exo 21-2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.

These bond slaves were to be set free after their work contract was over.

Exo 21:5-6 “But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ “then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

A person could decide that they likes serving a master and could voluntarily become a slave for life.

Those verses concerning the proper treatment of slaves addressed the reality of slavery at that time as were given to that those that were in that situation would be assured of being treated humanly and with dignity. Again, this was not a blanket approval of slavery. Slavery of the type we had seen in this country was never condoned or approved of by the bible. The bible speaks of those type of slave traders deserving death.

Can you actually find a passage from the bible that supports slavery?

People doing it in His name and Him supporting it are two different things.

You don't know that, because God has never been seen except for in the bible. You can't say he supports it

Sure, go get your bible real quick.

However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever. (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

The bolded here shows that the slave owner could hold the male slaves family hostage, thus blackmailing him into "volunteering" to become a permanent slave to stay with his family. You'll notice that our resident apologist @EliOli clipped this little tidbit out, and for an obvious reason. Quote mining is bad, mmmkay?

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

God sure does love women. This literally discusses women as if they were pieces of property no more important than a couch or TV.

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

Wow.

Yahweh is a monstrously immoral bastard unworthy of an ounce of respect or worship. He is far too human to be a god.

Sounds like a guide for beginners. Perhaps its time I get the bible.

@Buckhannah: Yup, the skydude shure sounds like a prick, actually a pissed off prick, always ready to punish.

Well, it can't technically be slavery because minimum wage workers can decide to quit their job and they do get paid, although poorly.

The Bible (and every religious text and even non-religious text) can be used to incite support for something like non-violence, freedom, slavery, war, and whatever, and while people interpret literally (usually ignoring that certain words/phrases meant something else entirely of its time), others interpret it in other ways (usually thinking too much about it).

You can't rationalize religion when its based on an ancient book written by men thousands of years ago. Its obvious that people compartmentalize the sections they like along with the times, this goes with every religion. Its called cherry picking and most people do it. However I'm more concerned about your everyday man and how they tend to affect my life with their said interpretation.

What do you by "specially in the South" - According to one of my history professors, contrary to how things are now, centuries ago the South was one of the least religious areas of the U.S. and New England was probably the most religious region of the U.S. Southern states were founded for commercial reasons (initially growing Tobacco, then cotton became king), while most of the New England states (and Maryland for that matter which was initially founded as a safe haven for English Catholics, though it eventually became a predominantly Protestant colony and Catholics were forbidden from holding public office) were founded for religious reasons.

by support do you mean support it as in saying it is morally okay, or only supporting it being legal (i.e. "I am personally opposed to slavery and would never own one, but I don't want to force my anti-slavery beliefs on other people, and besides if we do ban slavery people are just going to own slaves illegally anyway, and then it will be unregulated") while still viewing it as morally wrong?

why don't libertarians and secular liberals support slavery?

Slavery: Legalize it, tax it, regulate it Oh yeah and a good way to reduce poverty, famine and overpopulation as well as to provide poor people with an extra source of income is to allow them to sell off some of their children for use as food.

oh it another of those flame bait thread.