quote:Originally posted by Charlie Tops:
Those verses instruct slaves/bondsmen on how to act in their circumstances, rather like instructing a child to obey a teacher who says, "stand up when you address me." No where does Christ say he approves of slavery.
Well, technically you are right. According to the scriptures JC never uttered, "Slavery is cool by me and my dad." But there can be no denying that these very versus were used by Christians as justification for slavery for nearly a couple thousand years. Only in recent times have we, collectively, become enlightened - thanks to liberals and atheists.
In any case, Jesus makes a glaring omission here. Jesus obviously had no problems being quite vehement against oppression and violence but obviously doesn't speak our against robbing entire races of people of their freedom.
If Jesus meant this to be "rather like instructing a child" then he would have used a child as example. Not slaves.