Post #2 Religion Team Challenge

 

Over the span of time slavery has been a very controversial topic, There has always been someone profiting off of slavery and someone who is being used and abused, Religion has been a source to condone or condemn these two ideas for hundreds of years. To fully understand both sides of the argument one must through the lens of these two conflicting ideas.  

The religion of Christianity has viewed slavery in certain ways. While some of them supported it as a way to live a life. The supporters of this religion believe that slavery is part of Christianity. It says that there are many other ideals involved in this way. 

They have changed over time with the events that have happened in history and the bible. Christian slaveholders always thought slavery was an important part of the bible. Reluctantly, the supporters of it started to see some other options on how to keep slavery alive. 

Christianity has condemned slavery many times when looking back on time. Christian slaveholders did support it through believing it’s the way of life to have slaves. It doesn’t show in the bible about condoning slavery. During the Old Testament, it talks about how the Christians would think otherwise in that phase of what to do in that situation. While it takes on some people to get that point. 

If you want to know how Christianity views slavery, you must look at what the Bible says itself and not what man says about the Bible. The first chapter of Genesis records, "Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and overall the creatures that move along the ground." Undeniably, the Bible is stating here that man does not have the authority to dominate another man. Actually, Slavery goes against the very nature of God. As spelled out in Deuteronomy 30:19, God has given man a free will of his own, "Today I give you a choice." This choice demonstrates that God refuses to force a man to do anything against his will. To enslave a person is to take their God-given freedom away from them. Even when looking at the overall theme of the Bible, Jesus came to set prisoners free from the enemy, it is clear that Slavery in the eyes of God is condemned.

Rae, Noel. “How Christian Slaveholders Used the Bible to Justify Slavery.” Time, Time, 23 Feb. 2018, time.com/5171819/christianity-slavery-book-excerpt/. 

Zauzmer, Julie. “The Bible Was Used to Justify Slavery. Then Africans Made It Their Path to Freedom.” The Washington Post , 30 Apr. 2019,

https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-ixsqe



The Washington Post on Slavery