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Slavery Keeps Us Free!



Wow, I thought we as a culture worked through all this slavery stuff a long time ago - but I guess not. This comes from the same site as that bit on Jehovah.

I’m going to do some selective editing here for emphasis, but I think it’s totally warranted in this case. Check it out:

[T]he biblical laws concerning slavery are among the most beneficent in all the Bible….

Can I be the first to say it? WHAT THE FUCK? In case you’re confused about the meaning of the term beneficent: “Characterized by or performing acts of kindness or charity.” Soooo…. slavery is an act of kindness. This is some of the straight-out craziest shit I’ve ever read:

Heathen slaves who were purchased or captured in war were actually favored by this law, since it placed them in contact with believers. They received the relatively lenient treatment of the biblical slavery regulations, and they were also able to hear the liberating message of the gospel….

Wait - the “liberating” message of the Gospel? But they’re slaves, right? And here we go:

Slaves have no economic incentive to work, since they cannot improve their situation regardless of how hard they labor. Therefore the master is allowed to provide that incentive by beating them (Exodus 21:20-27). Obviously, the slave is not regarded as having equal rights as a free man. But this very fact would keep a man from entering slavery too hastily. Slavery has certain benefits (job security, etc.), but it has serious drawbacks as well. Slavery was not allowed to become irresponsible welfare or paternalism. The law limited the master, however. If he murdered his slave, he was executed (Exodus 21:20). On the other hand, if the slave survived a beating and died a day or two later, there was no punishment (Exodus 21:21); there was no evidence that the master had actually intended to murder him. Again, this risk was a serious incentive against enslaving oneself. God did not want men to heedlessly abandon their freedom, and this law would tend to keep men working hard and living responsibly in order to avoid the threat of losing their liberty and civil rights.

The scariest part of all this is that it was only written 25 years ago. Not 125 years, not 225 years, but 25 - one year after I was born. Goddamned scary that these people are running around with such a say in American politics and society.

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10 Reader Responses

  1. Tim Boucher Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 2:20 pm

    And here’s a fun follow-up from an article on “The Negro”

    http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/negro.htm

    For example, the white man is being systematically indoctrinated into believing that he is guilty of enslaving and abusing the Negro. Granted that some Negroes were mistreated as slaves, the fact still remains that nowhere in all history or in the world today has the Negro been better off. The life expectancy of the Negro increased when he was transported to America. He was not taken from freedom into slavery, but from a vicious slavery to degenerate chiefs to a generally benevolent slavery in the United States. There is not the slightest evidence that any American Negro had ever lived in a “free society” in Africa; even the idea did not exist in Africa. The move from Africa to America was a vast increase of freedom for the Negro, materially and spiritually as well as personally. The Negroes were sold from a harsh slavery into a milder one.

  2. jp Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 2:58 pm

    geez, how pathetic! same arguments used to defend slavery since the beginning, iirc . . .

  3. nemesis Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 3:36 pm

    Yeah its funny how people never make the link from a burning cross to history. England did the same except we made sure we raped the country first and then destroyed its (uncivilised unchristian heathen) infrastructure. I dont mean to offend anyone but it does seem that being fundamentalised is a pre requisite to do loads of mad shit around the world, in the name of god,freedom blah blah blah but dont worry god will forgive you, honest!

  4. davepots Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 3:47 pm

    There is not the slightest evidence that any American Negro had ever lived in a “free society” in Africa; even the idea did not exist in Africa.

    Amidst the obsurdity of all his other comments, the above statement sounds as ridiculous to me as “tribal people never enjoyed organic food until we gave them reservation grocery stores.” Oh man.

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 4:20 pm

    even the idea did not exist in Africa.

    Yeah, it’s the whole “We invented everything good in the world” argument.

  6. Error 404 Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    Does it even matter, in any moral sense, whether conditions in Africa were worse than American slavery?

    Look at it this way: say I take a woman away from a horribly abusive relationship with a man who bruised her with his fists on a regular basis - does that mean that if I only hit her only with an open hand I’m a great guy? Of course not. She may be better off than she was, but wrong is wrong.

  7. slomo Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 6:15 pm

    (Meanstream) Christianity is used to justify all kinds of egregious stuff. I think we know that by now?

    Really, let it all go, free yourself: Christianity is some bad shit.

    I have no problem with Christ, His message, and the mythology around Him. It’s the evil institution that Paul (and later assorted high-ranking Romans) spawned in His name that I think we can all do without.

  8. Tim Boucher Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 6:20 pm

    Christianity is some bad shit.

    I just don’t buy that as a blanket statement. But I agree with the gist of what you’re saying - that it’s almost redundant at this point to highlight the crazier elements of it. I’m definitely tired of it in general, but then strike on something so outrageous like this…

  9. slomo Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 6:30 pm

    Yeah, I’m making the blanket statement for effect.

    The gnostic thing (Jeremy and company) is OK. And, truth be told, I show up at a local Episcopal church from time to time: the people are great, and the message is fine for those who don’t have the time/inclination to delve deeper.

  10. prunesquallori Says:
    February 1st, 2006 at 9:10 pm

    The gnostic thing (Jeremy and company) is OK.

    The medieval Catholic or Orthodox things are pretty nice too.



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