According to the website, www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com, “For many centuries slavery was perfectly acceptable to Christians. Christians had no doubt that it was divinely sanctioned, and they used a number of Old and New Testament quotations to prove their case. Looking at the relevant passages it is clear that the Bible does indeed endorse slavery.”[1] This website goes on to say, regarding the teachings of Jesus, “If Jesus had opposed slavery he would, they claimed, surely have said so.”[2] Even Alvin Schmidt, in a chapter called Slavery Abolished: A Christian Achievement, in his book, Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization, admitted that some of the church fathers such as Polycarp, a second-century bishop of Smyrna, and Athenagoras, a second-century Christian philosopher owned slaves and others, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, both third-century church fathers, spoke approvingly of slavery.[3] With these statements, on the surface, one might get the idea that Christians supported the institution of slavery. However, as we will explore in this three-part devotion, this is far from the case. In fact, it is Christianity that has been at the vanguard in the abolition of slavery.
What does Scripture Teach on Slavery?
There are two specific references in the New Testament that clearly show that as Christians we are not to practice slavery. In the book of Philemon, Paul tells Philemon that he is no longer to treat his onetime slave, Onesimus, as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. Onesimus was a slave that had run away from his owner, Philemon. Paul shares in (Philemon 15-16), in effect, that as a Christian we are not to practice slavery when he says, “For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother.” The second instance occurs in the book of Galatians where Paul tells the Galatian Christians that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). Here, as in the first case, the Bible clearly treats slavery as foreign to the Christian ethic.
While it is true that slavery existed in the Old Testament this clearly does not mean that the Bible condones it. Schmidt shares this telling insight when he states, “A common argument in favor of slavery was its presence in the Old Testament. Here they engaged in faulty reasoning, giving descriptive passages in the Bible prescriptive meaning.”[4] In addition, as I have already pointed out, while some of our church fathers endorsed slavery, and I will share later on, how Southern Christians clearly practiced it in the American South in the 1800’s, this in no way should be used as a biblical endorsement of slavery. Jeremiah J. Johnston shares a very common viewpoint when he states, “Skeptics like to point out Christians who supported slavery, as if that undercuts the spirit and theological emphasis of the New Testament.”[5] Again, Schmidt, sums up well the issue of Christians who have endorsed slavery: “The erring Christians who supported and owned slaves indicate at least three important truths: (1) as sinful beings, they were either ignorant of Paul’s words or knowingly ignored them; (2) they let the prevailing culture of pagan societies influence their behavior; and (3) they ignored Christ’s words that said his followers were to be in the world but not of it.”[6]
Two Different Claims
During the last 2,000 years some have claimed that Christianity did nothing to end slavery while others have shared that it was the only belief system to cry out for its abolition. For example, Joseph McCabe states, “Now we have the claim that the Church denounced and abolished slavery; and we shall see, on the same plain and incontrovertible historical evidence, that it never denounced slavery and had nothing to do with the abolition of it.”[7] This is in stark contrast to claims made by others such as Rodney Stark who believe the exact opposite. Stark shares: “A sketch of the overall history of slavery will enable me to examine the connection between various religions and slavery in a variety of eras to show why it was that, except for several early Jewish sects, Christian theology was unique in eventually developing an abolitionist perspective.”[8] Stark goes on to add:
“It is to recognize that of all the world’s religions, including the three great monotheisms, only in Christianity did the idea develop that slavery was sinful and must be abolished. Although it has been fashionable to deny it, antislavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe.”[9]
Which claim is more accurate will be my task in the remainder of this devotion.
[1] Bad News About Christianity website: Slavery. http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/gaa_slavery.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001). p. 276.
[4] Schmidt, Under the Influence, p. 278.
[5] Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable: What Our World Would be Like without Christianity. (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2017). p. 184.
[6] Schmidt, Under the Influence, p. 276.
[7] Joseph McCabe, Christianity and Slavery. (Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1927). p. 7.
[8] Rodney Stark, For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-hunts, and the end of Slavery. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003). p. 292.
[9] Ibid., p. 291.
Well written Curt 👍