WAS SLAVERY A SIN? IS IT NOW?
Is slavery a "sin?" And if it is not or was not a sin, what else could be?
This thought just occurred to me, as I read in Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward's AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO (1855, 1970), wherein he writes:
"On a former page, I spoke of 'pro-slavery men in England, whether natives or exotics.' There is no use concealing that there are such of both classes. The latter do not always choose to be called pro-slavery men; but that is their position, nevertheless. For example:... The Rev. Dr. Anderson can inveigh against 'Englishmen 's singling out slavery for rebuke , passing by other sins:' at home, he has yet to treat it 'as a sin for the first time.'"
P.177.
His having twice-mentioned 'sin' made me wonder if slavery was a 'sin,' then, since I recalled from my readings that there had been a great church-splitting debate on this very important issue. Indeed, it later became a nation-splitting debate in the Civil War, which the good guys won; but later turned around and sinned again, by Jim Crow laws, by legal and extralegal terrorism against Africans, newly freedmen or freedwomen, my kin!
But, getting back to sin, itself--
Surely, "thou shall not enslave thy neighbor," would reasonably rank with heresy, blasphemy, coveting, stealing, lying, killing, adultery, and the other, more nefarious personal common sins that are set forth in Exodus 20! But, "slavery" is not explicitly, nor directly, mentioned!
This is all the more anomalous, because, as we recall, the Hebrew children, Moses's people, were, according to the same scriptures, enslaved by the Egyptians for four hundred years! In fact, since it is claimed that Moses himself wrote the Old Testament's Pentateuch , the first five books of the Bible; it is passingly strange that their own alleged enslavement, so significant an event in their history, would not have been fervently condemned, if not first and foremost, before all!
At any event, I looked online today, and noted that the issue is unclear!
https://www.google.com/…/www.gotques…/amp/Bible-slavery.html

Thursday, June 8, 2017
WAS SLAVERY A 'SIN?"
WAS SLAVERY A SIN? IS IT NOW?
Is slavery a "sin?" And if it is not or was not a sin, what else could be?
This thought just occurred to me, as I read in Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward's AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO (1855, 1970), wherein he writes:
"On a former page, I spoke of 'pro-slavery men in England, whether natives or exotics.' There is no use concealing that there are such of both classes. The latter do not always choose to be called pro-slavery men; but that is their position, nevertheless. For example:... The Rev. Dr. Anderson can inveigh against 'Englishmen 's singling out slavery for rebuke , passing by other sins:' at home, he has yet to treat it 'as a sin for the first time.'"
P.177.
His having twice-mentioned 'sin' made me wonder if slavery was a 'sin,' then, since I recalled from my readings that there had been a great church-splitting debate on this very important issue. Indeed, it later became a nation-splitting debate in the Civil War, which the good guys won; but later turned around and sinned again, by Jim Crow laws, by legal and extralegal terrorism against Africans, newly freedmen or freedwomen, my kin!
But, getting back to sin, itself--
Surely, "thou shall not enslave thy neighbor," would reasonably rank with heresy, blasphemy, coveting, stealing, lying, killing, adultery, and the other, more nefarious personal common sins that are set forth in Exodus 20! But, "slavery" is not explicitly, nor directly, mentioned!
This is all the more anomalous, because, as we recall, the Hebrew children, Moses's people, were, according to the same scriptures, enslaved by the Egyptians for four hundred years! In fact, since it is claimed that Moses himself wrote the Old Testament's Pentateuch , the first five books of the Bible; it is passingly strange that their own alleged enslavement, so significant an event in their history, would not have been fervently condemned, if not first and foremost, before all!
At any event, I looked online today, and noted that the issue is unclear!
https://www.google.com/…/www.gotques…/amp/Bible-slavery.html