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| Caribbean Manacles |
The
following response to a (Christian) national blog article was deleted without explanation by the comments administrator -
The Bible
surely projects more rays of light on this than the article suggests. From the
outset Genesis informs us that we are all made in the image of God. This is a
dazzling assertion of baseline equal dignity for all humanity.
Leviticus,
quoted by Christ, enjoins us to "Love your neighbour as
yourself" (19:18). Fulfilling this command is incompatible with
slavery. Christ reinforces this implication by pointing to a racially despised
Samaritan as the epitome of a good neighbour.
Let us also be careful to
distinguish between "description" and "prescription" in the
OT, and wary of a simplistic, anachronistic transposition of the horrific
conditions of modern black slavery back into the Bible. Cf, in that regard, the
following verse alone:
"And an owner who knocks
out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to
compensate for the tooth." (Exodus 21:27)
The
article's dismissive reference to the New Testament Philemon letter
is unhelpfully superficial and fails to note the revolutionary (given the
context of Roman rule) light switched on therein - even if, like one of those
modern energy saving bulbs, full illumination of what the manacled Paul is
enjoining with regards to the slave Onesimus takes a moment or two to properly
dawn (but then, maybe the blindness is culpably our own) -
"I
am sending him—who
is my very heart—back
to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place
in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do
anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced
but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a
little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but
better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer
to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. So if you consider
me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me." (Philemon
1:12-17)
