Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: fasano@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Cathy Fasano) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: questions about slavery. Message-ID: Date: 13 Mar 91 08:41:05 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Pittsburgh Lines: 37 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu lindborg@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Lindborg) writes: >Futher Paul states simply that you are to treat your slaves well. He does >not disapprove of the idea of one human being 'owned' by another. Actually, Paul is known to have harbored a fugitive slave. When the slave returned to his owner (and there is no suggestion that returning is against the runaway slave's will) he brought along a letter from Paul strongly urging the owner to free said slave. (I would describe the letter as friendly blackmail -- "Therefore, although I feel that I have every right to command you to do what ought to be done, I prefer to appeal in the name of love." And later, "If he [the slave, Onesimus] has done you an injury or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, write this in my own hand: I agree to pay -- not to mention that you owe me your very self! ... Confident of your compliance, I write you, knowing that you will do more than I say." Yep -- all the subtlety of a brick through your front window...) To somehow conclude that Paul is in favor of slavery is simply fantastic -- clearly it's not his first priority, but he's not in favor of it, either! I guess what I find most fantastic about Jeff even bringing up the topic of slavery is that it's a simple historical fact that the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is as clear and classic an example as we're going to get of "Christians imposing Christian morality on non-Christians." Not to mention Christians imposing Christian morality on Christians-who-just- don't-want-to-act-according-to-Christian-morality (who, I will freely admit, are probably, at least in the United States, a much larger group than non-Christians .) Slightly incredulous, cathy :-) -- Cathy Fasano aka: Cathy Johnston cathy@gargoyle.uchicago.edu "Education is a strange good. Once people pay for it, they demand less of it"