[Vision2020] Wrong About the Bible: Slavery

[Tony]

Boy Ralph, and I thought I was agile.  Andreas was quite clear that he did 
not think it likely that a volume with so many authors, compiled over so 
many years, redacted and translated several times, could reasonably be 
expected to be consistent from cover to cover.  It is precisely this 
character of the Bible which has you so frequently in a twist as you offer 
conflicting passages to Christians in an effort to undermine what they claim 
to find therein.  Neither Andreas nor I have made any statements as to the 
Bible's position on slavery.  If that is your focus at this moment, please 
direct your question to the appropriate person.

Best,  -T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Nielsen" <nielsen at uidaho.edu>
To: <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: "Andreas Schou" <ophite at gmail.com>; "Tony Simpson" 
<tonytime at clearwire.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 11:42 AM
Subject: Wrong About the Bible: Slavery


> Tony, just what is it that Andreas said about me that you so 
> "wholeheartedly and enthusiastically" agree with? I showed that  slavery 
> is approved of throughout the entire Bible and he accuses me  of "trashing 
> the Bible." I didn't call him names but simply  challenged him to prove me 
> wrong. And I throw the same challenge at  you, Tony. I would like to keep 
> this thread as a scholarly  discussion, not a barroom fight.
>
> If you know of any book, chapter or verse in anybody's Bible that
> condemns slavery, I would like to hear about it.
> Ralph
>
> Tony tonytime at clearwire.net
>
> Sat Feb 3 08:45:15 PST 2007
>
> Having argued with Andreas on so many occasions, it gives me an odd  pause 
> to
> find myself in wholehearted and enthusiastic agreement with him.  But 
> after
> reading his retort to Ralph regarding the Bible, all I could think was,
> YEAH!  What he said!
>
> OK Ralph, your turn.
>
> -T
>
> Andreas --
>
> I don't think you're being fair here. I know perfectly well that the
> Bible is not a unitary text--whichever Bible you wish to discuss:
> Jewish (both Torah and Tanakh), Catholic, or Protestant. It is people
> like Wilson who make that claim.
>
> If you know of any book, chapter or verse in anybody's Bible that
> condemns slavery, I would like to hear about it.
>
> Ralph
>
>
> Ralph --
> >
> > You're making the same counterfactual assumption to trash the Bible
> > that Doug does to support it: that the Bible is itself a unitary
> text.
> > The argument that dozens of authors, recorders of stories, and
> > redactors had the same intentions when writing over thousands of
> years
> > is a non-starter; the argument that the Bible is complete and
> > infallable is extrabiblical. Saying that the Bible 'supports' or
> 'does
> > not support' something is nonsense: no book that contians both the
> > axioms 'eye for an eye' and 'turn the other cheek' can be considered
> > to have any internal textual unity.
> >
> > There are threads within the Bible that condone slavery (though not
> > the form of intergenerational racial slavery we had in the United
> > States), threads that are suspicious of it, and threads that condemn
> > it. Contra Doug Wilson, the abolitionist movement was, at its core, a
> > Christian movement -- and it found its textual support, as all
> > Christian movements do, in the Bible.
> >
> > -- ACS
> >
>