Slavery, Two Thousand and Six, A.D.

In a recent discussion on the In the News forum, a writer quoted my assertion that “moral absolutes do exist, they are timeless, changeless principles that applied thousands of years ago and they apply today....The best, and really only reliable source of ultimate truth is the Judeo-Christian Bible.” He was implying that if what I said was actually true then “Slavery in the Bible is not forbidden. Why then does the world today outlaw slavery? It is biblical.”

Before I share in a subsequent post what essentially I wrote in response, let me make a comment, especially in light of my fellow A Good Choice . . . for Ohio et al. poster, Matt's series on slavery (see part 1-3 below) as discussed in the Judeo-Christian Bible. The Bible does not encourage or foster slavery. Slavery is discussed on many levels and circumstances. See Matt’s postings for a comprehensive discussion.

However, there were specific reasons for the existence of slavery; one was the preparation and refinement of the people of Israel for God’s greater purpose and plan for them. The major purpose that God allowed Israel to be enslaved was to purify them to carry out His eventual redemptive plan for the entire human race.

Slavery in most instances was wrong. Actually instead of Israel’s obeying God’s instruction destruction to destroy some of its enemies, she chose to enslave them, which eventually caused some difficult problems for Israel, including her being infected by the rampant idolatry and immorality practiced by their slaves.

God used slavery in the Bible to accomplish his purposes. See Matt’s series for a detailed explanation of how slavery is used in the Judeo-Christian Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

Slavery was generally considered wrong in biblical times, except in certain situations. However, even though it is “outlawed’ in most of the “civilized” world today, slavery does exist even today.

The following are just a few thoughts on the slavery, which exists in the world today.

ISLAMIC SLAVERY IN AFRICA

First, slavery exists across the continent of Africa where the Islamist and Arabic northern Moslems enslave southern Sudanese Moslem and Christians. This outrage is practiced today by the proponents of the religion of peace. All across northern Africa slaves are bought and sold and trafficked through the world. Slaves are sold to households in Europe. Some of this trade is illegal, but some is overlooked or, I suspect that some is actually condoned by or even conspired with by some governments.

POLITICAL SLAVES IN ASIA

A second instance of slavery is in communist utopias, such as China and North Korea, where governments enslave political and religious prisons, mostly true faith-based Christians and some others. Some of our Christmas tree lights and assorted other junk and products we trade with China for and many third world countries are produced by forced child labor or virtual slaves of their masters, both government-managed and other-managed. This is the dirty little secret that Wal-Mart and other greed-driven marketers and our government executive and legislature branches deliberately overlook.

SEX SLAVES IN EUROPE & AMERICA

The third and most vile form of slavery fueled to a great part by “rich” decadent European and American men are sex slaves. Poisoned by the pernicious pornographic-ridden internet these men become so degraded and perverse that they buy children, young men and young women from third world countries and use them to quench their unquenchable sexual desires. This is the natural result of having so much freedom and so much wealth that we abuse it and uses others to try to buy more and more gratification. Runaway children can also be slaves of the traffickers of sex right here in the US. These unfortunate children get swept into the street and picked up by pimps. Their self-worth systematically destroyed and made to feel absolutely worthless. These children are used by their pimps for profit and by their philandering demoniac perverse purchaser’s illegal sexual gratification.

So the poster’s statement that “the world outlaws slavery” is true on the surface. You don’t have to look too far to see that slavery is still being condoned or conveniently ignored by some governments. Slavery still is even condoned by and even engaged in by some governments and some individuals. Slavery exists. Slavery is evil in 2000 B.C. and it is evil in 2006. This is one of those moral absolutes that I was referring to in the original quote above.

Make A Good Choice and educate yourself as to what the Judeo-Christian Bible says about slavery. Above all, do not get drawn into the subtle enticement of soft-core or hard-core pornography because it can lead to your enslavement as well as the enslavement of innocents from the four corners of this world.