Slavery or Slavery, Which Would You Prefer?

I have The Christian Post in my reader, so every day I have 15-30 articles waiting for me. I doubt The Christian Post really intended for anyone to read the following articles back to back, but I did and it made me lol*.

The truth is, to be a Christian is to be a slave of Christ, according to an evangelical author.

That may not sit well with a lot of people, especially in America where the image of slavery is undoubtedly ugly and regrettable. But John MacArthur suggests in his new book Slave that it's the most accurate way of truly understanding what it means to be a Christ follower.

First of all, is there a country where slavery is or was not ugly and regrettable? I'm a little disturbed by that statement. Anyway, what immediately followed that was this:

When we ignore God's rules and live any way we want to, however, we end up only hurting ourselves. Some of the Bible's most sobering words are found in the Old Testament book of Proverbs: "There is a way that seems right to a man (or woman), but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 16:25).

You may think you're free right now, but in reality you have become a slave -- a slave to your own desires and appetites.

So, I can be a slave to your god or a slave to my desires, but there's not freedom here. Slavery is good! Slavery is bad! Free yourself! Enslave yourself! Happiness is slavery! All the black is really white, if only you believe!

I can't imagine how these people keep up with their own beliefs . . . oh, wait, that actually explains a lot.

*Right now, there's a wavy red line under "lol" so it looks like a little guy drowning. And that's what's going on inside my head 95% of the time.

I Think There's an Amendment for That

this was nothing to be proud of

A.GuyMaligned has added more to his theory on the virgin bridegroom v. the virgin bride. (One is good the other is bad, guess which is which!) He has actually managed to be more offensive with Part III. How?

Too much anxiety causes pre-ejac, which causes the worst kind of shame and virtual disgrace. She feels compelled to encourage him with well-meaning sympathy, but even bridal softening still registers as near-disgrace in front of his most valued possession. [emphasis mine]

A chair is a possession. A painting is a possession. A woman is not a possession. One cannot own another person. I can't even express how offensive that is, or how very sorry I feel for his slave wife.

It's not even logical, if he truly does belief a wife is a possession. I really treasure my xbox, really, really treasure it, but I don't feel humiliated if it sees me trip over the rug or spill my drink all down my front. Because it's a thing, an object, just like all possessions are. If you truly regarded your wife as a possession, you wouldn't care what she thought of you.

Really, what's worse? Thinking of another human being as a thing that you own, or failing at it?

pic link

It Don't Get Any Crazier Than This

slavery, christianity, bible, wtf, wow
I have finally found the absolute outer limit of fundy crazy: a black woman defending slavery*. (For added wtf, she's a mental health nurse.) I assure you, this is not a Poe.

I understand that there is so much evil in slavery, when masters abuse their
slaves. That is wrong. The bible condemns treating others in an evil way. So
this is not the issue. But slavery in itself is not wrong. Just as husbands can
abuse wives, does it mean marriage is evil? Or parents can abuse their children,
does it mean parenting is wrong? Because masters can be evil to their slaves, it
doesn't mean that slavery is wrong. Just as wives are to be submissive to their
husbands, likewise slaves are to be submissive to their masters.

. . .

I do not believe slavery is wrong, because a) The bible does not condemn slavery and b) Slavery makes so much sense and to say slavery is wrong we rob the gospel off its meaning and even Election. The concept of total submission and slavery is at the very heart of Christ's gospel. In order to be saved you have to be a slave of Christ. God is the one who chooses us, he saves us. He buys us with a price, the blood of Jesus. We are called to do the will of God, not ours. Not unto us but to Him. We are told to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. We are told to hate our own self and love God even before our own families. The whole New Testament sounds like slave talk to me. If you are a Christian you will understand what it means to be bought and be a slave. I have had disagreements with some Christians as they say slavery is wrong, its as if they are implying that God forgot to put that in the bible, but i disagree. I find that people who do not understand the concept of slavery do not understand the character and nature of God Himself and they do not understand what it means to be Christian. I love Mary's song in Luke 1 when she says ' ...for he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant, (i.e female slave)..'. Here is Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, calling herself a slave of her master - God. Mary perfectly understood what it meant to be a slave of her Lord, and if you are truly saved, you will not find the concept of slavery insulting or evil.

I'd snark that, but why bother? She's defending slavery. I don't really need to say anything, other than, if believing your precious holy ends with you defending slavery as a virtue, you really need to put the book down and join the rest of us here in the real world.

How We Forget

atheism, atheist, d'souza, christianity, christian, slavery, freedom, infanticide, religion,
I've heard of Dinesh D'Souza before, but this is the first time I've ever read anything by him, and I have to say, not impressed. I'm not impressed by the atheist bashing, and I'm not impressed by the amazing history fails.

(The article itself is fairly long, so I'm going to indulge in some ". . ." for brevity's sake.)

When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” he called the proposition “self-evident.” . . . This idea of the preciousness and equal worth of every human being is largely rooted in Christianity.

Since when? Many Christian sects today do not consider all human beings to be inherently equal. What about Christian homophobia? Would Mr. D'Souza claim that gaybashing fundies recognize the inherent equality of all human beings? What about complementarians? Would Mr. D'Souza claim that people who think wives should obey and be subservient to their husbands consider all human beings equal? Clearly not.

Those examples are just two modern examples of inequality in Christian thought. What about 50 years ago when many Christians believed that whites and blacks should not be allowed to intermarry because blacks were unequal to whites? What about 200 years ago when Christians believed that slavery was acceptable for the same reason?

. . .

In ancient Greece and Rome , individual human life had no particular value in and of itself. The Spartans left weak children to die on the hillside. Infanticide was common, as it is common even today in many parts of the world. Fathers who wanted sons had few qualms about drowning their newborn daughters. Human beings were routinely bludgeoned to death or mauled by wild animals in the Roman gladiatorial arena. Many of the great classical thinkers saw nothing wrong with these practices. Christianity, on the other hand, contributed to their demise by fostering moral outrage at the mistreatment of innocent human life.

Really? Do I really need to mention the Crusades? All 9 of them? There's always the Spanish Inquisition if the Crusades aren't enough.

. . .

Christianity did not immediately and directly contest patriarchy, but it helped to elevate the status of women in society. The Christian prohibition of adultery, a sin it viewed as equally serious for men and women, and rules concerning divorce that (unlike in Judaism and Islam) treated men and women equally, helped to improve the social status of women.

First of all, when did Christianity as a whole ever directly contest patriarchy? In most Christian sects, women are not allowed to lead congregations or achieve positions of power. In many Christian sects today, women are regarded as little more than fetal containers for the next generation of worshippers.

Secondly, the "Christian" prohibition of adultery? Is Mr. D'Souza forgetting what part of the bible the ten commandments are found in? That would be the Jewish prohibition of adultery.

. . .

Mr. D'Souza's defense against Christianity's support of slavery is downright laughable.

But Christianity, from its very beginning, discouraged the enslavement of fellow Christians. We read in one of Paul's letters that Paul himself interceded with a master named Philemon on behalf of his runaway slave, and encouraged Philemon to think of his slave as a brother instead. Confronted with the question of how a slave can also be a brother, Christians began to regard slavery as indefensible. As a result, slavery withered throughout medieval Christendom and was eventually replaced by serfdom.

You know what the difference is between slavery and serfdom? Very little.

Serfdom is the socio-economic status of unfree peasants under feudalism, and specifically relates to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe. Serfdom was the enforced labour of serfs on the fields of landowners, in return for protection and the right to work on their leased fields

Bragging that Christianity replaced slavery with serfdom is like bragging that you quit heroin by taking meth.

. . .

The end of the article includes this amazing warning about the decline of civilization at the hands of atheists, completely without facts.

Let me conclude with a warning first issued by one of Western civilization's greatest atheists, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The ideas that define Western civilization, Nietzsche said, are based on Christianity. Because some of these ideas seem to have taken on a life of their own, we might have the illusion that we can abandon Christianity while retaining them. This illusion, Nietzsche warns us, is just that. Remove Christianity and the ideas fall too.

because atheists don't have morals, or value civilization. we're all crazy anarchic nihilists, just waiting for the chance to blow it all to kingdom . . .um, well, nowhere, I guess.

Consider the example of Europe , where secularization has been occurring for well over a century. For a while it seemed that secularization would have no effect on European morality or social institutions. Yet increasingly today there is evidence of the decline of the nuclear family. Overall birthrates have plummeted, while rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births are up.

And how is that bad, exactly? care to give my some facts and figures on how that is affecting people in Europe? basically, Mr. D'Souza is arguing that divorce and low birthrates are bad because they are. Bad, that is. No studies, no facts, no figures, just a bald assertion.

Nietzsche also warned that, with the decline of Christianity, new and opposing ideas would arise. We see these today in demands for the radical redefinition of the family, the revival of eugenic theories, and even arguments for infanticide.
In sum, the eradication of Christianity—and of organized religion in general—would also mean the gradual extinction of the principles of human dignity. Consider human equality. Why do we hold to it? The Christian idea of equality in God's eyes is undeniably largely responsible. The attempt to ground respect for equality on a purely secular basis ignores the vital contribution by Christianity to its spread. It is folly to believe that it could survive without the continuing aid of religious belief.

if you're going to tell me that atheism causes eugenics and infanticide, at least give me a link. i have no idea what the fuck Mr. D'Souza is talking about, and no proof that Mr. D'Souza does, either.

and i do enjoy the idea that atheists are not capable of maintaining freedom. because we don't benefit from it or anything. apparently, we're not just anarchic nihilists, we're slavers, too!

If we cherish what is distinctive about Western civilization, then—whatever our religious convictions—we should respect rather than denigrate its Christian roots.

and keep the atheists from killing the babies, apparently.

Lessons From the Bible

bible, god, jesus, jews, muslim, bible, rape, slavery, christian, christianity, morality, immoral, asshat,
I like to check out the profiles of Ray Comfort's cheerleaders. Oddly, many of them have no viewable profile at all, or profiles with no information. Those with blogs are frequently the source of much amusement.

The Lord's Beautiful Things, not so much.

Prepare the Way for the Lord

In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3 What's interesting about this isn't the meaning of the quote, it's the translation. That is the New International Version, which is anethema to Christian fundamentalists, who all cling to the King James Version of the bible, for reasons I have never been able to make heads or tails of. (It's not like the texts were originally written in English. Oh, and Jesus was not a blue-eyed blonde.)

Dictionary.com says that a desert is-any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil.-any place lacking in something-of, pertaining to, or like a desert; desolate; barren. thanks for that. that really cleared nothing up for me.

We are in the desert right now. i suppose if we're in nevada, arizona, utah, parts of texas or california, but i'm not. i'm in pennsylvania. not a desert. America is the land of the free and the home of the brave!, but we are not really free it's true, but it's not like i wanted to go on a shooting spree. well, not that much.. The majority of us are walking around following trends, fashions, and behaviors because we think we should freely choosing to do so, in fact. People boast how in America you are free to do whatever you want except for stealing, raping, murdering, shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre, think and act how you want yes, you are free to think whatever you want. some people should take less advantage of that, but whatever, and wear what you want, but they are wrong.

How many times do you pick up a magazine and Say, "oooh, I want that!" , "I HAVE to have it"? in a given day? a week? what? besides, saying you really want something isn't wrong or inherently bad. i just, yeah, i dunno. Whether its is Glamor Magazine hey now, I read Glamour, it's not that bad., or Popular Mechanics, evil technology! people are always out to sell you something. welcome to the US. And not just sell you something, but tell you something as well. where is this going?

Fashion magazines tell young girls that they are not pretty if they don't wear the latest fashions actually, i thought fashion magazines told girls they're not pretty if they don't weigh less than me, but whatever. they're in the business of selling stuff, what do you expect? my niece figured out the lack of truth/reality in advertising by the time she was 6., the radio tells young men that it's okay to demean women and call them all sorts of nasty words ah, rap. not my favorite form of expression, but i don't think we can blame all society ills on a bunch of quasimusicians., and NOTHING in our general society talks about God.

Stop right there, asshat. Nothing? NOTHING? Take a dollar bill out of your wallet and tell me all about the total lack of god in general society. Need to swear to something in Court? you'll need a bible, or you'll need to out yourself as nonchristian. say the pledge of allegiance. written without "under god", but there it is today.

honestly.

The Bible tells you just as easily how to dress really? i did see a few passages on how the Aaronic High Priests were to dress (like a cross between a gay pride parade and any given day at the Vatican), but not a whole lot on the rest of us. unless we count not mixing fibers in our fabrics., how to talk ???,

how to treat women

i would be terrified to live in a world where the bible was the basis for how women are treated. Rape is an acceptable practice in the bible.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

Can you imagine being forceably married to your rapist? This is good and moral? On what planet?

To take this even further, if the woman is prevented from alerting others to her rape (usually what rapists do. It's not much use to rape a woman who is screaming her head off and alerting potential defenders.), she is to be murdered for being a rape victim.

Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.

This is the great morality that Christians have and I do not? Keep it! I don't want it.

and human beings in general.

Oh, really? Apparently, Christians view slavery as a perfectly acceptable way to treat humans.

Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.

Beating your slaves to death is okay, as long as they don't die right away.

Exodus 21:20-21 NAB When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.

Just so nobody says, "Well, that's the old testament, Jesus changed everything, no, he didn't.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)

Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)

But no one looks to God to tell them what to do because it's not "popular". Maybe because it would be entirely immoral to actually do so. Being a Christian is not popular. yeah, christians are only more than 75% of the US. Have you noticed how if you talk about how great God is, you will get a whole bunch of wohoos um, what? from Catholics, Jewish, Christian and Muslim alike (Muslims worship the same God as us, just a different name)? But if you DARE to mention Jesus, everyone will go silent, 'cept for Christians of course. maybe because jews and muslims don't view jesus as god? asshat. It is if our world is backwards. it's so insane that jews and muslims don't worship jesus! Everyone rewards and accepts the perverse following fashion trends! and questions and looks down upon the righteous, and wholesome. rape and slavery! Our nation has become like a barren wasteland. unless you're in Pennsylvania, in which case the crucuses (croci?) are blooming! It is a desert in need of the Living Water. the living water of brutal immorality!