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Slavery Reparations and the Christian
Slavery reparations are all the rage right now. This week there was a House hearing on reparations, and there were a variety of celebrity testimonies, including Danny Glover and Burgess Owens arguing for or against reparations. This conversation has really ignited over the last year. When the culture takes aim at a topic, the Christian needs to be equipped to think through the issues from a biblical worldview. On the issue of whether slavery reparations are to be implemented, I think there are a couple issues to consider. First, slavery reparations would be a logistical nightmare. Although the issue is often painted as blacks needing to receive reparations and whites needing to pay reparations, that is a gross oversimplification. If the actual issue is slavery, one needs to consider the numerous black slaveholders. Should their black descendants be required to pay reparations? According to one black brother, he can actually…
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Why Does the Bible Allow Slavery?
Slavery is recognized as one of the great evils of our history. To many, this provides reason for rejecting what the Bible teaches. For example, some balk at the belief that Christians can put their faith in a book which, not only does not condemn slavery, but actually regulates it! Further, today people argue against the Old Testament and the Apostle Paul’s view of homosexuality because both sources include regulation of slavery rather than its abolition. Why does the Bible allow slavery? At first glance this seems an irredeemable blemish to the goodness of the Bible’s message. This is a challenging issue because our society brings with it cultural baggage which makes accurate interpretation of biblical texts on slavery difficult. We all are familiar with the African-American slave trade, and this is the kind of slavery that we envision taking place in the Bible. As a proper foundation for understanding…