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Slavery was taught at a perfectly normal thing in the Bible. Jesus had very little to say against it.
Seems he was all for it.
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You are right, good quotes, a better recall of the scripture than I had.
I think Jesus (at least the Jesus who was written about in the four Gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) was very much a man of his time, and was not always all that rational (by cussing out a fig tree because it did not bear fruit out of season: where did he think he was, in a XXI Century US Whole Foods Market?). His attitude towards slavery was that of the poor average Joe: he didn't have slaves and was too poor to ever hope he would someday have one, but he accepted them in the same way we accept John Travolta's aircraft or Jay Leno's supercool car collection. We do not resent Jay or John for being so cool, and Jesus did not criticize people for owning slaves inthe same way we do not hold Jay's and John's wretched excess against them.
By the way, I am not against Leno or Travolta, by the way, because they are having so damned much fun. But the rational side of me is forced to see a mere mortal with his own 707 and several other planes, and a guy with 100+ automobiles as examples of wretched excess.
Jesus seems not much more concerned about the way the slaves felt than we are about how Jay's cars or John's planes might feel if their owners skimped on the maintenance. Jesus does not even seem to think that one should thank a slave for a job well done.
Nowadays, we beileve that al slavery is BAD in every way because it is cruel to the slaves. We sympathize with the slaves 100% and with the masters not at all.
But then again, we have a Kenmore washer-dryer, and Electrolux or even a Roomba, a microwave and a toaster oven, running hot and cold water, AC and fans, all of which do pretty much as good a job or a better one than any slave. I hardly ever thank my microwave anymore.
Each and every one of us can get better music out of a $29.95 iPOD clone than King Herod ever got from all his private musicians.
Think about it.
Herod probably was totally unconcerned when he stepped out of the tub and his slaves dried him off, and watched him as he got dressed. This would give me the creeps. I think Jesus washing my feet would also give me the creeps. And I might be a wonderful host, but I doubt if I'd ever feel right about doing anyone's feet. Where I come from, everyone does his own damned feet, and we are no worse off for it, either.
I find excess humility annoying. Even excessively humble people annoy me.
By the way, all of our material comfort is due to an economic system that would be totally IMPOSSIBLE if we did what the Bible said we must and never borrow money or lend it at interest. This restriction largely explains the rather wretched backwardness of the Muslim world.
Taiwan in 1950 was a disorganized ex-colony with uninvited rulers from the Mainland and serious starvation and almost no resources. Taiwanese were tons worse off than most Muslims in the Middle East. Now look at them. The Taiwanese had no problem with borrowing and lending, and the Arabs were restricted by the Koran.
All this stuff about footwashing and cussing out figtrees and not saying a single nasty word about slavery is rather disturbing for someone who is thought to be not a man, but GOD, isn't it?
All an apologist can say about this is that he really was God, but he had to relate to the locals on their own terms, because otherwise he would have been considered a true nutjob and not credible to anyone.
If a nutjob acts looney and gets himself kilt off, it impresses no one at all, does it?
So that makes some sense. But still...
Perhaps times have changed so much it's time to send a new Messiah. Maybe if we promise not to nail him to anything this time, just be a pleasant celebrity guru, like the Dalai Lama...
