Over at Jesus Politics, one of the commenters supports slavery. that's right, he says that Leviticus justifies slavery, ergo, God supported slavery, ergo, slavery is fine. Oh, he says it has to be in certain situations, but slavery is ok. Souther slavery? Fine.
If you read the comments, you will see that I am pretty hard on him. All things considered, I think that is justified. Slavery isn't justifiable. Period. He really thinks that. He reads the bible and is unable to think that OT slavery might have been perpetrated by humans who justified it. Or even if he thinks God endorsed it for his precious Israelites, that the model of Jesus completely goes against slavery.
But, in a way, I think this guy exemplifies the problem with biblical literalism. If you say the bible is literally true, then it is literally true. Slavery is in play. To get beyond that we needed humans. Human wisdom. Human experience. Human enlightenment. We had to make leaps and say that even though the bible never explicitly bans slavery, that the odious act of owning other human beings was incompatible with believing in Jesus the Shepherd. Jesus the savior doesn't enslave people.
But we had to step outside biblical authority, or the mindless following of scripture. Most people, even those who say they are inerrentists, already do that. Few argue for women in veils or the stoning of married women who weren't virgins on their wedding day. I think it takes a real literalist to point out how problematic that logic is.
Humans are far from perfect. But belief in a literal, inerrent bible is just magicalism, and ultimately untenable. If we can't step outside the world of ancient Israel and incorporate the world since then, we are lost.
7 comments:
The intereting thing here is that Dave assumes he will always be on the "right" side of slavery---holding slaves rather than being held as one.
I think the climate is right, there is a killing to be made on "I Heart Leviticus" stickers for cars.
Any design ideas?
Hah. Maybe I need to look at more of the funny here. Maybe "Leviticus Rocks?" with a picture of a stoning stone?
Streak- I put my $.02 worth in, too. I'm always torn when I read something like Dave's comments- Do you give it the acknowledgement of a response or blow it off? Often I feel dirty even responding! The mood hit, and I indulged anyway. You've got to figure Dave's got some compensating going on somewhere.
To go along with your bumper stickers I guess you'd need one with a handless arm and face with one eye gone. Love that morbid humor. The reality is that you can see Dave's kind of legalism at work in places like Saudi Arabia. I have seen film of a public execution (beheading- not stoning) and photos of men missing hands and feet. Lovely way to live.
Later
BB
Gasp! Don't say that. The Saudis are our friends.
I agree that Dave's comments on slavery and violence are quite frightening. What's more frightening is that he is part of a group of people who believe this way. But educat brings up a good point, Dave seems to always assume that he will be on the "correct" side of the slavery and violence. Something tells me his mid would change very quickly were he the one in shackles or getting stones thrown at his head.
Streak, I understand your agitation in dealing with him. I have the same conflict that Bootleg Blogger does, to respond or not? I guess I do in hopes that the all-too-rare rational Dave shows up. But he keeps demonstrating exactly what you stated - that he is a 23 year old who seems to be easily influenced by others and who hasn't really critically thought through much of this on his own. And that can be the most dangerous kind of person.
It's not an argument with this mindset.
It is absolute truth (mine) vs wrong (everybody who disagrees). There is no room for critical thought because there is no margin of error.
You can't argue with his logic either. At least Dave isn't picking and choosing the pieces that fit for him. Although given 10 seconds, he would also have to explain why polygamy is okay.
Making the bible the basis for all fact means taking what is a historical moment, captured in the biblical stories and making that, with all its human flaws, the end of human history.
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