Bible re Slavery, 3 (end) : Is Slavery EVER moral?
Channel: Brain Outy
Date: 2013-08-12

Bible condones 'legal' slavery, condemns 'illegal' slavery, and condemns certain practices even in 'legal' slavery, Exodus 21.  Here we go through what those types of slavery ARE, and you decide which is and is not, moral.  I state my own position at the beginning of this audio, but then set my position aside for the rest of the audio, to explain the issues on both sides.  So historically, which you can verify with any sources you like,

1.  'Legal' slavery is a VOLUNTARY CONTRACT between the person wanting to become a slave, and the putative slave owner, in return for certain things the owner will pay or do.  Modern-day equivalent of this, is 'employment contract'.  So Bible calls this, 'legal'.  Even so, Exodus 21 (Mosaic Law) specifies certain contractural provisions which were NOT legal for Israel to do, and God would punish her for violating.  The legal thinking is in the whole chapter, so you have to read it all, to understand how 'legal' slavery was viewed.

2.  Another form of slavery was INVOLUNTARY, but was a contract made between two polities, prior to a war;  or, parents selling their children;  or, a slaveowner selling his already-owned, slaves.  The victorious side would win all the people and property of the vanquished side, and that meant everyone in the vanquished side could be sold as slaves.  So it's 'involuntary', in the sense that you aren't making a personal contract, but instead one is made for you, simply because you belong to the vanquished group.  This too was regarded as 'legal' in the Bible, and subject to the same rules as in Exodus 21 (and elsewhere), for voluntary contracts.

3.  The third form of slavery was INVOLUNTARY and a crime:  Exodus 21:16, a KIDNAPPER sells the person kidnapped, into slavery.  This is the kind of slavery we moderns know from the 17th century onward.  So instead of reading Bible properly, we ASSume that the ONLY meaning to slavery in the Bible, is this kind.  Ooops.  Our bad.  Our, meaning atheists and Christians alike, proving none of us actually care to STUDY the Bible we so vociferously debate!

Next moral question, is the issue of how you TREAT a slave.  If a slave is treated better than if he were free;  even if initially involuntary slavery or even if a crime, what are the moral issues then?  Video closes with that question.

PS: this is the 3rd and hopefully final installment of the Response to the following video on slavery in Bible, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0nN3th298&lc=Q7jd_dg2WJJMs7PrNCiZ5InTvxjdkP2Zy6Mq8w6UvEQ