DogmaHunter
Code Monkey
Why didn't God just outlaw slavery entirely to begin with?
The goal was/is real change for the better. Not merely stating a Law, but people obeying it.
(Background: Slavery was the normal human practice around the world then. Our modern forms are more diverse and less visible, including subtle forms like intentional underpaying of workers even when a company could pay them more easily and still make nice profits.)
So, the goal is real change, up to the real good: "So in everything [including pay of workers, kindness to strangers, everything], do to others as you would have them do to you."
How to get there?
Israel was given 10 commandments, even half of which can be summarized very simply for us modern Christians as "Love your neighbor as yourself."
And they failed to obey this simple Law during the Exodus journey. Over and over.
And that was only the start of the endless failure to obey the simple 10 commandment Law.
Even after gaining the new land, Israel would break the Law not just occasionally, but over and over and over and over.
The general Law, not being followed, then resulted in what I call micro regulations (my wording) -- little detailed rules given to make people better able to do what they should, and what they could in practice, as they were, the people they were.
Baby steps.
Little regulations, like little steps, upward out of the morass of evil and wrong, tiny steps up, one at a time, to lift them out of their wrong and bad ways of treating each other.
Little steps they could actually manage.
And these micro regulations actually help, over time, in a progression, for a larger portion of people.
e.g. -- Instead of 3% obedience, a higher amount happens, like perhaps 15% or 25% even, and later in time higher, like 60%, 80% even, in later generations.
Progression.
Today in 2018, because only some people follow Matthew 7:12, we have our own secular micro regulations --
Detailed. (Think Kavanaugh; what if Kavanaugh knew the little rules):
Maryland Rape and Sexual Assault Laws - FindLaw
This is our secular law -- little detailed bits -- today in the U.S.
Because only some people obey "In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you".
Do you think we could chuck (discard) our own secular laws, that slow progression in our own secular law, like the Maryland Rape and Sexual Assault Laws?
Seems the American experience is that we need baby steps upward over time. In America. Today.
Just like in the Old Testament.
To me, all this reads as rather pathetic excuses all just to not admit that the "good book" regulates and allows one of the most vile practices humans can engage in.
It doesn't jive with the rest of the story either. Supposedly God/Jesus had no problem at all being upsetting and controversial. In fact, they were so upsetting / controversial that the first 300 years they suffered almost nothing but prosecution.
Give me a break.
Sorry, but we won't be seeing eye to eye on this.
Honestly, in my view (call it narrow if you must), there is NO EXCUSE and NO JUSTIFICATION for practices like slavery, genocide, infanticide, etc. None at all.
Yes, I know that in those times, morals were different, cultures were different and we can't use our superior 21st century secular / humanist morality to judge those people living in those primitive / barbaric societies.
But, from the perspective of the "good book", the book does not merely reflect THEIR morality... it reflects the opinions and ethics of a supposedly timeless and just GOD.
Personally, as a non-believer, I FULLY and COMPLETELY expect that a book written in those days would reflect the barbaric nature of that society. Fully.
But that's only because in my view, these are just the ramblings of humans that lived at that time. Not the message of a god who should know better.
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