Warren is inexcusably wrong
Okay. Prove it.
nor does he represent the normative Christian view.
Agreed. Most Christians today don't agree with Warren that slavery is good and right. The question is, why do they not believe that? Is it because they base their views on the Bible? Or is it because their views on slavery are morally superior to the Bible?
If the former, then they must have some counterarguments, some way of showing that Warren and the Christians he represented were incorrect to see the bible as endorsing slavery. If the latter, well, good for them - but then you are admitting that the Bible does endorse slavery, and just saying you choose to not follow that part of it.
I might as well say he represents the American view but doing so would be a strawman because this is not what Americans think. Perhaps some of them thought this way at some time and perhaps some still do but largely this type of thinking is condemned.
Yes - but so what? We are not discussing what American think, but what the Bible says.
Christians do not view the texts as you do, they do not use it to justify slavery, perhaps some of them did at one time and perhaps some still do but just like Americans there are some flawed Christians out there.
Yes, they certainly did at one time. It was shortly before they lost a major war and saw society change, irrevocably and forever. That might have had something to do with views on slavery evolving. It certainly wasn't the Bible that changed.
You can read the bible as a pretext for a system that supports slavery or you can read it as a system responding in a greater ancient mindset.
Why not both? How are these things mutually exclusive?
Without a foundational belief of God first it's just stuff that happens with no goal other than survival. With an understanding that there is a God nothing is arbitrary and the flawed actions of man can still be redeemed and move in an ordained direction.
Whether you believe in God or not, that doesn't change the meaning of the words on the paper.
We cannot comment to the degree slavery was embedded in systems 4000 years ago in the middle east and how it affected the individuals a part of it, slave or free nor can we comment how the Hebrew system worked in this, certainly there was injustice but the Hebrew system seems to be about providing justice within this system.
The Bible's views on slavery speak for themselves. Either answer them, or admit that you cannot.
It's flawed to superimpose our thinking over that system or to superimpose that system in our thinking today (or 150 years ago as Warren did). That's not the point of the bible but you seem to be working hard at forcing this flawed view.
This is begging the question. You have yet to provide a single jot of evidence that it is a flawed view.
I get that you think the Bible shouldn't endorse slavery. The problem is, it does.
No one accepts it, you don't, I don't, nor do Christians at large... and the best source you can find in support of this view was 150 years ago so why are we even talking about it?
Because the Bible itself is considerably older than a hundred and fifty years old, and has not changed appreciably in that time. The book that you read today is essentially the book that Pastor Warren was quoting then. It's just that you and he have radically different views on what it means, and in order to resolve the disagreement, you are going to have to argue your case. Simply saying to someone "You're wrong because nobody agrees with you," is extremely poor logic.
This is why it's a strawman. Why should I pick through Warren's comments?
Because as yet, you have not show why any of them are wrong.
I've already pointed out his bias and how his premise is flawed, so do I have to go brick by brick after the foundation is already torn down?
Because it's not torn down at all. All you did was accuse him of racial bias. That is undoubtedly true, but has nothing at all to do with what the Bible says.
