Interesting article on 1619, but flawed

Stephen Stern stephen-marnee@rogers.com 8:27 AM (1 minute ago)

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I challenge her whitewashing of Judaism regarding slavery. Hebrews were ordered to free Hebrew slaves every 7 years. Non-Hebrew slaves were slaves forever.

The Exodus story is not a condemnation of slavery per se, but only of the Israelite’s own slavery. Understandable but not particularly edifying. In any case, most scholars today believe there never was a Moses and there never was an Exodus.

Her claim that slavery came to an end because of Judaeo-Christian values is piffle. Jesus said not a word against slavery. Nor did Paul or Peter or Augustine or Thomas. Nor did Moses or any of the Hebrew prophets.

Those few brave Christians who struggled against slavery in the 19th century found no scriptural basis for their abolitionist beliefs, but relied on Enlightenment values of reason and natural law.

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Thank you for that, Cogito. A large dose - or treat - of the truth.

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