Half the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin FranklinBy that I mean that even if the movie is essentially accurate, its emotional impact diverts from a larger truth. Namely, that slavery was universal, globally and throughout history, until the institution was delegitimated in the Nineteenth Century.
And it won't do to just leave that statement in the passive voice, "was delegitimated." It is true that Christianity accepted the institution of slavery from its own founding, and even after its establishment as the religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine, and even unto the Nineteenth Century. But compared to what? No other religion ever delegitimated slavery except under the influence (if not coercion) of Christians. Predominantly English speaking Christians (Black Rednecks and White Liberals, by Thomas Sowell).
An emotional dramatization of the evils of the practice of slavery by Christians, just before (in historical terms, very suddenly) Christianity delegitimated the institution globally, is a half truth and a great lie.
It’s a relative shame that Christendom did let itself wallow in the extremes that slavery took in the New World.
The New World did things bigger and better; unfortunately that included a few evil things. The practices of slavery known in New Testament times were tied either to voluntary selling of oneself (as to raise funds to relieve a debt for self or friends or family) or to prisoners of war.
The African slave trade really pushed the prisoners of war concept. Constantly simmering inter-tribal warfare produced a bumper crop of what were essentially kidnapped slaves. Arab slave traders were not shy to exploit this. Most of those slaves didn’t go to the American colonies, but some did. And then because they happened to be black, and because few voluntary immigrants were black, color was seized upon as an identifying factor for who should be considered a slave and who should not.
At any rate, the cure is not for Christendom to become a doormat, but for it to re-affirm what it means to be the body of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for the citation.
BTTT
Agree 100%.