An Atheist Question: Why do Christianity support slavery?

It feels like a long time but truly it has been only 2 months since I started interacting with some atheists in Rwanda. Just like religious folks, atheists come in all shape and form. The clever ones, the annoying ones, the mocking type, the self-controlled ones, the arrogant ones, the humble ones, the hostile ones, and the mildly friendly ones and so on. We've been at it since September discussing almost all types of topics with the unfortunate outcome of never-ending any. The tendency is to jump from topic to topic without fully exhausting the subject under discussion.

However last week, we had a short extended discussion on the topic of slavery. One of my interlocutors brought a series of what he considered grievances against Christianity, one of them being the slavery topic. Below is my feedback on the second round of our exchange on the matter. I have selected the key aspects of his rebuttal as he called it. I will not share many of our dialogues, i left out from this post what I considered the unkind and often insulting remarks addressed against my person to keep this post PG. 😅

I hope you find it interesting and informative. I will leave in the same way, I responded and he reacted. My interlocutor remarks are in RED. My comments are in black. I drew heavily on the work from Emergence to build my case.

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[Atrocity in the bible]: Ephesians 6:5 (Endorses Slavery)

Here is the text below. It is not an endorsement of slavery but how to behave if one finds himself a slave in the first century, where slavery was still part of the socio-economic institution in Ephesus. He gives advice not only to slaves but also to the masters.

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear, trembling, and sincerity, as when you obey the Messiah. Masters, treat your slaves the same way. Do not threaten them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him." - Eph 6:5, 9 

Since your rebuttal was multifaceted, I will insert my comment after different sections of your reactions.

a) “so my issue is why didn't Jesus and any of his followers REBUKE THE PRACTICE?”

Before I answer your questions, it is important to open a parenthesis here and point out that the concept of ancient slavery in the Bible (Old Testament among the Jews and New Testament in the Roman Empire) was different from the racial-slavery practices in the South of the USA. Maybe we will have some time to explore this in greater detail later on.

As for the question asked, we have New Testament texts that point away from ancient slavery and encourages the slaves who have the opportunity to be freed to take advantage of the opportunity for freedom,

Text 1:  ‘for fornicators, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and anything else that is contrary to sound doctrine’ - 1Timothy 1:10 MKJV

Text 2: “Were you a slave when you were called [by Christ]? Do not let that bother you. Of course, if you have a chance to become free, take advantage of the opportunity.” - 1Corinthians 7:21  

b) “Why go through the the trouble of advising the slave master & the slave of how to act while in their sorry states instead of doing the most HUMANE thing of rebuking the practice of owning & treating another human being as property (chattel slavery) or an indebted servant (indebted servitude)?”

Once again, slavery in ancient times was different from the chattel slavery practiced in recent memories of blacks. As for why not a direct attack on the institution of slavery in the Roman Empire? I gather it is because slavery as an institution was part of the Roman Empire's socio-economic system and protected by the imperial edict. Hence, all attempts for changes about it could either be brought through (i) a violent revolt or (ii) by changing the system by using a bottom-up approach. Since the Christian doctrine coming from Christ to his disciples were non-violent in nature, arm-revolt would be contrary to the core of the religious teaching of Christianity. Hence, they chose the bottom-up approach of mind-set changes as a teaching method to win over the culture war in the Roman Empire by teaching equality among themselves with the hope that it will permeate society as they grow in number. As one New Testament text inform:

‘Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female.’ - Galatians 3:28 

c) “Why condone such an evil practice by going ahead to advise the slave to accept the inhumane treatment accorded to him instead of encouraging him or her to revolt & fight for his or her right?”

They did not condone such practices as already informed above since the Christian teaching is equalitarian in nature ‘all of you are one’. But Christianity according to its own text is also non-violent by nature, hence uses non-violent methods to achieve its ends as per its own doctrine (see its modern application with Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mandela). And truth to be told, you don’t mount a violent revolt against the Roman army and Empire with a small number of pacifists in your ranks. And I also read somewhere a good observation stating,

“Were any of the New Testament writers to incite slaves to rise up against their masters, they would essentially have been compelling them to death, probably by crucifixion, as was the fate of the 6,000 who revolted with Spartacus a century earlier.”

d) “Why not do the most noble thing and ask the Slave master to stop treating other human beings as objects & beasts of burdens but instead encourage him or her to continue practicing such an atrocity on other human beings?”

Once again, slavery in ancient times had different features from the modern usage of the word today. As for the question, the Bible does ask Masters to treat their ancient slaves correctly as they would treat a brother in the Lord for ‘all are one’. It is also important to note that some ancient slaves would have preferred to remain slaves in an ancient way since their socio-economic status would have been better than if they were freed. As already pointed out by some authors,

“In Roman society, slaves could own property and other slaves, they were not enslaved based on the color of their skin (it was not a racist institution), and slavery was often temporary. While there were certainly very degrading and dehumanizing forms of slavery in the Roman world (e.g., mining), many served in more dignified positions, such as tutors, professors, estate managers, bookkeepers, and doctors, or as artisans. Roman Emperors used slaves to manage imperial estates and often placed them in charge of important tasks, such as lighting, tailoring, wine-keeping and tasting, and cooking. The slaves addressed in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3, as well as Onesimus in Philemon, would have been household slaves, as is evident by the placement of these texts amongst advice to household members (i.e., husbands, wives, and children).”

e) “Jesus would have made freeing slaves from physical & mental bondage one of his major priorities while he was here on Earth.”

This is not something he could have done while living in Palestine (and in 3 years of public ministry), especially as a member of a persecuted minority Jewish religious movement (he himself was crucified by a Roman governor for something of less socio-value to the Roman Empire). Ancient slavery was a wide institution in the whole Roman Empire. And only by changing people’s hearts could they have changed how they live and legislate these practices. You start with the heart and you affect the action, was Jesus teaching (remember our discussion above on Matthew 5). And basically, this is what his disciples went on doing while preaching the gospel about ‘all are one’ in this new faith in Christ. Moreover, freedom from ancient slavery (which is different from the racial slavery of the South) was not always the desired will of all slaves either. You can’t force someone to be freed if they assess by themselves that they get more benefits from their ancient slave social status than as freed-men.

See for example what the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (himself once a slave) writes of the common experience of freed slaves:

“If I shall be set free, immediately it is all happiness, I care for no man, I speak to all as an equal and, like to them, I go where I choose, I come from any place I choose, and I go where I choose.” Then he is set free, and forthwith having no place where he can eat, he looks for some man to flatter, someone with whom he shall sup: then he either works with his body and endures the most dreadful things; and if he can obtain a manager, he falls into a slavery much worse than his former slavery; or even if he is become rich, being a man without any knowledge of what is good, he loves some little girl, and in his happiness laments and desires to be a slave again. He says, “What evil did I suffer in my state of slavery? Another clothed me, another supplied me with shoes, another fed me, another looked after me in sickness, and I did only a few services for him. But now a wretched man, what things I suffer, being a slave of many instead of to one.”

It is important to end this post by reminding us of the New Testament teaching on equality in Christ: ‘Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female.’ - Galatians 3:28