Man that title! What a great post to end the week on right? I mean that is a huge question. The question stems from a Bill Maher video a friend of mine posted on FaceBook.
In the video Bill mentions how outrageous cancel culture has become. There is nothing wrong with tearing down the statues of confederate leaders in the United States. These leaders were truly on the wrong side of history. The confederate leaders in the United States killed people so that they could enslave people of another race through brutality and force. The confederate leaders in the United States deserve to be canceled however, Abraham Lincoln does not.
The King James version of the Bible has instructions for slaves and slave owners in both the old and new testaments. The instructions are not for the slaves to escape and the owners to free them either.
- Ephesians 6:5: “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters.”
- Colossians 3:22: “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.”
- 1 Peter 2:18: “Servants, be subject to your masters.”
Here is a pretty good article written by a pastor concerning the bibles take on slavery. At the end of the article the pastor admits that he wrestles with the bibles take on slavery and the article outlines why. That article is definitely worth a read. Even though some passages seem like and endorsement for slavery there are other instances in which the bible almost reads as an abolitionist pamphlet.
I think it is strange and maybe speaks to the person receiving the word but the same book and God were used to support and decry slavery.
Today the same is being done with other social issues and the Christian religion and text.
There are Christians that are Pro Choice and Anti Choice in the Abortion debate. Both camps use the bible to defend their positions.
There are Christians that are pro death penalty and anti death penalty. Both camps use the bible to defend their positions.
There are Christians that are pro gay marriage and against gay marriage. Both camps use the bible to defend their positions.
- Environment
- War
- Evolution
- Universalism
- Women’s role in the church
- Women’s role as leaders
Depending on how you read and interpret the bible as a Christian you may fall into one side or the other of one or all of these positions.
“Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity…”
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was a slave, an abolitionist, a social reformer, an orator, a writer and a statesman. Frederick Douglas escaped slavery (essentially violating Ephesians 6″5) and after ten years of freedom wrote a letter to his former owner. I found some huge insight in a letter he wrote to his former owner and current slave owner (the man still owned his sisters and brothers).
Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my feelings rise above my control….. God, the Creator of all mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to serve the whites as slaves. How he could do this and be good, I could not tell. I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over it long and oft
Frederick Douglass
I would surely cancel anyone who promotes slavery in any way. That being said, I am not ready to cancel the Christian God. Not yet anyways. I am honestly not sure why
phesians 6:5: “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters.”
Colossians 3:22: “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.”
1 Peter 2:18: “Servants, be subject to your masters.”
are in the bible but, there are many verse that call slavery what it is and are totally against the practice.
Jeremiah 22:13 ESV /
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,
Exodus 21:16 ESV /
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
Galatians 3:28 ESV /
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Their is a certain western type of Christianity that seems to still be prevalent within the United States particularly. This style of Christianity makes it ok to take away peoples freedoms and rights based on how the bible is interrupted. This religion this god deserves and should be canceled. The god who says it is ok to enslave a race, prevent a woman from controlling her own body, deny adults the right to be married, deny science and destroy the world for our children to get more profit. That god that religion should be canceled. The God who tells us That we are all free. The God who tells us that all men and women are equal. The God who forgives. The God that uses love. The God that tells us to put our swords back in its place and demands peace. This God this Christian religion should be revered celebrated, studied and embraced. This religion will bring us into the 21st century with hope. All that the current western religion has is what it had during the time slavery was legal in the United States and that is destruction and death.
So I will gladly cancel the god of the western world but, I still and think I will always believe in the God of the whole world.
The Corrigan Encore 