There’s nothing ‘Christian’ about slavery

The Sept. 20 letter urging people to teach the “truth” about the “South’s Christian slavery” hurt my heart, because Christ never advocated slavery. Moreover, he taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan that there is no place for racism in God’s kingdom. It is the Samaritan who ignored ethnic prejudice and truly loved his neighbor.

The apostle Paul said in Galatians 2 that there is neither Jew nor Gentile in God’s kingdom and no place for racism in Christianity.

Alex Haley’s story about his family’s experience of enslavement, “Roots,” clearly shows the cruelty of slavery in America.

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Unfortunately supporters of slavery in the United States misused Paul’s admonition, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters” (Ephesians 6:5). They did not acknowledge that slavery in the Roman Empire was quite different from chattel slavery, more akin to indentured servitude. It was an economic status, not a racial status, from which the indebted slave could purchase his freedom.

I am glad that so many of our African-American brothers and sisters are Christians. That proves that God can bring goodness from even the most heinous sins of man.