African American Howard Thurman’s enslaved grandmother would not read anything written by the Apostle Paul, save for 1 Corinthians 13. Her reason? Because her plantation master would ever quote Paul’s injunction: “Servants, obey your masters” (Col 3:22; Eph 6:5). The black abolitionist, Lewis Hayden, described this same quote, which he heard preached in a Southern church, as “the sum total of the Gospel which slaves have preached unto them”.
Understandably, such pro-slavery misuse of Paul has caused many African American slaves and their descendants to dislike Paul’s letters or mistrust his teaching. Paul was not rationalising the institution of slavery when he urged such behaviour, but simply working within the parameters of an entrenched social institution and urging Christians, in whatever state they found themselves, slavery included, and, indeed, his own inescapable state as a prisoner included, to honour the Lord in they way they lived (Col 3:22b-25). Abolitionists also found aspects of Paul’s teaching amenable to their cause, e.g. 1 Corinthians 7:21; Philemon 15-17; Colossians 3:11. The fact is that Paul never presented any systematic, developed teaching on the issue of slavery and his various remarks concerning slavery are therefore side-comments. There are many other ethical and social issues unaddressed in Scripture. Proof-texting is always a precarious way of addressing such issues.
Posted July 18, 2008
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