The Bible and Slavery
In a famous debate with Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris criticises the Bible for explicitly promoting slavery:
“But if you go to the books, and try to figure out what the creator of the universe wants with respect to the owning and needless immiseration of other people, he expects you to keep slaves, and he’s told you how to do it.”
Is that right? Is God okay with the slave trade?Is that right? Is God okay with the slave trade?
Why we keep disagreeing on the Bible
“So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” This is what Abraham Lincoln reportedly said on meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Published in 1852, Stowe’s novel might not be solely responsible for the American Civil War, but it certainly roused many Christians in the north to the intolerable suffering of slaves in the south.