Why No Black Folk?

I asked a question that silenced the breakfast table a couple of months ago.  In the sixteen years of living, part time, in Western North Carolina I have not seen more than a few black people and only two in the county where I reside. At what meant to be a benign, question: “Don't we have any black folk who live in our county?”, there was a definite shifting and stiffening of body posture.Three sets of eyes fell downward and seemed concreted to the plate or coffee cup in front of them. Now, I’ve been familiar with group and individual therapy long enough,I recognize “uncomfortable,” when I see it. At the moment, there was not a doubt. The next fifteen seconds seemed an eterinity before a somewhat direct, lengthy, honest but friendly conversation ensued about the past history of Western North Carolina. I felt ashamed of myself when the comment was made: “Well, preacher, you have to admit God’s children in the Bible were and had slaves, “right?.”  I felt a rush of flushness as I stammered around a little bit before I responded that there are many places in the Bible where slavery is mentioned or alluded too.  But then, I stepped toward honesty and said that I really didn’t know if the Bible condoned slavery or not. Then I committed to giving it some study and bring my findings back to the table, one day. 

The question nagged me for some time before, in earnest, began my research knowing that the Old Testament is rife with palace intrigues, polygamy, divorce, violence and the like, and godly people are very often part of the problem. Although the New Testament is decidedly improved, it still seems to fall far short of that which my friends, or for that matter, from what I've experienced, what twenty-first century human rights aficionados, I think might expect. For instance, there are no women among the twelve disciples of Jesus.  Just saying. And believers in Jesus, who are masters did have slaves.

When addressing this particular issue as others of it’s kind I was taught many years ago by an exceptional Bible professor, Dr. Holcroft, to step back and ask three larger questions: What are the theological, political, and cultural contexts in which the Old Testament narrative unfolds, and how is the behavior of God's people in the Old Testament expected to be different from those of other cultures?  What are the major developments in the New Testament that would give me a clue to interpretation of Old Testament ethics? And am I expected to further extrapolate changes in behavior beyond the New Testament times to the present day?

To begin with, I should not forget that the Old Testament narratives contain codes which are ethical, ceremonial, and social. Therefore, their application to the present day should not always be considered in literal terms. The social elements of those narratives need not apply to anyone, and the ceremonial ones are largely fulfilled in the completed work of Christ. It is the ethical aspects of Old Testament teaching with which I need to be concerned with, and there is a whole bunch I need to consider.

As an example, on the way to Canaan, in Exodus 23:9, God tells his people through Moses that the alien, or foreigner, among them should not be oppressed. The reason given is fascinating: the people of Israel know in their hearts how it feels to be oppressed!  (The word translated "alien" is not the same as slave, but the experience of the Israelites in Egypt was certainly that of slaves.)  I have just found the first statement on human rights: the alien was to be treated as a citizen; in fact, Leviticus 19:33-34 tells me that, he was to be loved as one of their own. Even when Hebrew law and custom shared in the common heritage of the ancient world, I’m finding, there is a unique care in God's Name for those people who by status were not considered people.  This was something much different from the codes of Babylon and Assyria.

When turning to the New Testament, I find a paradigm to interpret Old Testament practices. In one of their notorious fault-finding missions, found in Matthew 19:1-9; Mark 10:2-9, the Pharisees test Jesus on the subject of divorce. He initially appears to play into their hands, asking what Mosaic Law has to say on the subject. When they gleefully quote the permission of Moses to divorce one's wife, Jesus lays down a method of interpretation that has to be taken very seriously. He makes it clear that certain Old Testament commandments were to be understood as concessions to the hardness of the human heart rather than as expressions of God's holy character. He goes on to reference how this was not the state of affairs in the beginning. That being; before the fall.

The regulation of slavery, I believe ought therefore be seen as a practical step to deal with the realities of the day resulting from human fall. The aberrations that lead to alienation among individuals, races, and nations are the result of a fundamental broken relationship between humankind and God. Within this tragic scenario, Scripture comes as a breath of fresh air as it seeks to redeem the situation and sets us on a path of ever-increasing amelioration (new word for me) of our predicament. So, I trust my friends will accept that while the Bible does not reject slavery outright, the conclusion that it actually favors slavery is patently wrong. Scripture does reveal that slavery is not ideal, both in Old Testament laws forbidding the enslavement of fellow Israelites, the law of jubilee, and in New Testament applications of Christ. In fact, the Bible teaches in Philemon 2:1-8  that the feeling of superiority in general is sin! The abolition of slavery is thus not only permissible by biblical standards, but demanded by biblical principles. The pre-fall statement that should guide and ultimately abolish such (and any) practices of superiority is the declaration that all humans—men and women—are made in the image of God.

On this principle, James 2:1-9; 5:1-6, lays the foundation for progressing far beyond what was possible in New Testament times by addressing the very economic discrimination and favoritism of which slavery is the worst expression. I personally lament the fact that the Church has taken many centuries to live out what Scripture taught long ago, and no doubt many continue to drag their feet. The time delay between the Word of Scripture and its implementation in society is often due to what I call, the "holy huddle" mentality prevailing among Christians who are largely unconcerned about issues outside of their immediate periphery. I am particularly chafed by one example. There is no scriptural basis I can find regarding inter-racial marriage, yet there is a clarion demand in scripture that a believer is not to marry an unbeliever. Yet, it is unbelievable to me the outrage among fellow believers at inter-racial unions and totally satisfied with a union that is declaired not to be. I’m also thinking that another reason many Christians continue to remain silent in the face of injustice is the platonic view of the cosmos the Church has adopted, implying that life in the hereafter is the only issue to be addressed, while many of us stand by and watch the world go by in its destructive way. Both mentalities are sadly misguided.

Father, God, Thank You for leading me into a more exciting experience through the study of You word these past weeks in challenging to give an answer at all times.  Thank You for raising my level of awareness and commitment of involvement regarding social issues. Forgive me of letting such issues pass into the hands of those who may not be Christians, but are better informed about social injustice and concerned enough to fight wrong practices through legal means. While they have no logical basis to do what they are doing, the real truth is that I, in my small way, do have a basis to address these issues by the searching of scripture and the guidance of Your Spirit in my daily walk in this world.  Amen