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July 15, 2023 |
| The Biblical View of Reparation for Slavery | ||
I don't think that anyone involved in the fight for reparations cares what the Bible says. I'm under no such delusion. I think it's good, though, for people who do care what the Bible says to know what it does say. And it does speak on the topics of:
There can't be a reparation unless a law was broken. That should be obvious but the reparations groups are trying to avoid that discussion.
Two aspects of slavery need to be considered, having a slave and enslaving a free person. The laws are different for each.
Having slaves was not against the laws of America at the time that black slaves were being brought to America. It was also not against the laws of any country at the time. Slavery has been practiced from the beginning of recorded history and all races have had their turn at being master and slave.
Enslaving free people was generally against the laws of America. This is true of all countries. There are exceptional cases though. In most countries, a father could sell himself or his children into slavery. This was usually done in desperate situations like when the family didn't have enough income or had debts they couldn't pay.
Another exception was survivors of battles. There were no international laws at the time and the question after a battle was what should be done with survivors. The answer was either kill them or enslave them.
This leads to the next way of enslaving free people, snatching a person from another nation. I suppose this could be rationalized as a battle against a foreign country and the enslavement of survivors, but that is thin.
Without international laws, the only way to deal with raiders like that was diplomatically or militarily. A few raids were not sufficient to justify either a diplomatic or military response. This was especially true of nations that were poor. Therefore weak nations were preyed upon because they couldn't defend themselves.
In summary, no laws of man were broken. If laws had been broken there would have been legal recourse to correct and punish.
If you reject God's word then everything done was legal and there is no reason to expect reparation. We cannot judge people from the past by our current laws to punish people in the present. That's basic justice.
God doesn't have a problem with having slaves. Liberals who read the Bible are appalled to find that God doesn't speak against slavery. Even more, God regulates slavery, without saying anything against it.
Like other countries, the Bible has the usual acceptable ways of enslaving free people, debt repayment and battle survivors.
God is very against snatching free people and enslaving them. The Bible is specific about doing this to your own people and to visitors from other countries. God is the God of all people so this would apply to snatching people from other countries to enslave them. The Bible refers to enslaving free people as "stealing" people.
In summary, a law of God was broken. Free people were enslaved.
If you accept God's word then there was a crime and reparation is due. We'll see that God's word also shows us how to handle reparation.
Some say it is unjust for people who were never slaves to be rewarded from people who were never slave owners. It's certainly true that our judicial system does not support the idea that a child would be made to suffer the consequences of the father's crimes.
The Bible is different that way. In some cases, it teaches that consequences do fall on the children.
God wants mankind to create its own just judicial systems to deal with what they can. God has an interest where our judicial systems cannot work or have failed to work.
A common theme in the Bible is that of the blood of a murdered innocent calling out for justice.
Now one who kidnaps someone, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall certainly be put to death. (Exodus 21:16)
If someone is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he treats him as merchandise and sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 24:7)
The English word "kidnap" here is actually the English word "steal" that is normally used translate the Hebrew word. So kidnapping is an 8th Commandment violation - right up there with murder.
The Hebrew word here, however, is a little different from the English word "steal". It means "to put your hand on something". The idea is that of taking control of something. Where we see stealing as taking something away from someone, the Bible also includes controlling something that a person possesses. This relates to laws that tell us when and how we can use our property.
The English word "kidnap" originally referred to kids only. Now it includes any person.
But we know that the Law (Torah) is good if a man will be led by it, according to the Law (Torah), 9 While he knows that the Law was not appointed for the righteous, but for the evil, the rebellious, the wicked, for sinners, for the vicious, for those who are impure, for those who strike their fathers, those who strike their mothers, for murderers, 10 for fornicators, for males who lie down with males, for kidnappers of free men, for liars, for oath breakers and for all things opposed to the sound teaching. (1 Timothy 1:8-10)
The phrase "kidnappers of free men" is literally "thieves of children of freedom". Everyone, except a slave, is a child-of-freedom
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, "It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death." 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).
There had been an agreement between Israel and the Gibeonites that allowed the Gibeonites to live in Israel. Saul wanted only Israelites to live in Israel and tried to kill all of the Gibeonites. Not even a king could break that agreement.
David said to the Gibeonites, "What should I do for you? And how can I make amends, so that you will bless the inheritance of the Lord?" 4 Then the Gibeonites said to him, "For us it is not a matter of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel." Nevertheless David said, "I will do for you whatever you say." 5 So they said to the king, "The man who destroyed us and who planned to eliminate us so that we would not exist within any border of Israel - 6 let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord." And the king said, "I will give them." (2 Samuel 21:1-6)
We can pull out a sequence of steps that are taken to reach a reparation agreement.
Especially in our time, it seems strange to choose execution over money. In our world money is everything and life is sacred. Yet, the Gibeonites have no interest in taking Saul's money. The Bible doesn't say why they decided this way but with a little though we can come up with some good reasons.
The problems with money as a reparation:
In comparison to a monetary reparation, an execution is symbolic - it will always say "they were killed, because we were killed".
The government of California commissioned a report on reparations for slavery. It became a list that included every imagined slight, perceived or real.
Chapter 2 - Enslavement
Chapter 3 - Racial Terror
Chapter 4 - Political Disenfranchisement
Chapter 5 - Housing Segregation
Chapter 6 - Separate and Unequal Education
Chapter 7 - Racism in Environment and Infrastructure
Chapter 8 - Pathologizing the African American Family
Chapter 9 - Control Over Creative, Cultural, & Intellectual Life
Chapter 10 - Stolen Labor and Hindered Opportunity
Chapter 11 - An Unjust Legal System
Chapter 12 - Mental and Physical Harm and Neglect
Chapter 13 - The Wealth Gap
Only one of these was a crime, and that was only in God's eyes. Most of these are not measurable. They contain silly ideas like "roads are racist" and "arithmetic is racist".
It does show what is going on. This is an attempt to con politicians into giving what no court would ever give.
We've established that there was a crime, according to God (enslavement of free people), and we've established that a reparation is due for that. How would we go about doing that? Next we'll use the Gibeonite reparation as a template for a reparation in our time.
Is this the right time? This is a key question. If the answer is no then there is no reason to push forward. In the Gibeonite reparation, God said it was time. We don't have that in our time. Can we decide for ourselves if the time is right?
Is there a reparation that will be accepted as just by all? The Gibeonites could have called for a-life-for-every-life And wiped out Saul's heirs. Their request was just
Is there a representative of all the injured? No, and that is going to be a big problem. Without someone to represent all the descendants, their can't be a resolution.
A just reparation is critical to success:
We must not sacrifice the good for the perfect. It is probably obvious already that achieving perfect justice is impossible. But a serious effort must be made to achieve it. A reparation where all whites pay all blacks will only be seen as racism.
It's hard to see how the reparation could be seen as just without addressing in some way the fact that blacks have enslaved whites in the past.
Similarly, the ships that brought slaves to America from Africa were often buying black slaves from black slave masters.
Remember our context - God's word - God has not said it is time. Can we determine for ourselves now is the time to deal with this?
A person only needs to look around to se that it plainly isn't the right time.
There are a bunch of race hustlers stirring up trouble to make money for themselves
Reasonable reparation measures are not being suggested
A reasonable reparation would be rejected
Any attempt to implement an unreasonable reparation measure will result in a race war.
A solution like the Gibeonite reparation, one involving execution, is not possible. No justice system will allow execution for this crime.
We've already seen that a monetary solution has serious problems that will make it unacceptable to one side or the other, and likely unacceptable to both.
There are other solutions. The California report even referred to them. These are reparations like:
We've already talked about the problem of not having a representative who speaks for all the descendants. Without that some people would opt out of the reparation or change their minds after it was given. Without a representative, the reparation will not bring closure.
This would include the people who kidnapped for sure. It is less clear if it would include the people who bought the kidnapped? This would require knowing if the purchaser knew they were kidnapped - an unknowable in our time. Remember that some of the slaves brought on ships were purchased, which was legal.
It is already well known that many of the kidnappers of slaves were not American. Reparation by America could not include these.
Only the descendants of these people should be targeted and only to the degree they are descended from these people. Identifying the descendants is probably an impossible task. Even a best-effort would have an unreasonable cost.
This would include only the descendants of slaves who were kidnapped and only to the degree they are descended from those slaves. As we saw before, identifying the descendants is nearly impossible.
There are descendants of the families of the slaves who were kidnapped, in Africa. They also have a claim to reparation. It would need to be determined who the kidnapper was. and only to the degree they are descended from the family of the slaves.
As the California report showed, there are people looking to get money for every perceived slight. To the extent that any of those were law-breaking, they belong in criminal or civil courts. What is left consists of offenses that are too small.
Not that anyone in the Reparations movement cares about the Bible, but the Bible says how those should be handled.
But I am saying to you, you shall not rise up against an evil person, but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other. 40 And whoever wants to sue you and take your coat, leave for him also your cloak. 41 Whoever compels you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles. (Matthew 5:39-41)
But I say to you, love your enemies and bless the one who curses you, and do what is beautiful to the one who hates you, and pray over those who take you by force and persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)
The Gibeonites apparently understood the problems with a financial solution. They wisely chose another solution and the matter was put to rest forever.
In our case, God says some people are due reparation. There are not nearly as many as them as those who think they are due something. There are large problems finding a just solution and an unjust solution will result in a race war.
This is not the right time
There isn't a solution that will be seen as just by both sides
There isn't a leader for the injured
There isn't a solution that will bring the grievances to a close