(02-07-2012 10:53 AM)wvucrazed Wrote:  

(02-07-2012 10:51 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(02-07-2012 10:48 AM)wvucrazed Wrote:  

(02-07-2012 10:42 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(02-07-2012 10:38 AM)wvucrazed Wrote:  Too bad. Anybody can claim religious beliefs to back up any absurdity they want. Religion was the primary shield and excuse during segregation. Loony tune mythology shouldn't be a determining factor in what health care services are offered at a hospital.

Religion was also the driving force to end slavery but why let facts get in your way.

"[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts." Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States of America

The first American movement to abolish slavery came in April 1688 when German and Dutch Quakers of Mennonite descent in Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) wrote a two-page condemnation of the practice and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was an unusually early, clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process that finally led to the banning of slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and in the state of Pennsylvania (1780).

Wait, are you suggesting that both sides of an issue used religion to justify their point of view? That there could be differing interpretations of what God wants? That, in retrospect, those using the Bible as a shield for what we now see as inexcusable behavior and civil rights abuses were wrong? Is it the Bible that is so changeable, or is it modern civilization advancing?

The same happened with atheist government using gulags and committing mass murder to 'better society'.

I have always maintained that *people*, and not their beliefs or philosophy, are the problem. For some reason leftist moonbats believe all people are good but corrupted by beliefs.

The Bible is not changeable, and I could easily tear apart what Davis said. First and foremost the Biblical understanding of slavery was *nothing* like what was practiced in the united states. The concept of generational slavery and lifetime slavery did not exist in the Hebrew State, even among those they captured in war.

The provisions to which Davis referenced, I would guess, are those very laws regarding the treatment of slaves. e.g. God sanctioned Jubilee so therefore he was ok with slavery.

This clearly is of the same need and nature that divorce law served in the Hebrew state

Quote:And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away." 5 But Jesus said to them, "For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." 10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

so those laws were created not as a thumbs up, but as a 'if you're going to do this..

None of this nullifies my point that it was the Quakers who started the fight against slavery in the United States.

Any Man, of any system, is a fallen sinful creature with the potential to, at best, be a half way decent human being with serious flaws. At worst any man can be a monster and will use whatever he can to excuse it.