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Irrespective of it existing outside of countries not Christian (remember this was a point back that the removal of Christian morality means society will spiral downhill) slavery was widely practised by Christian countries (USA, Britain, Spain, Portugal, France) and is referenced in the Bible.

Are you suggesting that religious doctrine played no role in the justification of slavery?

   

Of course, it being the first colony of any population. Despite its legality, slavery never took hold in Massachusetts. It did in Virginia though.

   

Boston was 10% slaves by the mid 18th century with with an overall percentage of 2.2%.

Sounds like it took hold until the 1780s at least.

   

Slave Population in the Colonies, 1650-1770

Year North South Total
1650 880 720 1,600
1670 1,125 3,410 4,535
1690 3,340 13,389 16,729
1710 8,303 36,563 44,866
1730 17,323 73,698 91,021
1750 30,222 206,198 236,420
1770 48,460 411,362 459,822

   

Yep, there was slavery throughout the states.

Sorry, Lemmy, I'm not really seeing your point.

   

I thought I pointed out that the slavery that is referenced to in the Bible, is a different sort than the slavery that took place in the modern era. The slaves then, were servants or serfs as opposed to the slavery that existed on the plantations of contemporary times. The Bible also refers to followers of Christ as being slaves to God. Slaves were often skilled labourers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, business managers, soldiers as well as domestics. Wealthy slaves often owned their own slaves and employed free men and women as well.. Important court officials were also slaves. Not the same thing as what you are thinking of.



To open up a can of worms, some of the Nazis and their related ilk used their personal religious beliefs to justify what was done to the Jews during the holocaust and pogroms. Does that mean all of Christianity bears responsibility for the words and actions of a handful? You forget, or fail to mention, that it was Christian Churches and their interpretation of scripture that was behind the emancipation movement.

   

The Curse of Ham in Genesis seems to be the common justification by slave owning Christians of the past. I get what you're saying, but the more modern slavery - that of the last four hundred years, was a different beast then what you're speaking of.

   

I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said. I was just pointing out that, in the American experience, slavery came from the profit motive of lazy merchants, not anything religious. My point was that the most devout Christian parts of the colonies had the fewest slaves. The very REASON that Massachusetts was settled was for religious freedom. Virginia was settled as a business venture. Religion had little to do with slavery's arrival in the USA.

   

To use the 'Curse of Ham' to justify modern slavery was incorrect, even from a biblical standpoint. The descendants of Ham are Somali, Copts and Ethiopian peoples. When labelling races was the big craze in the 19th century, all sorts of biblical and pseudo scientific stuff was used.

   

Gotcha. That being said, Christianity was used as a justification for slavery in the US.

   

Yeah, kinda the point. They were black.

   

The law doesn't support marriage by coercion, as far as I know. The only reason that creeps like the guy from Bountiful can get away with what he does is because polygamy is currently such a legal grey area. As someone else pointed out, these abuses would be a lot less likely to happen without consequence if the law clearly defined polygamous marriage as a legal union between more than two consenting adults.



I don't even call that polygamy. It has nothing to do with polyamoury, which only functions with adult understanding, consent and communication. What you're talking about is coercion, child abuse and rape, and has nothing to do with anything that should be called polygamy.



Why shouldn't we have agencies like that in Canada? It's a lot better than not having them!



There are no polyamorous relationships in cults. There is only rape and abuse. Real polyamoury only happens with a great deal of respect, trust and communication, and that is not possible when one is being coerced, raped and harassed. Polyamoury is not a fantasy, and requires consent. I know many people who are polyamorous and who do not belong to any cult, are not being raped, harassed, or coerced, and have respectful, loving relationships with their partners. Some of those people even find that they have no choice but to exercise something of a legal loophole that allows them to be married while having multiple partners they also consider to be a part of their union.

   

The Hamitic people were actually labelled a sub group of the 'white race', like trhe arabs. Dark skin but caucasian features.

   

Oh yeah, of course they used Christianity as a justification. People have been using religious texts to justify their madness througout the ages. But the REASON for slavery in the USA was money. And it's funny that you picked Davis for your quote. He believed emancipation would come, but not until the black man was trained. Davis' personal justification for slavery was his perceived biological superiority of the white over the black. Davis believed that niggers would evolve into gentlemen, with the white man's help and guidance. Davis was Darwinian evolutionist...not particularly typical of a 19th century Christian.

   

That may be, but the Curse of Ham, with the myth that people descended from Ham were blacks, is one of the justifications Christians employed for slavery.

   

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