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In reply to the discussion: Arkansas State Rep: ‘If Slavery Were So God-Awful, Why Didn’t Jesus Or Paul Condemn It?’ [View all]coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)New Tesstament admonition of the Christ figure to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (There were other New Tesstament passages Brown relied upon to justify his use of violence to end slavery, although I cannot summon them to mind at the moment.) In a sense, while he admired the Old Testament warriors, Brown placed himself solidly in the mainstream of Calvinist thought that relied upon the New Testament's 'Covenant of Grace' to supplant the Old Testament's 'Covenant of Law.'
Not to be pedantic, but both Luther and Calvin died long before the English landed at Plymouth Rock so they can hardly be held to task for failing to condemn something (slavery in the New World) that post-dated their deaths. Slavery simply was not on either man's theological horizons and criticizing them for failing to condemn slavery smacks a bit of 'presentism,' whereby we judge the past by our own standards.
I'm also an atheist but can recognize that in Brown's mind he saw himself as carrying out what he and his fellow radical abolitionists believed to be God's will. This sub-thread started back in post #113 when you claimed that "the abolition of slavery had nothing to do with anything Biblical." Based upon our exchange since then, it seems fairly clear to me that neither of us will convince the other.
So I would merely leave you with these words from Brown's closing speech to the Virginia court, prior to his sentencing:
"This Court acknowledges, too, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed, which i suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to that instruction . . . ." (Cited in James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 209).