A Smithsonian Institution sign is seen on the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 2025. KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY/Newsweek – See the Newsweek article sparking this post.
Recently, the President pondered about slavery in the context of what he suggested was one sided history presentations at the Smithsonian. Certainly, one can point to possible errors, but the President made a big one himself. Plenty of people on social media have regrettably expressed similar things before and since. He said that their portrayal of U.S. history was too negative and focused too much on “how bad Slavery was.”
Well, unfortunately, slavery was worse in the USA than many understand or admit. Don’t take my word for it. Read first hand slave narratives from diaries and interviews: extreme poverty, dismemberments, whipping, rape, murder, and more abominable acts were a norm. Many potential slaves, Native American, African and others, historically feared slavery more than death. In fact, you read of suicidal acts rather than being dragged into slavery or returned to it.
So if anyone is wondering, in the best of circumstances one could imagine, slavery is wrong. It was and always has been steeped in sin, a sign of our fallen world not God’s Kingdom. In Genesis, every human was created in God’s image, male and female alike. Some (I sadly know from experience) will say God allowed it. They will point at a few verses which l agree seem to affirm slavery in that period, but even in speaking of the Ten Commandments, Mosaic law called for better treatment and freedom processes for slaves.
God’s patience with our sin should not be confused with God’s approval of it. (God was not too keen on Israel having a king other than God or the Temple in Jerusalem being built either, for they could lead to idolatry and other sin. Yet, God consented.) By the time the Church comes around, Jesus has extended the understanding of the neighbor whom we should love as oneself to include everyone. Paul emphasizes how slave and master should live within the existing structure while prioritizing Christ, as he did regarding women, but he never argued for slavery. He argued that Christ’s plan is to make all one. In the dangerous context of the Roman Empire where slavery was so embedded, order valued, and social roles defined, he expects Jesus back soon. He didn’t want anything to hinder the spread of the Gospel, so within an unjust fallen world, he counsels humility, patience and love even to one’s enemy. Living faithfully was his primary concern whether a slave or any other lot in a fallen life.
Yet, God did not stop speaking in biblical times. As the Church grows and becomes more diverse, as education spreads (both knowledge and wisdom are said to be gifts of the Spirit), as people pray, meditate on scripture, preach and teach about our Lord, the consensus and understanding grew that slavery and prejudice of any kind is sin. The Spirit works through such holy discernment to try to open our hearts to God’s truth. So again, God called and created everyone. Jesus is to call all peoples to himself. And we are to love one another and see the Christ, the sacred, in one another – in everyone whether friend or foe, believer or not.
Still to this day, prejudice of all kinds, slavery, and ignorance sadly continue to exist. Some people don’t want to see their ancestors as “bad,” but we are all sinnners, so let’s get over it. Going in circles about the multiple causes of the Civil War is a distraction distancing us from the horror. Slavery always takes away a person’s self determination, rights, dignity, health and ultimately life. It’s a kind of theft and murder, as Luther extended those commands similarly to many sins in his Large Catechism. (He suggests we are all murderers at times as we lack care for our neighbors or live selfishly.) As I often quote from Jesus, let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Slavery was evil. It was and remains sin. Let’s leave it at that.
Our ancestors might not have understood this was a sin, but we now do. So, we shouldn’t forget or be shy about their errors. We can learn from them. Sinner-saints all, certainly there could be signs of kindness or generosity back then like now. Yet let God be their ultimate judge, for we have our own sins still to address including modern slavery and human trafficking.
Good thing God is still patient and kind. For, we all need his forgiveness.
© 2025 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author. Scripture passages are from the NRSVue translation.
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