- RSS FeedSubscribe
- « Previous PostA La Carte (1/25)
- Next Post »A La Carte (1/26)
A Man, a Soldier, a Christian (Part 2)
- 01/25/11
- 41
Yesterday I began a two-parter on the life of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. I got as far as the part about slavery and ended there. I can only cover this briefly today as this is an article primarily about his life and his faith, not about his view of slavery. So forgive my brevity.
Virginia was a slave state and through his life Jackson either owned or leased at least 8 slaves. He disliked slavery and thought that it would eventually die a natural death. But he felt that for a certain time God had decreed that a race would be slaves and that this was God's will. End of story. If God decreed it, he wasn't going to fight it. This somewhat hard-headed view was consistent with her personality. When Civil War came he didn't fight for the South in order to protect slavery. The slaves he had he treated very well and loved dearly. All of his slaves had to be part of family devotions (which was illegal) and most of them seem to have become believers. His biographers think that his Sunday school for blacks actually grew out of family devotions which the slaves would attend and ask their friends to attend as well. So though he was not entirely opposed to slavery, he wanted all people, slave or free, to hear and respond to the gospel. And he was determined to make sure they all heard it.
And here's the second lesson I've learned from his life: love. Jackson obeyed Romans 12:16. "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly." He was not too proud to work with the lowest of the low. He loved them as brothers and sisters and treated them with dignity. He was a man of his time, a person who could tolerate slavery even if he didn't really like it. It is easy to portray him as some kind of a monster for having slaves. And yet we can't deny his love for them, his desire to treat them well and to see them become brothers and sisters in Christ. This is probably the most difficult tension we find in his life: he owned people and yet he loved those people. It is easy to caricature slaveholders as moral monsters; the reality is not nearly so neat.
In 1852, Jackson fell in love. He suddenly began to notice a young lady in the community and was completely unaware of why this was. He went to a friend and said, "I don't know what has changed me. I used to think her plain, but her face now seems to me all sweetness." The friend laughed and told the shocked Jackson that he was in love. As he always did, he thought about this for a while, considered it and concluded that it must be true. And so he began to act in his own awkward way. In August of 1853 he married Eleanor Junkin or "Ellie" as he called her. He loved her dearly. Their marriage was a happy one but sadly it was also short. Eleanor became pregnant and carried the baby to full term. But the baby boy was stillborn and just an hour later Eleanor began to hemorrhage and she died as well. After just a year of marriage Jackson had his son and his wife taken from him. He had lost a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a wife, a son. The story is told that after Ellie's funeral his friends couldn't find him. One went to the cemetery and found Jackson lying on his wife's grave, weeping and crying out for her.
And yet his faith remained. Shortly after this he wrote to his sister to tell her the news. He said:
I have been called to pass through the deep waters of affliction, but all has been satisfied. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. It is his will that my dearest wife and child should not longer abide with me, as it is his holy will, I am perfectly reconciled to the sad bereavement, though I deeply mourn my loss. Oh the consolations of religion! I can willingly submit to anything if God strengthens me.
He called to mind the promise of Romans 8 and knew that somehow God would use even this for good.
It was three years later, (he was still teaching at Virginia Military Institute) in the summer of 1857, that Jackson married again. This time he married Anna Morrison, a woman he also came to love dearly. Once again, she was quickly pregnant and once again their daughter died very shortly after birth, though mother survived. Grief once again overwhelmed Jackson but once more he stood firm on God's promises, consoling himself and his wife. It seemed like he would never know the end of loss.
And here is probably the greatest lesson from Jackson: He had total confidence in the will of God and the goodness of God. He knew the character of God and allowed that to be his starting point. He didn't allow his pain to redraw the character of God so that God was shaped by pain and suffering. Instead, he knew and loved God and allowed God to speak, to comfort, to console him in pain. He studied God and walked with God in the good times so that his hope was firm in times of sorrow. Not only this, but he saw God's sovereign hand in everything. Whether things went well or poorly, he saw God's hand in it and willingly submitted himself.
And here our story takes a turn as Civil War comes to the land. Jackson was a Union man, one who wanted to see the United States remain together. But, as with so many people in that day, his first loyalty was to his state, not his country. When Virginia seceded, and when the North announced their intention to invade the South, Jackson knew that he had to stand for Virginia. He was first a Colonel in the Confederate Army, but he was soon promoted to General and given an important command over all of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Here he fought and won battle after battle in a campaign that is still studied today. It established Jackson as a brilliant military strategist, a brilliant general who relied on speed and surprise. His enemy did not know what to expect other than the unexpected. Always he would surprise them and almost always he would beat them.
Yet he was completely oblivious to his own greatness. He knew the men were willing to follow him, but he had no ego. A deep humility marked his life and is one of the traits all his friends mentioned after his death. Even his horse knew his humility. Wherever Jackson went, men would be excited to see him and would begin to clap and yell and whoop. Jackson would always respond with embarrassment or discomfort, hurrying away. After a while his horse, whenever it heard the cheering, would just take off in a gallop. There's a great story from this time. After that battle at Manassas, the battle where he became Stonewall Jackson, the people of Lexington were waiting for news. They knew the battle had been fought and they had heard that Jackson played a pivotal role. A few days after the battle a letter from Jackson showed up addressed to Pastor White. People were excited. Finally they would know the truth of what happened; they'd get a description of the battle from the man himself. The pastor opened the letter to read a very short note that essentially said, "I apologize, but I was busy the other day and didn't get a chance to give my offering to the church. So here it is. Please use this to fund the colored Sunday School." And that was it. There was no way anyone would learn of his accomplishments from the man himself. And any time a person would commend Jackson, he was always sure to point all praise and glory to God.
One final lesson. Jackson was a man of prayer. He prayed all the time. He would pray before battles and during battles, often holding his hands up in prayer, asking God to bless and protect his men. He would rise in the night, even when he had had very little sleep and he would pray. The lesson is that you're never too busy to pray. He would go to services held by his chaplains and pray with them. He prayed with his wife and prayed over his daughter. He never grew tired of prayer and always saw the need for it. He was a true prayer warrior who would do nothing, make no important decision, without taking it before God. He had a right assessment of both himself and God and knew the utter importance of being on his knees.
Again, he and Anna had a deep love for one another and his letters to his bride reveal a great affection, one that's almost uncomfortable and embarrassing. It makes you hope that your love letters never get made public. But he loved her and was proud of her. They spent only a few weeks together through the two years of war from 1861 to 1863, though there was time enough for Anna to become pregnant and late in 1862 Julia was born. Julia would be the first and only of Jackson's children to live past childhood and to outlive her father.
In May of 1863 Jackson and his troops performed what is known as his greatest march and his greatest military feat. In a battle at Chancellorsville he sprang an ultimate surprise on the Union forces and systematically destroyed a force much larger than his own. And yet it was in this battle that he was terribly wounded. In the confusion of the battle his own men fired on him, hitting him with three bullets. He was rushed to a field hospital where his arm was amputated. For a few days he was healthy and strong, recovering well. But, as was so often the case in the Civil War, a secondary infection set in and he developed a serious case of pneumonia. Within days he was laboring to breathe and experiencing great pain. Doctors did all they could and concluded that there was no hope--he would die.
Anna rushed to his side to be with him in his final days. As hope turned to a harsh reality, and as Jackson became aware that he would soon die, his faith didn't diminish at all. In fact, it seemed to grow and mature. His confidence in God was absolutely unshaken. "I thank God," he said, "if it is his will, that I am ready to go. I am not afraid to die." In one of his final acts he asked the chaplain of his army to promote better Lord's Day observance among the troops and worked to make sure more chaplains were assigned to his units.
Eight days after he was wounded, his condition worsened and the doctors told Anna that her husband was going to die that day. Anna said to him, "Do you know the doctors say you must very soon be in Heaven? Do you not feel willing to acquiesce in God's allotment, if he wills you to go today?" His answer was just a whisper. "I prefer it." Then in a louder voice, to be sure he was heard, he said, "I prefer it!" He drifted off to sleep. A few minutes later he recovered consciousness and said, "It is the Lord's day. My wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday."
His life had been marked with suffering, but always it had been others who suffered or died. But this time it was Jackson who was burning with fever, who suffered great pain, who could barely catch a breath. And he was content. He rested in God's love, in God's promises. He had fought the fight, and now he would finish it well.
In his final moments, as his life slipped away, Jackson seemed to replay his life in reverse. "Push up the columns!" he said. "Hasten the columns! Pendleton, you take charge of that! Where's Pendleton?" He saw himself marching beside his army once again, winning all of those victories, enduring all of those tiring marches. And then he was a boy again, back in Jackson's Mill with his best friend Joe, looking across the water to his little refuge, his little lean-to, his little place of refuge. "Let us cross the river," he said, "and rest under the shade of the trees."
With a last breath, Tom Jackson went home at last.
Want to know more about Jackson? Go to this article and look to the final paragraph.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
This is a guide written
Comments (41)
No doubt, Tim, you will be assailed with all manner of commenters calling Jackson an evil man, or at least not someone to be admired, because he owned slaves.
As has so often been said, we all have blind spots, but it doesn’t sound to me like slavery was his blind spot. It seems that Jackson understood God’s sovereignty and lived among a slave culture in a godly and upright way.I would say that the slaves he owned were by God’s plan, so that they would hear the gospel. And it sounds like he saw it that way too.
If only we all would learn to take a bad situation like slavery (or whatever else) and glorify God in it, and not just in spite of it.
I would like to be like this man. I really really would.
I just finished a 10 Ways to Destroy Your Child’s Imagination, which has a witty chapter called “Cut All Heroes Down to Size”. In it, the author says:
“[The South’s] position [on state sovereignty] is one worthy of consideration; but do not consider it. We do not want students to support or oppose Lincoln’s policies based upon some well-thought philosophy of government. We do not want students to support or oppose Lincoln’s policies based upon some well-thought philosophy of government. We want them to snicker.So, for instance, we assume that Lincoln was right to go to war against the South, because the southerners who prosecuted the war were all nasty slave owners. It isn’t true, but it absolves us of the need to take the southern position seriously. ”
Also, regarding the idea tht God had decreed slavery for a time, Abraham Lincoln in his 2nd Inaugural address said, “If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove…”
Put yourself in the shoes of an abolitionist living back in the day. What would you think of this man?
Or, in contemporary terms, what would you think of a person today who seemed to show otherwise wonderful Christian attributes - but was pro-choice enough to actually perform abortions (even while saying that they detested the practice)?
Thought so…
(I know that there was more to that war. States’ rights, etc. Noble causes, and ones that I can find some reason to agree with. But that war’s link to slavery - and this man’s link as well when there was *plenty* of informed abolitionist opinion available to him - should forever color our perspective.)
Thanks for this well-balanced look at a tremendous role-model. Jackson had his blind-spots, but he also had a deep reverence for God, a heart for the Gospel, and compassion for others
Those who deny his Christianity because of his support for the South will have to question much more - such as that of every American soldier who fights to protect a government that permits abortion, as well as every British believer who did not oppose the slave trade as fervently as Wilberforce (ever hear of George Whitefield?).
Tim, if you get the chance to visit Virginia, don’t miss the various Jackson sites here. In fact, let me know and I’d be glad to give you a tour of our history-filled state.
Love the letter about “being busy” and missing the offering.
@#4 “…every American soldier who fights to protect a government that permits abortion…”
Yup, I’d question that too. Another reason for Christians to avoid the military.
“Another reason for Christians to avoid the military.”
Brilliant, E. G.
I trust you keep yourself pure by refraining from enjoying any freedoms or liberties or other boons purchased and guaranteed for you by the blood of “the military.”
I genuinely believe Jackson loved his slaves, but he seems to have loved them as intellectual inferiors over whom he had complete authority. It surprises me that you’d point out Jackson forcing his slaves to attend family devotions as if it were praiseworthy. To me, evangelism under duress is one of the more heinous perversions of the gospel imaginable.
@Dan… That argument makes no sense at all. Am I to crawl into a hole simply because my government does wrong? No, of course not. But I don’t have to take part in the wrong, do I?
Jesus enjoyed a fair amount of the benefits of Rome - good roads on which to travel, a highly linked economy, etc. - but he surely did not agree with the methods of Rome. Yet he still operated and ran his ministry under Roman rule… but he ultimately died by the same. I believe that we are called to do the same.
So, if I were in the military, I would be required to kill, right? Who would I be killing?
Well, the person on the other end my my rifle is either a Christian brother or sister, or they are someone in need of Christ. There can be no third option.
Shall I kill either the fellow believer or the unbeliever? Or shall I love both? If love means dying, so be it.
I love the book of Philemon (vs 15). It shows who our true family is regardless of social relation—those received into the family of God by the work of Christ. Granted there were some differences in the types of slavery in the Roman kingdom versus that which “Stonewall” particpated in, but there were some similarities as well.
By God’s providence, slavery is meant to show us that we are ALL slaves…to sin…or to righteousness. We are captured by Satan to do his will…or freed by God from Satan in order to be slaves of righteousness for God.
I, for one, am glad to be a slave of Christ. He is such a wonderful master. If all masters were like Christ that would be a blessing. But since human masters are not like Christ, but have a fallen and sinful condition, slaves need to be rescued from their cruel taskmasters.
I would be interested in knowing what Jackson’s slaves thought about him.
I know that we will see Jackson in Heaven. But surely his views on slavery were deplorable—compared to a Christian such as Wilberforce, who did what he could to fight slavery. That said, Jackson had so many qualities we can admire as Christians—and sins whcih we do well to avoid. Again, he was as we all are—a justified sinner. I don’t think Jackson himself would have thought of himself as more than that.
Dary,
Far better would it be to be a man such as Wilberforce—who take action to combat the evils of slavery instead of blithely accepting it as “God’s plan.” Slavery was more than a “bad situation”—I wonder if our African American brothers in the faith would use those words to describe it. This is sort of like describing abortion as a “bad situation.” Better to call it the evil it is and to oppose it.
E.G., and what did Jesus tell the centurion? And what did the Baptist tell a soldier?
Interested to know the thoughts of the commenters on Jonathan Edwards owning slaves? Should we now not read his books and look down our noses at him too? What moral evils will we use to discount the life and witness of someone? What does that list look like?
I can’t wait to get to heaven to tell all of those old Saints who passed before me how wrong they were for whatever they did that offends my modern sensibilities in the year 2011. Good thing we have it all together.
The bottom line to all this is that all of us have our blind spots.
Yes I believe things like abortion and slavery are wrong. Yet, as I think about the Christian qualities in what I just read about Jackson; all I can say is that he puts my walk to shame. I don’t know of too many Christians who seem to exemplify the kind of faith that Jackson did.
@Michael #14:
What did Jesus tell you? (e.g. Matt. 5:9)
What did Jesus model? (e.g. John 18:11)
—-
@Tom Hardy #11: Excellent question.
E.G., you’re taking verses that apply to the individual Christian and forcing them to apply to nations in all circumstances. Theology is about taking the Bible as a whole. The Bible clearly teaches the government “does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” because “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”.
According to your view, Christians should take no part in government, as that would be seen as supporting sinful practices. If Christians shouldn’t serve in the military, should they even pay taxes which are used to buy guns, bombs, etc?
..or maybe the fact that Jackson enforced family devotions on his slaves meant something more than evangelism under duress. If Jackson had indeed thought his slaves inferior, he might not have extended the invitation. Besides, we could also argue that enforced family devotions on our children is evangelism under duress, but we don’t because good parents teach their children in the way they should go while they still can.
I suspect that Thomas Jackson saw this life as do most Christians, those who take the time to think and consider that we cannot hope to fathom the wholeness of the Lord’s workings. We must all accept God’s sovereignty in all things, for His hand is certainly upon all things.
We will never be able to comprehend the ways in which the Lord works when we view news coverage of horrible disasters, but we know without doubt that all things move to God’s will. We can, as did Job, ask “Why?” when adversity befalls us, but it is or naught, because God is simply not in the habit of explaining Himself.
Tom Jackson accepted what he saw around Him as what it was - God’s unfolding plan. He knew that God would bring good from all those things, as He in fact still continues to do.
Instead of wondering why things were as they were, Jackson instead clung to an incredibly strong faith, and this faith was driven by Jackson’s uncompromised willingness to allow himself to be led by the Holy Spirit. When Tom Jackson crossed over the river, he was at peace such as few men have ever achieved.
Even as the wounded General lay upon his death bed, he let go of the earthly pain and the fright with which most of us greet death, and he quietly and with relish awaited his passing through the Great Gate.
Thomas Jackson gave himself over to the Lord and he did so completely. God rewarded this by giving the name of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson an aura of such strength that drove his soldiers to often do the impossible and which continues to inspire to this day.
To those of you who are wont to criticize this man because of slavery, because he fought for the Confederacy, for whatever reason, I ask you, “How DARE you?” Have you in your smugness cast aside Jesus’ command to refrain from judging? Perhaps you have problems perceiving the truth as you struggle to see around the plank in your eye….
Michael: “..you’re taking verses that apply to the individual Christian and forcing them to apply to nations in all circumstances.”
Did I say that it applied to nations? No, I did not.
I was specifically talking about me (and you, as I assume that you are a brother believer) joining the military and then being ordered to kill others.
Yes, those passages are directed at individuals. And, yes, we are the individuals. So we must act accordingly.
Jon,
How dare we? To point out that Jackson was a sinner—as we all are? And for that—you yourself are judging those who question some of Jackson’s actions as “smug”? Maybe you yourself have a plank issue?
Jon
I really enjoyed what you said right up to the judging part. Perhaps what you were trying to say wasn’t communicated properly?
It is not wrong to judge in context, for indeed we must judge in order to help others who are struggling with sin. In fact when done in a scriptural manner, it shows we care. Scripture tells us to remove the plank from our own eye, before we remove the splinter from someone else’s eye. But notice it doesn’t say that we shouldn’t try to remove the splinter. Our attitudes must be right when we try to correct another’s sin, or else it is a sign of hypocrisy on our part.
In the case of Jackson, I believe there is no way around the issue, in stating that slavery is wrong. However, I think anyone who states or implies that Jackson is somehow not a Christian because of this, if they are consistent must put the bar a lot higher for themselves. This would mean that their faith in God is greater than men like Jackson, Edwards, etc…
All of us have feet of clay.
@Tom Hardy: “However, I think anyone who states or implies that Jackson is somehow not a Christian because of this, if they are consistent must put the bar a lot higher for themselves.”
Exactly. That is for God to decide. There is also enough about his life to indicate that he was a fellow believer.
There is also a lot to indicate that, had he considered the issue of slavery in isolation from other Confederate issues (admittedly a difficult thing to do, I’m sure), that he *should* have come to a different opinion. As I mentioned above, it’s not like there was no information and reasoned thought to the contrary. There was plenty of material available from the Christian abolitionist movement at the time. I find it hard to believe that Jackson did not have access to that information. I find it much easier to believe that he chose to dismiss it for his own earthly benefit.
And, the truth is, we all do that, right? Of course, for most of us, acting that way does not mean that we are denying others their freedom while upholding a brutal institution. Thankfully most of us don’t have the opportunity to act that way, or we’d likely be sailing in the exact same boat as did Jackson.
I suppose the thing that bothers me about this is that it is easy to celebrate the biographies of heroic individuals who also (due in part to their heroism interacting with sin) caused much pain. For every Jackson biography, I wish that there were a thousand biographies of slaves who were also fellow believers. How much more would we glean from those?
But, instead of a 1:1000 ratio, my bet is that it’s not even 1:10. Or 1:1, for that matter.
E.G.,
And I wonder how African-American believers feel when we (mostly Anglos, I bet) debate whether American slavery of the 1860s merited condemnation and opposition instead of acceptance of the institution as “God’s will.” Maybe it’s not a wonder that God’s church has a race problem, even now.
E.G.
How exactly is evangelizing slaves in any way comparable to abortion?
Richard,How you draw from any of this that slavery doesn’t deserve condemnation is beyond me. And the idea that race relations are bad now because Jackson understood something of God’s will…is absurd.It’s not like the only countries with racial issues were once bastions of slavers.
I should be such a faithful Christian as Jackson was.
I find it curious that the same type of people who think it’s possible to be an exemplary Christian and own slaves or support slavery are the very same type of person who have problems with admiration for liberal Christians, gay and bisexual Christians, socialist Christians, or prochoice Christians. It is amazing how someone could think it was acceptable to be a Christian and actively engage in a savage institution that dehumanized, killed, and raped a race of people to the extent that its consequences continue to day.
At the very least, there are some acutely racially insensitive people here whose mindset is very insensitive to African-Americans and anyone who recognizes the evil of slavery and white supremacy mindsets. Moreover, while it is good to know that even the very worst of us can be redeemed through Christ, I dont think holding an unrepentant slaveholder out for admiration will aid in attracting modern people to Christianity.
You should definitely see the movie Gods and Generals.
How does one “evangelize” slaves while oppressing and dehumanizing them? Slaveholding is one of the most sinister and unChristian things a person can do. Period. By this contorted logic, a pimp can evangelize his prostitutes too.
My father worked in a factory his entire life. He spoke of being “bought” and “sold” by different factory owners as surely as any slave. Some treated workers well, and showed up on the factory floor during flu epidemics. Others were abusive, and workers dependent on medical insurance or the payday/debt cycle could not just quit and move on. If we had lived in the same neighborhoods as many of his co-workers, I would have been educated to share his fate. I live in a city now with chronic unemployment and hopelessness, mostly among the descendants of former slaves, people who were educated to be a low-wage factory working group- then the factories moved abroad, where the slavery could be more flagrant. Those who would judge Jackson, look down at your shoes. Look at the computer on your desk, the goods in your home, and the produce in your refrigerator. The same slavery exists today under different names. And most of the “owners” aren’t wise or kind enough to love their workers, or be concerned about their eternal destiny.
Mitzi,
If you can’t recognize the difference between being hired and being owned, you’re pretty ignorant. And to compare an employee who is mistreated and/or disgruntled to a slave who is literally owned is an inexcusable offense. It is right on par with holocaust denial. It minimizes the atrocity of slavery, and ignores the fundamental principle: a slave was not a man, but property. He could be bought, sold, beaten, starved, mutilated, or killed at the pleasure of his master.
I’ve worked for several employers in my life, and not all were good. In fact, a couple were exceptionally bad. But, as the employer/employee relationship is a voluntary business transaction, I was free to leave, and so I did. I was no slave, and neither was your father.
Javier: “I dont think holding an unrepentant slaveholder out for admiration will aid in attracting modern people to Christianity.”
You’re right. Nothing will aid in attracting modern people to Christianity. Nothing but the gospel proclaimed faithfully and God opening ears to hear it and believe in him of whom it speaks. Be careful that you are not adding a prerequisite to the gospel that says “you must not own slaves, otherwise you will be regarded as anathema.” America’s interpretation and practice of the institution of slavery was not commendable (I am not certain any interpretation is commendable). But the interpretation and practice is also not in and of itself the reason for condemnation, especially the condemnation of a man who otherwise proved faithful to his Lord and Master Jesus Christ.
I humbly ask you to read two parts of the NT. Hebrews 11 and Philemon. While reading Hebrews 11, please ask yourself why these men are to be regarded as worthy to be remembered, despite some of them owning other people (to keep the comment in context). The answer I believe has in part, if not the whole, to do not with them in and of themselves but with the God in whom their faith rested. While reading Philemon, please ask yourself whether or not Paul condemns Philemon for owning Onesimus. I think you will find that while Paul encourages Philemon to consider Onesimus his brother, possibly implying that the one should no longer belong to the other, Paul does not condemn Philemon for owning Onesimus (compare also Ephesians 6:5-9). These are not proof-texts to justify slaveholders throughout the centuries, but they do give us a glimpse into the preeminence of Christ in the will of God concerning all matters of life, including slavery. And it was God’s will that chattel slavery would be an institution in antebellum America, whether we like it or not, because in every way his will is accomplished. Take Thomas Jackson’s life for an example of the fruit of the gospel in an era of questionable practices much like our own.
A little food for thought, Job had servants/slaves (they were his ‘possession’), yet God still considered him to be his most faithful servant and expressly said so, ‘blameless and upright’. So maybe the arguments coming from the ‘slavery is sinful’ side need to be rethought, it can’t be so easily labled as a sin.
The idea of slavery is also much different from issues of abortion and prostitution as have been brought up as comparissons. These things are expressly considered sin in the bible.
Mitzi,
Regarding your last comment (deleted): You obviously have a personal axe to grind. Take it elsewhere.
The Bible condemns “man-stealing” (Exodus 21:16) and slave traders (1 Timothy 1: 8-10). These were practices of the antebellum South.
You don’t read your New Testament too carefully, do you? I suggest you read Paul’s letters, in which the apostle clearly speaks to the issue of slavery.
Dary @26… Evangelizing slaves while owning them? My head is spinning.
Richard, that’s an excellent question and point. Thanks.
EG: “Another reason for Christians to avoid the military.”
DJP: “I trust you keep yourself pure by refraining from enjoying any freedoms or liberties or other boons purchased and guaranteed for you by the blood of ‘the military.’”
EG: “Am I to crawl into a hole simply because my government does wrong?”
No, you should apologize for your [non-raised-pinkie adjective] statement, retract it, tear down whatever mess in your brain led to it, and start over.
If you refuse, maybe crawling in a hole (as you suggest), rather than abusing your liberties to sneer at the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect them, is an option.
Thanks for asking.
Tim, I don’t know if you use LibraryThing or not (you should), but saw this post on Facebook. I actually thought it was from you at first:
Thomas Jonathan Jackson (Stonewall_Jackson) | LibraryThing
A volunteer at the Virginia Historical Society has finished adding Stonewall Jackson’s library to LibraryThing - what books do you have in common?
sounds reductionistic in a world in which every country I think of practices abortion. No nation can be reduced to one issue, but all are unique blends of sin & righteousness.As Christians we should believe in common grace, and see from the NT that even service in Caesar’s army was a noble vocation. It is a noble thing to protect others from bullies and aggressors- even if those people themselves practice grievous sins. In such instances we see their dignity and protect them, rather than their depravity and applaud their suffering.