tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32636283.post3174204982484192688..comments2023-03-26T03:50:25.501-04:00Comments on David's Secret Blog: Christian AbolitionismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32636283.post-32967064968866999432007-03-17T22:51:00.000-04:002007-03-17T22:51:00.000-04:00So, I find you one devout abolitionist in a whole ...So, I find you one devout abolitionist in a whole society of devout proslavery Christians. I don't think you are making the point I think you think you are making.<BR/><BR/>And it wasn't as if, once Sewall brought it up, everybody slapped their foreheads and said, 'Of course, how extremely obtuse we were not to have found that in the New Testament!'<BR/><BR/>(In fact, Jesus was cool with slavery. At least, on occasions when he might easily have given it a frown, he said nothing. Diagnostic, I think.)<BR/><BR/>Context counts. Sewall was a judge at Salem, where he donned the black beanie.<BR/><BR/>A few years later, he rethought the evidence and concluded that received Christian doctrine was unreliable. No doubt that breakthrough helped him to get outside the issue of slavery.<BR/><BR/>In any case, Sewall, the most unorthodox Christian who ever lived in America, is probably an example that advocates of received tradition should handle with care.Harry Eagarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04196202758858876402noreply@blogger.com