Oannes

Thomas Bitterman · 21 Mar 2012, 16:55 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: tom at bitterman.net (Thomas Bitterman)
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:55:33 -0400
Subject: (urth) Oannes
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On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 5:17 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> The fact that we in the Western World do not take slavery, the murder
> and rape of peasants by nobles, and so on as just "the way things are"
> is due to the civilizing influence of Christianity.


You typed "Christianity" when you probably meant "the Enlightenment".
Catholicism is not anti-slavery, and in some cases can be safely said to be
pro-slavery.  See, for example, The Catholic Encyclopedia (
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14039a.htm):
---
The fact that slavery, tempered with many humane restrictions, was
permitted under the Mosaic law would have sufficed to prevent the
institution form being condemned by Christian teachers as absolutely
immoral. They, following the example of St. Paul, implicitly accept slavery
as not in itself incompatible with the Christian Law. The apostle counsels
slaves to obey their masters, and to bear with their condition patiently.
---

Judging by his stories, Wolfe knows this teaching and accepts it.  There
are a fair number of enslaved characters and I cannot recall any of them or
any sympathetic character disparaging the institution itself.  Particular
conditions, sure, but the fact that one person owns another is perfectly
fine.

-- 
I just wanted all the wars to be over so that we could spend the money on
starships and Mars colonies.
   - Grant Morrison
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