There are several verses in the books of the New Testament, instructing enslaved people to obey their masters. Many critics of Christianity raise the objection that the Bible condones slavery.

St. Paul did not write such instructions lightly and the Apostles did not tell enslaved people to obey their masters lightly, either. They were trying to prevent slave uprisings and therefore, a huge loss of life. When the Apostles were leading the early Church, Rome was the superpower in the world at the time. They weren't afraid of Rome. I mean, why would they be when Jesus Himself made Rome look like a laughing stalk when He rose from the dead? The Apostles were telling enslaved people to obey their masters out of respect for human life. The Romans were brutal to those they conquered.

Here's a scene from the film Ben-Hur (1959) to prove my point.

Judah Ben-Hur, a prince among the Jewish people, and his entire household were arrested by the Romans over a loose roof tile accidentally falling near the new governor of Judea and killing him due to the horse getting spooked by the falling tile. Despite Ben-Hur's insistence that it was an accident, the Romans don't treat him with mercy and due consideration. If a prince among the Jewish people and his household get arrested over an accident such as a loose roof tile falling and killing the new governor, I can only imagine how the Romans treated enslaved people who rebelled against their masters.

When I was taking Confirmation classes on Sunday evenings, one evening, we had a guest speaker: two women who were with a non-profit organization that's working to end human trafficking. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, folks. And if parish churches have people with anti-human trafficking organizations come and talk to teens about how to recognize the signs isn't proof of Christianity being against slavery, then, I don't know what is proof that it does oppose slavery.

As for me personally, I had to read a autiobiography of an enslaved woman who lived in bondage prior to the Civil War for a college class and there were times when I had to put the book down because it got hard. I start crying buckets when the 13th Amendment gets passed in the film Lincoln because I know how evil slavery is. There's a musuem in Cincannati that I've been to that has an exhibit covering slavery. I have four newphews and at the time, I only had three. There was this life-sized replica of one of those houses that slaves were crammed into while they were waiting to be sold. My younger two nephews at the time were little boys and kept running in and out of that house like it was the coolest thing ever. I was upset at them because they thought it was a barn or a normal house. But then, I realized that I couldn't possibly expect them to understand the function that such a house served, let alone the immorality of slavery.

In another exhibit, there was a dedidication on the wall to those who were enslaved and the unimaginable suffering they endured. I shed a tear when I read it. When it comes to the Civil War, I vehemently side with the North precisely because of its anti-slavery position.