Pro-Slavery and Anti-Slavery Arguments

There are numerous pro-slavery or anti-slavery arguments one can make based on religion. On ushistory.org, I found a pro-slavery argument that stated "Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. They point to the Ten Commandments... In the New Testament, Paul returned a runaway slave, Philemon, to his master, and, although slavery was widespread throughout the Roman world, Jesus never spoke out against it.” I found that this website is credible because it is an organization based on historical facts and concepts. Additionally, one of my group members found a pro-slavery argument which is "Fuller argued that slavery, in principle, is not sinful. Undergirding his argument was his abiding conviction that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God. The Bible alone has the right to define sin. Once sin has been identified, it is humanity’s responsibility to repent."He found this argument on thegospelcoalition.org.

As for anti-slavery arguments, I found an argument on loc.gov. It was stated that “Benjamin Lay, a Quaker who saw slavery as a “notorious sin,” addresses this 1737 volume to those who “pretend to lay claim to the pure and holy Christian religion.” Although some Quakers held slaves, no religious group was more outspoken against slavery from the seventeenth century until slavery's demise. Quaker petitions on behalf of the emancipation of African Americans flowed into colonial legislatures and later to the United States Congress.” This website, "library of congress," is also very credible in the sense that it is not biased and it is fact based. An additional argument found by a group member is "neither the evidences of the Gospel, nor the solemnities of religion; neither the constitution of the church, nor the rights of its members; neither the divine right of bishops, nor the value of holy orders; neither the spirituality of the soul, nor the materiality of the body, can escape the ordeal of free and full discussion." This was found on docsouth.unc.edu. I feel as though this source is credible because it is a well-known university, and the website includes many references.

Although there are two arguments listed above, forming an argument based on religion is not the most strong. A religion based argument is not the most efficient mode of argumentation because religion is not universal - people practice many different types of religion. There are six modes of argumentation which are: religion, economic, ethical, political, historical, and law. Out of these six, the most concrete argument one can make would be an argument solely based on the law and legalities.

Sources:

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/abolition.html

http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-and-why-did-some-christians-defend-slavery/

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bourne/bourne.html