Family, Slavery, & the Church

Examining the Associations between Sustainable Development Population Policies and Human Trafficking illustrates that family restoration is one of the best solutions to modern day slavery.  But what has been the most influential institution in resisting slavery?  This guest post by Regent Law 2016 graduate Joseph A. Kohm, III details exactly how that has happened….

Slavery’s Undefeated Enemy: The Church

Contrary to modern narratives, the church collective (Catholic, then Catholic and Protestant together) has rejected institutionalized slavery not once, not twice, but three times since the resurrection of Christ. (I am not including Saint Paul’s references to slavery in the Roman Empire as that existed before the church.) First in the Middle Ages, then in the trans-Atlantic and American trade, and today in the modern sex slavery trafficking industry the church has opposed institutionalized slavery in both word and deed – and it has never lost that battle.

Before serfdom (and the modern misconceptions about it), medieval monarchs and lords made a regular process of enslaving anyone they conquered; it was a standard law of medieval warfare. But as the Middle Ages progressed, we see institutionalized slavery slowly grind to a halt and then cease altogether before the high Middle Ages because the church so vigorously opposed it with its words, proclamations, and its (then) considerable powers of excommunication and papal interdict. Score: Church 1, Slavery 0.

A few hundred years later, the church and its constituents rallied again to combat the evil and heresy of colonial slavery. It is worth mentioning that this is an issue that has historically united Catholics and Protestants and should be used for that purpose again today. Both sides of the church, especially the manpower of its constituents, fought tirelessly through the institutionalized sin nature of “wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces” to eliminate the slave trade, first in England (led by William Wilberforce) and then in America through the abolitionist Republicans. While it is true that southern ministers generally misinterpreted scripture to heretically support slavery, the interpretations of northern and black ministers to condemn it was then (outside the southern United States) and is now universally considered proper Biblical doctrine. We all know how things turned out: Church 2, Slavery 0.

Modern slavery is significantly different and, I would argue, even worse than it has ever been. While slave labor trafficking is still lucrative, sexual slavery trafficking has made slavery infinitely more lucrative and widespread than it has ever been. Instead of being driven by the sin nature of reaping the rewards of another person’s work, slavery is now primarily driven by unrestrained sexual appetite and expression, which inevitably leads to the breakdown of the family. But once again, at the forefront of the battle against this great evil is the church. The largest nonprofits working against slavery are Christian: A21, International Justice Mission, and Operation Underground Railroad to name just a few. Unfortunately, the church has lost much of the influence over society that it had in the previous two cases we discussed. We can only hope that governments around the world will see the wisdom in ending sexual slavery and restoring the family so that humanity’s, not just the church’s, collective record against slavery can reach 3-0.