He really said it, according to the Daily Kos in October 2012. He is Arkansas State Representative Loy Mauch, Republican. Between 2000 and 2011 he wrote a lot of letters to the Arkansas Times.
One such letter said:
Nowhere in the Holy Bible have I found a word of condemnation for the operation of slavery, Old or New Testament. If slavery was so bad, why didn’t Jesus, Paul or the prophets say something?
This country already lionizes Wehrmacht leaders. They go by the names of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Custer, etc. These Marxists not only destroyed the Constitution they were sworn to uphold, but apostatized the word of God. Either these depraved infidels or the Constitution and Scriptures are in error. I’m more persuaded by the word of God.
I have an answer for his question. Why didn’t Jesus, Paul or the prophets say something? Because they, and/or the people who wrote in their names, were just people. They were just as shitty as the other people around them. They didn’t “say something” because they weren’t moral giants. If you think the bible is the last word on morality, you’re a moral pigmy, or a flea.
Apparently Loy Mauch is in favor of slavery.
What am I bid for Loy Mauch? Sure, he’s old and feeble, but surely he’s worth a buck or two! C’mon, people – place your bids!
From cover to cover, the Bible is not only pro-slavery, but pro-monarchy! In fact, monarchy is the only system of government acknowledged in the Bible, and it says that God Itself organizes Its realm as a monarchy, so that means we need to go back to a monarchy in order to demonstrate that we are persuaded by the word of God.
At least we have our jester!
Another Southerner still fighting the Civil War.
One of the main things that gave me the final push to atheism was reading a book from the 1850s, one of the many written to counter Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which a southerner laid out the whole biblical case for supporting slavery. The language was very similar to what anti-gay activists use today: “Hey, if it was just up to me, I’d allow them more rights, but this is the word of God Almighty here!”
Of course, Loy Mauch is 100% correct — the pro-slavery forces in the Civil War were far more Biblical than the abolitionists. We should do all we can to boost this guy’s signal.
Of course, it’s April 1st!
The Wehrmacht were Marxists?
I dislike Custer, myself, but I will happily lionize Philip Sheridan. Outside the Civil War, he was a great American and fine soldier and much more. In the war, he was brilliant, honest and dedicated. Sheridan straightened out finances, broke up corruption, and rode to the sound of the guns.
Menyambal@6: that caught my eye too. Wehrmacht Marxists, eh? It’s almost as if Mr Mauch uses words without knowing what they mean!
The bible was written by slave-owners. It’s an exercise in male self-interest. This man sees himself with a bible in one hand and a whip in the other. Who is he going to decide to enslave? Does he want another civil war?
Actually, biblical slavery was more egalitarian than the kind Mr Mauch favours. Biblical slavery made no distinctions based on race or ethnicity. Anyone could be a slave.
That is incredibly offensive.
I have never heard a flea ever once tell me that I was created to serve an all powerful sociopath who objects more to wanking than slavery.
Not true @9: The Bible says it is OK to enslave people except other Israelites.
@11 Not so. Other Israelites are fair game. Men could sell their daughters into slavery. Also, Israelite men could become slaves to work off debts. Sure, there was a jubilee every 7 years when slave owners were supposed to let their fellow Israelite slaves go free, but there were workarounds (i.e. you set him up with a wife who is a slave, and when it’s time to free him, say you’re going to keep his family so unless he’s prepared to abandon them, he’d better get over here and have his ear bored to mark him as a slave for life).
Yep. Us infidels. We’re the ones who are depraved alright.
…uppity, too.
Well, Mauch is exaggerating, but it is a little-known fact that Abraham Lincoln was somewhat sympathetic toward Marxism after he left office in 1869. To see his thoughts on Marxism itself, read Lincoln’s margin notes in his copy of the first volume of Kapital. His tour of Europe in the 1870’s brought him into contact with a couple of survivors from the Paris Commune, and he even had dinner with Friedrich Engels in London. Lincoln and his wife praised Lizzie Burns’ skills as a hostess, and the two women kept up a correspondence for a few years.
As for the wehrmacht angle, it should be noted that Otto von Bismarck sought an audience with Lincoln during that same tour of Europe. The German Chancellor saw a kinship between himself and the man who preserved the American union, and Lincoln’s diary from that time notes that they did discuss military organization. So, it’s a bit of a stretch, but one could argue that Lincoln did bring some military lessons of the U.S. Civil War to the German leadership. And since “wehrmacht” means “defense force” or “armed forces”, and 19th-century Germany had such a thing, then you could sort of see where Mauch is going with this.
At least, that’s how I remember it.
Maybe Jesus didn’t say anything about slavery, but Paul said slaves should obey their masters.
@ Menyambal
@ chrislawson
No, he knows perfectly well what he’s saying. For some years there has been a trend amongst right-wingers to distance themselves from the Nazis and they try to do so by claiming the Nazis were socialists/commies.
Amazing how much his ‘defence of slavery’ looks like my ‘Why the bible is shit’
@14
“Lincoln’s margin notes in his copy of the first volume of Kapital.”
Recent textual analysis of those so called ‘margin notes’ suggests that they were faked by NKVD agents during the 1930s, a time of deep Soviet penetration of the highest levels of US government, there’s no reliable evidence that Lincoln was sympathetic to Marxism.
@ Scr… Archivist
@ RJW
You’ve got the sources for the discussion on the margin notes in The Kapital? I would be very interested, and couldn’t find it by net search.
there’s no reliable evidence that Lincoln
Absolutely not true! Subsequent attempts at suppressing the information have only enlarged the conspiracy! When Oswald was in Russia he may have been translating some of the materia.