The release of the devastatingly true story 12 Years A Slave is certain to result in more column inches and conversations about the evils of slavery, particularly so now that it has won Best Picture at the Golden Globes. Christians will undoubtedly join in those discussions, confident that they have pioneering abolitionists like William Wilberforce to support their credentials. But those who watch the film will soon realise that Christianity’s slave history is chequered at best. The Bible has been used to reinforce both sides of the debate, with both sides regularly misunderstanding God’s approach to slavery.

12 Years A Slave is based on the real account written by black American Solomon Northup, a citizen of New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. Shortly after his abduction Northup (Chiwitel Ejiofor) protests that he is a free man, and receives a brutal beating in response. He learns that this is a secret he must keep to himself – plantation owners don’t take kindly to slaves who threaten their investments. Northup is a skilled carpenter and violinist and spends time being traded from one master to another, learning that these Christian gentlemen are not only his owners but the definers of his spiritual existence. When he finally arrives on the cotton plantation of Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) he is alternately subjected to inhumane punishments and threatening sermons about his duty to God and his master. As affecting as the savagery he and other slaves suffer is, it is these sermons that will make Christians truly shudder.

It would be comforting to consider the beliefs of the cruel Epps as isolated perversions of Christianity were it not for their historical accuracy. Certainly Christianity had its champions among the abolitionist movement including Wilberforce, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley and John Newton. Some argue the abolitionist movement would not have existed at all were it not for the efforts of concerned Christians. But our involvement with slavery is far more complex, as Epps and other characters suggest.

Christianity has also had its champions of slavery. George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards both kept slaves, drawing support from church fathers like John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo – who personally argued that slavery was part of God’s mechanism to preserve the natural order of things. Whitfield actually campaigned for the legalisation of slavery in the province of Georgia. It had been outlawed but, thanks largely to Whitfield’s efforts, it was successfully decriminalised in 1751.

For more than a thousand years the prevailing Christian view was that slavery was an institution ordained by God and backed by Biblical mandate:

The New Chosen – Christians observing the Bible’s extension of salvation from the Jews to the Gentiles came to the conclusion that the laws God provided for his ‘Chosen People’ in the Old Testament should extend to His new ‘Chosen People’ in the New Testament. This included permission to own slaves and the manner in which they should be treated.

The Bible’s silence – Campaigners against abolition pointed out that neither the Old Testament nor the New condemned slavery. Jesus was curiously altogether silent on the subject and Paul could be seen sending a runaway slave back to his master.

God’s curse – Other Christians relied on the premise that Negroes and other races had been subjected to slavery by divine decree. Noah curses his son Ham, the father of the Canaanites, for showing disrespect and proclaims, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers!” [1] Some theologians argued that the African nations were Ham’s descendents and so slavery came to be viewed as the fulfilment of the patriarch’s prophecy. And since the black races had embraced idolatry, transporting them to Christian nations was even presented as bringing them back under the blessings of the Gospel.

This is the perspective voiced strongest in 12 Years A Slave, with Edwin Epps beating and cursing his slaves for the blight that has been visited on his cotton crop:

“What have I done that God should plagued me? It’s that heathen lot! I gave them God’s Word and they bring me God’s curse!”

These arguments are, of course, based on selective readings and spurious interpretations of God’s word. But I include them because Christian campaigners against slavery need to be wary of making the same mistakes. The danger lies in coming to the Bible with the sole goal of enlisting God’s support for our social causes. However noble they may be, God will not be marshalled into anyone’s army.

There are plenty of passages that should make a Christian oppose the suffering associated with slavery, but God’s primary concern lies with another enslavement altogether. Paul encourages slaves to gain their freedom if possible but to primarily avoid slavery to the principles of this world. He also reminds them and their masters that Jesus died not simply to free us from slavery to sin but to transfer our ownership to God:

“Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness…”[2]

If this sounds like a minimisation of slavery’s depravity then I suggest we may be in danger of minimising sin. A person might have their physical chains smashed and sin still sink them lower than the grave.

12 Years A Slave will distress any sensible viewer because it reminds us just how much pain sin’s selfishness can cause. Anti-Slavery International conservatively estimates there to be in excess of 27 million slaves in the world today. Their horror stories are as easy to access as a computer, and no person filled with the love of Christ should rest easy with such a global atrocity. But we cannot allow the world’s outrage to deaden our sensitivity to the Bible’s chief concern. When Abraham Lincoln was asked whether or not he thought God was opposed to slavery he replied:

“My concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is to be on God’s side.”

Watch the trailer here. ‘12 Years a Slave’ is in Australian cinemas from 30 January.