God’s Holy People Enslaving God’s Holy People

(for rape and stuff)

BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

Exodus 21: 7-11 (NLV)

4/20/25

“Christian nationalism is just fascism cloaked in religious garb” – Grace Pecker

Grace and Christian will not come to church for Easter this week. They say that Jesus would never approve of the corruption and cruelty happening in America right now. They also say that most of the people who go to our church think that America is doing just fine. Neither of them want to be around those kind of people.

“The church was never perfect,” I said. “That’s the whole point of Jesus.”

“The church left Jesus for Donald Trump,” Grace said.

I still say that I want to do breakfast Bible study, but it has to be a breakfast Bible study where nobody can say anything bad about Jesus.

I also told Christian and Grace that I wanted something simple this week, like a law, because last week I had to think about all the multiple writers that were changing things and adding stuff in the Bible, which the Bible says nobody should do, even if it is to add fun stuff like talking donkeys.

Grace makes pancakes with a weird batter because Christian wants more protein in his life, but I am afraid the pancakes will taste like chalk. Whatever Christian or Grace makes is better than the food in jail and the hospital (and almost as good as the food at the Reparative Retreat), but sometimes I have to remind them that I don’t like eating chalk.

“Pastor Mercer told me you gave him a call this week,” Christian said.

“Yep,” I said. “I know he’s retired, but I had a Bible question. Did he tell you what it was? Because I can ask him questions if I want.”

“I bumped into him over in Brule Creek,” Christian said. “He only told me you two talked.”

“He said the reason they took slaves back then was because the other tribes were worshiping false gods. If they were slaves, they could be kind of saved, even if Jesus hadn’t come yet. They would learn the law and stuff.”

“So, you didn’t ask him about Israelites enslaved by Israelites?”

“What do you mean?”

Christian pushed a study Bible at me and pointed to a passage. That meant it was time for me to read:

“‘When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not satisfy her owner, he must allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. But if the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave but as a daughter.’

“‘If a man who has married a slave wife takes another wife for himself, he must not neglect the rights of the first wife to food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. If he fails in any of these three obligations, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.’ Exodus 7-11.”

“You look confused, Cole,” Grace said.

“Um,” I said. “I didn’t ask Pastor Mercer about any of that.”

“A bit to untangle?” Grace asked.

“They had slaves for six years?”

“For men of the tribe, it was like indentured servitude in colonial America,” Christian said. “Women weren’t so lucky. There were degrees of slavery.”

“Is it like Jacob who wanted to marry Rachel?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” Christian said. “Jacob agreed to his servitude.”

“And men would sell their own daughters?” I asked.

“Could you imagine Dad selling me to someone like Devin Montgomery?” Grace asked.

“That wouldn’t be right,” I said.

“This is how things worked in much of the ancient world,” Christian said. “Still works that way in some parts of the world.”

“And their wives were slaves, and they had more than one?”

“Abraham sure did,” Grace said. “Remember Hagar, who tried to run away, but God stopped her.”

“And made her be a slave?” I said.

“Do slaves have a choice?” Grace said.

“No,” I said. “But, wait, if the man doesn’t satisfy the slave with food, clothes, and sex, she can leave. I mean, if she’s his first slave wife. Wait, I mean, they could be a slave and a wife? Wait, and have more than one wife? Wait, but the Bible says marriage is for a man and wife, doesn’t it?”

“Does it?” Grace said.

“No, wait,” I said. “This can’t be right. But she has to be satisfied. Is that, like, happy?”

“Being she’s a slave, who gets to decide if she’s satisfied or happy?” Christian asked. 

“Doesn’t she get to decide?” I asked.

“But she’s a slave,” Grace said, “who won’t be freed after six years or ever. If the man isn’t satisfied, he can sell her, but not to foreigners.”

“Does that sound reasonable to you?” Christian asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think people should marry more than one person.”

“With wealth in the ancient world came the opportunity for multiple wives and slaves,” Christian said. “Remember how many wives King Solomon had?”

“A whole bunch,” I said.

“Would teaching this stuff in public schools give kids the life skills they need in the modern world?” Christian asked.

“It’s interesting,” I said. “But do they have to teach this is what God commands?”

“The people who want this material taught in public school believe the Bible is inerrant,” Grace said. “They believe that this is what God commanded his people. Do you believe that?”

“Not the God I thought I knew,” I said. “But wait, it has to be a copyist error because how can a person be a slave and a wife?”

Grace laughed.

“I think the word wife is a modern English translation,” Christian said. “I’m not sure the Hebrew language made a distinction between woman and wife.”

“Really?”

“Don’t quote me,” Christian said. “I picked that up somewhere.”

“So how do we know any of these translations are right?” I asked.

“We don’t,” Grace said.

“Scholars do their best,” Christian said. “They analyze the oldest texts. Their research is peer-reviewed. Scholars disagree with each other over ambiguities. Fundamentalists bend over backward to claim no ambiguities exist, but you’ve pointed them out yourself.”

“But I’m not a scholar,” I said.

“And scholars do make mistakes,” Grace said, “but the science they employ gets results.”

“Oh, so…they shouldn’t have slave wives, especially not more than one,” I said. “That much I know is wrong. And Christianity shouldn’t have left Jesus for Donald Trump. This wasn’t a good Easter breakfast Bible study at all. I learned about a lot of bad things.”

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what it actually says.

I hope you read samples from my books below.