(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Crossposting to challenging_god.

Is it fair to judge a religion on the basis of actions done by its followers? By this I mean of course weighing the good deeds as well as the bad ones. Or should this judgment be made simply on the basis of the teachings themselves?

Underlying this question is another one: to what extent is a religion defined by the people that make it up?

Comments

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

"It's far more likely that he didn't see anything wrong with slavery per se, just the mistreatment of slaves."

Paul was a Roman, and from the rest of his writings, it is apparent he had no desire to change the Roman culture, which included slavery and oppression of women. So I think you are correct in your guess that he saw nothing wrong with the ownership of slaves.