Mike Huckabee Endorses Selling Poor People As Slaves (not even making this up)

Last updated on: October 16, 2015 at 8:40 pm by Benjamin L. Corey

Mike Huckabee Endorses Selling Poor People As Slaves (not even making this up) 2015-10-16T20:40:35-05:00 Benjamin L. Corey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Republican presidential candidate and Baptist preacher, Mike Huckabee, is endorsing a policy that sounds reeeeeeaaal Christian like.

In a radio interview with Iowa’s Jan Mickelson, the two spoke of America’s broken justice system- a topic I’ve written about at TIME, previously. Certainly, our justice system is broken with a capital B. Between an incarceration rate that is over-the moon (especially if you’re a black male), mandatory sentencing guidelines that tie judges hands and prevent any level of mercy, and our failure to rehabilitate offenders (as demonstrated by recidivism rates), the United States is going nowhere fast when it comes to criminal justice.

The question is, how do we fix it?

I believe our problem is that the American system is based on a punitive concept of justice instead of restorative justice. The overhaul in the justice system needs to be a philosophical change before anything else can change. As I wrote at TIME:

“The American approach to crime and punishment needs some re-framing because the old way simply doesn’t work. A punitive focused approach results in over populated prisons filled to the brim– both with some folks who justly should be there, and some who probably should not. All however, are forced to acclimate to a violent prison life that simply turns them into “hardened criminals” even if they didn’t arrive as one. When they are released, they face so many barriers to reintegration into society that the violent survival mechanisms the prison system taught them quickly become one of their only tools to move forward in life.

We cannot continue a system with this philosophical approach and think that we’re actually doing justice– we’re not… We must become people who long to see a life restored instead of a life destroyed, and we must become willing to do whatever it takes to make the former happen, while resisting the easier path of doing the latter. Together, we can begin to influence culture in such a way that we reform our penal system to become something that sees justice as a life restored instead of punishment given.”

Those are my thoughts– but Mike Huckabee?

Well, from the radio interview (embedded below) it seems he thinks a good solution is to start selling poor people as slaves. During the show, Jan Mikelson mentions that he’d recently been re-reading the Old Testament book of Exodus, and found a passage that commanded poor people be sold into slavery if they didn’t have money to pay restitution for their crime. In the audio he states, “It says, if a person steals, they have to pay it back two-fold, four-fold… If they don’t have anything, we’re supposed to take them down and sell them.”

And, Mikelson would be correct– the Bible did command poor people be sold as slaves for the crime of stealing. However, decent, moral people are able to admit that the Old Testament writers got it wrong on slavery (and a few other things). Those same, decent and moral people are also able to freely confess that slavery is immoral in our time too.

Huckabee however, affirmed he thought the idea of “if they don’t have anything, we’re supposed to take them down and sell them” was a pretty good one:

“Sometimes the best way to deal with a nonviolent criminal behavior is what you just suggested.” (“Take them down and sell them.”)

I’m not sure how to word this, so I’ll keep it simple: Mike Huckabee is wrong.

Slavery is wrong. It has always been wrong. It will always be wrong. There will never be a scenario where slavery will be morally acceptable.

It doesn’t matter if the person is an exploited sex worker, a brick layer in India, or an impoverished person in the United States who happens to have stolen something. It is always wrong to sell people for the purposes of forced labor (slavery).

It always has been wrong, it always will be.

I’m disappointed that Mike Huckabee doesn’t seem to have the moral compass to see that reality.

H/T: Think Progress (Full audio below:)

Political

Huckabee

Slavery

Previous Post

October 16, 2015

If The Bible Commands Us To Bless Israel, It Commands Us To Bless Muslims Too

Next Post

October 19, 2015 90% Innocent: How America Is Creating Terrorists Faster Than We Can Kill Them

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abuse Adoption Asked & Answered Atheism Atonement Bible Book Calvinism Christian Culture Christian Nonviolence Christmas Church Church Killing Lies Community Creation Care Creationism End Times Evergreen Forgiveness Fundamentalism Gender Gender Equality Ghosting Grief Guns Healthcare Hell Hermeneutics Holy Land Human Trafficking Hunger Immigration Islam Israel Jesus Justice Lent Letting Go Of Hell Series LGBT Life Mark Driscoll Missiology Most Popular Posts Nationalism Old Testament Open Theism Parenting Persecution Political Poverty Prayer Pro-Life Pro-llife ethic Progressive Christianity Prosperity Gospel Put It To Bed Series Race Sincere Questions Suicide Prevention That God Show Theology To Those Christians Who Say Travel Unafraid Uncategorized War What Franklin Graham Is Wrong About Today

Select a Month October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz