Actually, John, I DON’T Want to be a Slave

Okay sooooo…

I first need to say that I suspect that John MacArthur possesses an intellectual prowess and spiritual fervor far greater than my own. Nothing I’m about to say is meant to disregard that.  There. There’s my disclaimer. 

But I read this article the other day by Mr. MacArthur, and it made me bristle.  It’s not that anything he said was out of order.  I just…sometimes I’m just amazed by how little attention people pay to language.  MacArthur’s article may be summed up by this line: “So understood correctly, the gospel is an invitation to slavery.”  I don’t mean to take this line out of context.  But I think MacArthur uses the word “slavery” far too flippantly throughout, especially in an article with an American audience (presumably).  Here’s the problem.  In our country, and in our culture, the term “slavery” carries so much weight because of this country’s history of absolutely atrocious injustice of the slavery era (and thereafter, if we’re keeping it real).  MacArthur is an old white man, and, as such, he is not deeply wounded by the mere mention of slavery.  It was not his people chained, brutalized, and dehumanized for hundreds of years. Of course an invitation to slavery sounds great to him. I wouldn’t insult his intelligence by assuming he is not privy to these matters.  But how utterly careless of him to talk about the concept of “Christian slavery” without dealing with the weight of that word and all that it conjures up in the mind of the American.  And what of the Black American?  What in the world sounds appealing about an invitation to slavery?!  I get it. It’s not about sounding appealing.  And I don’t think the point of the article should be dismissed. But…it was quite disappointing to read such clumsy writing with such little concern for how the language of slavery affects people and from such a prolific and highly regarded person in the Christian community.