Religon/Slavery Challenge

 Slavery has always been a very controversial topic in our world. Most people today would claim that they are strongly against slavery and think it is wrong, but it used to not be like that. Christianity used to be proslavery as well as Judaism. As we do our research, we have seen that these ideas have changed over time. 

In Judaism, the slaves were given protection and special treatments so that they were not treated as slaves or property but as “extended family with certain protections and could be freed”. By them saying this, they are not directly supporting slavery but they are finding loopholes to work around it. The Jews played a large part in the Atlantic Slave Trade and a very prominate role in the enslavemnent of Africans in America. Both Christians and Jews used the excuse of learning about their religion as a way to justify slavery. “Since their enslavement would allow them to encounter the Christian message and thus their eternal souls would be saved” said a historian of The American Christianity. They are using the education of the religion and their souls being saved as a way to justify slavery. A lot of preachers encouraged people who own slaves to bring them to worship services but they were separate services that were run by proslavery preachers. In these services they would preach that they need to obey and listen to their masters. The idea that Africans were descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, was another reason why these preachers were proslavery. Ham was known to be cursed in the bible therefore supporting their ideas that enslavement is justified and okay. 

Hinduism is a religion that has always been antislavery, as they have always accepted followers coming from any background. They practiced having a strong devotion to one single   divine being. By all of them practicing this, it caused them to all be seen as equal no matter what race or background. Buddhism, which comes from Hinduism, is another religion that was against slavery. The Buddha did not allow the followers to participate in slave trade and “showed compassion for their lot.” Servitude and slavery were seen as very different and the Buddist leader wrote in stone to cease slavery and treat them fairly. The main goal of Buddhism is to have equality and to have everyone be in the same community. Buddhist temples have been known to be a safe place for enslaved people as well as escaped slaves. The “Discourse to Sigala” is a Buddist statement that is saying that any employer in the home should be paid a set wage, get a health care plan, and have dedicated days off. “Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free” Said Dalai Lama. 

Slavery was and has always been a huge debate and a major issue. There are many arguments that support slavery as well as many that are against it. Overall, we noticed that the people that were in favor of slavery tended to use some sort of loophole to try to justify it while those against it had valid reasons that sparked mainly from their religion. We also noticed that most religions that are well known and still around today were all in favor of slavery at some point and played a large part in the Atlantic Slave Trade. 

https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf10/Conf10-ClarenceSmith.pdf 

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-33/why-christians-supported-slavery.html 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-bible-was-used-to-justify-slavery-then-africans-made-it-their-path-to-freedom/2019/04/29/34699e8e-6512-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html 

8 values of free expression

 The 8 values of free expression are discovery of truth, participation in self-government, stable change, individual self- fulfillment, check on government power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent. These values assist the government to run more smoothly and efficiently. 

The first value of free expression is also known as the marketplace of ideas. It was first suggested by Milton, an English poet and a civil servant for the commonwealth of England. He said that wehn truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapply, truth will win out. Milton also argued against requiring a license to print and publish anything. He said that in a society, different beliefs can freely compete with another in public without being censored by the government. 

Participation in self-government is the second value. This was proposed by Alexander Meiklejohn . He promoted free speech and its relation to self voernment, saying that citizens need to have some say in what the government decides to do. Without this value, the government would be solely making decisions by what they want to do and having so say from the outside.   

The third value is stable change, AKA safety value which was brought up by Benedict Spinoza. This theory states that angry and alienated citizens should be allowed to speak their minds which would cause people to not feel the need to resort to violence and anger. Allowing these people to speak their minds whenever they want allows the government to better monitor the dangers that these people carry. Spinoza is best known for his ethics and even brings God and nature into it. 

Individual self- fulfillment was introduced by Edwin Baker, a college professor. He says that free speech enables individuals to express themselves leading to them creating their own identities. I think that this is an extremly important value because that is something a lot of people struggle with. He thinks that freedom of speech becomes an aspect of human dignity, agency, and autonomy. 

Check on Government power by VInce Blasi is the fifth value. This value allows citizens to learn about the abuse of power and hopefully do something about it. He is encouraging citizens to do something about the abuse if they feel moved to. I like this value because I think it is very important for citizens to know not only about the positives but also the negatives of our own government.  

Promote Tolerance by Lee Bolliger is the sixth value. This is saying that hearing negative and hateful things helps you become a better person and become more tolerable to the hate that is unavoidable. Just like my mom tells me, bullies build character and make you into a better person. I think it is important for some people to hear some negative things about themselves to become a stronger and better person. 

The seventh value is to promote innovation. This value promotes citizens to propose their ideas to the government and become more proactive and creative. People expressing their ideas can help open up the eyes of the government to ideas that they have never considered and never would without the help of us. 

The final value is to protect dissent, by Steve Shiffrin. This value stresses the idea that we are protected enough to agree with the government. I have not met a single person who has agreed with every decision that the government has made and this value backs that up. It is important for citizens to voice their opinions and for the government to take them into account. It is strongly encouraged and our patriotic duty to criticize and disagree with our government. 

Supreme Court Video

The Supreme Court of the United States is the most powerful judicial body on the earth. They do all of their work in private settings, "we are quiet" said a member of the court causing them to have a huge impact on the government. There have only been a little over 100 justices who serve on average 16 years at a time, a lot serve much longer.

 The confirmation process is so important because the public doesn't have an ability to influence the decision through the ballot box anymore. It takes the justices a long time to get used to being a part of the court as it requires a lot of time, dedication, and responsibility. 

It took awhile, but the public finally got used to the amount of power that the Supreme Court holds. John Marshall being named chief justice lead to the Supreme Court finally earning public respect. A lot of respect from the public was lost due to the Supreme Court saying that blacks could never be citizens but this was resolved  by the Civil War abolishing slavery. If this happened now, this would cause a lot of controversy.

 At the end of the day, all of the justices want the same thing: to be constitutional and support each other's morals and faith even if they disagree on the topic. The court receives about 7,000 new cases a year. Most of these cases are stating that a lower court ruling was incorrect or unfair but they only accept a few of them. They typically only accept about 100 a year. "Did the lower court apply the lay properly?" and "is the law constitutional?" are the main factors being considered when working on these cases. 

The justices meet weekly to discuss which cases will be accepted and which cases will be denied. The justices don't deal with just any issue they want to, they are issues that the pubic brings to their attention and feel the need to be resolved by the Supreme Court. Each side of the court has 30 minutes for a lawyer to propose their arguments which causes a lot of drama and tension. A few days after hearing the arguments, the justices gather to vote on the case and once they decide, one of the justices on the majority side has to write an opinion explaining the legal reasons as to what they decided on which is a very time consuming job.

The court relies mostly on the trust of the American People and gains a lot of power from us. The more trust the court has, the more power they have. The Supreme Court's main job is to ensure the American people justice and equality.