If you were to take a poll of Christians from 1700 years ago, I bet that about 95-98 percent of those polled probably couldn\u2019t have a problem with slavery. If that same poll were taken 1000 years ago, the results probably wouldn\u2019t change all that much. 200 years ago, that number would probably be closer to 70 percent however. And during the Civil War, it would have probably been about 50 percent. Of course today that number would probably be close to zero. I think someone would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to admit that they think slavery is morally okay in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n
If we asked all those Christians we have imaginarily polled why they supported slavery, they would no doubt tell us that it was in the Bible. And if we polled those who opposed slavery, they too would tell us that their beliefs were biblical in nature. But the purpose of today\u2019s blog isn\u2019t to debate slavery and it certainly isn\u2019t to debate whether or not slavery is supported in the Bible or not. My point here is that Christians once believed that it was supported by the Bible and so Christian opinion about slavery has in fact shifted. Many Christians today will claim that those Christians in the past who supported slavery either weren\u2019t real Christians or didn\u2019t properly understand what God was saying.<\/p>\n
If we polled Christians 1700 years ago about homosexuality, most people wouldn\u2019t even know what we were even talking about. But those that did would almost certainly be against it. In fact, we wouldn\u2019t even see a shift in the percentage of Christians who are against homosexuality until sometime toward the end of the last century. Now, it is probably about 60-40 against homosexuality among modern Christians and I am being generous to the pro-homosexuality Christians in that number.<\/p>\n
The thing is that that number is changing. More and more Christians are accepting of homosexuality, homosexuals, and even homosexual marriage. In fact, following that trend, we can look into the future and see that the Christians of the future might look back at those Christians today who stand against gay marriage and consider homosexuality a sin and claim that those Christians weren\u2019t real Christians or didn\u2019t properly understand what God was saying.<\/p>\n