Um, Creepy.

I sure hope those missionaries weren't women. I don't think many modern minds can comprehend the horrors of slavery and this video seems to trivialize it.

Also I feel it's a little creepy to compare the suffering of any person to that of Christ. I thought it was a good thing that Corporal Mortification was done away with.

I sure hope those missionaries weren't women

Well, they're referred to as "lads" and "fellows".

Also I feel it's a little creepy to compare the suffering of any person to that of Christ.

Unless I missed something, they never compared their suffering to Christ's. They saw a people untouched by the Gospel and they did whatever it took to get it to them. That's the Great Commission, not narcissism.

They saw a people untouched by the Gospel and they did whatever it took to get it to them.

A very facile philosophy. The grounds of moral thouht that builds up Western legal/ethical tradition and Christianity is that no end is justification for the means to achieve such end. To 'do whatever it takes' is a Godless, Machiavellian will-to-power tradition and is unworthy of Christian thinkers. In the case of the missionaries it's benign foolishness since in a system of real slavery (not the Victorian idealistic vision of slavery that the video would have us see, but REAL slavery) they would have NO freedom to preach anyways, but taken the other way, such a philosophy of will-to-power is most abominable (e.g. Dosteovsky's Crime and Punishment).

Perhaps you meant "do whatever was morally possible" but is it moral to enter into a covenant of slavery? Disgusting. Really. That such sensationalism be done away with.

Joseph, your anger is silly.

You find it morally reprehensible that two guys would sacrifice their freedom in order to get the gospel of Jesus to a place where it hadn't yet reached?
These guys sold themselves into slavery in order to minister to the slaves on the island. That's the epitome of Christian sacrifice and incarnational mission.

That you don't get this -- further, that you think it's basically sinful -- says a lot.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
-- Romans 12:1

I've been surprised at the extreme negative reactions some of the recent posts (most notably Bird's post about pastor salaries and this one) have received.

Paul longed to be considered worthy enough to be able to "partake in the sufferings" of Christ.

Much of 2nd Corinthians is devoted to this desire of Paul's.

I'd like to ask Joseph if he thinks that Paul was equally "narcissistic"

Specifically, what do you make of v. 24 where Paul writes, "I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions . . ."?

I believe the great sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. I don't think there's anything that I can do to compensate for any deficiencies left by Christ, for there are none. I believe we are saved by Grace and not by working through a checklist.

Slavery is a systemic dehumanization of men and women. It turns human beings into dumb animals; or worse. The callousness that slavery requires is absolute.

The modern-day equivalent of slavery is the sex-traffiking black market. I have partcipated in a group called sharedhope international. Watch the 16 minute video that was made to be shown in church groups (non-explicit).

That is slavery. That is something very different from Paul. Paul was a Roman Citizen. His suffering was for the sins of the world. Sure, he suffered beatings, but those were a piece of cake compared to being a witness to the gross wickedness that existed. You must forgive me my rashness, but I have seen this stuff up close in the dark corners of the third world. I have suffered that same deep pang for this kind of gross wickedness. I'm sorry, but I object to this video based on my impression that it trivializes that gross wickedness that has caused me so much pain in my ministry amoung women and children in latin america who were actuality slaves.

I would be interested in anybody who watched the 16 min video and who still though it would be a cool thing for their mother or sister to do: sell herself into slavery to preach the word.

In my mind, forced slavery and forced prostitution are simply two sides of the same coin. To voluntarilly enter into the hellish covenant of slavery or prostitution is sin. Both are violent acts which degrade the essential humanity of both parties, especially the victim. To sell your dignity and humanity for money is sin be it in the form of the prostitute or slavery. Servitude is not slavery. I can serve my country in the military, or serve the poor like Mother Teresa. That's not slavery. In slavery there is no choice, no will, no essential human dignity. The slave-master has absolute control to fulfill his violent lusts for blood and greed. One of the blackest satanic practices is when a person discovers the satanic secret of how one may turn human life into gain: Genocide, Slavery, Totalitarianism, politcs.

I'm not distorting any point here. Read your history and you'll find slavery to be one of the most hellish practices that may have come to the mind of man, and it's not admirable to surrender oneself to such satanic practice as slavery.

Now, I may be wrong, perhaps the two lads sold themselves into serfdom or indentured servitude, but the word that was used was slavery, so I'm going to interpret that according to my understanding of the hellish history of slavery.