How Much is a Shekel Worth?

The Value of a Human Being

Set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel; 4 for a female, set her value at thirty shekels; 5 for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels; 6 for a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver; 7 for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels. - Leviticus 27:3-7



Download the Modern Day Slavery Study and Action Guide
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      individual sections, go to social justice.

Raising Some Difficulties

How do you teach God's genocide to children?

Take for example Deuteronomy 20 where Yahweh outlines the guidelines by which Israel is to go to war with her neighbors. God's directions begin with the cities of the more distant nations. When Israel marches on these cities they should first receive an offer of peace (v. 10) followed by enforced slavery to the Israelites (v. 11).

Given that we instruct our children in the horrors of slavery, this text immediately raises some difficulties. Why does God subject people to slavery?

But then it gets worse, for if the city refuses to surrender to the Israelites, all the men are to be slaughtered (v. 13), a practice condemned by the Third Geneva Convention and universally renounced by civilized nations today. Needless to say, the taking of women, children, and livestock as plunder (v. 14) is also universally rejected. How can we explain God's directions here to our children?

CCS2006

Christian Citizenship Seminar 2006

Plans have already begun for next spring’s Christian Citizenship Seminar which will use the theme “Peace is Patriotic.”

Starting in New York City, sessions will include workshops lead by On Earth Peace. Later events will include an aerial tour of the nation’s capital followed by “Homeland Security and the Brethren” led by Hayden “Jim” Sheaffer.