Zahnd deliberately misrepresents Exodus 21 on slavery to children at a youth camp in order to discredit the Bible

Zahnd reads the passage to camp youth, asks them to raise their hand if they disagree with it, and then announces that 13-year-olds have a superior moral vision to the Bible. Winger's rebuttal: (1) Exodus 21 is case law — it regulates situations that occur, not endorses them. (2) The passage must be read in context: verses 18–19 establish that when men quarrel and one injures the other, the injurer pays for medical costs and lost wages. Verse 20–21 applies this same logic to slaves. (3) The word 'avenged' (Hebrew: naqam) in verse 20 means the death penalty — if a master kills his slave, the master dies. This is the only law in the ancient Near East that assigns equal value to the life of a slave. (4) Verses 26–27 add: any permanent injury (even a knocked-out tooth) grants the slave immediate freedom, erasing all debt. Zahnd ignores all of this and misrepresents the text to children. Additionally, biblical 'slavery' has no resemblance to early American chattel slavery — slave traders would have received the death penalty under Mosaic law.