I'm not omitting anything, we can and should look at all relevant verses. The permitted version of slavery in the OT is fundamentally distinct from the horrors we hear about in school with American Slavery and the like. A slave legally belonged to the master, but was also a person with rights who had to be treated well. Killing, injuring, or otherwise not fulfilling one's duties towards one's slaves/servants would result in, at minimum, the loss of said slave - and could result in the master suffering vengeance as a result. If the master mistreated a slave such that they ran away - no one was permitted to return the slave to the master, but had to welcome them and treat them kindly. The scriptures even speak of spoiling one's servants such that they become as a son. Under the OT Law, a slave was as family. Indeed, the whole of Israel is said to be bought/redeemed by God, and they are his servants/slaves.
You are simply being intellectually dishonest if you don't see how this is any different from the horrors of slavery in America and the like. You can act high and mighty and refuse to talk about the matter - but it was you who insisted upon digging into issues like this to begin with.
Slavery has its place in the world. For example: if one kingdom or nation conquerors another, what becomes of the people? They don't generally become first class citizens of the new nation overnight - but instead are placed under the rule of the victors and must do what they say. They belong to the victor. And this is preferable to simply being killed. A good and smart conquering nation will seek to assimilate these people overtime as its own - but it would simultaneously be foolish to assume that the vanquished will immediately forget their old allegiances and pride. Yet over a generation or two these things will die down providing they are treated well.
And, if you want to get down to it, America and these other nations never truly got rid of slavery - it simply transformed. It's chains are debt, and there is little to no escape.
Is slavery the ideal? No, of course not. I completely agree in that regard - the ideal is that we be equals. Indeed, under Christ, this is the reality:
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This gets back into the fact that the scriptures recognize that we as individuals and as a society don't live up to the ideals. To a degree, the Law permits things which are not the ideal but are a reality. War is not ideal, but it happens. Slaves result from war. Slaves also result from severe poverty - they sell themselves in order to live. We should strive for peace, but we cannot prevent all war. We should strive for a socialist society where we don't allow extreme poverty to exist (America certainly has that capability), but it is unlikely that any society - even if it has such the ability - will properly devote its resources to carrying for those in need such that no one has to work for slave labor. In America this takes the form of minimum wage: a wage so low that you can't live off of it, but you also can't afford to not do it. The majority of the citizens in the US make minimum wage. Most of the rest have crushing student loan debt.
Even if you have no debt, you yourself likely work for some company. You have sold yourself as a servant/slave to the company for your wage+benefits. You go there nearly everyday and do their bidding.
In truth, there is no getting away from the master/servant relationship in this world. However, the specifics of how this relationship is manifested can make a huge difference between being viewed as something evil and something you don't even think about.
