Posted by Helen on: 02.18.2007 /
Almost 5,500 churches in the US and Canada are going to recognize today as Amazing Grace Sunday.
The part I really like about this campaign is, it’s about ending worldwide slavery.
The link is that the man who wrote the song Amazing Grace, John Newton, used to be a slave-trader, but quit after his conversion to Christianity. Not only that but he then encouraged a young member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, to fight to end the UK slave trade. Wilberforce faced a lot of opposition - this trade was very profitable - but he persevered and was successful. A movie about his campaign called Amazing Grace opens next Friday. (Jim mentioned this movie on Doable Evangelism recently but I didn’t realize then that there’s a campaign associated with it).
Slavery still continues in various ways, in various parts of the world. I think it’s wonderful that so many churches are joining in a campaign to bring it to an end. I’m very pleased to see that the church I used to go to is one of them.
Comment by: Rachel
1Thanks for posting that encouraging information, Helen!
Comment by: joe
2Whilst Newton did in time give up his slaving ways, he wrote Amazing Grace whilst still a slave-trader.
Or at least, that is what I heard.
There is a growing campaign in the UK to highlight modern sexual slavery, see here:
Stop the Traffik
and
The Truth Isn’t Sexy
Comment by: Mike Clawson
3Modern slavery is very similar to slavery in Wilberforce’s day, in that it is still very profitable to our Western society, and our legislators and corporate barons still make the same arguments as back then, that to end slavery would deal a huge blow to our economy.
For instance the majority of our chocolate is made with slave labor, and yet the major candy companies - i.e. Hershey, Nestle, and M&M/Mars - have pressured Congress not to pass a law forbidding the import of slave-produced chocolate. They claim that it would drastically hurt their business - which it probably would.
So we have to ask ourselves, is maintaining a strong economy a valid reason for turning a blind eye to injustice? How much, exactly, is human freedom worth?
Comment by: Rachel
4Well said, Mike! I’m reminded of this excellent quote I read recently from Bono:
“Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it’s to have any meaning in this world - and stop being its apologist.”
Comment by: Helen
5Rachel, you’re welcome. It encouraged me too!
Joe, apparently Amazing Grace was written many years after the time Newton marked as his conversion to Christianity. By the time he wrote it he was a minister in the church of England. However it does seem that Newton didn’t question whether slavery was wrong until quite late in his life. I’m not sure if it was after he wrote Amazing Grace or not.
Mike, good point about the profitability of the slave trade both in the past and now. I’ll be interested to see how much the movie brings that out.
Comment by: joe
6Mike said
So we have to ask ourselves, is maintaining a strong economy a valid reason for turning a blind eye to injustice?
No.
The problem is that if we actually believed this stuff at many of us say we believe, we cannot just sit back and watch whilst people die for the sake of something as stupid as a bar of chocolate.
Yes, that is inevitably going to have an effect on our economy and eventually our own standard of living. But ultimately, when we meet our maker, we are going to have to have a better excuse than ‘I’m sorry God, I needed a cheap bar of chocolate.’
Mike also said
‘How much, exactly, is human freedom worth?’
Which strikes me as being a very good question. According to Jesus, human freedom demands leaving your own rights and privileges in the service of others - even service of our enemies. Loving our neighbour is not feeling concerned when we see bad things on TV, but actually being prepared to do something about it.
Which strikes me as about as radical as you are likely to get.
Comment by: Rachel
7Thanks for the information about slave-produced chocolate, Mike. We have been getting our coffee from Pura Vida, which I highly recommend, for a few years now. But we need to get our act together regarding chocolate. I’m off to do some research…
Comment by: Eliza
8I agree with everyone that Amazing Grace Day, about ending modern-day slavery, is commendable.
And I’ll be interested in any info on companies selling chocolate produced without any slave (or other unfair) labor.
But I’m going to toss a small tack at the celebratory balloon & point out that Christian efforts toward abolition of slavery depend on a very modern interpretation of scripture, probably based on “Love your neighbor” (& alot on modern sensibilities), as the several specific mentions of slavery in the Bible all support the owning & use of slaves.
Comment by: benjamin ady
9eliza,
not to defend the bible or anything.
But wasn’t the deuteronomical code (god, is that a word–wierd when these words just pop out of my head) pretty freaking forward thinking for it’s day? They set all the slaves free every 50 years, from what I understand.
Comment by: benjamin ady
10one thing I can’t really get outta my head with the whole modern slavery thing (and with other issues as well) is this whole idea of victim/perpetrator. I suspect we must choose to either be one of the perpetrators, or to be one of the victims, and it feels like so far I’ve mostly chosen to be one of the perpetrators, if only by default. This frustrates me, but it seems to me that it does not yet frustrate me enough.
Comment by: NCxian
11I agree wholeheartedly. A faith tradition that cannot mature as humanity matures is IMO not worth adhering to.
Comment by: Rachel
12BTW, Benjamin and I will be co-hosting a new OTM blog called “Justice and Compassion” that will begin in March. We are planning to do a review and discussion of a social justice related movie each Friday. Our first review on March 2 will be of “Amazing Grace” and we hope some of you will join us in seeing and discussing the movie.
Comment by: SezMe
13Mike wrote:
Mike, I was not aware of that. Can you post some good links?
Comment by: joe
14I’m not in the US, but here are some links about chocolate and slavery that might/might not be helpful:
global exchange
stop the traffik
John Robbins
Treehugger
Comment by: Helen
15Btw, Julie Clawson has just posted on her blog about Where to buy Fair Trade Goods.
Comment by: Doreen
16Here are a few links about chocolate and child enslavement:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/14/18363350.php
http://www.american.edu/ted/chocolate-slave.htm
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa
Fair trade chocolate:
store.gxonlinestore.org/chocolate.html
Comment by: Mike Clawson
17As I understand the Bible, I think it’s necessary to read it contextually in its historical setting, realizing that there are lots of things practiced and described in the text that aren’t necessarily God’s ideal, but are just the cultural realities that he was working in and through over time to bring about change. In that regard then (i.e. in a long view of God at work in human history) I think the Bible plants the seeds that would eventually bear fruit and undermine the institution of slavery many generations later.
One can complain that God should have spoken more clearly against it in the Bible itself, or one can admire the subversive nature of the text that works for change in society not through a frontal assault, but through subtle and indirect transformation. Some human problems, IMO, can be fixed in one fell swoop, and others probably need a lot more time for the foundations to gradually be undermined and the winds of human conscience to be shifted. I suspect God knows which problems require which approach - and it seems likely to me that slavery is part of the latter.
But that’s just my opinion.
Comment by: Helen
18Mike Clawson wrote:
What concerns me is how recently Americans were using the Bible to ‘prove’ that God approved of slavery. Here are some quotes I found on this page about slavery and the Bible:
Anyway, I would like Christians to be honest about how much the Bible has helped or hindered them getting to the point of strongly opposing slavery; however, what matters to me more is that they do now oppose it. I care about what people do much more than how they justify their beliefs.
Comment by: Mike Clawson
19I think maybe I care a little more than you do how people (or at least fellow Christians) justify their beliefs according to the Bible (which is natural given my job description). For instance, in each of those quotes above, I’d like to ask them to “prove it”. Prove, for instance, that “The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.” I’m sure they have their arguments and interpretations, but frankly, I think their interpretations are flat wrong - and usually based on pretty weak reasoning (especially all that B.S. about Ham and dark-skinned races).
Not to mention that one could produce an opposite list of quotes from Christian abolitionists (throughout the centuries - Wilberforce certainly wasn’t the first) who used the Bible to prove that slavery was wrong. It’s not fair to only focus on the pro-slavery Christians and not recognize that the Bible has also been a great source of inspiration for abolitionists and egalitarians as well.
BTW, for a good book on how the Bible does point one towards opposing slavery, check out William Webb’s, “Slaves, Women & Homosexuals”.
Comment by: Helen
20Mike Clawson wrote:
I understand what you’re saying - I wasn’t trying to make the case that the Bible has only been used to support slavery. I was just saying that it was still being used that way relatively recently. As you point out, though, not by everyone and in particular not by Wilberforce, who managed to bring about the end of the UK slave trade on Feb 23, 200 years ago.
Comment by: Karen
21I’m sure that’s true. It’s just that the message seems to be unnecessarily ambiguous - to me at least.
I also want to point out that a great many secularists and freethinkers were prime movers in the U.S. abolitionist movement, and they were not motivated by the bible.
Comment by: Mike Clawson
22Indeed they were, though I think it can be shown historically that the main impetus behind abolitionism (both in England the U.S.) came from the Christian tradition - mostly via the Quakers actually.
And of course, every movement has its heroes and villains. Just as there were Christians on both sides of the slavery issue, there were also plenty of secularists and freethinkers from the Enlightenment era who thought science supported the inherent superiority of some races, thereby justifying slavery. Enlightenment ideas are just as much a culprit in the past and ongoing oppressions and injustices of Western Culture as Christianity has been. I don’t think it’s an accident that the Age of European Enlightenment and the Age of European Imperialism occurred at the same time.
Comment by: Rachel
23Here is an opinion piece that ran today in the LA Times about this topic:
British abolition’s faith-based roots