The wrongs done to the people of the past due to slavery, kidnapping of Africans from Africa and the horrors that we know to be true cannot have any kind of reparation in dollar amounts to those people that were kidnapped and slaughtered. That would be devaluing them. Their lives were worth infinitely more than that.
It was a great wrong. There were different kinds of slavery throughout history. One kind of slavery thousands of years ago was where a family would willingly go into slavery to pay off debt or to keep from starving to death hoping to have people that were kind that they would work for so they would remain slaves until the debt was paid off. If it was a fair Arrangement it basically was the equivalent of working for room and board plus a little bit extra to pay off your debt.
But throughout history there are many other kinds of horrible things that have happened. Africans are not the only people to have terrible things happen.
There is no logic in paying the children for the wrongs done to the parents. Africans kill other Africans. To this day. To this day Americans kill other Americans. We call it murder, or abortion, though not all abortion is murder.
We are appalled at the Horrors, and rightly so, there is no minimizing or diminishing the absolute disgusting revolting things that have happened in the past. And neither is there any minimizing or diminishing the absolute disgusting things that are happening in our present.
We live in a generation where what should be the safest place for a human, the womb, is invaded and life is torn out and destroyed. If the reports are true Planned Parenthood at its beginnings was to systematically abort African-Americans. Whether or not those reports are true I leave to God I wasn’t there. However we engage in horrific behaviors in this generation.
We have a generation that supports strongly pornography. Women often are engaged in sex trade trafficking, as well as men. They are ripped from their homes and forced into the sex slave trade and many Americans support that either subtly through their pornography, or full-blown through forced prostitution. These are revolting disgusting things in this time.
We live in a generation that has no concern for the people that are our servants. All over the world people make things for us to use and we rejoice in our sales. We rejoice in the cheap clothing that we can buy from free assembly and forgive me I don’t know who thought of that name but it sickens me. I don’t know what they meant but I don’t want free assembly. I want somebody getting paid a decent wage if they’re going to work for me. But we are so disconnected in this generation we don’t even think about let alone care about the servants and slaves that make our clothes or our electronic devices. And I have been told when I talk like this people are offended that I am calling them the slave driver, but if you support a slave industry or an industry where people are working in factories long hours and hardly making any money, just like in the days of African slaves, there were a few people that refused to buy refined sugar because they knew that refined sugar only came at the price of slaves. But most people didn’t care. So I think before we try to make any reparation for the people who are gone who have suffered deeply, we need to take account of the horrors that we are contributing to and use our time energy money and resources to stop the current slavery in this generation.
It is one thing to strive to repair the land stolen from a people, but I have never owned a Slave. I have been a Slave, hear me. I was slave for 10 years. Literally so I am not uncompassionate to those who have suffered, but do I force the people that enslaved me to recompense me for the years that I lost? How do I force somebody to recompense me for the years of PTSD because they tried to kill me in the middle of the night? Should I seek revenge?
Or at least some form of recompense?
I cannot and I find it revolting to think of such ways or things that disgusts me as much as the slavery itself, because every breath that I breathe is a gift. I did not create myself. I did not even give birth to myself. Yes this world has huge evil and wickedness, but yet there is order, the stars do not suddenly land upon the Earth in full Fury but they stay often in their spot. The sun doesn’t suddenly reach out its Rays to destroy us. There is order within this universe, in spite of the bit of Chaos. And in spite of the wickedness and the evil and the hate, there is a love that nothing can ever destroy. When light enters a room Darkness has to flee. There is no battle when you turn the light on, darkness is gone.
My Brother Martin Luther King Jr spoke well when he said hate cannot drive out hate only love can drive out hate.
So the question is is it only in this life that all of these things need to be dealt with for justice? And the answer is no. You did not create the world. The sun and moon and stars do not answer to your bidding, Justice often is opposed to judgment. Because we want to judge and condemn others but we do not want to equally judge and condemn ourselves that the equally horrific disgusting things we ourselves have done.
We didn’t make the law of gravity. Neither did we make the spiritual laws of justice that are effective in this world, we might think we do and we might strive to be a part of them, but if we’re not in line with the one who created the universe and spoke the world into existence, our justice is skewed at best, revolting at worst.
Greed in the Bible is a damnable sin equal to the sin of murder. So do we want Justice or do we just want to judge others?
What is the reason people want reparation? I don’t find the logic in the children receiving benefit from the parents suffering I find that sick. However there is a deeper need in society today, and it is a many fauceted need with many threads. Every individual needs to be seen. Every human needs to understand they are somebody worth living, suffering and dying for.
Since the age of manufacturing we have stripped meaningful work from society and there is through greed and self-centeredness and lies and cowardice huge disconnect in our society where there are those who seem to do very well and live a contented life and others who suffer suffer and suffer more and if it is only for this life that we live, we are greatly to be pitied no matter where we stand on the spectrum of wealth or poverty, knowledge, fear, if it is only for this life? Then I guess we would want to get as much as we could today but then there is no justice because if we succeed and we get tons of money off of the suffering of our parents, again to me that is revolting I don’t want anybody making money off of the suffering I endured for 10 years and I don’t either wish those who harmed me to have any more suffering, they had enough. And it was their suffering and their pain and the hate spewed upon them then overflowed into hatred of me. So we can keep pouring into that suffering and hatred and pain if that is what we choose, or we can come to the one place where every ounce of the hatred, all of the doubts and the fear and the destruction finally stops. Martin Luther King Jr had knowledge for a season of that place. It was at the cross of Jesus Christ where the one who suffered more than any human was tortured, hung naked for the world to see even though he had never ever done anything wrong. He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, one from whom people hid their faces. People didn’t want to deal with his pain, but his pain was his love for us for our pain and at the cross it is finished. There is no monetary reparation for the evil of the past generation or the evil of the current generation. However there is justice. Because one day every human will stand before the Living God and will give an account for everything we have said and done. Every Wicked thing every time we’ve turned away from the homeless, we were turning away from Jesus Christ.
See judgment is where we want to make our own laws and we make ourselves seem like the good guy and everybody else is so horrible and bad, but the reality if we use God and His law, according to God’s law Pride, exalting ourselves thinking we’re better than others or that we don’t need God is an abomination it’s absolutely revolting and disgusting Before the Throne of God. Because it’s opposed to his love, his truth is Mercy and his grace.
For those who are crying for reparation let them determine how they are using their time energy money and resources and be honest with the person in the mirror. Are we now the new slave drivers? As We Sip our Starbucks drive our Tesla’s live in our fancy houses and be moan the poor all over the world that are suffering. I would say at least when I judge the person in the mirror by the standard that God has given, woe is me! Because I am a woman of unclean lips I live among the people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the Living God! My sins are disgusting. It doesn’t minimize the suffering or the pain, it brings the truth that we also through withholding resources and time and energy and money that could be poured out into the suffering of this world, that we also are equally damnably guilty and so we have a choice.
We can throw the first stone we can demand that our rights be met, that we the children receive blessing and benefit from what our forefathers have suffered, I’m sorry how does anybody think like this? Or we can live our lives and not demand reparation but demand a culture come out of the muck and the filth and the grime and be a blessing to those who are in those circumstances In This Moment In Time. Throw away our computers if we have to if that’s the only way we can get rid of our p***, oh forgive me I’m sorry I forgot most people think that their computers are worth more than the women that are being abused. Lack of value of the individual is one of the biggest issues in society throughout the generations. But at the cross of Jesus Christ we find out that you the person in the mirror and every other human on the face of the earth is somebody that God who created the universe who spoke the world into existence the one who put sunrise and sunsets into position with so many elements of beauty so that you would understand that you are a treasure but when that wasn’t enough he sent his son into the world, not to rescue wonderful sweet kind loving people, but to save sinners. People that sometimes really do want to do right, but find that they fall short because we can be really perfect in our eyes but when it comes to Eternal judgment it’s going to be his standard that counts and we will find out we were never God to begin with. So Justice thankfully according to God’s standards includes forgiveness and mercy. So at the cross of Jesus Christ he cried out father forgive them because they do not know what they’re doing. It is an insane crazy world that continues a societal structure that creates lack of value for each individual life. It is an insane crazy world that doesn’t grasp or understand the power and the love of the Living God that walks in darkness and fear afraid for tomorrow, instead of faith knowing that he will provide for the Lilies of the Field and the birds of the air and yes yes there are seasons of suffering, but as we praise him and we worship him he takes those death seasons and he alone is the one who is able to take the darkest moment in history, do you think God not have the deepest pain when for your sake and mine the Triune God was divided. Because in that moment our sin was poured upon his son, the Lord Jesus cried out father father why have you forsaken me?! And we know what happens when you split an atom but what happens when God splits from God? The reconciliation of the world. Because you see God forgave the murderers that were torturing him. He forgave you and I are unbelief and our pride, are cowardice that doesn’t want to stand up and speak the truth to ourselves or those around us that we really really have wickedness within us. We have no room for Pride or being proud. Certainly there are things at times we do well and that is a blessing but every good thing comes from God so why would we not honor him and glorify him and tell him thank you because every breath of our body comes from him? What reparation did God demand of you and I? He was perfect in his judgment. Every Wicked sin that has ever happened, the word of God says Jesus died for the sins of the world. Because that is how powerful the love of God is. Hate cannot drive out hate. At the cross Jesus Christ cried in the midst of being tortured and dying, father forgive them! Because they do not know what they’re doing and in that hour he forgive the Pharisees who in the name of God the religious leaders of the day ordered and condemned him to be tortured and killed. He forgave the disciples who encountered us fled the scene. He forgave Peter whom the Catholic Church looks to as their first pope, he forgave Peter for denying him three times. He forgave the Roman soldiers that were pagans that worshiped other gods that crucified him, pagans that often would throw their unwanted babies out for the animals to eat if the newborn baby was somehow deformed it was just not wanted however God didn’t see it that way. And there will be a renewal of all things. And in that hour when every human stands before the Judgment seat of Jesus Christ, will we be busy condemning those around us and those of the past or will we be too busy clinging to the cross of Jesus Christ and to the blood to have any stones to throw? There are horrible sins in today’s generation and if we do not take a stand against the slavery of this day and age maybe that’s where each individual needs to begin. Choosing life by what we put in front of our mind and our ears not serving voices that speak to death into this culture but entering into a battle mode I don’t think it’s possible outside of Jesus in the Cross of Christ. Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing. Do you know the story behind the song Amazing Grace? If not look it up. But be careful my friend of judgment, because you and I are not the judge. The Living God is. And he will judge you and I and every human according to his laws, not what we think they should be. Put the time energy and money for those who are crying for reparation into helping reconcile this generation bringing them up out of the darkness and the damnable oppression and fear of scarcity and lack. Let your enemies be greed and pride. Let your enemies be the things that are destroying this culture and let us not make the same mistakes as a slave drivers of the past because it has nothing to do with race or country or culture. Evil is the perfect equal opportunity employer. But the wages of sin is death. You work for sin. And at the end it happily pays you in destruction and death. So because God was merciful to us, Martin Luther King Jr understood and grasped this, because he knew it wasn’t just about this world in this life. What does it again a person if they gain the world and lose their soul? Every human is an eternal creature. There are a lot of lies out there. But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the way the truth and the life. And thank God he’s not demanding reparation from us for all the wrongs we’ve done him.
Take the time energy money and resources instead of demanding reparation, take the time energy money and resources instead of foolish words and greed and arrogant Pride and get into the suffering of this world. Ask God for help because you can’t do it by yourself. You have to come into connection with the love that was willing to die for you. The one who considered you worth creating, living, suffering and dying for. Don’t cling to the past too tightly. Or you’ll have no room for what is needed for the future.
Seek justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly before your God.
God’s peace.
