In the last few weeks God has shown me how big slavery has been since the beginning of time. When most people hear of slavery they think of the civil war.
How can people bring people from Africa to America (a so called “free” country) to be their slaves? Somehow this "God country" didn't read in the Bible to love everyone and be kind to them and not to kill them (which many slave owners beat and sometimes killed people who they called slaves.) Or maybe they had a totally different Bible all together.
This past Christmas Eve Mom, Grandpa, and I went geocaching. We went to an old church cemetery to find one. The church building was built in the 1850’s.
How can people bring people from Africa to America (a so called “free” country) to be their slaves? Somehow this "God country" didn't read in the Bible to love everyone and be kind to them and not to kill them (which many slave owners beat and sometimes killed people who they called slaves.) Or maybe they had a totally different Bible all together.
This past Christmas Eve Mom, Grandpa, and I went geocaching. We went to an old church cemetery to find one. The church building was built in the 1850’s.
As soon as we had found the cache I wanted to go take a few pictures of the little white church building. I was a little cautious because there were two cars parked by the building. But Mom said to go ahead. I did. When I went to one side of the building to take a picture of a bell I notice that the sanctuary was two stories high.
When I called Mom and Grandpa over to see Grandpa wanted to go in. He thought it was reasonable to go around to every door to see if anyone was inside. So about three doors later two older men came to the door and were more than willing to let us see the inside. As we entered the sanctuary one of the men told us that the sanctuary hadn't been changed since it was built It even had the original benches in it.
This old church still has the balcony where the church members’ slaves sat during church. People would not even let other human beings sit with them to praise God. I seriously do not think a true Christian would have slaves. When I saw this and sat down on these I wonder how so many who called themselves Christians could own another human being. The truth is, I do not think a true follower of Christ would.
On one another geocaching adventure with friends in North Mississippi, we went to another grave yard. As we were walking through the woods to the cache we can across five graves that read “Here Lies Five Great Men”. The only thing we knew was that they were old graves and someone had come and put newer stones to replace the old ones. When we got to the cache there was a note that read “Great story about the five slaves” This note lead us to believe these five graves belong to 5 people who were enslaved.
As we passed them again you couldn't help but look at them in a different way. This experience and seeing the benches at the old church helped bring slavery alive to be. This isn't something that happened in a different state or country; this happened here, in Mississippi. And slavery still happens in Mississippi, and all over the world.
Numbers show that there are more slaves today than there were during the Civil war. Girls being sold into prostitution. (Around 800,000 sold each year, and around 30,000 die each year because of human trafficking). Some being as young as 3 or 4. This problem is getting bigger each day. A lot of these girls, and even boys, are sold in Thailand. And about 20,000 are sold each year in the US (The Candy Shop http://stopthecandyshop.com/the-film)
Numbers show that there are more slaves today than there were during the Civil war. Girls being sold into prostitution. (Around 800,000 sold each year, and around 30,000 die each year because of human trafficking). Some being as young as 3 or 4. This problem is getting bigger each day. A lot of these girls, and even boys, are sold in Thailand. And about 20,000 are sold each year in the US (The Candy Shop http://stopthecandyshop.com/the-film)
Around 218,00 kids work in sweatshops (making things we buy everyday) just so they can eat. And if the “Owners” of the sweatshops do not think they are working fast enough they will beat them brutely and then espect them to continue working.
I had an opportunity to talk to someone (Mikaela Alger) who had recently been to Nicaragua
“While I was there, I went to a sugar cane plantation in Chichigalpa.
The sugar company pays the workers next to nothing, and to top it all off, they use incredibly caustic chemical pesticides in the fields WHILE THE WORKERS ARE WORKING.
These chemicals cause severe kidney shut down, seep into the ground water and poison the environment so that even those who aren't getting sprayed daily with the stuff get it in their food and water. The kicker is, these people know that the work they are doing is killing them. They know they can't get the treatment they need, but they have no other choice. Some one told me that everyday, a person in Chichigalpa dies from kidney failure. The death toll is astronomical. In response, the government didn't build new hospitals or regulate the sugar company... instead, they built a brand new cemetery to accommodate the dead. It's a horrible injustice.”
Slavery is such a big modern problem. How are we suppose to fix it?
“And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone.”
Mary Harris Jones
(The pictures of the sugar cane plantation and workers were not taken in Nicaragua
A new cemetery? Wow. But what is sad, is that we in the church often do the same sort of thing in response to those dying (physically AND spiritually around us). It might not be a new cemetery, but it is just as useless. We do things that don't solve the problem, just "control" the results.
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