Ekklesia writes today that James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, has given a lecture concerning racism and the slave trade. The slave trade may have been abolished, he says, but racism has not gone away, and slavery in other forms hasn't gone away either. What's more, he says, the campaign was not purely for the sake of human justice, but was partly motivated by Evangelicals who were intent on preaching the gospel at the same time.
I agree with Bishop James that abolishing the slave trade didn't rid us of racism or of slavery in other forms (indeed, it continued to be legal to own a slave well after 1807, it was only the trade in slaves that was abolished that year.) Racist attacks are in the news far too regularly. And slavery continues to this day. The Truth Isn't Sexy, a campaign launched this week, is one of a number of current campaigns aimed at ending human trafficking for sex and unpaid labour which goes on right under our noses, this very day, in our country. If you drink a coffee in Costa, or AMT, or Starbucks at a British airport any time soon, there may be a trafficking deal going on at the very next table, and you wouldn't even notice. A girl of sixteen or seventeen will have come here on the promise of waitressing work, only to have her passport taken from her by her escort, and to find herself in an airport coffee shop being sold into prostitution for a couple of thousand pounds. So James Jones is right to say that the underlying racist and economic issues of the slave trade, as well as contemporary forms of slavery, are current issues that demand a response.
All the same, I don't think we should underestimate the achievement of Wilberforce and his friends. Wilberforce, inspired and aided by Thomas Clarkson, devoted the majority of his energy to this issue for 18 years of his life, and while they didn't end slavery in all its forms for ever, and while his friends may have had mixed motives, it was still a major and wonderful achievement in human justice. I pray that others will rise up with Wilberforce's spirit, conscience and gut determination, and get behind just one single, terrible, impossible issue in our generation. There are plenty to choose from. Slavery, racism, poverty, child abuse... Nothing less than a concerted, passionate commitment to a cause will make anything change in any of these.
I pray today for my friends Si Johnston, and Carrie Pemberton, and others whose names I don't know who are devoting their energy and time to ending human trafficking. Between them these people and their lobby groups and organisations could have a similar impact today to what Clarkson and Wilberforce achieved two hundred years ago. They won't solve all the problems in the world. They will be doing well if, between them, they can make a difference to just one problem. But these are the kind of issues that require devotion to a single cause. Human trafficking is an issue that doesn't call for a balanced response. It calls for all-out, single-issue, impassioned and tireless campaigning for justice. The fact that many of the people involved in these campaigns are motivated by their Christian faith is, I think, not a good reason to criticise their action.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York speak movingly on this issue on YouTube (thanks to Neale for the link).
Here's the Ekklesia write up on Jones' lecture: Senior bishop criticises evangelicals and other Christians over slave trade abolition | Ekklesia.
Hi Maggi,
I don't know if you saw the English Archbishops on YouTube also talking about slavery, and how it continues today...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBTErUDIcz8
Neale
Posted by: Neale Adams | 22/03/2007 at 06:37