Lenten reflections

The greatest accomplishment of Christianity is the abolition of slavery. To think that the original founders did not find it so loathsome that they had to speak out against it, when they were living on earth, is instructive. Jesus moved in a circle consisting of blue-collar workers and common people we come across every day, the type of people who didn’t own slaves and so he scarcely talked about the slavery. Paul on the other hand moved in high echelon of the society and had a fairly good grasp of the slavery issue. His only advice on the issue was that the slave owners should treat their slaves fairly. Both treated any mundane earthly matter with little regard, as they thought the society they were building (their kingdom) was not of this world.

However, the slow corrosive influence of the kernel of Christianity, to “show love to others” as an imperative, over the centuries resulted in snapping the chains of slavery some time in nineteenth century. The Abolitionist movement in the British Isles was the finest expression of Christianity that there was.

The result is astounding - US followed suit and now slavery is unthinkable. Two men, William Wilberforce and Abe Lincoln, working tirelessly and at a great sacrifice to their own personal lives, changed the humanity for the better. Except for few countries such as southern Sudan or Saudi Arabia on the sly, the modern practice is to shun it as a plague and work diligently against it. It is astonishing that a practice that was taken for granted from the earliest days of human existence, started I suppose when the first tribe conquered its enemy tribe, is no longer followed and is considered morally wrong.

That is the power of Christian idea – the idea of Love.