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If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus and say, “He died for all.” — Hymn, There Is A Balm in Gilead
“Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, it becomes redemptive.” — Bishop Michael Bruce Curry
OK, I admit to being a bit of an Anglophile. I am also a bit of a Hispanophile, but that is for another day. I enjoyed the wedding today. Sadly, there were some trolls who saw this as simply another opportunity to dig in. At least one American troll was going on about how we broke away from England and how we did not need to pay attention to these people who had spread slavery throughout the world. There are various things that might be said to answer the troll, not that he will listen.
Slavery was recorded as existing in the Old Testament. In India the untouchables still have trouble being treated in an equal fashion, and, long after the freeing of the slaves in America, were caught in an almost slavery situation. One ought to read the UN reports to know that some types of slavery still exist in the world today. But, most important, it should be noted that slavery was done away within the UK decades before it was done away within the USA. The claim that the UK spread slavery throughout the world is not even historically close to correct. They profited from it, as did almost all prior empires. This does not excuse them, but it does invalidate the claim by the troll.
Moreover, the troll fails to notice that the UK gave up slavery before the USA. He also fails to note that the British Royal Family is now integrated, whereas the USA response to President Obama was to mount a series of discredited charges as to his birth certificate. Moreover, in the presidency after President Obama, the USA has retreated to a series of fairly separatist positions with regard to non-white members of the USA, which include being shot by the police while black on many occasions, being arrested while black in places where a white would not have been (can we say Starbucks), and being falsely convicted of crimes while black which led to imprisonment before the convictions were overturned by later DNA evidence, or by a review of the available evidence. Meanwhile, the integration of former members of the British Empire into the UK has been significantly more successful.
In other words, this is most definitely a case of projection of the USA into the UK situation.
Meanwhile, let us look at the words of the Episcopal bishop. I was an Episcopal priest, but left for the Orthodox Church, for many good theological reasons. Nevertheless, his words remind us that there was a Jesus People song that said that, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” Love is being preached from the pulpit in England. Hate and division are being preached by the troll in America. How sad! So, let us remember rather the words of an American bishop with whose theological views I do not agree. Those words were sounder than the words of the American troll. He quoted the hymn, “If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus and say, ‘He died for all,'” — Hymn, There Is A Balm in Gilead. Let us tell the love of Jesus rather than dwelling on sins for which the UK repented before the USA ever did. Let us love to the point of accepting the other to our highest places in society, rather than rejecting them by trying to ascribe to them a false birth like what happened with President Obama. Let us learn to love rather than the increasing and open racism that is being displayed in the USA. The UK is not perfect, but it has certain aspects in which it is ahead of the USA.
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