that sin, its selfishness and greed has
wrought. The precious lives of people
like these ought not to be trivialised.
Jesus Christ laid the pattern of self
sacrifice and it is an ungrateful and
callous thing to fully take advantage of
the advances that they have achieved
for us and see no connection with
ourselves in carrying on that legacy in
our time in our world.
Where to begin?
Cry out to God for the power to
change, the power of inspiration, the
clarity of vision and the zeal to begin
to do what we are convicted by God’s
Spirit every day to be right. Pray for
the moral courage to say, “No! That
is Not Right” and “I will not join you in
such wrongdoing.” Pray for fortitude
to walk alone if it comes down to it.
Pray for the courage to stop trusting
the paltry things of this world like
money and material possessions
that all get blown away by the wind,
battered and tossed in torrential rain,
swept away by floods and consumed
by the flames of fire. They do not last.
Only what we do for Christ in this
world will last!
If you are equally shocked along with
me to learn from the news of the
day that there are atrocities currently
happening that we had once thought
would be forever consigned to the
horrible history of the past, then wake
up! Slavery is rampant, sex trafficking,
female castration, child marriages,
abductions, human sacrifices, are all
still taking place. Who will stop it?
YOU and I MUST!
We need to get off our computer
keyboards, smartphones and media
gadgets long enough to make our
lives matter. Slavery was no joke and
the post slavery years were not a
walk in the park, lest we forget that;
laws do not change the human heart,
ONLY JESUS DOES! We need to read
our history again and then put things
into perspective, we have come a
long way… long enough to have
the right to rant on facebook, post
statuses, ‘Tweet’, make films and yes
to our shame, some go thrash private
property in aimless, angry, protest or
worse resort to violent crime, even
the taking of innocent lives. Our
anger is God given, it is the only
human emotion that signals us to rise
up in the face of injustice; without it
we would be passive, complacent,
‘sitting ducks’ but anger has to be
channelled towards a constructive
target and a righteous outcome. Or
else it will engulf us like a wild forest
fire.
If we feel lost, then look back and see
how far we’ve come and from whence
we’ve come. If we feel discouraged,
then find strength in the example of
the trail blazers and if we are lacking
fortitude then find moral courage in
the faith of our fathers. DO NOT BY
ANY MEANS belittle the sacrifice of
their lives by living as ignorant, selfish,
callous, self-indulgent and indifferent
people! The opposite of love is not
hate it’s indifference! Like pressed
flowers will you then be among the
faithful in our time?
“Precious are the saints in the sight
of the Lord...” Pressed down but
not crushed, persecuted but not
forsaken” ... p
Rosa Parks
with Dr. Martin
Luther King
Jr. altered the
negro progress
in Montgomery,
Alabama, 1955,
by the bus boycott she unwillingly
began when she refused to give up
her seat on the bus to a white person
and move to the back of the bus
were Negroes were consigned. She
became an important symbols of the
modern Civil Rights Movement and
an international icon of resistance to
racial segregation.
Lord Shaftesbury
Dediccated 44 years
of his life to public
service as a member
of British Parliament
to realise the reform
of the living and
working conditions of the poor and
oppressed in Britain. Reforms passed
included, ‘lunacy’ laws, child labor,
factory, mining and Education,
Jewish restoration to Israel and the
suppression of opium trade among
others.
Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
Civil rights and
peace movement
leader. Camp aigns
included:
• Montgomery bus boycott
• Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
• Youth March for Integrated
Schools
• Albany Movement
• Birmingham campaign
• Walk to Freedom
• March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom
• St. Augustine movement
• Selma to Montgomery marches
• Chicago Open Housing Movement
• March Against Fear
• Memphis sanitation strike
• Poor People’s Campaign
Harriet
Beecher - Stowe
Author of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin- a
seminal work in
revealing the
horrors of Slavery
in the USA to readers world wide.
She was considered dangerous to
Southern American Slave Society.
By Angela Slack
educator, curriculum/
literacy specialist, technical
author and magazine editor
April - June 2018
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