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View Articles:
Enslaved
Tuned In to Our Relationship with God
The Verdict
Enslaved
August 31, 2010
“We know that we are the children of God,
and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one..”
(1 John 5:19)
Just four days before his death in 1791, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, wrote William Wilberforce, urging him to work for the abolition of slavery. Wesley exhorted: “Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.” Wilberforce took up the cause. Two months later, in a speech before the House of Commons, he said:
Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ‘ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have . . . extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic . . .
Wilberforce worked tirelessly to persuade his colleagues in Parliament to eliminate slavery and the slave trade. (The 2006 movie “Amazing Grace” dramatized his quest.) The United Kingdom outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and completely abolished slavery in 1833. (The Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States wasn’t enacted until 1865.)
Although slavery has been outlawed in America for nearly one hundred fifty years, it still exists in one form or other. Recently I viewed a presentation on “Human Trafficking” (the term for modern-day slavery). It is very disturbing to learn that presently there are 27 million around the world living in slavery to others; some of them live right near us. Just last month Todd (“King Tut”) Carter was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for enslaving six girls in Milwaukee.
Just as they did in the 19th century, Christians today need to respond (and thankfully, some are) to the plight of the millions who are enslaved and abused in fields, houses, hotels, brothels, pornographic studios, and exotic clubs all over the world. Just as importantly, we Christians need to remember that there are people (billions of them) living all around us enslaved by the evil one. We know we would do everything we could to free a loved caught in the slavery of human trafficking. Should we be any less concerned for the plight of those still under the control of the evil one?
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