No Longer Slave or Free

 Urge slaves to be submissive to their masters in everything, to be pleasing, not talking back, not stealing, but showing complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the teaching of God our Savior.

Titus 2: 9-10 NRSVue

There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 

Galatians 3:28 NRSVue

During August I read an excellent book on Harriet Tubman by Tiya Miles called Night Flyer. I'll write more about it another time but it gave me fresh insights into Tubman, a remarkable woman enslaved in Maryland during the 19th century. She liberated herself, eventually made her way to Canada, but returned to danger several times to lead other enslaved people to freedom. She was strongly motivated by her Christian faith and immersed in scripture, even though she was illiterate. 

Shortly after reading this book one of the daily lectionary readings was from Titus and when I continued on in the chapter I came upon the instructions about slaves. It's possible that you've never explored Titus, a tiny New Testament letter that has has an attribution to the apostle Paul but probaby wasn't written by him. I can't recall ever drawing on a text from Titus for a sermon and certainly not these verses. 

While we might be relieved that these aren't Paul's words the reality is that he seemed  ambivalent about slavery, perhaps because it was a given in everyday life in the Roman Empire. In the letter to Philemon which follows immediately on Titus in the New Testament Paul makes the case to free Onesimus, a companion who may have been a runaway or "self liberated" enslaved person. 

Verses such as the ones from Titus were used by enslavers and preachers to justify the scourge of slavery in the United States and would often quote them to emancipators in debates. We now regard slavery as the "original sin" of the American experiment, one that resulted in a civil war -- or do we? 

The Trump administration has instructed the Smithsonian Institution, the National Parks system, and other entities under the "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" executive order. One photo in particular has been ordered removed showing the scarred back of a formerly enslaved man (see below)

As Trump put it: "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

Hmm. Slavery very bad, equality very good, for all of humanity. I figured this premise was now a given. Of course, the largest denomination in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention, a church born out of a split regarding slavery. The SBCs formal apology for racist policies, including opposing the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s, didn't happen until 1995 and there are still disturbing conversations about Critical Race Theory. 

This issue shouldn't be rearing its ugly head in 2025 but our assumptions about right and wrong, justice and injustice, love and hatred are being challenged at every turn. One of the earliest Christian documents, preceding the Gospels, is Paul's letter to the churches in the region of Galatia. It upholds freedom and equality for all, a message that we need to hear loudly and clearly in these tumultuous times. This is sanity and truth. And we can all look to the example of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass and other formerly enslaved people who understood the North Star of freedom in Christ. 

'The Scourged Back', an 1863 photo of a formerly enslaved man named 'Peter', which solidified public support for the abolition of slavery (William D. McPherson and J. Oliver (public domain))