Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Slavery - God's Conflict of Interests
I was watching the news on BBC4 tonight; a black man was at the Westminster Abbey commemoration of the abolition of slavery making a protest requesting that the state apologise for the four hundred years of slavery that we had imposed on African people. The service, I guess, was a religious one therefore one involving atonement or absolution. Given that this was a religious ceremony, it could be nothing but asking for atonement. Atonement, however, means nothing without asking the person whom one has wronged for forgiveness - I gather that's the how the Jews do it, if I am wrong please let me know so I can put the record straight. Sounds ok by me. Now given that we have a religious ceremony taking place today; what was this service about - was The Archbishop of Canterbury asking
"Hey God, can you tell those black folks that we screwed up big time and we are very very sorry - and if they accept the apology, will you forgive us"?
God replies "OK Archbishop, I'll go over to them black folks and tell them you are very very sorry"
God tells the black people "I've heard it on good white religious authority that they are very very sorry - will you forgive them?"
You can imagine the response - no face to face apology - even the Reverend Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams are meeting face-to-face to reconcile the 30 years of troubles in Northern Ireland. They do not need a religious ceremony to do this.
I guess that this black man was attempting to make a similar point.
Blair was there, he appeared to be cringing in a choir stall.
"Hey God, can you tell those black folks that we screwed up big time and we are very very sorry - and if they accept the apology, will you forgive us"?
God replies "OK Archbishop, I'll go over to them black folks and tell them you are very very sorry"
God tells the black people "I've heard it on good white religious authority that they are very very sorry - will you forgive them?"
You can imagine the response - no face to face apology - even the Reverend Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams are meeting face-to-face to reconcile the 30 years of troubles in Northern Ireland. They do not need a religious ceremony to do this.
I guess that this black man was attempting to make a similar point.
Blair was there, he appeared to be cringing in a choir stall.
Labels: absolution, archbishop, atonement, politics, Religion, slavery
