Think on These Things

THE CAPE COAST CASTLE CONTRADICTION
7/20/09 – (Think on these Things)
Oliver R. Phillips
Earlier this month President Obama and his family took time off from his official obligations to visit the African country of Ghana. Of course, because of his paternal roots in Africa (Kenya), his popularity is unprecedented. Wherever they went thousands greeted them heartily in typical African fashion.

One of the highlights of the visit was a guided tour of the Cape Coast Castle. This is a fortress where captured Africans were kept on their way to the trading blocks. There are five dungeon chambers for men. The strongest ones were separated during branding, when hot iron rods were used to mark their chests, and then chained and shackled together in the first chamber. It is estimated that at any given three-month period, the castle held 1,000 men and 300 women. The men were confined in groups of 200 per chamber roughly the size of a 30-by-15-foot holding cell before they were shipped to America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Only the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany can compare to the cruel, brutal, and inhumane conditions that was rendered to these future slaves.

Above this dungeon where these indignities were taking place was a church. It was a place of worship where the wealthy traffickers and rich barons attended regularly. While their hands were soiled with the blood of tens of thousands of Africans who died on the transatlantic voyage or ended up as slaves, they congregated to worship God. In the words of the president, “that reminds us that sometimes we can tolerate and stand by great evil even as we think we are doing good.”

Is it possible that we might similarly be culpable if as Christians we keep silent while our world is rampant with wanton violence against the weak and powerless? Here in the United States, the richest country in the world, millions have no health insurance, the incarceration rate among the Black population far outdistances the rate among the White population, and poverty is commonplace among Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Inner city schools are not adequately funded, discrimination and racial prejudice are quietly tolerated, emergency rooms don’t care for the poor, and homelessness is the lot of millions of men, women, and children.

The case can surely be made that many faith-based organizations throughout the country have come to the rescue by providing compassionate care. These organizations must be commended and praised for responding to the needs of the marginalized and less fortunate. However, there must be more than serving the wounded on the Jericho road. This is a remedial and pathological reaction, yet necessary.

The Jewish texts and the New Testament command us to do compassionate deeds as well as advocating on behalf of the poor, weak, and vulnerable. One reference that is unmistakably straightway is where Jeremiah denounces the king for grossly underpaying the laborers at a royal construction site. (Jer. 22:13-19). Similarly, in contemporary contexts of injustice, the ancient story of the God who leads slaves out of the callousness of oppression toward the Promised Land (Exodus 1-19) has had the clout to capture the political imagination.

African-Americans have long been stimulated by this story. On a Latin American liberation reading, the Exodus story has functioned as a resource and guide for the Church’s involvement in the task of human liberation.

Many are puzzled and marginal regarding the role the church must play in social justice in light of New Testament reflections. Here is some help for us all:

• ”Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” – Matt. 23:23 (NIV)

• Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
• But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?
• Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
• If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
• But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
• For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” – James 2:5-10 – NIV

• “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” – Luke 14:13-14

These are merely my rambling response to the possibility that God is calling the church to not only respond to the direct results of injustice; but to be agents of advocacy on behalf of the less fortunate. This, to me, means that the social network within the church must be galvanized to approach the social injustices that deny individuals their God-given liberties.

My prayer is that Cape Coast castle may not be repeated in our churches, communities, and our world.