Day 10

//Monday 8.14.17//

Today we got back down to business. Dr. Meekins taught class this morning and we had some very deep and provocative discussions about racism, identity, and how Christians fit into all of that’s going on in the world today. The question that was posed that I have been thinking about is “When is it okay for Christians to take up arms for a cause?” Woah, talk about a loaded question.

I’m working through the answer, personally, but my initial response was that it was okay when lives were in danger. Coming from a military background, I’ve developed a respect and appreciation for those in service to our country. So when I think about taking up arms to fight for those being killed, those in danger of being killed or those too weak to fight for themselves, my gut reaction is “Yeah, that makes sense”. But I’ve been pushed to wrestle with it in the context of turning the other cheek.

After lunch we traveled to the Slave Lodge Museum. It was very sobering and emotional to read accounts of people being taken fro their home and treated as property, having everything taken from them, even their name which is basically taking a persons identity. I especially had a hard time reading about how people who were slaves could have an entire family and still not own their own children, many of them having their children taken from them and sold to another slave owner. I also did not realize the severity and just the amount and extent of the slave trade. It made me think back to my time in high school when I learned about slavery in America and how it was taught briefly and emotionally detached and distanced. We weren’t taught how to think through the implications, the brutality of it, the fact that these were real people, who had lives, minds, hearts, souls and they were treated and traded the same way as rum and sugar cane. Our upbringing as students was just to memorize dates and names o pass the next test or paper. I’m not putting down the teachers, but there’s defiantly a problem with how thing are being taught and we are not feeling the least bit sorry for the actions of the past or knowing the full extent of what happened. Slavery is not a thing to be taken lightly.

Which brings me to today’s world. Slavery is still an issue, although people have become more cunning in how they trade and traffic human beings. Every day men, women and children are being trafficked and exploited, many in the sex industry. When do we say enough is enough? When do we face what is going on and stop the dehumanization, exploitation and oppression of people?

I know a lot of that was very loaded and hopefully provocative. These are some of the things that I have been thinking about and have been brought to my mind today and it’s something I hope I don’t forget or stop thinking about.

#InAfrica #CapeTown #SouthAfrica #Africa #CapeTown #SASA