Article May 4, 2020 Issue

Deliverance from slavery

Lyle Young

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor’s Christian Science Perspective column September 23, 2019.

The castle door I was looking at, which led down a few stone steps to where the slave ships had been, once served as the point of no return for many of the millions of Africans forcibly transported to the Americas. It was chilling to feel the dank walls of the castle dungeons.

The tour I took of the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana moved me deeply, and the most touching part of the tour was the young tour guide’s final words. His plaintive plea that visitors move their hearts beyond hatred and indifference to universal brotherliness and love still rings in my ears almost ten years later.

There are still all kinds of slavery in the world, from the tragic enslavement of individuals to the more subtle loss of freedom to enslaving habits. The call to abolish slavery in every form remains. I’ve found hope in something written in the book of Isaiah about three thousand years ago: “Is not this the fast that I [God] have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (58:6).

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