Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 with the name Isabella Baumfree. She fell in love with a man named Robert, but could not marry him. She was forced to marry Thomas with whom she had five children. They were taken away from her and sold as property. In 1827 New York passed an Anti-Slavery Law which her owner ignored.
Hate Temporarily Masks Pain
The treatment of slaves was justified by racism. It was argued that people with dark skin from Africa were inferior, and therefore it was acceptable to treat them as property. This same kind of thinking made it worse for women of color. Some people argued that men were above women in their intellectual capacity.
Today some people look around at the problems that we face, and blame it on certain races of people. There are people in our world today that openly argue for a “white nation.” They feel that somehow all the problems we face will somehow go away if there was racial purity. These same arguments are applied to the genders: that men should rule over women. Walter Brueggeman compares “ideology” to “reality” in his book, “Reality, Grief, Hope.”
Reality, however, paints a different picture. No matter who you are, you will suffer, face problems, and eventually die. Reality is that no matter how good you are, how healthy you eat, how much money you have, how much power you can muster, you cannot stave off the forces of chaos and destruction forever.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
James Baldwin
The reason why racism and nationalism exist is because it offers a temporary illusion from the extremely difficult and painful reality of the human condition. No people, no land, nobody is immune from suffering and death.
Pain is the Human Condition
Even Jesus couldn’t escape the reality of suffering and death. He hungered and suffered for 40 days in the wilderness. He was betrayed by his own followers, tried dishonestly, and died painfully on the cross. If Jesus couldn’t escape suffering and death, then we can’t either.
Jesus Christ did not remain dead, however, he raised from the dead a new creation, and he offers the same hope and possibility for each and every person. This promise of eternal life is the fulfillment of the promise God first gave to Abraham thousands of years ago. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:14-17
God told Abraham that he would receive land, descendants, and blessing. To be given land means that you are a part of something larger than yourself that will continue past the short span of your life. This is why people love their countries, there is a sense of permanence. The promise of descendants is also an expression of eternal life. They are the ones who will continue after you are gone. Blessing of course is an indication that you are not alone in your achievements but that a larger more powerful force, God, has chosen to look favorably on you. Put briefly this is the promise of: God, Family, and Country.
Saved from Suffering by Faith
Nicodemus was confused by this promise because he might of thought that these were already given to him as a result of being a descendant of Abraham in Jerusalem and the land to the west of the Jordan. But Jesus pushes Nicodemus to understand these blessings in a new way.
Flesh doesn’t count for much. Jesus says that to enter into God’s promised land one must be born of water and Spirit. You have to have faith.
This is the reason why racism, nationalism, and ideology are not compatible with Christianity. The core essence of Christianity is that every single person can enter into God’s promised land of eternal life and blessing. It doesn’t matter what kind of flesh you have, or what nation you live in. All that matters is faith.
In 1827 Isabella Baumfree walked off of the plantation in which she had lived in broad daylight. She was walking to enter into the promised land. In 1843 she converted to Christianity and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She advocated for rights for women and African Americans. Here is her most famous speech: Ain’t I A Woman?
Ain’t I a Woman
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention, Old Stone Church (since demolished) in Akron, Ohio. Courtesy US National Parks
This is the reason why Sojourner Truth was such a powerful force in the renewing of society. She was at her core an evangelist. Her primary interest was bringing people to faith in Christ. Although ending slavery, and gaining rights for women and black people were critically important to her, they were a result of having faith in Jesus. She was focused on making disciples of Jesus Christ; and clearly no disciple of Jesus Christ, no person born of water and Spirit should ever discriminate based on flesh.
Leave Your Land
Sojourner left the plantation where she was enslaved in broad daylight. She left that well known land for something new. Abraham also left the land he knew as God directed him.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
Genesis 12:1
You have got to leave the land you know to enter into a new land. This could be physical, but it could also be figurative. You also need to leave behind old patterns of behavior, as you step into God’s blessings. Nicodemus asked, “How can a person be born again?” It’s a good question.
How can you leave behind well known ways living for something new?
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