Baptist Churches told to Apologise for Slave Trade
A senior member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) has called on individual churches to apologise for the slave trade on Racial Justice Sunday this weekend.
by Maria Mackay
Posted: Saturday, September 8, 2007, 11:56 (BST)
A senior member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) has called on individual churches to apologise for the slave trade on Racial Justice Sunday this weekend.
The Rev Wale Hudson-Roberts, racial justice coordinator for the BUGB, is inviting churches to issue statements this coming Sunday expressing their apologies in light of what he calls the “strong correlation” between issues of racial justice and the legacy of slave trade, reports the Baptist Times.
He said churches that felt they could not make a statement of apology “nevertheless should have a debate”.
“That debate is incredibly important,” he said.
Baptists have been considering whether to apologise for the slave trade since the call earlier in the year from the European Baptist Federation’s General Secretary, the Rev Tony Peck, for an apology from British Baptists.
Mr Hudson-Roberts, who supports Peck’s call, said that apologies from individual churches would be a “starting point”.
“For the sake of community cohesion, it's sometimes important for the offended to hear the words "I'm sorry" - that statement of regret that precedes the healing process,” he said, according to the newspaper.
The General Secretary of the BUGB, the Rev Jonathan Edwards, meanwhile, led a ‘litany of sorrow’ at a Baptist World Alliance meeting in Ghana in early July. Shortly after his return to the UK, he expressed his own “repudiation and deep regret” over the trade in an article in the Baptist Times on 19 July and said that, “There will continue to be a variety of opinions on the issue of an apology, and we will need to respect one another in that”.
The London Baptist Association is also considering an apology, while support has been voiced by regional member of the Yorkshire Baptist Association, Graham Brownlee, who said that an apology at the national level of the Church was important “because it’s an issue of justice”.
The issue has particular pertinence for the Yorkshire association because of the role played by William Wilberforce, an MP for Hull, in the eventual abolition of slavery.
“We don't want to say ‘wasn't Wilberforce a great guy’ and leave it at that,” he said.
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Added: Sunday, September 9, 2007, 5:00 (BST)
Dust your feet and move on. Slave trade has gone on for all of mankind. This particular slave trade was 7 or 8 generations ago! It was a sad part of history, just like the rest of man's inhumanity to man. There is on going, illegal trading of humans RIGHT NOW...where is that head line?
Instead of further painting the picture of victim, why not focus on the Victory we all have in Christ?
J. Burkhart, Houston, Tx
Added: Saturday, September 8, 2007, 23:07 (BST)
To Randall of Newman, Georgia, I don't know how educated you are about the slave trade but you need to go back and research the Slave trade, the Middle Passage, and learn the true beginnings of this atrocity!!! Many slave descendants are alive and well today here in America. The Mayflower and Jamestown all were not that long ago, even today there are similiar situations occurring in the deep South, I am referring to the jobs that held by the poorest of the poor, working long hours, low or no pay, no education, no decent housing, no opportunities to advance to a more humane form of living, American blacks have prospered, what a fallacy, how can you make such an ignorant remark, you are living in a delusional state. You DON'T HAVE A CLUE!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!make such an ignorant racial statement about slavery.
I think it is a wonderful and humane start, I thank the church for taking an initiative to begin dialogue, apologizing for the worst human atrocity that could happen to one race of people at the hands of another.
barbara, los angeles, ca. USA
Added: Saturday, September 8, 2007, 14:12 (BST)
As for an apology being given about slavery I must ask who sold the first slaves from their tribe? I think the apology needs first be addressed from the tribe that sold the slaves into the slave market. I live in America and have come to understand that many of the slaves decendants would not even be alive today had they not been taken in by someone that could help them survive. If they were beaten and raped and held without their consent by people that were ungodly then prehaps they need to be told it was wrong. However there are no slaves anymore, the blacks in America no nothing about being slaves it was their forefathers . American blacks have prospered because their parents were brought here from terrible conditions in Africa.
Randall, Newnan,Ga.
