How well do you know your great grandparents?
In prosperous parts of today's world, it is no longer rare for people to know their great grandparents - but not
all 8 of them. Our ancestor list doubles each generation. Go back one more 'great' and you have 16 forebears. In
4 generations your antecedents total 30! Double that generational leap to 8 generations and you reach back about
240 years, arriving at the period of the great slavery abolition debate. How sure are you about which side of that
debate each of your 240 six-times-great grandparents took?
Choices
I ask this question to encourage more truthful
debate about the fiery subject of the slave-trade heritage. It's too easy to shout slogans and take up opposing positions.
If you've researched your ancestry you will have created a story by making choices. You are unlikely to have traced every
possible line of descent from the hundreds of people whose genes you inherited. Indeed, some choices may have been made
for you by past generations who erased the memory of relatives who brought them shame. Some black researchers have been
shocked to discover slave owners in their ancestry. Many people with white faces are descended from workers who lived in v
irtual slavery in "dark, satanic mills" NOTE 1.
Slogans
On a visit to the "Tea Party Ship" in Boston
Harbour I watched their impressive enactment of the events of 1773, and chatted afterwards with some of the actors. The
battle cry of the enraged colonists of that time was "No taxation without representation!" But, as I pointed out to the
actors, few British men at that time had the right to vote, and none of the women. The enemy of those early Americans was
not the British people, but a tiny elite who exploited people on both sides of the Atlantic. Slogans rarely tell the whole truth.
Injustice
The Bible has a lot to say about injustice and
inequality, and absolutely endorses the desires that have been expressed across the world following the killing of George Floyd
in 2020. Justice must be done. The Old Testament prophets were constantly railing against injustice. But they didn't paint
themselves as saints. Rather, they took the burden of history on themselves and confessed their ancestors' sins. By doing that
they acknowledged their shared humanity, for each person bears the marks of the fundamental weaknesses of mankind. Humility
comes before good judgement.
Rational
Good judgement starts from the acknowledgment
of sin. That's neither a popular, nor a fashionable word, but it's a biblical concept that leads to peace of mind and peace
within communities. When the Bible says, "... everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" NOTE 2, it isn't
preaching po-faced condemnation, it's telling the truth as it is. If we want to right wrongs, we can't pretend that 'our side'
is perfect, or, even less, that we're perfect. We are all failing humans, but we have the capacity to be rational.