Every day over 6,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas. Every day 10 come back in a box. Millions are domestic helpers. Millions more are caregivers. Countless survive in sub-human conditions. People are most Third World nations' biggest exports. If we think that slavery in its most dehumanizing forms does not exist in the 21st century society, then we are deluding ourselves.
Slaves, in Jesus's parable in Luke 17. 7-10, should never expect to rest from their labors. Slaves should never expect thanks. Slaves should know their place, should stay there, should accept that they are worthless, and should never, ever, expect otherwise.
My friends, God did not create masters. God did not create slaves. God did not create the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. God did not create any of the systems and structures that commodify, degrade, and emasculate people.
We did all these. Which means we can undo them all. And we must.
Now.
Reading the Bible inside a Jeepney: Celebrating Colonized and Occupied Peoples' capacity to beat swords into ploughshares; to transform weapons of mass destruction into instruments of mass celebration; mortar shells into church bells, teargas canisters to flowerpots; rifle barrels into flutes; U.S. Military Army Jeeps into Filipino Mass Transport Jeepneys.
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