MASTERS AND SLAVES

MASTERS AND SLAVES

Every day over 6,000 Filipinos leave the country to work overseas. Millions are domestic helpers. Millions more are caregivers. Countless survive in sub-human conditions. People are the third world nations' biggest exports. If we think that slavery in its most dehumanizing forms does not exist in our 21st century society, then we are kidding ourselves. 

Slaves, in Sunday's Gospel Reading from Luke 17, 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. Why? Slaves are property. They are commodities. Bought, sold, and exploited. 

Dear friends, God did not create masters. God did not create slaves. God did not create the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Nor the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade. God did not create any of the systems and structures--including theologies--that commodify, degrade, and exploit people.  

God did not create the death-dealing economies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

God did not create the white supremacist, bigoted, racist, fascist, and homophobic "Christianity" that Trump and his MAGA cohorts revel in unashamedly.

God did not create the systems and structures of corruption, bribery, and impunity involving billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money funneled to the coffers and pockets of Marcos, Duterte, and their ilk. 

All these are man-made. All these choose profit over people and planet. 

We created all these. Which means we can undo them all. And we must. 

Now.

*Image from Brittanica, Stowage of Slaves in Ships during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 

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