Image courtesy National Women's History Museum

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 yo