Escaping from Slavery
I read a book several years ago which was very influential in my life. It is an autobiography of a great American, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I initially read this book at a time in my life when I made the decision to stop believing things just because I was told to believe them, and to think for myself. Frederick Douglass was an American slave. The book chronicles his struggle and determination to be free. As I read this story, I could not help but think how so many of us allow ourselves to be enslaved. When we allow others to tell us what to think, without thinking for ourselves, we are in bondage. Much of Christianity is enslaved to secular society. Many are enslaved to false teachings within Christianity. Why? Because either they cannot or will not think.
The book tells of a time when Douglass went to Baltimore to serve a new master and mistress. His mistress, Mrs. Auld, began to teach Douglass the basics of reading and writing. Here, in the words of Douglass (not mine), is what happened next:
Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read…”If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master – to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now”, said he, “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.”
This wasa pivotal moment in Douglass’ life. He had always pondered, but never understood how the white man kept the black man enslaved. At this point, the lights went on. He “understood the pathway from slavery to freedom”. Douglass knew he must learn to read, which more importantly would allow him to think for himself. He says as much here:
I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in his slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.
To be truly free one must think. We must use our minds to glorify God. We must worship Him with all our minds, by learning to think correctly. Thinking is not always easy or comfortable. Sometimes we would rather not think or risk any change. Some would rather remain a slave, than to leave the comfort of their present situation. Douglass complained:
I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing…In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a besast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me.
As Christians, we should not allow ourselves to be enslaved to false teachings, whether secular or religious. To escape from slavery means we must use our God given faculty of reason and examine the things we have been told to believe.