At Mass the other day, I heard that passage in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus says: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’” (23:29-30) It makes me wonder if I had lived during the time of the prophets, would I have been one of those who wanted them stoned to death?
So too, if I had been alive when Christ was on earth, would I have heeded the call or hated the man and the message? It’s nice to imagine that I would have been more like Mary Magdalene than like the members of the Sanhedrin, but more people rejected Him than listened and followed. If it’s a mistake most people make, it’s a mistake I probably would have made too.
And then I wonder if I had lived in the 1850s whether I would have opposed slavery? Or would I have been one of that large group that said: “Yeah, it’s not great, but you know, it’s not one of the key issues of the day. It’s not going to decide my vote – not like, say, tax policy or voting rights in the western territories, important stuff like that.”
Would I have said: “Look, there’s a lot of disagreement over that issue. I’ve read articles – serious articles by real scientists – that say black people are not as advanced as we are and so they’re just not capable of governing themselves. So although I don’t want to own slaves personally, I’m not willing to deprive others of their constitutional right to own slaves. If a person chooses to own a black slave, then that’s his or her right. I am not going to prohibit his or her free choice.”
(But wait, you say, that’s the “free” choice to own another person and destroy his or her freedom! Yes, but then again, the “free” choice we’re talking about today is the choice to terminate a human life.)
Would I have been like one of those Catholics who, knowing full well that the Church had condemned slavery, found ways of rationalizing my way around all that and insisted on supporting it anyway? Would I have been one of those who said, “Lincoln might do away with our slavery! That’s it. Secede! A country without the right to own slaves is not a country I want to live in!” I have to say, it worries me.
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