SCRIPTURE: John 8: Verse 36
By July 3, 1848, all slaves in the Caribbean were emancipated from the bondage of physical enslavement and chattel slavery. God heard the cries and the prayers of suffering Black people and He sent men and women of religious persuasions and liberators to bring the slaves out of the land of physical slavery. These freedom fighters paid a high price with their blood, sweat and tears in their struggle to gain freedom from oppression and tyranny.
After nearly 200 years from the abolition of slavery, most of us are still enslaved. We continue to strive to accomplish freedom from the bondage of mental and economical slavery. The chains and the shackles were removed from our feet and hands but we are fettered on every side under the yoke of this modern slavery.
We disrespect and dishonour our ancestors by our conduct of adopting this form of mental slavery that keeps us in a state of dependency, submission, poverty, degradation and servitude.
Many of us are mentally enslaved by addiction to drugs, chemicals and alcohol that destroy our bodies and minds. Too many of our young people are school dropouts. The ever-increasing rate of young black men appearing before the courts must be turned around.
In order to reverse these unacceptable trends, young people must emancipate their minds through a good education. They must go to school, stay in school, study and graduate from school. They must learn that knowledge is power and that education is the key to success and the gateway to mental freedom.
Some of us are not only mentally enslaved but are also financially and economically enslaved. They have two and three jobs but they are always in debt and borrowing; they would take a loan from one lending institution to satisfy the debt of another loan. Solomon instructs us that the borrower is servant to the lender and the debtor is a slave to the creditor. (Prov. 22: 7)
Such people need to free themselves from the bondage of materialism that result in gambling, corruption, greed and other practice that lead to destruction in their lusts for material things that do not satisfy.
Our ancestors were emancipated some 183 years ago, but some people have not been fully emancipated. They long and desire for complete freedom and to be liberated from mental and economical slavery.
True freedom, real freedom and absolute freedom can only be granted by and through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”
