Exodus

Four centuries ago this month, the first African was enslaved in America. This is a Biblically significant year, in that it is analogous to the 400 years of captivity that the Jewish people spent in Egypt 4000 years ago. They were liberated soon thereafter, but not before their captors, reluctant to free them, were subjected to horrendous and unspeakable punishment at the hands of their savior: the Almighty.

If we are to be honest with ourselves, we must admit that slavery was never fully excised from America. To this day tens of millions of blacks have been incarcerated by draconian laws which were designed solely for their subjugation, while many more have been crammed like sardines into lawless ghettos. They have been denied a place in society, and herded like cattle from one grassless pasture to the next.

Throughout this ordeal, their oppressors preached freedom and democracy to the rest of the world. And like a shining city built atop a pile of buried corpses, the splendor of it all was for a while enough to blind humanity's inquisitive eyes to the hideous crimes concealed beneath it. But the lie could not last forever, and now the time has finally arrived to grant America's victims the burial they deserve.

And so the shining city, built by blood, must be torn down, not by mortal hands, but by the hands of time. There are undoubtedly many who will object, and proclaim their personal innocence before the heavenly powers. And yet, has it not been written that the Lord punishes unto the tenth generation? If a mark is passed from father to son, how can it be that a slaveholder's crimes evaporate upon their death?

No. America's corrupt decadence is the fruit born by the sins of the past. And all who partake of it have aligned themselves with slavery, consigning themselves to the very same fate as their forebearers. As for the Afro-American people, they will one day soon be led to freedom. If they are allowed to depart in peace, then the land they leave behind will not only survive, but also thrive.

However, if they are scolded and clutched after like an abusive chaperone's charge, then their parting will be written in untold pain and agony. Again, not by mortal hands, but by the hands of the Almighty. In the end, it is entirely America's choice.