Harriet Tubman and Christian values

Harriet Tubman never expected to be the face of the $20 bill. And neither did anybody else expect her to be. It is the right thing to do. Harriet was a spiritual woman and I would like to ask her if it was for Jesus that she set the captives free.

Don’t you wonder if it was because of the injustice of one man owning another human that caused her to risk her life and the life of others to escape the bondage of slavery? Did Christianity have anything to do with it?

I wonder because at this time – over 100 years since her death – we Christians are not prone to allow Christianity to color our words or our actions when it comes to our cherished beliefs.

• We know it is not Christian to hold another man in slavery. But we have no such compunction against holding women in slavery to a husband.
• We deny women the full expression of their faith even though it is now 2,000 years since Jesus set women free. We point to the Bible, and ignore the fact that Jesus would never have denied women a place at the table simply because they were women.
• We are proud to be an American. Yet we preach against women having equality that our American laws provide for every woman, and not only do we set about squelching freedom for our American women, we go across the waters and tell other women they must submit to their husbands in everything.
• We know it is not Christian to deny another person goods we have for sale. But we have no such compunction against withholding our goods and services to those who we deem to be in homosexual sin. We do not withhold those same goods and services to those who are in some other moral or sexual sin.

Harriet Tubman risked her life to set others free.

What will you do for the Christ that you love? For the wife you love? For the daughter you love? Will you stand up for freedom for Christian women?

It is not easy being a Christian and standing for Christian values. The hardest part of that is determining exactly what Christian values are. Can it be Christian values when you suppress one-half of God’s human creation to a lifestyle and culture of another age and time?

Is it Christian values when it is not something Jesus would do?

It is 2016. What are your Christian values?

 Reports from the street evangelist