Chris­tian­i­ty Today Con­trib­u­tor Calls for Racial Repa­ra­tions from Britain

In a recent arti­cle, Wale Hud­son-Roberts calls for rad­i­cal repa­ra­tions between Britain and her for­mer colonies:

“Such a reck­on­ing with Britain is long over­due. Jamaica in the 18th cen­tu­ry was
described by Charles Leslie as a ‘con­stant mine whence Britain draws prodi­gious
rich­es.’ Sad­ly, things have not changed that much since the days of enslave­ment.
The Caribbean Islands remain blight­ed by a hor­ren­dous colo­nial past that has
large­ly kept them in debt.

“To move beyond mere apolo­getic words and phras­es, to rec­on­cil­i­a­tion of
yesterday’s bru­tal rela­tion­ships, much more is need­ed than vis­its from the Roy­al
Fam­i­ly to their for­mer colonies. A reset on par with Jubilee, such as repa­ra­tions,
is nec­es­sary for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.”

While it seems quite ridicu­lous to claim that “things have not changed that much since the days of enslave­ment.” It is even more bizarre that Hud­son-Roberts is using the year of Jubilee as a call for repa­ra­tions. The Laws of Jubilee can be found in Leviti­cus 25 and 27. Just a few obser­va­tions about the year of Jubilee: it was specif­i­cal­ly between the peo­ple of one nation — they weren’t to give land back to the Canaan­ites; It was a restor­ing of prop­er­ty. it was not a finan­cial gift after the prop­er­ty has been restored. In this case Britain has already gone above and beyond Jubilee.

Hud­son-Roberts went on to state:

“At a recent annu­al gath­er­ing, Quak­ers agreed to make repa­ra­tions by finan­cial
and oth­er means, not only for the actions of the past but their endur­ing
con­se­quences. Repa­ra­tions is more than an act of defi­ance and protest; it is the
equiv­a­lent of a mod­ern-day Jubilee. It also urges the return of land and mon­ey to
their orig­i­nal own­ers.”

Clear­ly, Hud­son-Roberts is call­ing for finan­cial repa­ra­tions to be giv­en out. As a cit­i­zen of a nation that was for­mer­ly a British colony who was unjust­ly taxed, I won­der if he thinks I am owed a repa­ra­tion?

Ulti­mate­ly, Chris­tian­i­ty doesn’t teach repa­ra­tions that are fueled by a desire to get even and have vengeance on past gen­er­a­tions, Chris­tian­i­ty places a high pri­or­i­ty on for­give­ness.

Colos­sians 3:12–13 “There­fore, as [the] elect of God, holy and beloved, put on
ten­der mer­cies, kind­ness, humil­i­ty, meek­ness, long­suf­fer­ing; bear­ing with one
anoth­er, and for­giv­ing one anoth­er, if any­one has a com­plaint against anoth­er;
even as Christ for­gave you, so you also must do.” (NKJV)

Per­haps it would be of ben­e­fit for Hud­son-Roberts to for­give any poten­tial wrongs that may have hap­pened gen­er­a­tions ago instead of seek­ing a false Jubilee, or as some would call it — vengeance.