Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Phillis Wheatly
One thing that I struggled with while reading Wheatly was how she talked about her conversion to Christianity after she was brought to America. In "On Being Brought from Africa to America," she says in the first line, "'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land," suggesting that it was God who brought her to America. In "To the University of Cambridge," she similarly says, "Twas not long since I left my native shore / The land of errors, and Egyptian gloom: / Father of mercy, 'twas Thy gracious hand / Brought me in safety from those dark abodes." I struggle with this because she was brought to America as a slave, which means that, in this case, God made her a slave in America so that she could come to know him. This makes me a little uncomfortable. I don't doubt that God can work through difficult situations and use them for good, but the thought that putting her in slavery was God's will causes tension for me. At the same time, I think of Joseph's story of being sold into slavery in Egypt, and how God worked through that situation to make Joseph a leader and the second most powerful man in Egypt. I also thought it was interesting in "To the University" how Wheatly attributed her conversion to education. She says, "Still more, ye sons of science ye receive / The blissful news by messengers from Heav'n / How Jesus' blood for your redemption flows." These lines seem to suggest that Wheatly came to Christianity largely by the education she got in America. On one hand, it is wonderful that Wheatly came to know Christ while enduring slavery, which could have easily turned her away from what she could think was the God of her oppressors, but on the other hand it's strange to think that it was "God's will" for her to come to know him this way. When people explain death or tragedy with "it's all a part of God's plan" I struggle with this and question it. Is it a part of God's plan or is it a result of a sinful world? If anyone has any thoughts on how they feel about this, I would love to hear them!
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I was sort of wondering about that too. The question is relatively difficult to answer, but the way I see it is simple: God is so generous that He's able to bring people to Him through our own sins as well as the sins of others. It may be a bit of a Sunday school answer, but I think it makes sense in context.
ReplyDeleteI tend to really dislike the answer "It's all part of God's plan for you" and etc when something difficult happens. It doesn't really necessarily help in the moment. I was thinking with her lines in "On Being Brought from Africa to America", my thoughts on it was that it could be her trying to find some meaning in why she was brought to America through slavery.
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