human trafficking/slavery/exile/refugee/fugitive/occupying force

Slavery. Jeremiah 34:17.

In the Post-Enlightenment West, liberty means agency or self-determination, even when you use your liberty to bind yourself. Let me explain: liberty means a landowner can do anything with his real estate. The owner is free to sell, to buy, to lease, to rent, to sell the underground minerals while retaining the surface, to leaseContinue reading “Slavery. Jeremiah 34:17.”

G.T.T. or Gone to Texas: Ezekiel 7:7-8.

In the early 19th century, Mexico invited Americans to settle the territory of Texas, build farms, schools, and churches, “deal with the hostile Indians,”* and settle the wild land. Desperate to populate the territory and build the economy, Mexico offered land grants of 170 acres for farming crops, and over 4,428 acres (a league) forContinue reading “G.T.T. or Gone to Texas: Ezekiel 7:7-8.”

The Trail of Tears. Jeremiah 27:12.

Image: “The Flight of the Prisoners” by James Tissot, 1896, a painting of the people of Judah being driven from Jerusalem to Babylon, a Biblical “Trail of Tears.” Americans love the Bible. We print Bible verses on our tee shirts and coffee cups, stencil them on our walls, bumper-sticker them on our cars. The BibleContinue reading “The Trail of Tears. Jeremiah 27:12.”

The Einstein Visa: One Way to Escape an Oppressive Regime. Jeremiah 37:17.

Have you heard of the “Genius Visa”? Some call the EB-1 Visa[1] the “Einstein Visa,” and it is one of the tools the United States uses to control the tide of immigrants pouring into the greatest nation on earth[2]. It is a simple idea: we open the doors to our nation a bit wider forContinue reading “The Einstein Visa: One Way to Escape an Oppressive Regime. Jeremiah 37:17.”

Trafficking … in Humans. Jeremiah 52:27.

“Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land,” Jeremiah 52:27. Once an interesting, fresh phrase, “Human Trafficking” has been talked about so much in the last twenty years it may be in danger of becoming a cliché. But don’t tune out. The Bible has a great deal to say about what weContinue reading “Trafficking … in Humans. Jeremiah 52:27.”