Forum on faith Samuel Sewall's journey of justice began with a vision
After reading my article, a friend asked, "You do know what else Sewall is famous for, don't you?" I was embarrassed to admit that I did not.
She informed me that he was one of the judges involved in the Salem witch trials. One quick Internet search later, I learned that the wealthy merchant was appointed to the court in May of 1692 and participated in the trials and ultimate hangings of numerous people accused of witchcraft before the last of the accused were freed early in 1693. His diary during that time provides important information about this disturbing event in our nation's history.
Fortunately, his story does not end there. Four years later, Sewall publicly apologized for his role in the trials, and he wrote a proclamation calling for penance and reparation by the government for the atrocities of the witchcraft trials. Each year following, he personally set aside a day during which he fasted and prayed for forgiveness for his sins in the Salem trials.
Perhaps it was this recognition of his own failure that helped him see others in a different light. Perhaps his remorse for his involvement in the Salem witch trials contributed to his ability to write "The Selling of Joseph," with its religious arguments against slavery.
Perhaps his awareness of his sin in condemning others with no evidence allowed him to pen these words: "Liberty is in real value next unto Life: None ought to part with it themselves, or deprive others of it, but upon the most mature Consideration."
Perhaps the death of innocents opened his eyes so that he might proclaim, "man-stealing [is] an atrocious crime."
Although Sewall maintained a strong belief in segregation, he took important steps on the path toward justice.
Justice is a journey. We rarely have the strength to see it to its completion and fullness when the vision first catches our imagination. This is why our Founding Fathers could write that "all men are created equal" while allowing voting rights only to white men who owned property, and while counting slaves as three-fifths of a human being. They had the vision for justice -- they simply were not yet ready to live into that vision fully.
Nineteen years after the Salem witch trials, the colony of Massachusetts restored the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft. It took 265 years for the state of Massachusetts to formally apologize for those events.
In 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which pronounced freedom for slaves held in those states currently in rebellion against the union -- a noble ideal that began the process of emancipation.
Eight years later, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution awarded the right to vote. Still, it took 95 years for the Voting Rights Act to enforce that ruling, and it took 138 years for a person of African descent to be elected to the position of president of the United States of America.
Justice is a journey. We are rarely able to live into the vision when it first captures our imagination. Therefore it is our responsibility to follow that vision as far as we possibly can, and to teach the next generation to take it further. As human beings and as citizens of the United States, we share this responsibility.
For those of us who consider ourselves people of faith, the responsibility goes even deeper, for the call for justice comes from God. If we call ourselves children of God (or Elohim or Allah or Great Spirit), we recognize that each one of us is created in the image of the Divine.
I believe we are compelled to honor the divine within each of God's children by apologizing for our failures, atoning for our sins and continuing to pursue justice. Then our vision will more truly reflect God's vision.
The Rev. Cindy Maddox is pastor of King Street United Church of Christ in Danbury.