I’m new here.
New to the island of St. Thomas.
New to conversations about Juneteenth.
New to saying hard things out loud.
New to Substack, where I’m communicating with the people of St Thomas, colleagues in ministry around the country, and friends from back home in Michigan.
Thanks for your understanding that I’m new and taking some time to learn.
On July 3, 2025, I will observe Emancipation Day with the people of the Virgin Islands. 177 years ago, the hypocrisy of freedom was exposed on the island of St. Croix. Back then, St. Croix was part of the Danish West Indies, colonies of Denmark since the 1670s. For my friends back home, here are the maps:
Since 1917, the US Virgin Islands have been a territory of the United States and they are located in the far bottom right (blue dot) of the lower image. There are three islands: St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix.
Slavery and the slave trade were immensely profitable for slave owners and slave traders. However, it came with a huge moral cost that we have been paying ever since. The moral injury of slavery was not just inflicted on enslaved people, but also on enslavers, slave traders, and societies that were built up on unjust practices. It’s difficult for many Christians to acknowledge this in history, let alone try to lament and reckon with the complexities of how slavery impacts us today.
The hypocrisy of freedom is this: Freedom movements are not for everyone, all at once. Some people have to continue to fight for it. Sometimes “the oppressed” become “the oppressors”—even today. The most sweeping historical shifts toward freedom can become undone by corrupt and evil people.
The Declaration of Independence was a statement by the thirteen British colonies, declaring their separation from King George III and the British Empire in 1776. Women and enslaved people were not afforded equal rights and freedom at that time. They have to continue to fight for their rights and freedom. There is something hypocritical about that.
Apparently, equal rights for all are not “self-evident” to all.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence, 1776
But there’s more…
In 1792, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in Denmark (Remember that’s who colonized the Virgin Islands at that time). It took fifty-six years for slavery to be abolished in the Virgin Islands in 1848. Why? Because cane sugar was a huge industry at that time, and enslavers were not quick to give up on a system that benefited them immensely.
And still, there’s more…
On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, where he declared that “all persons held as slaves…henceforward shall be free.” It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that a second order had to be given to enforce what had already been stated in Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in the state of Texas, the westernmost Confederate state. Why? Because cotton was a profitable industry that was heavily dependent on the labor of enslaved people.
In all, there were economic, social, political, religious, and other forces that delayed freedom, justice, and equal rights at these and other historic moments. Friends, the struggle for freedom and justice is not over—It will never be over this side of heaven. If you think it is, it’s probably because you are benefiting from the systems that make it hard for you to see the lasting impact of unjust systems.
Commemorate freedom movements. Celebrate freedom. Remember that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” —Theodore Parker (Abolitionist Minister)
Deuteronomy 24:17-18: "You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment as a pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this."