I am intrigued by the way people in the United States are drawn to events involving the royal family of Great Britain. This has taken on an especially intense focus following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I certainly extend my condolences to her family and to those in the British Commonwealth who have lost their long-time head of state.
However, I do hope people will not be so enthralled with the pageantry that will occur over the next few days that they lose sight of the sordid history of England and Great Britain as a nation that brutally colonized other nations around the world over a period of more than 400 years, and that was the major player in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that raped the African continent in order to enrich the British Empire.
The United States fought two wars of independence with the British in 1776 and again in 1812. Nations in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North America have known the sting of colonization that was often accompanied by brute force to subdue people who simply wanted to be free to chart their own destiny.
Queen Elizabeth reigned while many of these freedom struggles were at first resisted, and then when one nation after another cut its ties with the British Empire.
May she rest in peace, and may peace and freedom come to every former British colony that may now be set to leave behind its colonial past and shape a future that is unencumbered by the will of a distant monarch and Parliament in London!
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The Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, is interim executive minister, Cleveland Baptist Association, American Baptist Churches, USA. He served as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, New York, from 2011 to 2019.
he views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
