The Book of Genesis recounts that in a time before history,Abraham, whom Jews,Christians, and Muslims all claim as forefather, was visited by three men. (We know they are G-d and two angels.) The two men go on to investigate stories of wickedness in the city of Sodom (crimes unspecified, but possibly preying on travelers on a trade route.) G-d stays behind and tells Abraham he intends to destroy Sodom. Abraham argues that good people should not be punished with evildoers, and G-d agrees that if there are fifty good men, he will spare the city. Abraham argues the number down to forty-five, then forty, thirty, twenty, and finally G-d agrees that if Sodom holds only ten righteous men, the city will not be destroyed. (Genesis 18:26-33)
In 1839, the United States and Great Britain had outlawed slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean, but Spain had not. The movie “Amistad” (meaning “friendship”] recounts that a group of men and women were captured in West Africa and transported in the Portuguese schooner Amistad to be plantation slaves in Cuba. The captives mutinied. The ship was seized by the US revenue cutter Washington, and the Africans were incarcerated in Connecticut. Officers of the Washington claimed the Amistad and its cargo (including the African captives) as salvage. The Spanish were charged with enslaving Africans. Spain requested that the captives be returned to Cuba under international treaty. The movie recounts the efforts of US citizens to learn communicate with the captives and support their quest for freedom instead of slavery. Our religious forebears were among those supporters.
All of the men of Sodom tried to rape the strangers who were really G-d’s angels, and the city was destroyed (Genesis 19:1-13, 23-25.) The human issues presented by the Amistad involved national and international laws and treaties and were finally resolved by United States Supreme Court in 1841 (United States v. The Amistad, 40 U.S. 518, 1841.) These stories provide examples of good people whose ideas of friendship extended to protecting even strangers who were in danger. May we always be ready to do the same.
Lyn Pickhover, Trying