Citizens and non-citizens in America who have colored skin tones, speak a language other than English, or fit a targeted religious or racial profile now find it necessary to carry freedom papers wherever we go. Proof of our free-person or residency status should we be detained by policing soldiers, currently the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) team, and our children are suffering terribly. One little boy stopped eating at school because he was afraid that if he typed in his school lunch code, ICE would know where to find him or his family.[1]
Pre-Civil War, policing soldiers were the slave patrollers who went around terrorizing and detaining Black people, assumed to be runaway slaves. When stopped, the person would show their certificate proving they were a free person and not someone’s property, but even possessing the proper document was no guarantee of safe passage from point A to point B. Not then or now.
If a slave patroller did his ethical and non-negotiable duty, he would verify the legitimacy of the individual’s document and, if all was in good order, tell the person to move along. A different patroller, one not duty bound to act ethically, might beat the Black person just because he could, ignore or destroy the priceless freedom paper, create a false document and then sell the person (or people) on the auction block for cash, sometimes separating families in the process. Making its way across the internet today is a video of ICE dragging an American citizen from her car as she resists and screams, “Help! Help me! I’m an American citizen.” After terrorizing her, searching her car (and purse?), and confirming she was in possession of her freedom paper (her driver’s license), they released her.[2]
During Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) took over policing duty. Frank Bellew’s portrait “Visit of the Ku-Klux” is a painted snapshot of the terrorists in action. ICE is the upgraded version, only the uniform and mode of transportation have changed. What binds the slave patrollers to the KKK and to ICE is their shared function as a weapon designed to control and terrorize, wielded by those intent on keeping certain people out of their spaces and in their assigned places, then and now, but long before the rise of any of these tormentors there was Saul.
When we first hear of Saul in the Bible, he is a young man standing guard over a pile of outer coats belonging to the policing soldiers of his day, watching as they torture Stephen the Deacon to death because they did not like what he was saying, and Saul does nothing to stop them. He approves of Stephen’s murder, goes on to become a policing soldier himself and is the template for how to turn ordinary people into radicals with the potential to engage in violent extremism.[3]
Moving from one house to the next, Saul would force his way in unannounced and uninvited and arrest people living there, dragging them off to jail for no reason other than they belonged to the Way (of Jesus). While traveling to pick up a document giving him authority to detain and relocate to Jerusalem as many people belonging to the Way as he could find, Saul had an epiphany involving the LORD Jesus. He saw the light, so to speak, ceased his tyrannizing evil ways and spent the rest of his life trying to prove Jesus was/is the promised Messiah sent by GOD. After Saul rebrands himself as Paul (his Roman name), he goes on to become a man of distinction in the sight of men and a prominent leader in the Judeo-Christian church, both for the powerful way he preached the faith he once tried to destroy and for the many letters in the New Testament attributed to his name.[4]
Nancy Gahee Ambrose, the maternal grandmother of servant Howard Thurman, evaluated Paul from a different vantage point. She believed he preached patience and tolerance for something that was evil. Paul wrote (summarizing the matter here): “Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Obey your master. You are free in the Lord.” Sister Ambrose believed that Paul’s words justified the enslavement of human beings and laid the groundwork for the harm she and others like her received. For this reason, she would not allow her grandson to read anything to her written by Paul. Confirmation that cancel culture is also not a new thing.[5]
I find that I agree with Sister Ambrose—Saul/Paul is and has been the bane of Black peoples’ existence.
Mistrust of Paul the Pharisee by Jesus’ disciples was instinctive, knowing how badly he treated people belonging to the Way, which is the reason they turned their backs to him, all except Barnabas. In like manner, an instinctive mistrust of Whites stems from knowing their collective history as oppressors, colonizers and slave owners. Whether he meant to or not, Paul gave an implicit nod of approval to slavery and the domination of the many by a few, as the vice-president and fellow cabinet members signified their approval by thumping the table with their hands when the president of the United States called Somalians “garbage”. Paul’s justification of slavery was affirmed by the first Christian generation and passed on to succeeding generations of professing Christians sharing the goals of clinging to absolute power absolutely, controlling resources and maintaining social and class order.[6]
Paul’s uncontested letters bring to mind the political Pharisee Jesus described and warned people to avoid. The highly educated, outwardly religious leader who does not always practice what he (or she) preaches and is constantly asking others “Can you do this, can you do more?” but never offers to do anything to help them. Who shows up at public events and does religious deeds so that others will take notice of him (or her), and likes to sit in the place of honor and be served. Who keeps every legal tot and tittle of the written law, but ignores the life-saving, life-giving point of the Law, looking the role of holy on the outside but insatiable and narcissistic on the inside.[7]
Equally disturbing is knowing that when Saul/Paul was given an opportunity to do for someone else what only the disciple Barnabas had been willing to do for him—give a man a second chance in life—Saul refused to do it because he judged the man (Mark) as unworthy. His behavior is even more egregious because it happens after his religious Epiphany. How is it, then, that Paul’s choices led him to become notable and Barnabas, a good and faithful man, became a footnote in history?[8]
There is also the matter of Onesimus, a slave who escaped and ran away in search of Paul. Perhaps he heard Paul preaching about the freedom available through a Man named Jesus. Maybe Onesimus overheard Philemon, his master, and Paul talking about it, or maybe the news traveled through the slave grapevine. Whatever the case, Onesimus is certain that if he can just reach Paul—the self-proclaimed slave and prisoner for Jesus—he will find the safety, shelter and freedom he is seeking. To the same extent that people from other nations have run to America, certain that freedom awaited them in the land that promised to be a harbor for all those yearning to breathe free. Although no one holds to that illusion anymore.[9]
Concerning runaway slaves, Jewish law said, “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you…wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.”[10]
Yet, when Onesimus finally reaches Paul, Paul violates the law and sends the slave back to his master, along with a letter for Philemon that said in part (paraphrasing here):
“I could command you to do what I am telling you to do in this letter, but for love’s sake I am appealing to you. I am an old man now, locked in prison for preaching about Christ Jesus and writing on behalf of my spiritual child Onesimus. He came to me of his own accord, and since arriving his disposition has greatly improved. I know how troublesome he was to you before, but he has become obedient now, making him useful to us both. I could keep Onesimus with me, so that he can serve me on your behalf while I remain in prison, but I am sending him back to you instead, so that you can freely send him to me by your own accord. If he owes you anything, I will repay what he owes, without any mention of what you owe me, except to say I expect to receive some benefit from you. I am more than confident that you will be obedient and do even more than I have told you to do. In the meantime, prepare your guest room for me, for by your prayers I feel certain a way will open for me to leave prison. God bless you.”[11]
Fast forward and the Bible implies Philemon did exactly as Paul told him to do. He sent Onesimus back to Paul who, at some point, sent Onesimus on to minister with Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, and Paul leaves jail.[12]
Although Sister Ambrose cut Paul off completely, and I understand why, here is what I see from my point of view.
As a young man, Saul/Paul learned to be violent and cruel toward others different from himself. He inflicted serious harm on a large number of people, and it took an otherworldly event to convince him he was not in charge.
Giving up judgement is generally a slow process, as one learns to reframe thoughts, which is what Paul had to learn to do. As I read him from this distance, his boldly written letters help dim the inner noise of an insecurity brought on by knowing people were judging him as bodily weak and a trifling public speaker. Trifling as in someone who talks about frivolous and unimportant matters or, according to slang, someone who is untrustworthy, scheming and suspicious, irrespective of what they say or how eloquently they say it. Over time, Paul ages into an old man tempered by the passing years, his mind and heart weighted down with regret for his brutality toward people belonging to the Way, for the way he treated Mark, for his own self-centered behavior. Three times, he goes to GOD asking for help for what ails him—Lord, I know I’m broken but I heard you can heal me—and each time hears that GOD’s grace will be sufficient for him. It is only after Paul believes GOD, only after he accepts the gift of grace with gratitude, does he stop asking for help with a problem that does not exist.[13]
I would like to believe Onesimus was Paul’s inspiration for violating a Jewish law in favor of the higher life-saving, life-giving point of the law, that he was compelled to break the law in order to save a man’s life, as Jesus felt compelled to break the law by collecting wheat on the Sabbath because people were hungry. If what I want to believe is true, then Paul becomes—in and for that moment—as holy inside as he appeared to some to be on the outside. Perhaps, using his power and authority for good, the demanding tone and wording in Paul’s letter to Philemon intended to intimidate, so that the slave owner would be too frightened to interfere with his plan to help set Onesimus free.[14]
Paul may have even been an early abolitionist, because for all that he said about slaves obeying their masters, he also managed to slip in “…but if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.” Calling to mind the work done by the Underground Railroad network, once linking resistance fighters together for exactly that kind of work.[15]
Mistrust still wonders whether Paul respected Onesimus enough to explain to him why he was being sent back to his owner, or whether Paul wrote and sealed the letter, handed it to the slave and said, “Take this back to your master.”
Saul being Paul.
The thing is, from the time of Saul/Paul to slave patrollers to the KKK to ICE, nothing has fundamentally changed. Although forced underground from time to time, a guild of like-minded people who make their living from human suffering has always existed. The difference now is that the policing soldiers—now called ICE—make up the largest non-regular enforcement agency in the nation. Larger even than the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, America’s four regular military branches.
In the public square, I hear people hoping things will get better in time—I admit hope is a hard habit to break—but I hold to no such illusion.
What I wonder is what happens when America can no longer pay its debts, and whether America is receiving money in exchange for deported immigrants for the veiled purpose of settling America’s debts? As when slave owners sold their slaves to other slave owners, or on the open market, to settle plantation debts.
What I see is the suppression and punishment of criticism, the spreading of dangerous lies, the burial of uncomfortable histories, and a lawless one deflecting from atrocities and encouraging the worst in people. Power is in the hands of people too weak and frightened to contradict or challenge, who repeat and do exactly as told, jockeying for favor, very much aware that certain rights and privileges go only to those who bow down or pay for them. I see that the stability, order and balance put in place on Earth by GOD to favor habitation is in an advanced decline, and because the end of the New Testament story says things will get worse, I hold no illusion things will get better prior. At least not until Jesus comes to retrieve keepers of the faith.
What I do hold to and have confidence in is that GOD will be faithful even when others are not, and that Love is still Jesus’ call to His Church. Not the church for Christians conceived in Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas were serving at the time, but the entire congregational assembly of all GOD’s people. The Ekklesia, the invisible Church belonging to Jesus comprised of Jews and all the different Gentile flocks belonging to Him. The keepers of faith who come out of every nation, tribe, language and people on the Earth. Jesus’ Church that embraces all people who live a certain way, undivided by religious practices or theological words, working in unity as best we can, in accordance with how each of us knows GOD expects us to live. Between us, there is no conflict.[16]
May we not lose sight of the things that last and do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, may we endure and be found being faithful to the call, enduring, and holding tightly to what we know to be true.
When an unexpected moment of joy comes around, embrace it, and ride the wave as long as it lasts.
In the meanwhile, consider in question form this future possibility: Would you be willing to break a law to save a life?
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/16/school-principal-ice-raids#:~:text=But%20in%20one%20Chicago%20school,while%20children%20were%20inside%20learning, 12/20/2025.
[2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRzmqT3kXQM/?hl=en, 12/20/25.
[3] Acts 7:54-8:1a; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059321001528, 12/20/2025.
[4] Acts 8:3, 9:1-22.
[5] Thurman, Howard, Jesus and the Disinherited, (Beacon Press: Boston, 1976), 50; 1 Corinthians 7:21-b; Ephesians 6:5; https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/cancel-culture.
[6] Matthew 23:8; Acts 9:26; https://washingtonian.com/2025/12/03/trump-cabinet-meeting-asleep-somalis-garbage-raccoon-lliquor-store-virginia/.
[7] Matthew 23:1-36.
[8] Acts 9:26-27, 15:36-40.
[9] Romans 1:1; Ephesians 3:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1.
[10] Deuteronomy 23:15.
[11] Ephesians 3:1; Philippians 3:5-6; Philemon 1:1-22.
[12] Colossians 4:9.
[13] Genesis 15:6; Matthew 12:33-37; Romans 4:1-12. 11:6; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, 8-10, 12:1-9a.
[14] Matthew 12:1-8.
[15] 1 Corinthians 7:21c (ESV).
[16] Matthew 16:18; Acts 11:22, 25-26; Ephesians 2:14-22; Revelation 7:9-10.
Sacred Deliberations 
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