Stories Have Remarkable Power
An Eye-opening Classic
Have you read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”? Over the years I have heard criticisms of the story and in turn did not read it. However, I recently picked up a copy at Barnes & Noble. Wow! What a powerful story and relevant for today with the separation of children from their families at the border. During the days of slave trading children were taken from their mother’s arms and sold, never to be seen again. Even a wife or husband might be sold “down the river,” as they say—families ripped apart generally without any element of empathy on the part of the seller or the buyer.
The power of story is in its intellectual and emotional appeal to our senses. Reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” you feel the terror, pain, and bewilderment of the child as well as the heart-wrenching agony of the mother. Harriet Beecher Stowe takes you into their minds and dresses you with their raw emotions and you are faced with the utter depravity of the entire slave culture.
Also, I was somewhat indifferent in my attitude toward the situation at the border, paying it little attention. In reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin my eyes were opened to the immorality of the policy of separating families. But they are illegals! Yes, so we would punish the children for the sins of the parents? In Deuteronomy 24:16-17 (NKJV) we read, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin. Regarding that issue, my attitude has changed from somewhat indifferent to empathetic. The power of story!