The Real Sojourner

This summer the name of a radical Christian woman has been bouncing all over the network news. No, the networks aren't telling us about some hard-core pro-lifer picketing abortion clinics. The radical Christian I'm talking about is a nineteenth-century former slave. Every time you hear about the Mars Pathfinder probe, you hear this woman's name, because the Pathfinder was named after her: Sojourner Truth. Reporters invariably identify Sojourner Truth as a women's rights activist and abolitionist. But they completely overlook the source of Sojourner's fiery devotion to human rights: her strong commitment to Jesus Christ. While Sojourner was still a young woman, a devout Quaker abolitionist named Isaac Van Wagenen bought her freedom. Van Wagenen changed Sojourner's view of slavery forever. "God is no respecter of persons," Van Wagenen told her. "Before God, all of us are equal." Sojourner spent the rest of her life marching under the banner of those words. She believed God directed her to change her name from Isabella Van Wagenen to Sojourner Truth. "The Lord gave me the name Sojourner," she declared, "because I was to travel up and down the land, showing people their sins, and being a sign unto them." She chose "Truth" for her last name because, as she explained, "God's name is Truth." Before she took up social causes, Sojourner traveled across America as an itinerant evangelist. She was a passionate orator, speaking at abolitionist meetings prior to emancipation. During the Civil War, Sojourner collected food and clothing for black volunteer soldiers, and inspired them with her singing. During Reconstruction, Sojourner petitioned the government on behalf of former slaves. Eighty years before anyone had heard of Rosa Parks, Sojourner insisted on her right to ride the streetcars designated for "Whites Only" in Washington, D.C. At age 88, her dying words were, "Follow the Lord Jesus." Today Sojourner Truth has become something of a latter-day celebrity because educators are desperately searching for heretofore unknown historical figures¾especially women and minorities¾to hold up as cultural heroes. But multiculturalists have tried to remake Sojourner in their own image, ignoring her devout Christian faith. A typical example is the portrayal of Sojourner Truth in the London Guardian, which went out of its way to conceal her faith. According to the Guardian, Sojourner traveled "up and down the land," not to show people their sins, as Sojourner put it, but to "tell people about slavery and the oppression of women." It portrayed Sojourner not as a committed believer seeking the truth, but as an enlightened feminist upbraiding the religious bigots of her day. As Christians, we need to reclaim our cultural heritage from the peddlers of political correctness. When you see the latest story on television about the Mars Pathfinder probe, tell your kids the real story about Sojourner Truth. And when your children are researching Sojourner for a school project, help them locate materials that reveal Sojourner's true motivation: She fought for civil rights because of her faith in Jesus Christ. Multiculturalists might not like to hear that, but it happens to be the gospel truth.

08/8/97