The American Dream and Jubilee Justice

American missionaries, I highly recommend that on your next furlough, you spend 6 months or a year at George Fox Seminary studying under Randy Woodley, a Cherokee Indian scholar/practitioner.  There are areas of your theology and practice that are mostly likely fatally flawed and sinfully syncretistic.  Especially in the area of a biblical NT theology of society---the kingdom of God as Jubilee Justice for the oppressed poor.

By the way, I would recommend the same for most American pastors.  And for any white evangelical Christians who have blended their faith with Tea Party ideology which favors the rich and dishonors the poor.  Check out the Paul Ryan budget and see what is and isn't in his budget.

Now two excerpts from Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision (2012). 

The American Dream is actually a false premise based on the success of relatively few people, held up as a carrot for the masses.  In truth, an American Dream based on the misery of others caters to a selfish,consumer-driven mentality that values wealth and personal gain over justice and peace.  . . . In truth, America is a far cry from being a "Christian nation" or even a nation built upon Christian principles. . . .  The American Dream was built on a mentality of theft, imperialism, and supposed superiority. . . .  in order to maintain our "Dream" we have incorporated an ethic of war.

What is the solution to the American Dream?

Jubilee was good news for the poor. . . . . God's will and cosmic design is that no one suffer unjustly, but because human beings create unjust systems, shalom-type social parameters must serve as a social safety net to offset human disobedience.  In order to create a shalom system of social harmony, no person could be oppressed too long without hope of ease and eventual release; no family could remain in poverty for generations; no land could be worked until it was depleted and useless; no animals could go hungry for too long.  Any of these violations of shalom that were left unmitigated for too long would upset the natural order of reciprocity fixed in all creation. . . .  Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jubilee, the Sabbath system, and ultimately shalom.