Oppression and Shalom

This essay is heavily drawn from Willard M. Swartley's 2006 book Covenant of Peace; how to overcome evil with good by loving your enemies.

Oppression is one of the worst forms of evil, especially lifelong or generational systems of oppression; such systems of oppression cause physical death, psychological death and social death. Physical death as in individual death or even genocide; example: all of the original Indian inhabitants on all of the Caribbean Islands were exterminated. Psychological death: the Hebrew slaves are described in Exodus 6:9 as broken in spirit, crushed in spirit. Social death: social institutions such as marriage and family in urban ghettos are broken, severely damaged. cannot function normally.

In the NIV, oppression occurs 125 times; in an Hebrew OT, there are 555 references to oppression and its synonyms (Hebrew roots). No major theologian has made oppression a central theological concept. In a survey of volunteers at the Perkins Center, only 1 in 20 had heard a sermon on oppression. In a survey of 40 college students (March 2006) from three different Christian liberal arts colleges, none of the 40 had had a bible prof who took at least one class period to teach on oppression. It is hard to effectively counter something you don't understand.

Oppression and shalom are polar opposites. Peace, eirene, is found 100 times in the NT. Shalom occurs over 200 times in the OT. The basic meaning of shalom: "well-being, wholeness, completeness." Other meanings: "peace, salvation, prosperity, health, welfare." Eirene and shalom stand against "oppression, deceit, fraud, and all actions that violate the divine order for life." Violence is the opposite of shalom. Shalom is sometimes paired with justice and righteousness.

"The Roman Empire was celebrated as an ideal state of affairs . . . a time of prosperity and order. These features accord with the Hebrew notion of shalom. But the empire was also a situation in which many subjugated people suffered oppression from Rome's golden age of prosperity---features that oppose and mock shalom."

What is the relationship between the NT Greek eirene and the OT Hebrew shalom? They are essentially synonymous. "shalom is translated in the LXX [Greek OT] by eirene" most of the time.

It is possible to love your enemy in such a way that you not only stop oppression, but you win over your oppressor. A case in point: At one time Senator Stennis from Mississippi openly supported segregation and opposed the civil rights movement. He and other souther senators met every Tuesday to plan how to stop the civil rights movement. But, years later, as Stennis was retiring, he told fellow senator Joe Biden, "The Civil Rights Movement did more to free the white man than the black man. . . . It freed my soul. It freed my soul."

Love and justice combined can stop oppression and create shalom. Neglect of justice and the love of God allows oppression to thrive.