Tuesday, August 26, 2014
What DID Jesus Do?
In this evil and chaotic world, it seems that there will always be both external and internal oppression. Which, external or internal, oppression gets national priority, church priority? The "What would Jesus do?" question can be answered by "What DID Jesus do?"
In New Testament times, Palestine was occupied by the superpower Rome. Rome's professed goal was to spread peace and prosperity around the Mediterranean Sea area. But in the process, Roman oppression was, at times, quite brutal. Jesus said that he had come to release the oppressed so it would have made sense for him to join forces with the Zealots, a religio-politico nationalistic Jewish band of freedom fighters.
But, strangely, Jesus never mentioned Roman oppression, but he zealously went after internal Jewish oppression---Jew oppressing Jew. He focused on the religio-politico-economic elite who operated the Temple as "a den of robbers," a rich gang of predatory thugs.
Today, the U.S. is zealously waging a war on external terrorism/oppression; this is a bi-partisan war which both presidents Bush and Obama have waged. So it appears that waging war against external oppression is !00% American. Is it 100% biblical?
If Jesus were an American in 2014, would his priority be against the external terrorists or our internal terrorists? Would his priority be spending billions on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or those same billions on rebuilding poor black communities, our inner cities? On militarizing the police or rehabbing houses?
Is our first black president making the Jesus choice? One could argue that he is doing some of both, but clearly his primary war is on external oppressors. Ferguson is no accident; it is the result of "racist social engineering" and theological bankruptcy. It needs a Jubilee justice transformation initiated by the church and assisted by the nation.
If you doubt the above, read the article "The Case for Reparations," by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic. Read it on your knees, in an attitude of repentance. 9-11 was tragic with the death of around 3,000 individuals, but the slave trade and slavery caused millions of deaths to say nothing of psychological death (broken spirits) and social death (broken marriages and families). Which demands our priority?
This is not all ancient history. Coates writes:
"In 2010, Jacob S. Rugh, then a doctoral candidate at Princeton, and the sociologist Douglas S. Massey published a study of the recent foreclosure crisis. Among its drivers, they found an old foe: segregation. . . . 'High levels of segregation create a natural market for sub-prime lending [predatory mortgages], and cause riskier mortgages, and thus foreclosures, to accumulate disproportionately in racially segregated cities' minority neighborhoods."
"Plunder in the past made plunder in the present efficient." Wells Fargo's 'wealth building' seminars were a front for wealth theft."
Coates' powerful 15 page article is filled with words like theft, robbery, plunder, predatory and terrorist---synonyms of oppression.
One suggested solution: The American church should help Habitat for Humanity triple it housing approach with these added features; hire numbers of excons and low-level drug offenders, develop their job skills in the building trades, couple with drug treatment, and obtain federal and state grants/credits for solar energy heating. No interest charges plus very low heating bills would reduce the costs of home ownership sharply. The Habitat approach requires work by the potential homeowner; this is much better than welfare.
Only a Marshall Plan by the church and government can get the job done.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Chapter 11 Grace and Justice: the Keys to Complete Reconciliation
Racial or ethnic reconciliation is now approaching center stage on the American church's agenda. This is a good, though long overdue, move. The question now is, how deep does the reconciliation process go? And what would full and complete reconciliation look like?
Reconciliation can and probably should begin at the personal relationship level. That is the level of most racial reconciliation today. What are the next steps? Organizationally, leadership and power must be shared with ethnic leaders.
For Euro Americans, the following step is acts of justice---concrete action to rebuild the lives and communities of the poor and oppressed. We must move from personal relationships to social justice. Ethnic groups are rightly suspicious of personal reconciliation efforts that do not move on to acts of justice. Social justice is needed to heal the enormous damage of oppression; remember that biblically oppression means to crush, humiliate, animalize, enslave, impoverish and kill persons created in the image of God. Oppression must stop; justice must be done.
For American ethnics, the next step, according to Spencer Perkins, an Afro American, is grace---grace to forgive the oppressor. From the human standpoint, inward bitterness is a natural response to outward oppression. It is best if the grace of forgiveness is offered in response to the oppressor's repentance and public confession of sin. But sometimes grace may need to be offered even if there is no repentance.
The oil of grace lubricates the path of love. Grace is the highest expression of love. To keep the process of reconciliation moving, generous grace must come from both parties. Grace alone can take us halfway along the road of reconciliation; justice is needed to complete the process. Both grace and justice are needed for full and complete reconciliation.
So far in this chapter on grace and justice, we have been talking about Christians---Christian principles to be lived out within the church, by the church.
Can we expect the larger society, even governments, to apply the concepts of grace and justice as principles of governance? What should a government do in response to the violence of a civil war or to the violence of systematic and brutal oppression? Is there any way out of the violence cycle, the retribution/punishment type of justice?
Some governments are trying amnesty programs to stop the cycle of violence. The word amnesty is related to amnesia; amnesty comes from a Greek word meaning "a forgetting, a general pardon, especially for political offenses." One of the meanings of grace is mercy. Amnesty, then, is a political act of grace, mercy, pardon and forgiveness. The political act of amnesty is taken not only to stop the cycle of violence, but also to establish the grounds for some degree of social healing, restoration and reconciliation in society.
Periodically, in the Philippines violence broke out over land ownership and the need for reform, over who owned the land in a largely agricultural society. The poor peasants believed that the rich and powerful, often with the aid of the government, the military and sometimes the United States, were illegally taking control of more and more land. This left millions of peasants either landless or farming marginal land. In frustration, the peasants took up arms to regain their land. The government, however, called the peasants rebels, enemies of the state, and tried to crush them militarily.
For 20 years, roughly 1975-1995, the civil war waged. Many were killed, millions of dollars were wasted, and life in civil society was disrupted. Ramos was elected president (formerly he was a military general who led efforts to crush the rebels), and he decided that for the good of society the cycle of violence had to be ended. The government declared an amnesty for those involved in the civil war; peace negotiations were initiated with the goal of bringing about reconciliation.
Some of the imprisoned rebel leaders were freed and given money to use to go back and rebuild their communities. Some land reform has begun, but so far it has been too limited. If, in the future, [google land reform in the Philippines for the latest information] full and comprehensive land reform does take place, such as happened in Japan, Korea and Taiwan after World War II, then this act of justice will reduce the tensions and conflict between the rich and poor. The grace step of amnesty has opened the door to peace and reconciliation, but it must be followed by acts of justice to complete the reconciliation process; the end result would be a measure of shalom in communities and the larger society. Economically, acts of justice are cheaper than wars of violence so an enlightened society ought to choose grace and justice.
Blacks South Africans faced a similar situation when they took over the power of government in the early 1990s. What were they going to do about the violence and oppression conducted against them by past Afrikaner governments? Would they hold trials and punish to the fullest extent those found guilty of violence and murder? Some would argue that this approach is necessary to hold the standard of justice high. Only if past wrongs are righted by just punishment can people hope for a future of justice.
The new government did not take the punishment approach to justice. Instead, they decided on a grace approach and declared amnesty for the violent oppressors if they would come forward and fully confess the truth about their past actions. Repentance and restitution were not required for amnesty, but confession and the full truth were required. Those who did not confess could be put through the traditional judicial approach, found guilty and punished for their crimes.
In 1994, the South African Parliament passed a bill establishing a Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. "This commission linked together amnesty, truth telling, and a goal of reconciliation as key features of one process." Remember, amnesty or pardon is an act of grace.
Is this cheap reconciliation? Some persons are confessing murder and then walking away with no legal punishment. Some victims want vengeance and punishment; forgiveness, for them, does not seem appropriate or possible. Others, taking a longer view, say that punishment justice should give way to some higher goals---reconciliation or restorative justice.
All of the above is possible only if a people begins with grace. Usually governments have little to do with grace; they dispense judgment justice, not Jubilee justice. But here we have two governments, Philippine and South African, which are attempting, to some degree, to operate upon the highest of Christian principles---GRACE.
Wouldn't it be great if the Christian church would practice both grace and Jubilee justice on a large scale?
Reconciliation can and probably should begin at the personal relationship level. That is the level of most racial reconciliation today. What are the next steps? Organizationally, leadership and power must be shared with ethnic leaders.
For Euro Americans, the following step is acts of justice---concrete action to rebuild the lives and communities of the poor and oppressed. We must move from personal relationships to social justice. Ethnic groups are rightly suspicious of personal reconciliation efforts that do not move on to acts of justice. Social justice is needed to heal the enormous damage of oppression; remember that biblically oppression means to crush, humiliate, animalize, enslave, impoverish and kill persons created in the image of God. Oppression must stop; justice must be done.
For American ethnics, the next step, according to Spencer Perkins, an Afro American, is grace---grace to forgive the oppressor. From the human standpoint, inward bitterness is a natural response to outward oppression. It is best if the grace of forgiveness is offered in response to the oppressor's repentance and public confession of sin. But sometimes grace may need to be offered even if there is no repentance.
The oil of grace lubricates the path of love. Grace is the highest expression of love. To keep the process of reconciliation moving, generous grace must come from both parties. Grace alone can take us halfway along the road of reconciliation; justice is needed to complete the process. Both grace and justice are needed for full and complete reconciliation.
So far in this chapter on grace and justice, we have been talking about Christians---Christian principles to be lived out within the church, by the church.
Can we expect the larger society, even governments, to apply the concepts of grace and justice as principles of governance? What should a government do in response to the violence of a civil war or to the violence of systematic and brutal oppression? Is there any way out of the violence cycle, the retribution/punishment type of justice?
Some governments are trying amnesty programs to stop the cycle of violence. The word amnesty is related to amnesia; amnesty comes from a Greek word meaning "a forgetting, a general pardon, especially for political offenses." One of the meanings of grace is mercy. Amnesty, then, is a political act of grace, mercy, pardon and forgiveness. The political act of amnesty is taken not only to stop the cycle of violence, but also to establish the grounds for some degree of social healing, restoration and reconciliation in society.
Periodically, in the Philippines violence broke out over land ownership and the need for reform, over who owned the land in a largely agricultural society. The poor peasants believed that the rich and powerful, often with the aid of the government, the military and sometimes the United States, were illegally taking control of more and more land. This left millions of peasants either landless or farming marginal land. In frustration, the peasants took up arms to regain their land. The government, however, called the peasants rebels, enemies of the state, and tried to crush them militarily.
For 20 years, roughly 1975-1995, the civil war waged. Many were killed, millions of dollars were wasted, and life in civil society was disrupted. Ramos was elected president (formerly he was a military general who led efforts to crush the rebels), and he decided that for the good of society the cycle of violence had to be ended. The government declared an amnesty for those involved in the civil war; peace negotiations were initiated with the goal of bringing about reconciliation.
Some of the imprisoned rebel leaders were freed and given money to use to go back and rebuild their communities. Some land reform has begun, but so far it has been too limited. If, in the future, [google land reform in the Philippines for the latest information] full and comprehensive land reform does take place, such as happened in Japan, Korea and Taiwan after World War II, then this act of justice will reduce the tensions and conflict between the rich and poor. The grace step of amnesty has opened the door to peace and reconciliation, but it must be followed by acts of justice to complete the reconciliation process; the end result would be a measure of shalom in communities and the larger society. Economically, acts of justice are cheaper than wars of violence so an enlightened society ought to choose grace and justice.
Blacks South Africans faced a similar situation when they took over the power of government in the early 1990s. What were they going to do about the violence and oppression conducted against them by past Afrikaner governments? Would they hold trials and punish to the fullest extent those found guilty of violence and murder? Some would argue that this approach is necessary to hold the standard of justice high. Only if past wrongs are righted by just punishment can people hope for a future of justice.
The new government did not take the punishment approach to justice. Instead, they decided on a grace approach and declared amnesty for the violent oppressors if they would come forward and fully confess the truth about their past actions. Repentance and restitution were not required for amnesty, but confession and the full truth were required. Those who did not confess could be put through the traditional judicial approach, found guilty and punished for their crimes.
In 1994, the South African Parliament passed a bill establishing a Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. "This commission linked together amnesty, truth telling, and a goal of reconciliation as key features of one process." Remember, amnesty or pardon is an act of grace.
Is this cheap reconciliation? Some persons are confessing murder and then walking away with no legal punishment. Some victims want vengeance and punishment; forgiveness, for them, does not seem appropriate or possible. Others, taking a longer view, say that punishment justice should give way to some higher goals---reconciliation or restorative justice.
All of the above is possible only if a people begins with grace. Usually governments have little to do with grace; they dispense judgment justice, not Jubilee justice. But here we have two governments, Philippine and South African, which are attempting, to some degree, to operate upon the highest of Christian principles---GRACE.
Wouldn't it be great if the Christian church would practice both grace and Jubilee justice on a large scale?
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Chapter 10 The Primary Purpose of a Spirit-filled Church
First, a quotation from John Dawson from his book, Healing America's Wounds in which he describes the origins of American Pentecostalism:
"The [1906] Azusa St. Revival was a modern Pentecost in which the outpoured Spirit broke the barriers of true Christian unity. Racial division, America's greatest problem, was swept away. The huge dirt-floor barn that housed William Seymor's [Afro American] church attracted scores of ethnic groups from their separate enclaves across Los Angeles. . . . [Then racism enters] This sincere and loving man---Seymor's friend---was afflicted with the blindness of his generation. He admired the Ku Klux Klan and believed that the besetting sin of humanity was racial mixing. . . . After denouncing Seymor, he continues his ministry, preaching against racial mixing and proclaiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit. . . . Pentecostalism divided into two groups, one black and one white, between 1908 and 1914. Glossolia became the new emphasis. . . . and God's true purpose went down the memory hole."
My goodness, the power and deception of the American trinity to derail this revival so quickly!
Is John Dawson right that the primary purpose of the outpoured Spirit is to break down racial and ethnic divisions so that the church can be an inclusive church, a multiethnic church? Is there clear and compelling biblical evidence? Yes, and from the lips of both Jesus and Paul.
In NT times, the division between Jew and Gentile, Jew and Samaritan, was huge. So, in Acts 1:8, Jesus pointedly tied the coming of the Holy Spirit to the inclusion of both Samaritans and Gentiles. In the book of Acts, it took some time before the church obeyed this marching order from Jesus, but finally Phillip, Peter and Paul crossed these enormous cultural barriers. And in Galatians 3:28, Paul nails it down (CEV):
"Faith in Christ is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman."
Religio-cultural divisions, socioeconomic divisions and gender discrimination all are broken down in the body of Christ; the church is designed to be inclusive as Paul again indicates in Colossians 3:11 (The Message):
"Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outside, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ."
Even early on at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus identified religiously based ethnocentrism as a social evil that God despised. In Luke 4:25-30, Jesus taught that God loved Gentiles as much as Jews and this heresy got him into deep trouble; the Nazareth Jews tried to kill him on the spot.
John Perkins despises and ridicules separate black and white churches; for him, they are contrary to the Bible. Speaking in tongues is legitimate, but let's get our biblical priorities straight. Preach and practice inclusion; destroy ethnocentrism. This is the primary purpose of the church.The second purpose of the Spirit-filled church is to release the oppressed poor and to invite the rich to share their wealth, to sell surplus houses and lands, to give so generously that there are no more poor in the church. From greed to generosity.
Can the American church, a Christian university, change the world? Only if they develop, preach and practice a more comprehensive kingdom of God theology.
"The [1906] Azusa St. Revival was a modern Pentecost in which the outpoured Spirit broke the barriers of true Christian unity. Racial division, America's greatest problem, was swept away. The huge dirt-floor barn that housed William Seymor's [Afro American] church attracted scores of ethnic groups from their separate enclaves across Los Angeles. . . . [Then racism enters] This sincere and loving man---Seymor's friend---was afflicted with the blindness of his generation. He admired the Ku Klux Klan and believed that the besetting sin of humanity was racial mixing. . . . After denouncing Seymor, he continues his ministry, preaching against racial mixing and proclaiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit. . . . Pentecostalism divided into two groups, one black and one white, between 1908 and 1914. Glossolia became the new emphasis. . . . and God's true purpose went down the memory hole."
My goodness, the power and deception of the American trinity to derail this revival so quickly!
Is John Dawson right that the primary purpose of the outpoured Spirit is to break down racial and ethnic divisions so that the church can be an inclusive church, a multiethnic church? Is there clear and compelling biblical evidence? Yes, and from the lips of both Jesus and Paul.
In NT times, the division between Jew and Gentile, Jew and Samaritan, was huge. So, in Acts 1:8, Jesus pointedly tied the coming of the Holy Spirit to the inclusion of both Samaritans and Gentiles. In the book of Acts, it took some time before the church obeyed this marching order from Jesus, but finally Phillip, Peter and Paul crossed these enormous cultural barriers. And in Galatians 3:28, Paul nails it down (CEV):
"Faith in Christ is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman."
Religio-cultural divisions, socioeconomic divisions and gender discrimination all are broken down in the body of Christ; the church is designed to be inclusive as Paul again indicates in Colossians 3:11 (The Message):
"Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outside, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ."
Even early on at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus identified religiously based ethnocentrism as a social evil that God despised. In Luke 4:25-30, Jesus taught that God loved Gentiles as much as Jews and this heresy got him into deep trouble; the Nazareth Jews tried to kill him on the spot.
John Perkins despises and ridicules separate black and white churches; for him, they are contrary to the Bible. Speaking in tongues is legitimate, but let's get our biblical priorities straight. Preach and practice inclusion; destroy ethnocentrism. This is the primary purpose of the church.The second purpose of the Spirit-filled church is to release the oppressed poor and to invite the rich to share their wealth, to sell surplus houses and lands, to give so generously that there are no more poor in the church. From greed to generosity.
Can the American church, a Christian university, change the world? Only if they develop, preach and practice a more comprehensive kingdom of God theology.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Chapter 9 Is Your Church on a Journey Toward Justice?
When justice is a joke in the church, then injustice becomes a nightmare in society. The kingdom of God is hovering on the horizon, waiting for the people of God to see it and then bring it nigh to the oppressed poor. The incarnated kingdom of God could restore the crushed, give dignity to the humiliated, humanize the animalized, liberate the enslaved, and stop the killing.
The answer is at hand. Why is it delayed? The people of God need the Spirit of God to incarnate the kingdom of God among the oppressed poor. To do this, the church needs to ponder H. Richard Niebuhr's insightful observation: "The character of a religious movement is probably more decisively determined by its definition of the sin [personal sin or social evil] from which salvation is to be sought than by its view of that saving process itself." Are we even asking the right questions?
In order to write Journey Toward Justice, Nicholas Wolterstorff, a committed Reformed Christian who is well-educated (a Harvard PhD in philosophy) had to experience a second conversion, a transformation, a paradigm shift in his understanding of justice/injustice. He had supported, from a distance, the civil rights movement, and had opposed the Vietnam War, but even so, Wolterstorff writes:
"I was first awakened from my oblivion to justice---my 'slumber,' one might call it---by my [searing] encounter in South Africa in 1975 with Afrikaners [also Reformed, but Reformed oppressors] and people of color; I was further awakened by my [searing] encounter with Palestinians in 1978. These encounters have looming importance in the narrative that follows." Wolterstorff was about 40 years of age at the time; he is now 82.
Based on almost 88 years of living and having had my own second conversion to a biblical understanding of oppression and justice, I would hazard a guess that 95 percent of white evangelical theologians have not yet experienced this deep transformation.
Journey Toward Justice is Nicholas Wolterstorff's third and most recent (2013) book on justice, and his most readable book on justice; see also Justice: Rights and Wrongs and Justice in Love. Though Wolterstorff never mentions the Holy Spirit, it is obvious to me that the Spirit of Truth has called and anointed him to be a messenger of truth on justice and injustice for the highly deficient, English-speaking, church world. The Spirit carried Wolterstorff to the oppressed of South Africa (Nick thought he was going for an education conference) for a searing, unforgettable 1975 face-to-face encounter with the horror and pain of black South Africans. Then a few years later the Spirit led him to a conference with mostly Christian Palestinians for another searing, unforgettable face-to-face encounter with the horror and pain of Palestinians.
With a Harvard PhD in philosophy, the brilliant Wolterstorff could have thought he already knew it all. Ideological boxes with half-truths could have led him to clever arguments to refute these passionate but uninformed people. But fortunately brilliance was combined with humility and empathy, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform Nick's understanding of injustice/oppression and justice. Forty years later the Spirit's flame of wisdom is still anointing Wolterstorff's precise pen. Possibly I can see this in Wolterstorff because in April 1968, at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, I experienced a similar anointing from the Spirit of Truth. Strangely, the two best American spokespersons about oppression and justice are Wolterstorff and John Perkins (Nick and J.P.) Both are anointed by the Spirit though neither writes much about the Spirit. Through both, the Spirit of Truth has anointed them to preach good news to the poor, to release the oppressed and to call the church to practice Jubilee Justice.
Next, Allan Verhey's evaluation of Journey Toward Justice:
"Nick Wolterstorff is one of my 'heroes of the faith'---not just because he is a brilliant philosopher (although he is that), and not just because he is a careful and attentive reader of the Scripture (although he is that too), but because he is an advocate for justice. His concern for justice is a lived concern, not just a theoretical one. His encounters with people who had been treated unjustly decisively shaped his life and re-formed his analysis of the concept of justice and his reading [interpretation] of Scripture. I hope this book is widely read. It just may prompt others to listen both to the oppressed and to God---and to hunger for justice."
Both Wolterstorf and John Perkins start with injustice/oppression as they first try to understand oppression and then implement justice. Ken Wytsma and Timothy Keller, in their books on justice, do not begin with a deep understanding of injustice/oppression; therefore, compared to Wolterstorff and Perkins, their understanding of biblical justice is flawed---much better than most white evangelicals, but flawed by biblical standards.
Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world full of sinful individuals and evil societies. Social evil is far too often the norm. Systems of oppression are the norm, even lifelong or generational systems of oppression. Justice actions are needed to stop oppression, to release the oppressed and to re-establish just norms or fair and equitable social relationships.
Just judgments by leaders (judges, kings, pastors, churches) are needed to release the oppressed by implementing Jubilee Justice---freeing slaves every seven years, canceling debts every seven years, restoring land to families every fifty years.
Thomas Hanks, a Hebrew scholar, renders the Hebrew word mispat as just judgments; justice is an action. Hanks translates sedeqah as justice, not righteousness. Steven Voth, a professional bible translator, agrees with Hanks. See The Challenge of Bible Translation, chapter 14, "Justice/righteousness." So instead of justice and righteousness, they prefer just judgments and justice. Just judgments are actions taken to restore broken social relationships, to restore a standard or quality of justice. Or in the words of the Pledge of allegiance "with liberty and justice for all." John Calvin used a Latin translation of the Bible that was full of justice; this is the primary reason why he tried to organize the city of Geneva around what we today would call socialistic principles.
OT Hebrews were not highly philosophical as Greeks were; instead they were action oriented people. Jubilee Justice is the best phrase that captures this action emphasis. Justice is not an abstraction; it is a principled action.
In a poor, illiterate society, education is an act of justice; education empowers women; they become the key to family self-sufficiency and community development. Educated girls and women are less susceptible to domination and sexual exploitation. Education and faith are a powerful combination---key steps toward justice.
Because most English-speaking people and Christians have such a shallow understanding of oppression and justice, we must place an adjective alongside justice---Jubilee Justice---to constantly re-emphasize this biblical thrust. Traditionally, Amos 5:24 is translated "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Or this paraphrase based on the context: "Let Jubilee Justice flood the land so that fair and equitable social relationships can be restored for the oppressed poor. If your worship does not produce Jubilee Justice, it is deeply flawed."
Since systems of oppression crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kill people created in the image of God, strong action is needed. Wolterstorff has chapters entitled "Justice in the Old Testament" and "Justice in the New Testament." But unfortunately, not chapters entitled "Oppression is the Old Testament" and "Oppression in the New Testament." Jesus calls us to release the oppressed; we need to know who the oppressor is---Roman (external) oppression or the Jewish religious rich (internal oppression); and we need to know the type or system of oppression; is it landlord oppression (James 5) or religious institution oppression (the Temple)? Or the type of oppression might be slavery or segregation or debt slavery or the criminal justice system (mass incarceration) or the racial wealth gap or gender oppression or ???
As you investigate systems of oppression, watch out for political ideologies which misrepresent or even sanctify systems of oppression. Watch out for widespread half-truths, half solutions. Wilberforce and colleagues stopped the slave trade and British slavery, but they compromised by paying reparations to the slave holders, not to the slaves. Lincoln and the abolitionists got freedom for slaves but not equality and justice for blacks. Most Jews asserted that the Romans were the oppressors, but Jesus, however, "ignored" Roman oppression and focused on internal Jewish elite oppression.
Wolterstorff is very clear and precise and comprehensive on justice but not as much so on oppression, though he has a good basic understanding of oppression/injustice. Without a clear, precise and accurate understanding of systems of oppression, our attempts at solutions will be partial or even misguided. For example, many well-meaning people identify the supposed voodoo curse or corruption as the primary cause of Haitian poverty. Wrong. The primary cause is 500 years of oppression, first by the Spanish, then by the French and now the United States.
The ancient philosopher Plato and the modern John Rawls, Plato's disciple, saw order/disorder as the basic categories of social life---ideal society. But these analyses were limited to philosophical abstraction. For Wolterstorff, justice/injustice are the basic categories of social life in a fallen social order. The NT actually addresses both order/disorder and justice/injustice. Stephen Mott in his article entitled "Biblical faith and the reality of social evil," states: "Whereas for classical Greece [philosophers like Plato] cosmos protected values and life, . . . cosmos [in the NT] represents the twisted values which threatened genuine human life, For Plato the [social] order stood guard against licentiousness; now the order is the intruder bearing immorality." The answer to an evil cosmos social order is a just kingdom of God social order.
I think that John Wesley was the greatest spiritual/social leader since NT times, but he did not understand the biblical teaching on oppression and justice though he excelled on love. Howard Snyder notes Wesley's weaknesses:
"Consider Wesley's reaction to the industrialization of England. He had deep compassion for the laboring victims of their emerging system and worked for its humanization, but he made no fundamental critique of the free enterprise system. A century later Karl Marx did, but unfortunately with a non-Christian bias. It has been said that the Wesleyan Revival saved England from political revolution. Is it possible that a more radical social ethic in Methodism could have saved the world from the Communist revolution a century and a half later by making it unnecessary?" (from The Radical Wesley).
In 2014, we still lack a comprehensive, evangelical social ethic built upon the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice. Wolterstorff has taken some giant steps, but there is still more to be done, especially in the NT. Jesus asserted: "Seek first God's kingdom and his justice," (NEB) Seek God's social order and his justice because Jubilee justice is the chief characteristic of a divine social order. Paul echoed Jesus in Romans 14:17 (NEB): "The kingdom of God is justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Noble paraphrase)
Next, a few excerpts from Journey Toward Justice:
"With great passion they [black South Africans] cried out for justice. Not only was I profoundly moved by this cry for justice, I felt convinced that I had been issued a call from God. I did not hear words in the air; it was by the way of speech of the so-called blacks and coloreds that God spoke to me. Fidelity to God required that I speak up for these victims of injustice. . . ."
"But my experience in Potchefstroom [South Africa] in 1975 and on the west side of Chicago in 1978 [with Palestinians] made it impossible for me not to start from the wronged [oppressed] in my reflections on justice. The response to the "blacks" and "coloreds" by the Afrikaners at the conference who spoke up in defense of apartheid took me completely aback. . . . They insisted that justice was not a relevant category. Order and disorder were the relevant categories; South Africa was threatened with disorder. . . . apartheid was an act of good will. . . . benevolence [charity but not justice] was being used as an instrument of oppression."
In terms of American immigration reform, rich, male WASPs often use law and order arguments, but rarely justice arguments.
"Christian Scripture speaks often and emphatically about justice. I would have heard and read many passages about justice; in singing the Psalms I would have sung about justice. But it all passed me by. Nobody called it to my attention; nothing in my situation made it jump out. My church had a benevolence fund; it did not have a social justice committee. . . . [Upon returning from South Africa] The references to justice that had passed me by now jumped out. My encounter with the people of color in South Africa and with the Palestinians had opened my eyes and focused my attention."
Again and again, Wolterstorff writes about "doing justice and righting injustice."
"Plato's Republic is all about justice. But nowhere in the Republic is justice connected to the fate of the widow, the orphan, the resident alien, and the poor." The Bible refers to such people as downtrodden, not unfortunates or inferior or lazy.
"Jesus's listeners and Matthew's original readers, steeped as they were in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, would automatically have connected God's kingdom with the doing of justice and with righting injustice."
Some final thoughts. Americans, like the Afrikaners, have excelled at mislabeling and the sanctifying the social evils of ethnocentrism and oppression. American exceptionalism has been used to cover American ethnocentrism. Manifest Destiny has been used to sanctify American oppression. Westward Expansion has been used to cover Indian destruction.
Instead of focusing on illegal aliens and immigration reform, American Christians should be repenting, engaging in restitution (the real issue is illegal borders and the theft of nearly half of Mexico's land); Jubilee Justice requires that land be returned to the original owner every 50 years; well over 150 years have gone by.
Third generation CCDers need to learn how to identify biblically what ethnocentrism and oppression are and then show how a combination of love and justice, reconciliation and shalom, the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God can be the answer.
The answer is at hand. Why is it delayed? The people of God need the Spirit of God to incarnate the kingdom of God among the oppressed poor. To do this, the church needs to ponder H. Richard Niebuhr's insightful observation: "The character of a religious movement is probably more decisively determined by its definition of the sin [personal sin or social evil] from which salvation is to be sought than by its view of that saving process itself." Are we even asking the right questions?
In order to write Journey Toward Justice, Nicholas Wolterstorff, a committed Reformed Christian who is well-educated (a Harvard PhD in philosophy) had to experience a second conversion, a transformation, a paradigm shift in his understanding of justice/injustice. He had supported, from a distance, the civil rights movement, and had opposed the Vietnam War, but even so, Wolterstorff writes:
"I was first awakened from my oblivion to justice---my 'slumber,' one might call it---by my [searing] encounter in South Africa in 1975 with Afrikaners [also Reformed, but Reformed oppressors] and people of color; I was further awakened by my [searing] encounter with Palestinians in 1978. These encounters have looming importance in the narrative that follows." Wolterstorff was about 40 years of age at the time; he is now 82.
Based on almost 88 years of living and having had my own second conversion to a biblical understanding of oppression and justice, I would hazard a guess that 95 percent of white evangelical theologians have not yet experienced this deep transformation.
Journey Toward Justice is Nicholas Wolterstorff's third and most recent (2013) book on justice, and his most readable book on justice; see also Justice: Rights and Wrongs and Justice in Love. Though Wolterstorff never mentions the Holy Spirit, it is obvious to me that the Spirit of Truth has called and anointed him to be a messenger of truth on justice and injustice for the highly deficient, English-speaking, church world. The Spirit carried Wolterstorff to the oppressed of South Africa (Nick thought he was going for an education conference) for a searing, unforgettable 1975 face-to-face encounter with the horror and pain of black South Africans. Then a few years later the Spirit led him to a conference with mostly Christian Palestinians for another searing, unforgettable face-to-face encounter with the horror and pain of Palestinians.
With a Harvard PhD in philosophy, the brilliant Wolterstorff could have thought he already knew it all. Ideological boxes with half-truths could have led him to clever arguments to refute these passionate but uninformed people. But fortunately brilliance was combined with humility and empathy, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform Nick's understanding of injustice/oppression and justice. Forty years later the Spirit's flame of wisdom is still anointing Wolterstorff's precise pen. Possibly I can see this in Wolterstorff because in April 1968, at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, I experienced a similar anointing from the Spirit of Truth. Strangely, the two best American spokespersons about oppression and justice are Wolterstorff and John Perkins (Nick and J.P.) Both are anointed by the Spirit though neither writes much about the Spirit. Through both, the Spirit of Truth has anointed them to preach good news to the poor, to release the oppressed and to call the church to practice Jubilee Justice.
Next, Allan Verhey's evaluation of Journey Toward Justice:
"Nick Wolterstorff is one of my 'heroes of the faith'---not just because he is a brilliant philosopher (although he is that), and not just because he is a careful and attentive reader of the Scripture (although he is that too), but because he is an advocate for justice. His concern for justice is a lived concern, not just a theoretical one. His encounters with people who had been treated unjustly decisively shaped his life and re-formed his analysis of the concept of justice and his reading [interpretation] of Scripture. I hope this book is widely read. It just may prompt others to listen both to the oppressed and to God---and to hunger for justice."
Both Wolterstorf and John Perkins start with injustice/oppression as they first try to understand oppression and then implement justice. Ken Wytsma and Timothy Keller, in their books on justice, do not begin with a deep understanding of injustice/oppression; therefore, compared to Wolterstorff and Perkins, their understanding of biblical justice is flawed---much better than most white evangelicals, but flawed by biblical standards.
Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world full of sinful individuals and evil societies. Social evil is far too often the norm. Systems of oppression are the norm, even lifelong or generational systems of oppression. Justice actions are needed to stop oppression, to release the oppressed and to re-establish just norms or fair and equitable social relationships.
Just judgments by leaders (judges, kings, pastors, churches) are needed to release the oppressed by implementing Jubilee Justice---freeing slaves every seven years, canceling debts every seven years, restoring land to families every fifty years.
Thomas Hanks, a Hebrew scholar, renders the Hebrew word mispat as just judgments; justice is an action. Hanks translates sedeqah as justice, not righteousness. Steven Voth, a professional bible translator, agrees with Hanks. See The Challenge of Bible Translation, chapter 14, "Justice/righteousness." So instead of justice and righteousness, they prefer just judgments and justice. Just judgments are actions taken to restore broken social relationships, to restore a standard or quality of justice. Or in the words of the Pledge of allegiance "with liberty and justice for all." John Calvin used a Latin translation of the Bible that was full of justice; this is the primary reason why he tried to organize the city of Geneva around what we today would call socialistic principles.
OT Hebrews were not highly philosophical as Greeks were; instead they were action oriented people. Jubilee Justice is the best phrase that captures this action emphasis. Justice is not an abstraction; it is a principled action.
In a poor, illiterate society, education is an act of justice; education empowers women; they become the key to family self-sufficiency and community development. Educated girls and women are less susceptible to domination and sexual exploitation. Education and faith are a powerful combination---key steps toward justice.
Because most English-speaking people and Christians have such a shallow understanding of oppression and justice, we must place an adjective alongside justice---Jubilee Justice---to constantly re-emphasize this biblical thrust. Traditionally, Amos 5:24 is translated "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Or this paraphrase based on the context: "Let Jubilee Justice flood the land so that fair and equitable social relationships can be restored for the oppressed poor. If your worship does not produce Jubilee Justice, it is deeply flawed."
Since systems of oppression crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kill people created in the image of God, strong action is needed. Wolterstorff has chapters entitled "Justice in the Old Testament" and "Justice in the New Testament." But unfortunately, not chapters entitled "Oppression is the Old Testament" and "Oppression in the New Testament." Jesus calls us to release the oppressed; we need to know who the oppressor is---Roman (external) oppression or the Jewish religious rich (internal oppression); and we need to know the type or system of oppression; is it landlord oppression (James 5) or religious institution oppression (the Temple)? Or the type of oppression might be slavery or segregation or debt slavery or the criminal justice system (mass incarceration) or the racial wealth gap or gender oppression or ???
As you investigate systems of oppression, watch out for political ideologies which misrepresent or even sanctify systems of oppression. Watch out for widespread half-truths, half solutions. Wilberforce and colleagues stopped the slave trade and British slavery, but they compromised by paying reparations to the slave holders, not to the slaves. Lincoln and the abolitionists got freedom for slaves but not equality and justice for blacks. Most Jews asserted that the Romans were the oppressors, but Jesus, however, "ignored" Roman oppression and focused on internal Jewish elite oppression.
Wolterstorff is very clear and precise and comprehensive on justice but not as much so on oppression, though he has a good basic understanding of oppression/injustice. Without a clear, precise and accurate understanding of systems of oppression, our attempts at solutions will be partial or even misguided. For example, many well-meaning people identify the supposed voodoo curse or corruption as the primary cause of Haitian poverty. Wrong. The primary cause is 500 years of oppression, first by the Spanish, then by the French and now the United States.
The ancient philosopher Plato and the modern John Rawls, Plato's disciple, saw order/disorder as the basic categories of social life---ideal society. But these analyses were limited to philosophical abstraction. For Wolterstorff, justice/injustice are the basic categories of social life in a fallen social order. The NT actually addresses both order/disorder and justice/injustice. Stephen Mott in his article entitled "Biblical faith and the reality of social evil," states: "Whereas for classical Greece [philosophers like Plato] cosmos protected values and life, . . . cosmos [in the NT] represents the twisted values which threatened genuine human life, For Plato the [social] order stood guard against licentiousness; now the order is the intruder bearing immorality." The answer to an evil cosmos social order is a just kingdom of God social order.
I think that John Wesley was the greatest spiritual/social leader since NT times, but he did not understand the biblical teaching on oppression and justice though he excelled on love. Howard Snyder notes Wesley's weaknesses:
"Consider Wesley's reaction to the industrialization of England. He had deep compassion for the laboring victims of their emerging system and worked for its humanization, but he made no fundamental critique of the free enterprise system. A century later Karl Marx did, but unfortunately with a non-Christian bias. It has been said that the Wesleyan Revival saved England from political revolution. Is it possible that a more radical social ethic in Methodism could have saved the world from the Communist revolution a century and a half later by making it unnecessary?" (from The Radical Wesley).
In 2014, we still lack a comprehensive, evangelical social ethic built upon the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice. Wolterstorff has taken some giant steps, but there is still more to be done, especially in the NT. Jesus asserted: "Seek first God's kingdom and his justice," (NEB) Seek God's social order and his justice because Jubilee justice is the chief characteristic of a divine social order. Paul echoed Jesus in Romans 14:17 (NEB): "The kingdom of God is justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Noble paraphrase)
Next, a few excerpts from Journey Toward Justice:
"With great passion they [black South Africans] cried out for justice. Not only was I profoundly moved by this cry for justice, I felt convinced that I had been issued a call from God. I did not hear words in the air; it was by the way of speech of the so-called blacks and coloreds that God spoke to me. Fidelity to God required that I speak up for these victims of injustice. . . ."
"But my experience in Potchefstroom [South Africa] in 1975 and on the west side of Chicago in 1978 [with Palestinians] made it impossible for me not to start from the wronged [oppressed] in my reflections on justice. The response to the "blacks" and "coloreds" by the Afrikaners at the conference who spoke up in defense of apartheid took me completely aback. . . . They insisted that justice was not a relevant category. Order and disorder were the relevant categories; South Africa was threatened with disorder. . . . apartheid was an act of good will. . . . benevolence [charity but not justice] was being used as an instrument of oppression."
In terms of American immigration reform, rich, male WASPs often use law and order arguments, but rarely justice arguments.
"Christian Scripture speaks often and emphatically about justice. I would have heard and read many passages about justice; in singing the Psalms I would have sung about justice. But it all passed me by. Nobody called it to my attention; nothing in my situation made it jump out. My church had a benevolence fund; it did not have a social justice committee. . . . [Upon returning from South Africa] The references to justice that had passed me by now jumped out. My encounter with the people of color in South Africa and with the Palestinians had opened my eyes and focused my attention."
Again and again, Wolterstorff writes about "doing justice and righting injustice."
"Plato's Republic is all about justice. But nowhere in the Republic is justice connected to the fate of the widow, the orphan, the resident alien, and the poor." The Bible refers to such people as downtrodden, not unfortunates or inferior or lazy.
"Jesus's listeners and Matthew's original readers, steeped as they were in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, would automatically have connected God's kingdom with the doing of justice and with righting injustice."
Some final thoughts. Americans, like the Afrikaners, have excelled at mislabeling and the sanctifying the social evils of ethnocentrism and oppression. American exceptionalism has been used to cover American ethnocentrism. Manifest Destiny has been used to sanctify American oppression. Westward Expansion has been used to cover Indian destruction.
Instead of focusing on illegal aliens and immigration reform, American Christians should be repenting, engaging in restitution (the real issue is illegal borders and the theft of nearly half of Mexico's land); Jubilee Justice requires that land be returned to the original owner every 50 years; well over 150 years have gone by.
Third generation CCDers need to learn how to identify biblically what ethnocentrism and oppression are and then show how a combination of love and justice, reconciliation and shalom, the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God can be the answer.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Chapter 8 Martin Luther King Jr's Sacred Mission
This chapter on the example and importance of Martin Luther King Jr. is built around Stewart Burns 2004 book entitled To The Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr's Sacred Mission to Save America, 1955-1968.
The end of the book reflects the spirit of the book. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. On April 8, his widow, Coretta Scott King, who could have easily been overwhelmed not only by grief, but also by bitterness, hate and resentment, uttered these words: "I believe that this nation can be transformed into a society of love, of justice, peace and brotherhood." A stunning affirmation of love and hope in the midst of oppression and tragedy.
Why another book on Martin Luther King? While based on quality research and scholarship, this book fundamentally is a labor of love and respect embedded in wisdom. It probes the spiritual and ethical dimensions of King's life and ministry more than most books on King. A flawed person in terms of sexual morality, often guilt-ridden and exhausted, and at times depressed, still, on many occasions, the Spirit's anointing rested upon King as he proclaimed and practiced the gospel of truth, love, forgiveness and justice. King really did love his brutal enemies.
James Cone, author of the excellent book Martin and Malcolm in America, eloquently and accurately asserts: "Thoroughly researched and gracefully written, To The Mountaintop is a brilliant interpretation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s vocation to save America."
To The Mountain Top's book cover states:
"Moral warrior and nonviolent apostle; man of God rocked by fury, fear, and guilt; rational thinker driven by emotional and spiritual truth---Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to reconcile these divisions in his soul. . . . King profoundly experienced the movement as a sacred mission following a path of liberation and sacrifice pioneered by Moses and Jesus."
Burns declares: "Learning about his life and leadership has transformed my own." I am sure that this is Burns' desire for every reader of this fine book. Never static, King moved from "cautious liberal, to reluctant radical, to righteous revolutionary." Toward the end of his life, he stated that he had pushed for many important but piecemeal reforms in the South, but now he realized that America needed something much deeper, a revolution of values, a transformation of society.
An incident in January, 1956, typifies the best in King's ministry. His house had been bombed; his wife and daughter were in the house at the time. A thousand concerned and angry people gathered; some were armed. Tensions ran high; a riot was close to breaking out. King spoke to the crowd, urging them to be calm and nonviolent. As he spoke, the Spirit of God pervaded the scene, calming the crowd. A policeman commented, "If it hadn't been for that nigger preacher, we'd all be dead."
In moments of crisis, the Spirit anointed King, enabling him to speak powerfully into the crisis. And the people of God, even the masses, often sensed that God was acting on their behalf. Because of King's unique gift, his associates dubbed him "the Lawd."
As the pressures became intense, almost unbearable, King entered into a spiritual crisis, which became a transforming event. He felt weak, afraid; he was faltering, "at the end of my powers, . . . nothing left." Then God spoke: "Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you."
His favorite gospel song reflects this experience; every word was profoundly true to King:
Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.
Through the storm, through the night,
lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
On December 5, 1955, King was chosen to lead the Montgomery bus boycott and he spontaneously addressed the congregation. Burns notes:
"Yet by some uncanny act of grace, the breath of the Spirit . . . burst out of him in a jeweled torrent of unscripted words. . . . The faithful, King now among them, had conjured the kingdom of God in that place."
Afro Americans desperately needed both the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God because the opposition was fierce and evil as documented in this handbill:
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used. Among these are guns, bows and arrows, sling shots and knives. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers."
How does one combat such demonic, inhumane evil? "Gandhian nonviolence called for unconditional rejection of retaliation, even in self-defense." This would enable the Movement to seize and keep the higher moral ground; the evilness of evil would be seen more clearly. But this was a difficult calling. Early on, Rustin said to Martin: "I have the feeling the Lord has laid his hands on you and that is a dangerous, dangerous calling."
King combined Gandhian nonviolent mass action "with the black social gospel to create a synthesis of visionary but pragmatic non-violent politics." This approach combined two major biblical concepts---justice and love which could turn a broken community into the beloved community.
"In its outward projection the spiritual aggression grasped the adversary's conscience, awakening his moral sense by shaming, or by appealing to his higher values. Just as no physical harm would be inflicted, there would be no internal violence of spirit. . . . The aim was not to defeat or humiliate the adversary but to humanize him or her. . . . While aimed at redeeming the adversary, the spiritual force sought to eliminate the evil structure that the adversary served."
As Robert Kennedy observed the Birmingham riot, he feared that it might spread nationwide. So he invited James Baldwin, Lena Horne, Kenneth Clark, and freedom rider Jerome Smith to his New York apartment. "With volcanic anger that Kennedy had never before witnessed, Smith recounted his experience in the Deep South." Kennedy was shocked so he turned to the more respectable blacks in the room. Horne said there were many accomplished people in the room, but Smith was putting it "like it was." The intense discussion lasted three hours. Clark called it "one of the most violent, emotional assaults that I had ever witnessed." For the first time, Robert Kennedy began to grasp "the nature of black anguish." Soon Bobby pressed his brother, the president, to act on civil rights legislation.
King tried to learn from and build on President Lincoln. "Despite Lincoln's prophetic words and deeds, his supremely bloody war against southern white supremacy had not attained justice for black people." Freedom, yes; but justice, no; and soon most of that freedom was lost to segregation and sharecropping and misuse of the criminal justice system.
James Bevel, a brilliant and bold strategist, called for a March to Montgomery after the Selma beating:
"I had to get the people out of a state of grief. If you don't deal with the negative violence and grief, it turns into bitterness. . . . If you went back to some of the classic strategies of Gandhi, when you have a great violation of the people and there's a great sense of injury, you have to give people an honorable means and context in which to express and eliminate that grief and speak decisively back to the issue. Otherwise the movement will break down in violence and chaos."
When King saw firsthand the warlike destruction of the Watts riot, "he was absolutely undone." He now understood "that black oppression was economic as much as racial." A perspective that grew and resulted in the planning of the Poor People's March on Washington. At this time, King "began his journey from moderate radical to revolutionary. He was leaping beyond Lincoln into an unknown land." King said, "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values." We must "wipe out the triple interlocking evils of racism, exploitation, and militarism." King wanted to create a "socially conscious democracy" which would reconcile "the opposing truth of individualism and collectivism."
In an afterword, entitled "Building the Beloved Community," Burns eloquently summarizes King's distinctive principles, but he does not show how to incarnate them in poor communities. This is where John Perkins enters the arena. John has specialized in the grassroots rebuilding of poor communities. Hundreds of Christian Community Development ministries now exist in poor communities across America---a fitting addition to the civil rights movement which John Perkins himself was involved in in Simpson County, Mississippi.
There may never be another King or Perkins, but each church as a collective should have a King or Perkins type ministry. What church will volunteer to do so? Remember Pastor/Pope Francis admonition to priest and people; "Leave the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets."
The end of the book reflects the spirit of the book. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. On April 8, his widow, Coretta Scott King, who could have easily been overwhelmed not only by grief, but also by bitterness, hate and resentment, uttered these words: "I believe that this nation can be transformed into a society of love, of justice, peace and brotherhood." A stunning affirmation of love and hope in the midst of oppression and tragedy.
Why another book on Martin Luther King? While based on quality research and scholarship, this book fundamentally is a labor of love and respect embedded in wisdom. It probes the spiritual and ethical dimensions of King's life and ministry more than most books on King. A flawed person in terms of sexual morality, often guilt-ridden and exhausted, and at times depressed, still, on many occasions, the Spirit's anointing rested upon King as he proclaimed and practiced the gospel of truth, love, forgiveness and justice. King really did love his brutal enemies.
James Cone, author of the excellent book Martin and Malcolm in America, eloquently and accurately asserts: "Thoroughly researched and gracefully written, To The Mountaintop is a brilliant interpretation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s vocation to save America."
To The Mountain Top's book cover states:
"Moral warrior and nonviolent apostle; man of God rocked by fury, fear, and guilt; rational thinker driven by emotional and spiritual truth---Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to reconcile these divisions in his soul. . . . King profoundly experienced the movement as a sacred mission following a path of liberation and sacrifice pioneered by Moses and Jesus."
Burns declares: "Learning about his life and leadership has transformed my own." I am sure that this is Burns' desire for every reader of this fine book. Never static, King moved from "cautious liberal, to reluctant radical, to righteous revolutionary." Toward the end of his life, he stated that he had pushed for many important but piecemeal reforms in the South, but now he realized that America needed something much deeper, a revolution of values, a transformation of society.
An incident in January, 1956, typifies the best in King's ministry. His house had been bombed; his wife and daughter were in the house at the time. A thousand concerned and angry people gathered; some were armed. Tensions ran high; a riot was close to breaking out. King spoke to the crowd, urging them to be calm and nonviolent. As he spoke, the Spirit of God pervaded the scene, calming the crowd. A policeman commented, "If it hadn't been for that nigger preacher, we'd all be dead."
In moments of crisis, the Spirit anointed King, enabling him to speak powerfully into the crisis. And the people of God, even the masses, often sensed that God was acting on their behalf. Because of King's unique gift, his associates dubbed him "the Lawd."
As the pressures became intense, almost unbearable, King entered into a spiritual crisis, which became a transforming event. He felt weak, afraid; he was faltering, "at the end of my powers, . . . nothing left." Then God spoke: "Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you."
His favorite gospel song reflects this experience; every word was profoundly true to King:
Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.
Through the storm, through the night,
lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
On December 5, 1955, King was chosen to lead the Montgomery bus boycott and he spontaneously addressed the congregation. Burns notes:
"Yet by some uncanny act of grace, the breath of the Spirit . . . burst out of him in a jeweled torrent of unscripted words. . . . The faithful, King now among them, had conjured the kingdom of God in that place."
Afro Americans desperately needed both the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God because the opposition was fierce and evil as documented in this handbill:
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used. Among these are guns, bows and arrows, sling shots and knives. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers."
How does one combat such demonic, inhumane evil? "Gandhian nonviolence called for unconditional rejection of retaliation, even in self-defense." This would enable the Movement to seize and keep the higher moral ground; the evilness of evil would be seen more clearly. But this was a difficult calling. Early on, Rustin said to Martin: "I have the feeling the Lord has laid his hands on you and that is a dangerous, dangerous calling."
King combined Gandhian nonviolent mass action "with the black social gospel to create a synthesis of visionary but pragmatic non-violent politics." This approach combined two major biblical concepts---justice and love which could turn a broken community into the beloved community.
"In its outward projection the spiritual aggression grasped the adversary's conscience, awakening his moral sense by shaming, or by appealing to his higher values. Just as no physical harm would be inflicted, there would be no internal violence of spirit. . . . The aim was not to defeat or humiliate the adversary but to humanize him or her. . . . While aimed at redeeming the adversary, the spiritual force sought to eliminate the evil structure that the adversary served."
As Robert Kennedy observed the Birmingham riot, he feared that it might spread nationwide. So he invited James Baldwin, Lena Horne, Kenneth Clark, and freedom rider Jerome Smith to his New York apartment. "With volcanic anger that Kennedy had never before witnessed, Smith recounted his experience in the Deep South." Kennedy was shocked so he turned to the more respectable blacks in the room. Horne said there were many accomplished people in the room, but Smith was putting it "like it was." The intense discussion lasted three hours. Clark called it "one of the most violent, emotional assaults that I had ever witnessed." For the first time, Robert Kennedy began to grasp "the nature of black anguish." Soon Bobby pressed his brother, the president, to act on civil rights legislation.
King tried to learn from and build on President Lincoln. "Despite Lincoln's prophetic words and deeds, his supremely bloody war against southern white supremacy had not attained justice for black people." Freedom, yes; but justice, no; and soon most of that freedom was lost to segregation and sharecropping and misuse of the criminal justice system.
James Bevel, a brilliant and bold strategist, called for a March to Montgomery after the Selma beating:
"I had to get the people out of a state of grief. If you don't deal with the negative violence and grief, it turns into bitterness. . . . If you went back to some of the classic strategies of Gandhi, when you have a great violation of the people and there's a great sense of injury, you have to give people an honorable means and context in which to express and eliminate that grief and speak decisively back to the issue. Otherwise the movement will break down in violence and chaos."
When King saw firsthand the warlike destruction of the Watts riot, "he was absolutely undone." He now understood "that black oppression was economic as much as racial." A perspective that grew and resulted in the planning of the Poor People's March on Washington. At this time, King "began his journey from moderate radical to revolutionary. He was leaping beyond Lincoln into an unknown land." King said, "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values." We must "wipe out the triple interlocking evils of racism, exploitation, and militarism." King wanted to create a "socially conscious democracy" which would reconcile "the opposing truth of individualism and collectivism."
In an afterword, entitled "Building the Beloved Community," Burns eloquently summarizes King's distinctive principles, but he does not show how to incarnate them in poor communities. This is where John Perkins enters the arena. John has specialized in the grassroots rebuilding of poor communities. Hundreds of Christian Community Development ministries now exist in poor communities across America---a fitting addition to the civil rights movement which John Perkins himself was involved in in Simpson County, Mississippi.
There may never be another King or Perkins, but each church as a collective should have a King or Perkins type ministry. What church will volunteer to do so? Remember Pastor/Pope Francis admonition to priest and people; "Leave the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)