Can We End Extreme Poverty/Extreme Oppression?

Can we end extreme poverty for a billion people in 15 years? Only if we engage in extreme biblical justice. The World Bank (see hashtag #faith2endpoverty) and 30 faith-based organizations say YES, we can. The World Bank's, an bank of reconstruction and development, official goal is to reduce poverty, but in the past its leaders have blundered as often as they have succeeded. Now for the first time, World Bank has a leader who has had extensive experience in delivering medical services to people in extreme poverty; one of those countries is Haiti. Dr. Kim has a medical degree from Harvard and a doctorate in anthropology. So both from experience and education, Kim is exceptionally qualified. He is also a close friend and colleague of Dr. Paul Farmer who has given his life to the Haitian poor. Read Mountains Beyond Mountains for Farmer's remarkable life story.

"Kim has led the World Bank to establish two goals: 1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and 2) boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries." So states Bread for the World, one of the faith-based organizations.

Situations of extreme poverty/extreme oppression are literally life and death situations, social catastrophes; both natural and social catastrophes demand a crisis response---an all hands on deck approach. After hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi church and the national church responded beautifully, but these same churches largely ignored the ongoing social catastrophe in the nearby Delta characterized by extreme poverty/oppression.

The Bible can help us understand extreme poverty/oppression and give the church direction on what to do. In New Testament times, the people of Palestine suffered from internal oppression/poverty at the hands of a corrupt Jewish elite; they also suffered from external oppression/poverty by a Roman elite. So Jesus, in anger, cried out "Woe to the rich" and "release the oppressed." And Jesus urged this crisis response: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." "With urgency, give incarnating the kingdom of God as justice, your highest priority." (Noble paraphrase of Mt. 6:33)

How bad was extreme oppression/poverty in New Testament times? Karl Allen Kuhn, in his 2015 book, The Kingdom according to Luke and Acts, documents who the oppressors were and how bad the poverty was. Kuhn quotes Richard Rohrbaugh:

"obviously disease and high death rates . . . fell disproportionately upon the lower classes of both city and village. For most lower-class people who did make it to adulthood, their health would have been atrocious." Kuhn adds: "As a result, the life expectancy of the urban peasantry was in the low twenties, and the rural peasantry in the low thirties. Infant mortality rates were about 30 percent. . . . In short, many of the underclass were struggling to survive, their days filled with worry about the next harvest, the next tax, tribute, rent, or loan payment, and often the next meal."

The economic system was rigged for failure---high interest, high debt, predatory lending, land foreclosure---by the rich and powerful. ". . . the priestly aristocracy had acquired much of the arable land through onerous lending policies and peasant foreclosure." The internal oppression was already in place when the external Roman oppression added to the misery of the Palestinian poor. Jesus focused primarily on the internal oppression/poverty, not the external Roman oppression. " . . . vast majority of the population (82-90 percent) live slightly above, at, or below the precarious edge of subsistence." So the majority of the population were poor or extremely poor.

In a series of "Woe to the Pharisees" (chapter 11 in Luke), Jesus condemns the Pharisee for being lovers of money who neglected justice and the love of God, not lovers of their poor neighbors. They, the religious people, either were a part of the problem---ran the system of oppression, the temple, which Jesus called "a den of robbers," or they were silent and neglected justice.

Incarnating the kingdom of God as love and justice is the crisis response to extreme poverty/oppression. In The Message, Luke chapter 9:57-62, Jesus rejects excuses, even good ones:

"First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent [social catastrophe]. Announce God's kingdom. . . . No procrastination. No backward look. You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day."

More from Kuhn's book The Kingdom according to Luke and Acts:

"Luke also regards the hoarding of resources by the elite as central to perversion of the current [fallen] world order. Jesus problematizes wealth in a society where many struggle to survive." "Rather than the evangelist to the poor, Luke is an exceptionally keen critic of the rich and wants their conversion, which is possible only by way of radical renunciation (renunciation of half their possessions,) and unpleasant specific actions (risky loans, cancellation of debts, gifts." Walter Pilgrim summarizes: "the challenge of the Jerusalem church is that of a new kind of community, where there is neither rich nor poor, where economic needs are met by practical and costly action."

From the Poverty and Justice Contemporary English Version Bible on the "Sabbath." Just as systems of oppression such as genocide or slavery are sweeping, radical and negatively holistic, so must biblical justice be sweeping, radical, holistic or revolutionary and transformative.

"Leviticus is often viewed as a book full of obscure rules and ritual, yet it contains one of the most astonishing pieces of social legislation in history: the Sabbath years and the Jubilee. Every seven years, the land had a Sabbath, 'time off,' allowing it to recover. During this year slaves were to be freed (Exodus 21:2) and debts were to be cancelled (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)."

"And every fiftieth year there was a Jubilee, a kind of Sabbath of Sabbaths, where the entire social structure of Israel was to be reset. Every Israelite became, once again, a free citizen. Everyone could wipe the slate clean and start again, and significantly, the year began on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9)---the day of national repentance and reconciliation. So, fresh starts spiritually and physically [socially]---a whole life view."

The Jubilee Year included the return of any alienated land---the family farm---if it had been lost due to misfortune or oppression. In Hebrew society, land ownership was sacred; God really owned it; he only "leased" it to a family. In an agricultural society, a family farm was the key to self-sufficiency and a guard against oppression.

So the Sabbath Year and the Jubilee Year demanded release/justice in three key economic areas---land, labor and capital. Oppressors try to gain control of land and/or labor and/or capital. A God-designed economic system requires a fresh start every seven years; this avoids the social catastrophe of lifelong or even generational systems of oppression.

Does this mean society became a level playing field with neither rich nor poor? Proverbs 30:8 says, "Give me neither riches nor poverty." In the Jubilee, do all have equal access to land, labor and capital again? Is Acts 4:32-35, a reflection of this Jubilee principle?

Extreme oppression/poverty in society demands that the church become an agent of extreme justice---Sabbath year/Jubilee year justice, kingdom of God justice. For more see my blog [Lowell Noble's Writings], "Rejusticizing the Sermon on the Mount."