"The system is rigged."

"The system is rigged." So says Elizabeth Warren.

"Woe to the rich." So says Jesus, the Christ.

Combining these two statements: "The financial, economic, political and sometimes part of the religious systems favor the rich; therefore, the rich are getting richer."

In NT times, Jesus said that the religious Pharisees were lovers of money; also neglecters of justice and the love of God. The operation of the temple was so corrupt, so oppressive, that Jesus called it a "den of robbers." Or a religiously legitimated system of oppression. God hates oppression; God requires justice.

Our founding fathers were a rich, white, male elite; not a government of, by and for the people; instead a government by the rich elite and for the rich elite.

According to Dean Starkman (The New Republic, June 30, 2014, "Closing the Racial Wealth Gap,") the current system is rigged; it creates a racial wealth gap of $236,500. Here are some key thoughts from the article:

1. The key economic inequality issue is the wealth gap, not the income gap.

2. Government policies and programs, primarily initiated under President Reagan, have benefitted the rich. None of the following presidents have made fundamental corrections.

3. Many government programs have become systems of oppression which benefit the rich.

4. "Centuries of discrimination against African Americans---a story of wealth stolen or denied."

5. "Income feeds your stomach but wealth is accumulated over generations."

6. "All the main structural factors that drive the wealth gap. . . . are traceable to [Reagan] policies put in place in the post-Civil Rights era."

7. "Wealth in America has continued to be quietly and overwhelmingly funneled to whites, principally because the asset-building policies now in place are aimed at people who already have assets."

8. "The racial nature of mortgage predations that led to the financial crisis . . . an African American . . . three times more likely to wind up with a subprime loan than a white person."

9. "1 trillion in minority housing wealth destroyed during the crash."

10. "Maybe the best way to move the nation toward racial wealth equality is simply start ending the abuses [federal laws and policies] that make the divided worse."

America needs to repent, then release the oppressed, then repair the damage oppression has done.