Did you have another sentimental, repentless Christmas as most white American Christians did? No rejection of, repentance from, restitution for endless white ethnocentrism, white oppression. If so, this means another very bad year for the millions of America's poor and oppressed.
Here is how Jesus described repentless religion---the religion of the Pharisees, supposed experts on the OT Law which was built upon the principles of love and justice; "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money (Luke 16:11), neglected justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42)."
Here is how John Perkins, who was born and raised a poor black in segregated Mississippi, describes repentless religion in Mississippi (the bigoted Baptists): "The white church institutions of Mississippi have been the last bastion of racism and discrimination. So if somehow all the church and church institutions had been wiped out in Mississippi, we would be much further along in terms of progress than we are at the present time."
James Cone adds: "It is as if whites have been socially conditioned to be racist and thus dehumanizing for so long that they do not even recognize it any longer. . . . White church people seemed not to know the [biblically] obvious, that justice was God's will."
This is just the beginning of bad news for the coming new year. Some very bad news from Willian Nordhaus, Yale University expert on climate change and its economic impact. Nordhaus essentially says that all we have done so far on reducing climate change are bandaids when surgery is needed.
"The paper's findings "pertain primarily to a world without climate policies, which is reasonably accurate for virtually the entire globe today." "The results show rapidly rising accumulation of carbon dioxide, temperature changes, and damages." "there is virtually no chance" that nations will prevent the world from warming more than 3.6 degrees, the upper boundary for avoiding cascading catastrophes."
My interpretation: It is already too late to avoid catastrophe; drastic, quick action might slow things down somewhat, but even this seems highly unlikely. Batten down the hatches; prepare for the worst.
Can you handle even more bad news? The "American Dream is collapsing" asserts Jim Tankersley in a Washington Post article: "Trump's tax-cut plan will do little to improve economic mobility for struggling blue-collar families, even if they help accelerate growth because analysts predict the cuts would benefit high earners disproportionately. . . . . The surge in inequality over the past half-century is well documented. . . . the bottom 50 percent only gained 1 percent in earnings from 1962 to 2014. . . . From 1980 to 2014, nearly 70 percent of income gains went to the top 10 percent."
Are you up for some more bad news about our economic system? Read [Five] "Books that shaped our economic thinking," by Noah Smith, Bloomberg News. Concrete Economics, The China Shock, Rising Morbidity and Mortality, The Economics of Manipulation and Deception.
Now I shall end with some good news about what our economic system could be from a review of Viking Economics in the Jan issue of Sojourners magazine by Richard K. Taylor:
"A century ago, an economic elite ran each Nordic country. There was extensive poverty, lack of work, an enormous gap between rich and poor, even famines. To escape these conditions, Scandinavians emigrated to the U.S. in massive numbers: 1 million Swedes (1868-1914), 800,000 Norwegians (1825-1925,"
Today, things are radically different: free education through college, universal health care, social security, etc. A vibrant business sector. Very little military spending leaving monies available for social needs. In America we have gone part way: free education through high school, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. But we have enormous economic inequality and enormous military spending draining billions from meeting social needs.
In addition to government spending on social needs, Scandinavians have thousand of co-ops at the local level. In American we could and should do much better in terms of socioeconomic justice.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Solutions to America's Ongoing Social Catastrophe
White American evangelicals have never had a strong and comprehensive biblically based social ethic; even today with our numerous Christian colleges, universities and seminaries, we still do not have a kingdom of God social ethic. This means on ongoing social catastrophe among our poor, among our oppressed ethnic groups; a catastrophe demands a crisis response immediately. I suggest that each college, university and seminary take the following steps:
1. Next semester, each school designate two professors, preferably a male and a female with one from an ethnic group, to devote full time to creating a robust, comprehensive kingdom of God social ethic with the focus of applying Jubilee justice in poor and oppressed communities. These two professors should probably devote the rest of their careers to this task.
2. Next summer, these two profs would devote their summer to working with 10-12 other teachers in their institution; together, they would hammer out the foundations of an evangelical social ethic. If enough progress has been made, assign topics for a number of articles to be published such as "Rejusticizing the NT" or "A Biblical Theology of Oppression" or "The Present and Social Dimensions of the Kingdom of God" or "An American History of Systems of Oppression."
3. Indepth study of the following Scriptures:
Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11-1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4 (translate verse one as 'oppressed poor'. The purpose of the combination of the Spirit and the kingdom is to implement Jubilee justice in order to release the oppressed poor.
Isaiah 58: 1-5---a spirituality without justice leads to oppression; 6-12---a spirituality with justice releases the oppressed.
James 2: 1-9---faith without justice results in the rich oppressing the poor unchecked and unchallenged by the church; 14-26---faith with works of justice ministers to the oppressed identified in 1:27.
Luke 4:18-30: 18-19---The purpose of the combination of the Spirit and the kingdom is to empower the church to implement Jubilee justice to release the oppressed poor. This would be exceedingly good news for the poor and would create a measure of shalom; 25-30---grace ends ethnocentrism and open the door for reconciliation.
Acts 1:1-8: Combines the Spirit, kingdom and the church to end ethnocentrism and create reconciliation.
Acts 4:32-35: This passage describes a socioeconomic miracle; it is extremely rare for the rich to voluntarily give up prized houses and lands. Grace is manifested in extreme generosity; result a degree of economic equality. An experience of personal grace should quickly lead to social grace/generosity.
Ephesians 2: 1-10---personal reconciliation with God is based on the cross; 11-22---social reconciliation between Jew and Gentile is based on the cross.
Acts 8:12; 28:23 & 31---the full gospel is described; both Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God; both justification and justice.
4. Highly recommended books to study:
God So Loved the Third World
The Wars of America: Christian Views
The New Jim Crow
The Upside-Down Kingdom
A Quiet Revolution
At Home With The Poor
The Debt
Viking Economics
"Biblical Faith and the Reality of Social Evil," Christian Scholar's Review, by Stephen Mott.
"A Theology of the Kingdom," Transformation, by Graham Cray.
1. Next semester, each school designate two professors, preferably a male and a female with one from an ethnic group, to devote full time to creating a robust, comprehensive kingdom of God social ethic with the focus of applying Jubilee justice in poor and oppressed communities. These two professors should probably devote the rest of their careers to this task.
2. Next summer, these two profs would devote their summer to working with 10-12 other teachers in their institution; together, they would hammer out the foundations of an evangelical social ethic. If enough progress has been made, assign topics for a number of articles to be published such as "Rejusticizing the NT" or "A Biblical Theology of Oppression" or "The Present and Social Dimensions of the Kingdom of God" or "An American History of Systems of Oppression."
3. Indepth study of the following Scriptures:
Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11-1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4 (translate verse one as 'oppressed poor'. The purpose of the combination of the Spirit and the kingdom is to implement Jubilee justice in order to release the oppressed poor.
Isaiah 58: 1-5---a spirituality without justice leads to oppression; 6-12---a spirituality with justice releases the oppressed.
James 2: 1-9---faith without justice results in the rich oppressing the poor unchecked and unchallenged by the church; 14-26---faith with works of justice ministers to the oppressed identified in 1:27.
Luke 4:18-30: 18-19---The purpose of the combination of the Spirit and the kingdom is to empower the church to implement Jubilee justice to release the oppressed poor. This would be exceedingly good news for the poor and would create a measure of shalom; 25-30---grace ends ethnocentrism and open the door for reconciliation.
Acts 1:1-8: Combines the Spirit, kingdom and the church to end ethnocentrism and create reconciliation.
Acts 4:32-35: This passage describes a socioeconomic miracle; it is extremely rare for the rich to voluntarily give up prized houses and lands. Grace is manifested in extreme generosity; result a degree of economic equality. An experience of personal grace should quickly lead to social grace/generosity.
Ephesians 2: 1-10---personal reconciliation with God is based on the cross; 11-22---social reconciliation between Jew and Gentile is based on the cross.
Acts 8:12; 28:23 & 31---the full gospel is described; both Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God; both justification and justice.
4. Highly recommended books to study:
God So Loved the Third World
The Wars of America: Christian Views
The New Jim Crow
The Upside-Down Kingdom
A Quiet Revolution
At Home With The Poor
The Debt
Viking Economics
"Biblical Faith and the Reality of Social Evil," Christian Scholar's Review, by Stephen Mott.
"A Theology of the Kingdom," Transformation, by Graham Cray.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Evangelicals: More American Than Biblical
In terms of a social ethic, white American evangelicals are today more American than biblical. The election of D.T. is a disaster, but a much greater disaster are the Christians who elected him---white evangelicals and Catholics, according to the editors of the January 2017 Sojourners magazine. 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for T.
"One thing is clear. With white evangelicals and Catholics voting in such large numbers for a candidate who, as historian Heath Carter describes in this issue, 'articulated a virulently racist, misogynistic, ethnocentric brand of nationalism,' SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH OUR CHRISTIAN CONFESSION. We'll say it plainly: THE PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND POLICIES OF WHITE NATIONALISM ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST."
Jim Wallis adds:
"During the 2016 presidential election cycle, the vast majority of white evangelicals acted more white than biblical, putting their white identities ahead of their Christian identities. . . . White evangelicals have been exposed as hypocrites for sacrificing their morals on the altar of power."
The Law and the Prophets were built upon the high principles of love and justice. The Pharisees were theological experts on the sacred Jewish Law. But Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they did not live according to the Law. Specifically, Jesus accused the Pharisees of being lovers of money and neglecters of justice and the love of God. See Luke 16:16 and 12:42.
I was educated in Christian liberal arts colleges and later taught in two of them. In one of these colleges, a religion prof taught that the strong justice of the OT disappeared in the NT and it was replaced with a personal salvation message. Wolterstorff declares that the English NT has been dejusticized.
In one of these colleges, I, a sociologist, taught a social problems class. Previously, many of my students had taken a course in the Bible called Gospels and Acts. They received good teaching on the spiritual message of Luke, but nothing on the strong strong social justice message of Luke. So I had to take two weeks and teach the oppression/justice message of Luke. When my students understood that social problems were taken seriously by Luke, they took the teaching by secular sociologists more seriously.
After my retirement in 1994, I spent the next 15 years volunteering at the Perkins Center in West Jackson, MS. We had numerous Christian colleges send student missions teams for a week. I vividly remember one spring we had a total of 40 students from three different colleges. All evangelical colleges require several Bible courses to graduate. I asked them if any of their Bible profs had taken just one class period to teach about the 555 references to oppression in the OT. Not a single student raised their hand.
The book Dear White Christians declares that the strong reconciliation movement in American churches has failed to deliver. Why? Reconciliation without white repentance, restitution. Cheap reconciliation, reconciliation without justice.
I think much the same is happening with the growing justice movement among evangelicals. Cheap grace, cheap justice; no prior repentance and restitution is required by whites who benefited from their position of supposed superiority, white privilege. There is not a strong emphasis on the need to end systems of oppression as required by the Sabbath/Jubilee laws.
Most of my white evangelical friends are not Klan-like bigots so they think they are not racist. But most of them still believe that whites are superior and blacks are inferior; it is in the cultural air they breathe, they are slowly, unknowingly poisoned.
And they are unbelievably ignorant about the biblical teaching on oppression and justice---biblically, historically and sociologically. For several years, each June I met with sociologists teaching at Christian liberal arts colleges. Most were ignorant about oppression, biblically, historically and sociologically. Most sociologists study black culture, black dysfunction much more than they do white ethnocentrism/oppression.
For the past 50 years, I have been studying oppression/justice biblically, historically and sociologically. I lived in the black community for 35 years. Yet, in 2010, I learned a great deal from reading The New Jim Crow, and shortly thereafter from Dear White Christians. Even Michelle Alexander, a brilliant, black civil rights lawyer, said that she herself learned a lot of new things as she researched and wrote her book on racial profiling and mass incarceration. In the year 2000, she knew there was racism in the criminal justice system. But by 2010, she understood that things were much worse than that---that the criminal justice system, as far as poor blacks were concerned, had itself become a new system of oppression, a new racial caste system.
As far as ethnocentrism/oppression are concerned, most white evangelicals believe half-truths, myths or outright lies, but they talk like they are experts.
For hundreds of years, white evangelicals have been weak on social ethics; the recent election only dramatically highlighted this crisis. It is more than a crisis; it is a catastrophe, a disaster; but to most white evangelicals this social disaster is normal so it is not a catastrophe.
In my next blog, I will outline steps to make American evangelicalism much more comprehensively biblical. Watch for "Solutions for our American Social Catastrophe"
"One thing is clear. With white evangelicals and Catholics voting in such large numbers for a candidate who, as historian Heath Carter describes in this issue, 'articulated a virulently racist, misogynistic, ethnocentric brand of nationalism,' SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH OUR CHRISTIAN CONFESSION. We'll say it plainly: THE PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND POLICIES OF WHITE NATIONALISM ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST."
Jim Wallis adds:
"During the 2016 presidential election cycle, the vast majority of white evangelicals acted more white than biblical, putting their white identities ahead of their Christian identities. . . . White evangelicals have been exposed as hypocrites for sacrificing their morals on the altar of power."
The Law and the Prophets were built upon the high principles of love and justice. The Pharisees were theological experts on the sacred Jewish Law. But Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they did not live according to the Law. Specifically, Jesus accused the Pharisees of being lovers of money and neglecters of justice and the love of God. See Luke 16:16 and 12:42.
I was educated in Christian liberal arts colleges and later taught in two of them. In one of these colleges, a religion prof taught that the strong justice of the OT disappeared in the NT and it was replaced with a personal salvation message. Wolterstorff declares that the English NT has been dejusticized.
In one of these colleges, I, a sociologist, taught a social problems class. Previously, many of my students had taken a course in the Bible called Gospels and Acts. They received good teaching on the spiritual message of Luke, but nothing on the strong strong social justice message of Luke. So I had to take two weeks and teach the oppression/justice message of Luke. When my students understood that social problems were taken seriously by Luke, they took the teaching by secular sociologists more seriously.
After my retirement in 1994, I spent the next 15 years volunteering at the Perkins Center in West Jackson, MS. We had numerous Christian colleges send student missions teams for a week. I vividly remember one spring we had a total of 40 students from three different colleges. All evangelical colleges require several Bible courses to graduate. I asked them if any of their Bible profs had taken just one class period to teach about the 555 references to oppression in the OT. Not a single student raised their hand.
The book Dear White Christians declares that the strong reconciliation movement in American churches has failed to deliver. Why? Reconciliation without white repentance, restitution. Cheap reconciliation, reconciliation without justice.
I think much the same is happening with the growing justice movement among evangelicals. Cheap grace, cheap justice; no prior repentance and restitution is required by whites who benefited from their position of supposed superiority, white privilege. There is not a strong emphasis on the need to end systems of oppression as required by the Sabbath/Jubilee laws.
Most of my white evangelical friends are not Klan-like bigots so they think they are not racist. But most of them still believe that whites are superior and blacks are inferior; it is in the cultural air they breathe, they are slowly, unknowingly poisoned.
And they are unbelievably ignorant about the biblical teaching on oppression and justice---biblically, historically and sociologically. For several years, each June I met with sociologists teaching at Christian liberal arts colleges. Most were ignorant about oppression, biblically, historically and sociologically. Most sociologists study black culture, black dysfunction much more than they do white ethnocentrism/oppression.
For the past 50 years, I have been studying oppression/justice biblically, historically and sociologically. I lived in the black community for 35 years. Yet, in 2010, I learned a great deal from reading The New Jim Crow, and shortly thereafter from Dear White Christians. Even Michelle Alexander, a brilliant, black civil rights lawyer, said that she herself learned a lot of new things as she researched and wrote her book on racial profiling and mass incarceration. In the year 2000, she knew there was racism in the criminal justice system. But by 2010, she understood that things were much worse than that---that the criminal justice system, as far as poor blacks were concerned, had itself become a new system of oppression, a new racial caste system.
As far as ethnocentrism/oppression are concerned, most white evangelicals believe half-truths, myths or outright lies, but they talk like they are experts.
For hundreds of years, white evangelicals have been weak on social ethics; the recent election only dramatically highlighted this crisis. It is more than a crisis; it is a catastrophe, a disaster; but to most white evangelicals this social disaster is normal so it is not a catastrophe.
In my next blog, I will outline steps to make American evangelicalism much more comprehensively biblical. Watch for "Solutions for our American Social Catastrophe"
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Is Donald Trump a Socioeconomic Reincarnation of George Washington?
Both George Washington and Donald Trump are/were rich, white males; so both are arrogant, bigoted billionaires. George and Martha Washington owned around 300 slaves; they were among the wealthiest persons in the 13 colonies. In today's terms, probably billionaires. Though mythology has it that George was a humble person who put his country first, I am skeptical that any bigoted billionaire could be anything other than arrogant.
Thomas Jefferson, another slaveowner who, had he managed his financial affairs better, might have been another billionaire. As it was, he was a millionaire; and an arrogant, bigoted one; likely also a rapiost.
So much for high standards for the prestigious job of president.
This article is stimulated by 90 years of living in America, 35 years living in poor, black communities. Plus Trump's recent election, and three recent articles in The Atlantic. First two quotations are from "The Accidental Patriot," by Caitlin Fritz, Dec. 2016:
"Among the Iroquois, George Washington earned the name 'Town Destroyer'; the father of one country had ordered the devastation of another [country]."
"Thomas Jefferson presidency, which helped transform the tempestuous [Indian] West into a national blessing, a source of revenue and votes and geographical power." In other words, westward expansion---conquering, killing and stealing Indian land---ethnocentrism/oppression now proudly symbolized by the St. Louis Arch.
The revered founding fathers really were a bunch of evil, rich, white males; Trump's cabinet will also be loaded with rich, white males. The founding fathers treated women, the poor, Native Americans and African Americans as second class citizens. I predict much the same from a Trump administration; or a repeat of the Reagan administration where racial profiling and the wealth gap exploded.
In the January 2017 issue of The Atlantic, two of my favorite writers, Peter Beinart and Ta-Nehisi Coates, have written two fine articles. Coates: "My President Was Black," Beinart: "Glenn Beck's Regrets."
From Beinart: "Many Americans revere the Constitution. Mormons like Beck consider it sacred."
The truth: The Constitution is flawed; for one thing. it legitimated black inferiority, slavery. It was written by rich, white males who seldom practiced what they preached. Contrary to Lincoln's eloquent words, a government truly of the people, by the people, and for the people never has existed. It has been a government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite.
Beinart writes: "Beck, in fact, invented some of Trump's most disturbing themes. . . . 'I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.' He told me that now that America has 'hit the iceberg', he wants to help heal it. . . . it may be too late."
Coates writes: "I still want Obama to be right. I still would like to fold myself into the dream. [Since Trump's election], this will not be possible."
The election, the inauguration, of President Obama "defied despair, despised [American] history." But in November 2016, the despair was back.
American has two broad themes running through its history: ethnocentric/oppression and freedom/justice. The optimists highlight freedom/justice; the pessimists, ethnocentrism/oppression. In spite of pervasive ethnocentric/oppression, Obama remains an optimist. So does my black mentor, John Perkins who was born and raised in segregated Mississippi. But I see ethnocentrism/oppression more dominant, past and present.
A recent Smithsonian magazine issue was devoted to the new African American Museum. It had a picture of the Museum with the Washington Monument looming in the background. This picture says it all. The Museum---symbolizing the unending struggle of American blacks, their survival, their successes. The Monument---symbolizing rich, white males, their slavery, who always have the last word, who are skilled at redesigning systems of oppression. Don't forget that the White House and the Capitol Building were built with slave labor.
The exploitation, the ethnocentrism/oppression is unending.
The American church could and should be the answer; the biblical kingdom of God as justice for the oppressed. But most of the American church has largely failed, especially the white evangelicals. Far too often we have sided with ethnocentrism/oppression and neglected justice and the love of God.
See my blog "Lowell Noble's Writings" for more on the biblical answer.
Thomas Jefferson, another slaveowner who, had he managed his financial affairs better, might have been another billionaire. As it was, he was a millionaire; and an arrogant, bigoted one; likely also a rapiost.
So much for high standards for the prestigious job of president.
This article is stimulated by 90 years of living in America, 35 years living in poor, black communities. Plus Trump's recent election, and three recent articles in The Atlantic. First two quotations are from "The Accidental Patriot," by Caitlin Fritz, Dec. 2016:
"Among the Iroquois, George Washington earned the name 'Town Destroyer'; the father of one country had ordered the devastation of another [country]."
"Thomas Jefferson presidency, which helped transform the tempestuous [Indian] West into a national blessing, a source of revenue and votes and geographical power." In other words, westward expansion---conquering, killing and stealing Indian land---ethnocentrism/oppression now proudly symbolized by the St. Louis Arch.
The revered founding fathers really were a bunch of evil, rich, white males; Trump's cabinet will also be loaded with rich, white males. The founding fathers treated women, the poor, Native Americans and African Americans as second class citizens. I predict much the same from a Trump administration; or a repeat of the Reagan administration where racial profiling and the wealth gap exploded.
In the January 2017 issue of The Atlantic, two of my favorite writers, Peter Beinart and Ta-Nehisi Coates, have written two fine articles. Coates: "My President Was Black," Beinart: "Glenn Beck's Regrets."
From Beinart: "Many Americans revere the Constitution. Mormons like Beck consider it sacred."
The truth: The Constitution is flawed; for one thing. it legitimated black inferiority, slavery. It was written by rich, white males who seldom practiced what they preached. Contrary to Lincoln's eloquent words, a government truly of the people, by the people, and for the people never has existed. It has been a government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite.
Beinart writes: "Beck, in fact, invented some of Trump's most disturbing themes. . . . 'I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.' He told me that now that America has 'hit the iceberg', he wants to help heal it. . . . it may be too late."
Coates writes: "I still want Obama to be right. I still would like to fold myself into the dream. [Since Trump's election], this will not be possible."
The election, the inauguration, of President Obama "defied despair, despised [American] history." But in November 2016, the despair was back.
American has two broad themes running through its history: ethnocentric/oppression and freedom/justice. The optimists highlight freedom/justice; the pessimists, ethnocentrism/oppression. In spite of pervasive ethnocentric/oppression, Obama remains an optimist. So does my black mentor, John Perkins who was born and raised in segregated Mississippi. But I see ethnocentrism/oppression more dominant, past and present.
A recent Smithsonian magazine issue was devoted to the new African American Museum. It had a picture of the Museum with the Washington Monument looming in the background. This picture says it all. The Museum---symbolizing the unending struggle of American blacks, their survival, their successes. The Monument---symbolizing rich, white males, their slavery, who always have the last word, who are skilled at redesigning systems of oppression. Don't forget that the White House and the Capitol Building were built with slave labor.
The exploitation, the ethnocentrism/oppression is unending.
The American church could and should be the answer; the biblical kingdom of God as justice for the oppressed. But most of the American church has largely failed, especially the white evangelicals. Far too often we have sided with ethnocentrism/oppression and neglected justice and the love of God.
See my blog "Lowell Noble's Writings" for more on the biblical answer.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Haiti and Cuba
The U.S., Haiti and Cuba. Information from The Debt by Randall Robinson:
"From Columbus to Castro: Cuba, which was in every sense of the term an American colony. . . . America dominated the scene. . . . no one could become President of Cuba without the endorsement of the United States."
Robinson on Cuba:
"Washington had heartily supported a parade of corrupt, cruel and dictatorial governments up until 1959. It had virtually run them."
America treated Haiti in much the same way, dominating and exploiting, even overthrowing governments from time to time.
"From Columbus to Castro: Cuba, which was in every sense of the term an American colony. . . . America dominated the scene. . . . no one could become President of Cuba without the endorsement of the United States."
Robinson on Cuba:
"Washington had heartily supported a parade of corrupt, cruel and dictatorial governments up until 1959. It had virtually run them."
America treated Haiti in much the same way, dominating and exploiting, even overthrowing governments from time to time.
Visitors to Haiti
When visitors go to Haiti, you will find/see/hear about:
1. Widespread corruption, but don't put corruption at the top of your list of problems.
2. Pervasive poverty, but don't put poverty at the top of your list of problems.
3. Hurricane damage, but don't put this damage at the top of your list.
Instead, put 500 years of socioeconomic oppression at the top of your list of Haitian problems; past and present oppression makes poverty worse, hurricane damage worse, and opens the door wide for corruption. Generations of oppression cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD.
Exodus 6:9: "But when Moses delivered this message [of coming deliverance from slavery], they didn't even hear him---they were that beaten down in spirit by the harsh slave conditions." In modern language, were the Hebrew slaves suffering from mass PTSD?
How does the church heal broken communities? Stay in one location, for a generation, doing CCD.
1. Widespread corruption, but don't put corruption at the top of your list of problems.
2. Pervasive poverty, but don't put poverty at the top of your list of problems.
3. Hurricane damage, but don't put this damage at the top of your list.
Instead, put 500 years of socioeconomic oppression at the top of your list of Haitian problems; past and present oppression makes poverty worse, hurricane damage worse, and opens the door wide for corruption. Generations of oppression cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD.
Exodus 6:9: "But when Moses delivered this message [of coming deliverance from slavery], they didn't even hear him---they were that beaten down in spirit by the harsh slave conditions." In modern language, were the Hebrew slaves suffering from mass PTSD?
How does the church heal broken communities? Stay in one location, for a generation, doing CCD.
Why are the roads in Haiti so bad?
As you travel slowly down Haiti's rural roads---bumpy, rough, at times nearly impassable---at every milepost there are signs that say "French extortionists stole the money"; interpreted, this means for over 100 years enormous debt slavery payments to the French stole the money that could have paved this road. But to most people who travel these roads, these signs are invisible, unless you are wearing a special pair of glasses. Only historical glasses will enable a person to make the connection between past debt slavery beginning in 1825 and current bad roads.
At the same time that French extortionists were stealing billions (in today's terms) from Haitians, American oppressors were using wealth from "free" black labor to build schools, colleges, railroads, etc., on. "free" Indian land.
A sense of perspective from The Debt by Randall Robinson:
"Africa pays out upwards of 20 percent of its export earnings in debt service to Western creditors, making economic development a sheer impossibility. In the late 1940s after it had nearly brought the entire world to ruin, Germany was never required to pay out in debt service more than 3.5 percent of its export earnings. The IMF requires its African debtors to cut their subsidies to African farmers, schools, and health caregivers. Inoculations are down. Infectious diseases are up. Agricultural production is down."
By comparison, at times the Haitian government was required by the French to pay 80 percent of its income to France leaving little monies to build Haiti's roads, etc.
At the same time that French extortionists were stealing billions (in today's terms) from Haitians, American oppressors were using wealth from "free" black labor to build schools, colleges, railroads, etc., on. "free" Indian land.
A sense of perspective from The Debt by Randall Robinson:
"Africa pays out upwards of 20 percent of its export earnings in debt service to Western creditors, making economic development a sheer impossibility. In the late 1940s after it had nearly brought the entire world to ruin, Germany was never required to pay out in debt service more than 3.5 percent of its export earnings. The IMF requires its African debtors to cut their subsidies to African farmers, schools, and health caregivers. Inoculations are down. Infectious diseases are up. Agricultural production is down."
By comparison, at times the Haitian government was required by the French to pay 80 percent of its income to France leaving little monies to build Haiti's roads, etc.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Haiti: State Against Nation
Not often does high quality history get written from the standpoint of the oppressed poor---the rural peasants of Haiti, in this case. But Haiti: State Against Nation is such a book. It could be titled How the Haitian Elite State Oppresses the Peasant Farmer. The author Trouillot traces the different systems of oppression that the French, Haitian and American elite use to exploit every penny they can from the poor, rural peasant.
1. 1700-1800, French slavery; slave plantations grew sugar and other tropical products for export to France.
2. 1825-1945, French debt slavery; huge extortion payments for the loss of slave property and to keep the French from reinvading.
3. 1804-2016, French and American neocolonialism; they continue to benefit economically as they control the export-import economy that the French originally set up. They created taxes on imports and exports that discriminate against the peasant. Customs taxes are the main form of taxation in Haiti.
4. 1957-1986, internal elite and U.S. elite; Papa Doc, a ruthless dictator, took over Haiti in 1957. Fidel Castro overthrew a ruthless, U.S. puppet dictator, Baptista, in 1958. During the Cold War, the U.S. supported any ruler who was anti-communist. The U.S. did not want Haiti to become communist so we supported evil Papa Doc and Baby Doc.
From slavery to debt slavery to controlled export-import economy to discriminatory customs taxes to U.S. exploitation of the import-export economy. Systems of oppression were not really eliminated, only redesigned. Fleeting, partial political freedom was not accompanied by economic justice; therefore, freedom was shallow, illusory.
The book Haiti is a comprehensive discussion of the problem, but it offers no solution. The Bible has the best, most comprehensive discussion of oppression to be found; also a comprehensive discussion of a solution---jubilee justice/kingdom of God justice for the oppressed poor.
Reread Isaiah 58 and James 2 in The Message.
1. 1700-1800, French slavery; slave plantations grew sugar and other tropical products for export to France.
2. 1825-1945, French debt slavery; huge extortion payments for the loss of slave property and to keep the French from reinvading.
3. 1804-2016, French and American neocolonialism; they continue to benefit economically as they control the export-import economy that the French originally set up. They created taxes on imports and exports that discriminate against the peasant. Customs taxes are the main form of taxation in Haiti.
4. 1957-1986, internal elite and U.S. elite; Papa Doc, a ruthless dictator, took over Haiti in 1957. Fidel Castro overthrew a ruthless, U.S. puppet dictator, Baptista, in 1958. During the Cold War, the U.S. supported any ruler who was anti-communist. The U.S. did not want Haiti to become communist so we supported evil Papa Doc and Baby Doc.
From slavery to debt slavery to controlled export-import economy to discriminatory customs taxes to U.S. exploitation of the import-export economy. Systems of oppression were not really eliminated, only redesigned. Fleeting, partial political freedom was not accompanied by economic justice; therefore, freedom was shallow, illusory.
The book Haiti is a comprehensive discussion of the problem, but it offers no solution. The Bible has the best, most comprehensive discussion of oppression to be found; also a comprehensive discussion of a solution---jubilee justice/kingdom of God justice for the oppressed poor.
Reread Isaiah 58 and James 2 in The Message.
Hurricane Matthew and Super Hurricane Oppression
In neither America nor Haiti do most scholars---sociologists, historians, theologians---deeply analyze the hugely important role Western white oppression has played in creating and crushing the poor. The historical past does haunt the socioeconomic present.
In the United States, sociologists have conducted dozens of studies of black culture, black dysfunction. Rare is the sociologist who makes a serious study of the nature and impact of white American oppression and how it causes black dysfunction. Oppression---damage---dysfunction; the oppression damage precedes black dysfunction. Jonathan Turner is one of the few and he has only begun the process. The same with American theology; almost nothing on oppression. Few scholars seem to grasp that systems of oppression such as slavery never really end; they only get redesigned. Read The New Jim Crow and Dear White Christians.
The same in Haiti. Few scholars take a hard look at the 500 years of oppression and then tie oppression to current Haitian socioeconomic problems. The book Haiti: State Against Nation or my title State Elite Oppress Peasants is one of the few books that do study oppression in depth.
Corruption in Haiti is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
Poverty is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
Illiteracy is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
500 years of oppression is Haiti's number one problem and it causes or impacts corruption, poverty and illiteracy. But most visitors to Haiti will not see or recognize the systems of oppression---most of it is historical though some is current---they will see only the problems super hurricane oppression has created. One current form---customs taxes which discriminate against the poor.
In the United States, sociologists have conducted dozens of studies of black culture, black dysfunction. Rare is the sociologist who makes a serious study of the nature and impact of white American oppression and how it causes black dysfunction. Oppression---damage---dysfunction; the oppression damage precedes black dysfunction. Jonathan Turner is one of the few and he has only begun the process. The same with American theology; almost nothing on oppression. Few scholars seem to grasp that systems of oppression such as slavery never really end; they only get redesigned. Read The New Jim Crow and Dear White Christians.
The same in Haiti. Few scholars take a hard look at the 500 years of oppression and then tie oppression to current Haitian socioeconomic problems. The book Haiti: State Against Nation or my title State Elite Oppress Peasants is one of the few books that do study oppression in depth.
Corruption in Haiti is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
Poverty is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
Illiteracy is serious and widespread, but it is not Haiti's number one problem.
500 years of oppression is Haiti's number one problem and it causes or impacts corruption, poverty and illiteracy. But most visitors to Haiti will not see or recognize the systems of oppression---most of it is historical though some is current---they will see only the problems super hurricane oppression has created. One current form---customs taxes which discriminate against the poor.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Wanted: A Clear and Compelling Understanding of the Kingdom of God
Desperately needed: A Clear and Compelling Understanding and Practice of the Kingdom of God.
After reading the theological literature written on the kingdom during the 20th century, theologian Marcus Borg concluded that the Western church lacked a "clear and compelling" understanding of the kingdom of God. I agree. I would add that because of a divorce between personal righteousness and social justice, love and justice, faith and works, the Spirit and the kingdom as well as the lack of a theology of oppression, the American church lacks both an understanding and a biblical practice of the kingdom of God.
As a poor, black Alabama teenager, John Lewis discovered a clear and compelling understanding of the kingdom of God. Over the radio, Lewis heard one sermon on the kingdom (beloved community) preached by Martin Luther King. This teaching on the kingdom gave his life deep meaning, purpose and direction. Soon after, James Dawson gave Lewis and others a few months training in nonviolent social change. This combination of teaching and training turned shy John Lewis into a fearless soldier in the civil rights movement. He suffered numerous beatings and failings for the cause of the kingdom.
What are some Biblical Basics on the kingdom of God?
Amos 5:24 (The Message): "I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it."
Mt. 6:33: "Fix your focus on God's kingdom and his justice."
Luke 4:18-19: "Hey church! Do want to know what good news to the poor really looks like? It releases the oppressed by doing Jubilee justice in poor communities."
Rom. 14:17: "What happens when the church combines the Spirit and the kingdom? An explosion of Jubilee justice, shalom, and authentic joy."
Some more Biblical Basics on the two-pronged gospel.
Acts 8:12; 28:23 and 31:
* Jesus Christ, the cross and resurrection, justification by faith.
* Kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
Acts 1:1-8:
The Spirit and the kingdom are closely tied together. Rom. 14:17 summarizes this close tie as justice, shalom and joy.
Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.
* translate 61:1 as oppressed poor.
* Spirit, kingdom and justice are tied together.
Exodus, chapter 1: oppression is ruthless and devastating.
Exodus 6:9: oppression causes mass PTSD.
My paraphrase of Luke 4:18-9, the key verses in Luke, and Mt. 6:33, the key verse of Matthew:
"With a laser-like focus, the Spirit-anointed church should make its highest priority, the incarnating of God's kingdom as Jubilee justice among God's favorites---the oppressed poor."
The American church lacks a clear and compelling biblical understanding of the kingdom of God; therefore, there is an inevitable failure to practice the kingdom as Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed.
Reread James 2 in The Message.
After reading the theological literature written on the kingdom during the 20th century, theologian Marcus Borg concluded that the Western church lacked a "clear and compelling" understanding of the kingdom of God. I agree. I would add that because of a divorce between personal righteousness and social justice, love and justice, faith and works, the Spirit and the kingdom as well as the lack of a theology of oppression, the American church lacks both an understanding and a biblical practice of the kingdom of God.
As a poor, black Alabama teenager, John Lewis discovered a clear and compelling understanding of the kingdom of God. Over the radio, Lewis heard one sermon on the kingdom (beloved community) preached by Martin Luther King. This teaching on the kingdom gave his life deep meaning, purpose and direction. Soon after, James Dawson gave Lewis and others a few months training in nonviolent social change. This combination of teaching and training turned shy John Lewis into a fearless soldier in the civil rights movement. He suffered numerous beatings and failings for the cause of the kingdom.
What are some Biblical Basics on the kingdom of God?
Amos 5:24 (The Message): "I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it."
Mt. 6:33: "Fix your focus on God's kingdom and his justice."
Luke 4:18-19: "Hey church! Do want to know what good news to the poor really looks like? It releases the oppressed by doing Jubilee justice in poor communities."
Rom. 14:17: "What happens when the church combines the Spirit and the kingdom? An explosion of Jubilee justice, shalom, and authentic joy."
Some more Biblical Basics on the two-pronged gospel.
Acts 8:12; 28:23 and 31:
* Jesus Christ, the cross and resurrection, justification by faith.
* Kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
Acts 1:1-8:
The Spirit and the kingdom are closely tied together. Rom. 14:17 summarizes this close tie as justice, shalom and joy.
Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.
* translate 61:1 as oppressed poor.
* Spirit, kingdom and justice are tied together.
Exodus, chapter 1: oppression is ruthless and devastating.
Exodus 6:9: oppression causes mass PTSD.
My paraphrase of Luke 4:18-9, the key verses in Luke, and Mt. 6:33, the key verse of Matthew:
"With a laser-like focus, the Spirit-anointed church should make its highest priority, the incarnating of God's kingdom as Jubilee justice among God's favorites---the oppressed poor."
The American church lacks a clear and compelling biblical understanding of the kingdom of God; therefore, there is an inevitable failure to practice the kingdom as Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed.
Reread James 2 in The Message.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Review of Haiti: State Against Nation
As I continue to read Haiti: State Against Nation (1990) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot, a Haitian anthropologist and historian, I am very impressed with his insights and wisdom. I think I am ready to call this book a masterpiece, on the level with The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Jean Thomas, have you read this book?
This is a book about how an Haitian elite---military, political, urban and merchant---have combined to oppress and exploit the rural peasant farmers. Often in collusion with foreign, including U.S., merchants. "The Duvalierist state emerged as the result of a long-term process that was marked by an increasing disjuncture between political and civil society."
Trouillot's sentiment seem to be on the side of the oppressed peasants as is indicated by this last sentence in his book; "The peasantry IS the nation."
Trouillot elaborates:
"Agricultural goods produced with the simplest means by a growing peasantry constituted the bulk of the country's exports, with coffee being by far the leading product. Peasant crops and imported consumer goods were the mainstay of local economic exchange. Taxes collected at the customhouses and ultimately borne by the peasantry provided the bulk of government revenues. Profit made from the peasantry contributed a large share to the returns garnered by an import-export elite that was dominated by foreign nationals and unconcerned with local production. . . . the urban elites who gravitated around that state pushed the rural majority into the margins of political life. Peasants were the economic backbone of the nation; yet peasants had no claim whatsoever on the state."
The Historical Legacy: Nationalism and Dependency
"Four fundamental traits characterized French colonial Haiti: slavery, dependence, commodity production for export, and the plantation regime. The society embodied internal contradictions that were ultimately irreconcilable: between slavery and freedom, dependence and independence, export commodities and foodstuffs, plantations and garden plots."
All Haitians agreed they wanted an end to slavery and domination by France---political freedom. But they did not agree on who should control the economic system and how it should be organized---economic justice. To prevent economic collapse, the military leaders wanted to continue the plantation system and the export of sugar. In other words, essentially continue the French system which came to be dubbed state controlled 'militarized agriculture.' Most freed slaves
did not want to have anything to do with the old plantation system, if they had another option.
The slaves, now the freed peasant farmers, had been allowed private garden plots to grow their own food. Now they wanted private, small scale farming to be expanded, including growing coffee for export. State controlled plantations versus small scale peasant farming---two radically different forms of economic justice.
The plantation system slowly faded. Then the Haitian state turned to controlling the customs taxes---fees on imports and exports. This became the new source of state revenues and the new system of oppression---discriminatory against the peasants.
Trouillot sums it up this way: "The leaders wanted export crops; the cultivators wanted land and food. The leaders wanted a country with plantations; the cultivators dreamed of larger garden plots."
The freedom which was highly prized and symbolically important was largely illusionary because it was soon replaced by French debt slavery and a custom taxation system that exploited the peasants.
I would like to end with a comparison of U.S. and Haitian systems of oppression. Neither were really ended, only redesigned. In the U.S., slavery was replaced by segregation; then legal segregation by mass incarceration; underlying them all was economic inequality. In Haiti, French slavery (100 years) was replaced by French debt slavery (for over 100 years); discriminatory customs fees were added to the mix; underlying them all was economic inequality.
In both Haiti and the U.S., we need a NT theology of social evil and social justice. Key social evil concepts are: oppression, exploitation, injustice, cosmos or evil social order, powers and authorities which rule the evil social order, and the rich who are greedy and oppressive.
NT words/concepts for social justice: the kingdom of God versus the cosmos, justice versus oppression, generosity versus greed, and love versus exploitation.
Systems of oppression will never end unless the church has better theology and practice of the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
This is a book about how an Haitian elite---military, political, urban and merchant---have combined to oppress and exploit the rural peasant farmers. Often in collusion with foreign, including U.S., merchants. "The Duvalierist state emerged as the result of a long-term process that was marked by an increasing disjuncture between political and civil society."
Trouillot's sentiment seem to be on the side of the oppressed peasants as is indicated by this last sentence in his book; "The peasantry IS the nation."
Trouillot elaborates:
"Agricultural goods produced with the simplest means by a growing peasantry constituted the bulk of the country's exports, with coffee being by far the leading product. Peasant crops and imported consumer goods were the mainstay of local economic exchange. Taxes collected at the customhouses and ultimately borne by the peasantry provided the bulk of government revenues. Profit made from the peasantry contributed a large share to the returns garnered by an import-export elite that was dominated by foreign nationals and unconcerned with local production. . . . the urban elites who gravitated around that state pushed the rural majority into the margins of political life. Peasants were the economic backbone of the nation; yet peasants had no claim whatsoever on the state."
The Historical Legacy: Nationalism and Dependency
"Four fundamental traits characterized French colonial Haiti: slavery, dependence, commodity production for export, and the plantation regime. The society embodied internal contradictions that were ultimately irreconcilable: between slavery and freedom, dependence and independence, export commodities and foodstuffs, plantations and garden plots."
All Haitians agreed they wanted an end to slavery and domination by France---political freedom. But they did not agree on who should control the economic system and how it should be organized---economic justice. To prevent economic collapse, the military leaders wanted to continue the plantation system and the export of sugar. In other words, essentially continue the French system which came to be dubbed state controlled 'militarized agriculture.' Most freed slaves
did not want to have anything to do with the old plantation system, if they had another option.
The slaves, now the freed peasant farmers, had been allowed private garden plots to grow their own food. Now they wanted private, small scale farming to be expanded, including growing coffee for export. State controlled plantations versus small scale peasant farming---two radically different forms of economic justice.
The plantation system slowly faded. Then the Haitian state turned to controlling the customs taxes---fees on imports and exports. This became the new source of state revenues and the new system of oppression---discriminatory against the peasants.
Trouillot sums it up this way: "The leaders wanted export crops; the cultivators wanted land and food. The leaders wanted a country with plantations; the cultivators dreamed of larger garden plots."
The freedom which was highly prized and symbolically important was largely illusionary because it was soon replaced by French debt slavery and a custom taxation system that exploited the peasants.
I would like to end with a comparison of U.S. and Haitian systems of oppression. Neither were really ended, only redesigned. In the U.S., slavery was replaced by segregation; then legal segregation by mass incarceration; underlying them all was economic inequality. In Haiti, French slavery (100 years) was replaced by French debt slavery (for over 100 years); discriminatory customs fees were added to the mix; underlying them all was economic inequality.
In both Haiti and the U.S., we need a NT theology of social evil and social justice. Key social evil concepts are: oppression, exploitation, injustice, cosmos or evil social order, powers and authorities which rule the evil social order, and the rich who are greedy and oppressive.
NT words/concepts for social justice: the kingdom of God versus the cosmos, justice versus oppression, generosity versus greed, and love versus exploitation.
Systems of oppression will never end unless the church has better theology and practice of the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
The Tragic History of Haiti
Summary Statement: Haiti has suffered 500 years of oppression at the hands of first the Spanish, then the French, then the Americans, none of whom have repented and engaged in restitution. Apparently they think they have a right to keep the plenteous plunder gained from oppression.
Haitian history in broad strokes:
1. 1500-1700 Spanish genocide and slavery.
2. 1700-1800 French slavery.
3. 1800-1900 plus French debt slavery.
4. 1800-2016. American neocolonialism/ economic exploitation.
* Two profoundly important events have forever poisoned U.S. Haiti relations; 1) The successful Haitian slave revolt (1804) set off alarm bells in the U.S. From President Jefferson on down, Americans were deathly afraid that U.S. slaves would follow the Haitian example and engage in a massive revolt; 2) closely tied to the possibility of a U.S. slave revolt was the pervasive idea of black/African inferiority. Haitian were black; Haitians were inferior. They could'nt manage their own affairs so they were a dangerous factor on the world scene. They needed a wiser, paternalistic master to directly or indirectly control the Haitian political and economic affairs. Unfortunately, the above factors created an open door for U.S. exploitation by an American economic elite working in tandem with an Haitian elite.
* The U.S. Marines invaded Haiti, 1915-1934; they trained an Haitian army.
* Haitian dictators, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, used the army from 1957-1986 to dominate and exploit and rob Haitians blind.
*The U.S. participated in an economic embargo of Haiti for several years which further devastated the Haitian economy.
*U.S. merchants have made substantial profits trading with Haiti for over 200 years.
* The U.S. participated in the kidnapping of a sitting Haitian president, Aristide.
The economic past haunts the economic present in Haiti. The French slave plantation produced sugar; most sugar was exported to Europe creating an export economy. The successful slave revolution against slave plantation did not stop the dependence on an export driven economy. Even the Haitian leaders of the revolt, like Dessalines, wanted the plantation export oriented economic system to continue as a state run 'militarized agriculture.' Not much different from the French run slave plantation system. Supposedly, without the products of the plantations, the economy would collapse.
Even today, 200 years after the Haitian revolution, the Haitian economy is still too much of an export-import driven economy. Today, Haiti imports 50 percent of its food. The U.S. benefits from Haiti's economic dependence.
Haitian history in broad strokes:
1. 1500-1700 Spanish genocide and slavery.
2. 1700-1800 French slavery.
3. 1800-1900 plus French debt slavery.
4. 1800-2016. American neocolonialism/ economic exploitation.
* Two profoundly important events have forever poisoned U.S. Haiti relations; 1) The successful Haitian slave revolt (1804) set off alarm bells in the U.S. From President Jefferson on down, Americans were deathly afraid that U.S. slaves would follow the Haitian example and engage in a massive revolt; 2) closely tied to the possibility of a U.S. slave revolt was the pervasive idea of black/African inferiority. Haitian were black; Haitians were inferior. They could'nt manage their own affairs so they were a dangerous factor on the world scene. They needed a wiser, paternalistic master to directly or indirectly control the Haitian political and economic affairs. Unfortunately, the above factors created an open door for U.S. exploitation by an American economic elite working in tandem with an Haitian elite.
* The U.S. Marines invaded Haiti, 1915-1934; they trained an Haitian army.
* Haitian dictators, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, used the army from 1957-1986 to dominate and exploit and rob Haitians blind.
*The U.S. participated in an economic embargo of Haiti for several years which further devastated the Haitian economy.
*U.S. merchants have made substantial profits trading with Haiti for over 200 years.
* The U.S. participated in the kidnapping of a sitting Haitian president, Aristide.
The economic past haunts the economic present in Haiti. The French slave plantation produced sugar; most sugar was exported to Europe creating an export economy. The successful slave revolution against slave plantation did not stop the dependence on an export driven economy. Even the Haitian leaders of the revolt, like Dessalines, wanted the plantation export oriented economic system to continue as a state run 'militarized agriculture.' Not much different from the French run slave plantation system. Supposedly, without the products of the plantations, the economy would collapse.
Even today, 200 years after the Haitian revolution, the Haitian economy is still too much of an export-import driven economy. Today, Haiti imports 50 percent of its food. The U.S. benefits from Haiti's economic dependence.
Haiti: Systems of Oppression
The eternal and often elusive nature of systems of oppression.
Currently, I am in the process of reading a book on Haitian systems of oppression, the unbelievably tragic history of Haiti entitled Haiti: State Against Nation, 1990, by an Haitian anthropologist/historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Available from University of Iowa library.
The French are infamous for their two systems of oppression---slavery and debt slavery---which forever damaged and crippled Haiti. But what replaced the French systems of oppression? Haitian elites---military, political, urban, merchants who were often allied with foreign, including U.S., merchants---controlling an oppressive system of taxation, custom taxes on imports and exports specifically discriminating against poor peasants; for example, higher fees on coffee grown by peasant farmers than on sugar grown on plantations.
A Haitian-U.S. elite replaced the French elite creating a new systems of oppression---custom taxes and a different debt slavery. Read Naomi Klein's article on debt entitled "Haiti: A Creditor, Not a Debtor," in The Nation, March 1, 2010. She asserts: "Each [illegal debt] payment to a foreign creditor was money not spent on a road, a school, an electric line. . . . Failure to comply [make payments on illegal debt] was met with a punishing economic embargo from 2001 to 2004, the death knell to the Haitian public sphere."
Evil individuals running a system of oppression such as the high priest running the Temple as a "den of robbers" or Papa Doc, the corrupt Haitian dictator, may die or be deposed, but the systems of oppression they ran usually continue. Evil individuals may personify the system of oppression and the average person will think now that the evil individual is gone, the evil system has ended. Wrong! Systems of oppression outlive the individuals running them, sometimes for generations.
Even more deceiving is when a specific system of oppression such as slavery is eliminated, most people tend to believe the evil is, at long last, ended. Not necessarily! Quite often, a new system of oppression is invented to take its place. The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation ended legal slavery. However, soon segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching took the place of slavery. And when legal segregation ended, mass incarceration took its place.
Some systems of oppression are more invisible than others. Using the criminal justice system to incarnate racial profiling and mass incarceration is an exceedingly clever and diabolic system of oppression. Done quietly, one male at a time, blacks are targeted. Blacks are not arrested and imprisoned in a mass roundup. For decades, even black civil rights leaders did not fully realize what was going on. Finally, Michelle Alexander exposed what was going on. A new racial caste system had been created; she called it mass incarceration, The New Jim Crow.
In Haiti, French legal, physical slavery is gone; it has been replaced by a somewhat more invisible system---custom taxes on imports and exports targeting poor peasants.
Jesus called the operation of the Temple "a den of robbers." How so? The national treasury was part of the Temple bureaucracy; church and state were not separate in Israel. The poor paid a
Temple tax. The Temple treasury became incredibly wealthy. Follow the money; follow the system of taxation. Who runs the system of oppression? In this case, we have a religiously legitimated system of oppression; perfect cover for oppression. Read Kraybill's The Upside-Down Kingdom.
Where has the church been in all of this? Invisible, hiding in a building, or sometimes participating in the system of oppression. There is extensive biblical teaching on oppression, 555 references to oppression and its synonyms in the OT, but very little theology on oppression in the Western church. So oppression runs rampant, sometimes unrecognized, unchecked and unchallenged by most of the church. Any volunteers to change this atrocity?
Currently, I am in the process of reading a book on Haitian systems of oppression, the unbelievably tragic history of Haiti entitled Haiti: State Against Nation, 1990, by an Haitian anthropologist/historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Available from University of Iowa library.
The French are infamous for their two systems of oppression---slavery and debt slavery---which forever damaged and crippled Haiti. But what replaced the French systems of oppression? Haitian elites---military, political, urban, merchants who were often allied with foreign, including U.S., merchants---controlling an oppressive system of taxation, custom taxes on imports and exports specifically discriminating against poor peasants; for example, higher fees on coffee grown by peasant farmers than on sugar grown on plantations.
A Haitian-U.S. elite replaced the French elite creating a new systems of oppression---custom taxes and a different debt slavery. Read Naomi Klein's article on debt entitled "Haiti: A Creditor, Not a Debtor," in The Nation, March 1, 2010. She asserts: "Each [illegal debt] payment to a foreign creditor was money not spent on a road, a school, an electric line. . . . Failure to comply [make payments on illegal debt] was met with a punishing economic embargo from 2001 to 2004, the death knell to the Haitian public sphere."
Evil individuals running a system of oppression such as the high priest running the Temple as a "den of robbers" or Papa Doc, the corrupt Haitian dictator, may die or be deposed, but the systems of oppression they ran usually continue. Evil individuals may personify the system of oppression and the average person will think now that the evil individual is gone, the evil system has ended. Wrong! Systems of oppression outlive the individuals running them, sometimes for generations.
Even more deceiving is when a specific system of oppression such as slavery is eliminated, most people tend to believe the evil is, at long last, ended. Not necessarily! Quite often, a new system of oppression is invented to take its place. The Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation ended legal slavery. However, soon segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching took the place of slavery. And when legal segregation ended, mass incarceration took its place.
Some systems of oppression are more invisible than others. Using the criminal justice system to incarnate racial profiling and mass incarceration is an exceedingly clever and diabolic system of oppression. Done quietly, one male at a time, blacks are targeted. Blacks are not arrested and imprisoned in a mass roundup. For decades, even black civil rights leaders did not fully realize what was going on. Finally, Michelle Alexander exposed what was going on. A new racial caste system had been created; she called it mass incarceration, The New Jim Crow.
In Haiti, French legal, physical slavery is gone; it has been replaced by a somewhat more invisible system---custom taxes on imports and exports targeting poor peasants.
Jesus called the operation of the Temple "a den of robbers." How so? The national treasury was part of the Temple bureaucracy; church and state were not separate in Israel. The poor paid a
Temple tax. The Temple treasury became incredibly wealthy. Follow the money; follow the system of taxation. Who runs the system of oppression? In this case, we have a religiously legitimated system of oppression; perfect cover for oppression. Read Kraybill's The Upside-Down Kingdom.
Where has the church been in all of this? Invisible, hiding in a building, or sometimes participating in the system of oppression. There is extensive biblical teaching on oppression, 555 references to oppression and its synonyms in the OT, but very little theology on oppression in the Western church. So oppression runs rampant, sometimes unrecognized, unchecked and unchallenged by most of the church. Any volunteers to change this atrocity?
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Haiti: Why high fertility and poverty rates?
Across much of the world, there has been modest to significant success in reducing high birth rates and high poverty levels. In Haiti, not so. High birth rates (five children per family) and extreme poverty remain stubbornly high. Why?
Two anthropologists try to answer this difficult question. Timothy T. Schwartz makes a micro-analysis in his book, Fewer Men, More Babies, 2009. Michel-Folph Trouillot makes a macro-analysis in his book, Haiti, State Against Nation, 1990. It takes both books to provide a complete answer.
While most people and even many scholars blame Haitian flaws in values, culture and illiteracy, etc., Schwartz concludes the cause for high birth rates is primarily economic in the sense that many children are needed to provide the labor to survive. One Haitian mother put it very simply: "Six can help you more. Some will work in the garden. Some to fetch water. Some will do laundry."
In Haiti, State Against the Nation, Trouillot argues that an overly militarized political state oppresses/exploits/dominates the rural peasant farmers and keeps them in grinding poverty. Ideally, the state should serve the people building roads, schools, etc. But much more often in Haiti, it is the state against the people. And much too often the urban elite are in cahoots with a foreign U.S. elite to exploit the rural masses. The French elite slavemasters were kicked out during the Revolution (1791-1804). Unfortunately this French elite was quickly replaced by a small Haitian elite.
Now back to Timothy Schwartz and his analysis.
"For more than a half a century, the county Jean Rabel has been the target of intense foreign intervention, most of which has met with indifference. But entrenched poverty and high fertility are not consequences of a nostalgic clinging to a rustic way of life, nor some shortcoming in the collective Haitian psyche or culture, as suggested by former USAID director Harris. Jean Rabel farmers conceptualize farming as the lowliest of occupations; virtually all rural Rabelians would prefer to migrate out of Jean Label and preferably out of Haiti; and many women interviewed in the surveys conducted for this book stated quite frankly that they would prefer not to have many children but, as will be seen, they must have children because they believe that children [and their labor] are necessary to survive."
"Thus, in the struggle to maintain their living standards, those Haitians who cannot escape by emigrating are trapped in a system of spiraling population growth, declining soil conditions, and stagnant technology. It is a system beyond their control. There is no active [positive] State presence in rural Haiti; and local community organizational structures are often functionally nonexistent beyond the level of the household."
Schwartz is incensed that many of his fellow anthropologists have started to favor "explanations that blame impoverishment and high birth rates on the impoverished peoples themselves, on their values, cultures and traditions," not on 500 years of oppression. L.E. Harrison, a former branch director of USAID in Haiti, typified this attitude when he wrote, "To repeat, the principal obstacles to progress in Haiti are cultural: a set of traditional attitudes and values. . . . The solutions must focus on obstacles in the Haitian mind." Again, not cultural, but oppression that has damaged culture.
"Jean Rabel women achieve what are among the highest birthrates in the world and they do so despite high incidence of disease, low-fat diets, intense work regimes, scarce resources, low male-to-female sex ratios, and high geographic mobility of both men and women, all factors that militate against pregnancy and childbirth."
On migration:
"Many Jean Rabeliens desperately tried---and many succeeded---to escape to the city and to neighboring countries, to the United States, and to Europe. For example, the migration of the village elite. . . is alarming [brain drain]."
On the value of children:
"The bottom line is that despite a few concerns about school costs, farmers in Jean Label want children. They see children as valuable economic assets and more children are better than fewer children." "Children are the wealth of the poor" a Haitian proverb.
On status of women:
"Haitian women enjoy a level of economic autonomy that often rivals or exceeds that of their spouses."
In my next blog, I will review Haiti, State Against Nation.
Two anthropologists try to answer this difficult question. Timothy T. Schwartz makes a micro-analysis in his book, Fewer Men, More Babies, 2009. Michel-Folph Trouillot makes a macro-analysis in his book, Haiti, State Against Nation, 1990. It takes both books to provide a complete answer.
While most people and even many scholars blame Haitian flaws in values, culture and illiteracy, etc., Schwartz concludes the cause for high birth rates is primarily economic in the sense that many children are needed to provide the labor to survive. One Haitian mother put it very simply: "Six can help you more. Some will work in the garden. Some to fetch water. Some will do laundry."
In Haiti, State Against the Nation, Trouillot argues that an overly militarized political state oppresses/exploits/dominates the rural peasant farmers and keeps them in grinding poverty. Ideally, the state should serve the people building roads, schools, etc. But much more often in Haiti, it is the state against the people. And much too often the urban elite are in cahoots with a foreign U.S. elite to exploit the rural masses. The French elite slavemasters were kicked out during the Revolution (1791-1804). Unfortunately this French elite was quickly replaced by a small Haitian elite.
Now back to Timothy Schwartz and his analysis.
"For more than a half a century, the county Jean Rabel has been the target of intense foreign intervention, most of which has met with indifference. But entrenched poverty and high fertility are not consequences of a nostalgic clinging to a rustic way of life, nor some shortcoming in the collective Haitian psyche or culture, as suggested by former USAID director Harris. Jean Rabel farmers conceptualize farming as the lowliest of occupations; virtually all rural Rabelians would prefer to migrate out of Jean Label and preferably out of Haiti; and many women interviewed in the surveys conducted for this book stated quite frankly that they would prefer not to have many children but, as will be seen, they must have children because they believe that children [and their labor] are necessary to survive."
"Thus, in the struggle to maintain their living standards, those Haitians who cannot escape by emigrating are trapped in a system of spiraling population growth, declining soil conditions, and stagnant technology. It is a system beyond their control. There is no active [positive] State presence in rural Haiti; and local community organizational structures are often functionally nonexistent beyond the level of the household."
Schwartz is incensed that many of his fellow anthropologists have started to favor "explanations that blame impoverishment and high birth rates on the impoverished peoples themselves, on their values, cultures and traditions," not on 500 years of oppression. L.E. Harrison, a former branch director of USAID in Haiti, typified this attitude when he wrote, "To repeat, the principal obstacles to progress in Haiti are cultural: a set of traditional attitudes and values. . . . The solutions must focus on obstacles in the Haitian mind." Again, not cultural, but oppression that has damaged culture.
"Jean Rabel women achieve what are among the highest birthrates in the world and they do so despite high incidence of disease, low-fat diets, intense work regimes, scarce resources, low male-to-female sex ratios, and high geographic mobility of both men and women, all factors that militate against pregnancy and childbirth."
On migration:
"Many Jean Rabeliens desperately tried---and many succeeded---to escape to the city and to neighboring countries, to the United States, and to Europe. For example, the migration of the village elite. . . is alarming [brain drain]."
On the value of children:
"The bottom line is that despite a few concerns about school costs, farmers in Jean Label want children. They see children as valuable economic assets and more children are better than fewer children." "Children are the wealth of the poor" a Haitian proverb.
On status of women:
"Haitian women enjoy a level of economic autonomy that often rivals or exceeds that of their spouses."
In my next blog, I will review Haiti, State Against Nation.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Paraphrase and Application of James Two
Paraphrase of James, chapter two.
"In your churches, you are honoring the rich and discriminating against the poor. How stupid, how evil, can you be! It is the rich who oppress you, exploit you, humiliate and batter you. Are you a bunch of spiritual idiots? This is NOT God's way!
Here is God's way. God has a special concern for the oppressed poor. God choses and honors the poor as the first citizens of his kingdom, with full rights and privileges. But you are abusing these special citizens of God's kingdom.
God wants you to go down-and-in, to live among the down-and-outers; think: "a generation, in one location." Under local leadership, minister to the poor, release the oppressed. Do works of Jubilee justice to release the oppressed. Combine faith and works; incarnate the kingdom of God."
Application of James two to Haiti.
Jean Thomas, in the fall of 2012, began to train six Haitian young men how to do Christian Community Development in poverty-stricken rural Haiti. They would be trained, challenged and inspired to go down-and-in to minister to the oppressed poor.
This is a very tough and demanding assignment; Jean Thomas expected two or three to drop out; but all six graduated and are doing CCD in their chosen communities. Quickly the Riceville Haiti Mission, the Covenant church and the Cumberland Presbyterian church became their partners in ministry.
Enter the Riceville Haiti Mission, January 2013. The Riceville Haiti Mission team had the good fortune to live with, work with, and hang out with, the six Caleb interns as they were called. In a short period of time, a week, a remarkably deep bonding occurred. The Caleb CCD'ers/pastors are now settled in their communities, starting the long and difficult task of rebuilding their communities.
Two Riceville couples, Paul and Janet and Darwin and Leola, have expanded their bonding to partnership; I think this partnership will be lifelong. When doing CCD in rural Haiti, we must think long term; short term projects won't do the job. The damage done by 500 years of oppression is deep and pervasive. Think of staying in one location for a generation, a lifetime.
One way to put it to think of the three "C's": call, comfort, and commitment. Paula and Janet, Darwin and Leola have responded to God's call, to the enormous need of the Haitian poor. And they feel comfortable, at home with the oppressed poor of Haiti. And they have made a long term commitment; one couple even revised their will taking the needs of the Haitian poor into consideration.
Pau Thomas, Jean's Haitian brother, started many projects in Haiti but not under the umbrella of CCD; these projects failed. Only wise, carefully designed CCD ministries, will get the job done.
"In your churches, you are honoring the rich and discriminating against the poor. How stupid, how evil, can you be! It is the rich who oppress you, exploit you, humiliate and batter you. Are you a bunch of spiritual idiots? This is NOT God's way!
Here is God's way. God has a special concern for the oppressed poor. God choses and honors the poor as the first citizens of his kingdom, with full rights and privileges. But you are abusing these special citizens of God's kingdom.
God wants you to go down-and-in, to live among the down-and-outers; think: "a generation, in one location." Under local leadership, minister to the poor, release the oppressed. Do works of Jubilee justice to release the oppressed. Combine faith and works; incarnate the kingdom of God."
Application of James two to Haiti.
Jean Thomas, in the fall of 2012, began to train six Haitian young men how to do Christian Community Development in poverty-stricken rural Haiti. They would be trained, challenged and inspired to go down-and-in to minister to the oppressed poor.
This is a very tough and demanding assignment; Jean Thomas expected two or three to drop out; but all six graduated and are doing CCD in their chosen communities. Quickly the Riceville Haiti Mission, the Covenant church and the Cumberland Presbyterian church became their partners in ministry.
Enter the Riceville Haiti Mission, January 2013. The Riceville Haiti Mission team had the good fortune to live with, work with, and hang out with, the six Caleb interns as they were called. In a short period of time, a week, a remarkably deep bonding occurred. The Caleb CCD'ers/pastors are now settled in their communities, starting the long and difficult task of rebuilding their communities.
Two Riceville couples, Paul and Janet and Darwin and Leola, have expanded their bonding to partnership; I think this partnership will be lifelong. When doing CCD in rural Haiti, we must think long term; short term projects won't do the job. The damage done by 500 years of oppression is deep and pervasive. Think of staying in one location for a generation, a lifetime.
One way to put it to think of the three "C's": call, comfort, and commitment. Paula and Janet, Darwin and Leola have responded to God's call, to the enormous need of the Haitian poor. And they feel comfortable, at home with the oppressed poor of Haiti. And they have made a long term commitment; one couple even revised their will taking the needs of the Haitian poor into consideration.
Pau Thomas, Jean's Haitian brother, started many projects in Haiti but not under the umbrella of CCD; these projects failed. Only wise, carefully designed CCD ministries, will get the job done.
Monday, November 21, 2016
American and Haitian History
American and Haitian history, though different in many ways, are frighteningly similar in other ways.
Both the U.S. and Haitian nations were created by violent revolutions and both nations have been plagued by excessive violence ever since. Unfortunately, neither country was led into freedom non-violently by a Gandhi or a Mandela.
The Haitian Revolution---1804---eliminated French physical slavery.
The American Revolution---1776---did not eliminate American physical slavery; only 84 years later was slavery eliminated by an exceedingly violent Civil War.
Though both Haitian and U.S. citizens loudly celebrate freedom, the freedom gained was shallow because it was not accompanied by justice.
In the U.S., the rich British elite was replaced by a rich American elite. In Haiti, the French elite was replaced by a rich Haitian elite.
In the U.S., slavery was replaced by segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs, and lynching. In Haiti, slavery was replaced by debt slavery to the French for over 100 years.
Today, the U.S. is dominated by a Wall Street elite that oppresses poor blacks and whites. Today, Haiti is dominated by a Haitian political/economic elite that oppress the poor; often the U.S. and Haitian elites cooperate in their oppression.
In neither country does the church preach and practice the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor. In both countries, the church neglects justice and the love of God.
Both the U.S. and Haitian nations were created by violent revolutions and both nations have been plagued by excessive violence ever since. Unfortunately, neither country was led into freedom non-violently by a Gandhi or a Mandela.
The Haitian Revolution---1804---eliminated French physical slavery.
The American Revolution---1776---did not eliminate American physical slavery; only 84 years later was slavery eliminated by an exceedingly violent Civil War.
Though both Haitian and U.S. citizens loudly celebrate freedom, the freedom gained was shallow because it was not accompanied by justice.
In the U.S., the rich British elite was replaced by a rich American elite. In Haiti, the French elite was replaced by a rich Haitian elite.
In the U.S., slavery was replaced by segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs, and lynching. In Haiti, slavery was replaced by debt slavery to the French for over 100 years.
Today, the U.S. is dominated by a Wall Street elite that oppresses poor blacks and whites. Today, Haiti is dominated by a Haitian political/economic elite that oppress the poor; often the U.S. and Haitian elites cooperate in their oppression.
In neither country does the church preach and practice the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor. In both countries, the church neglects justice and the love of God.
Religious Corpses
How many religious corpses do you have on your church roles?
Is your church full of stained glass Christians or street suffering Christians? Is your church full of dirt poor Christians or filthy rich Christians? James asserts that dirt poor Christians are first citizens of his kingdom, his favorites.
James writes with the bluntness of an OT prophet. Listen to some selected verses from chapter two (The Message):
"Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?"
"Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove."
"You believe in one God. Demons do that."
"Faith fruitful in works [Jubilee justice works]."
"The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works [of justice] and you get the same thing, a [religious] corpse."
When there are no works of Jubilee justice, the defective church allows oppression to run wild, creating and traumatizing the poor, creating the arrogant rich.
Is your church full of stained glass Christians or street suffering Christians? Is your church full of dirt poor Christians or filthy rich Christians? James asserts that dirt poor Christians are first citizens of his kingdom, his favorites.
James writes with the bluntness of an OT prophet. Listen to some selected verses from chapter two (The Message):
"Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?"
"Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove."
"You believe in one God. Demons do that."
"Faith fruitful in works [Jubilee justice works]."
"The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works [of justice] and you get the same thing, a [religious] corpse."
When there are no works of Jubilee justice, the defective church allows oppression to run wild, creating and traumatizing the poor, creating the arrogant rich.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Which Donald Trump will Govern?
Repeal and Replace.
Which Trump will govern? Will it be this Donald Trump? According to an editorial in the November 17,Des Moines Register, in 2015, Trump said that socialized medicine in Scotland 'works incredibly well'".
Trump continued:
"Everybody's got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say. . . . I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes. . . . the government's gonna pay."
I agree. Repeal and Replace with care---with Medicare for all. Will Ryan go along?
Which Trump will govern? Will it be this Donald Trump? According to an editorial in the November 17,Des Moines Register, in 2015, Trump said that socialized medicine in Scotland 'works incredibly well'".
Trump continued:
"Everybody's got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say. . . . I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes. . . . the government's gonna pay."
I agree. Repeal and Replace with care---with Medicare for all. Will Ryan go along?
Beware of the Experts
Beware of the Experts. They may be expertly, even catastrophically, wrong, as were the Pharisees who were 'experts' in the Law. Especially if their area of expertise is not biblically, historically, and socially informed.
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, is an expert in civil rights law; she is brilliant. But she confesses that for years she did not see that the mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males was a new system oppression, a new racial caste system. All she saw was a racially tainted criminal justice system. Alexander writes:
"I understood the problems plaguing poor communities of color, including problems associated with crime and rising incarceration rates, to be a function of poverty and the lack access to quality education---the continuing legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Never did I seriously consider the possibility that a new racial caste system was operating in this country. This new system had been developed and implemented swiftly, and it was largely invisible, even to people like me, who spent most of their waking hours fighting for justice."
Alexander was not the only one who missed it; 180 civil rights organizations missed it; the Congressional Black Caucus missed it; the NAACP missed it. None of these experts were biblically, historically nor sociologically informed.
Alexander wrote: "A human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch." Only a few sociologists and social workers saw it, sounded the alarm, but most of the other experts ignored the information. Only when Alexander began to listen to historians and sociologists did she understand what was really happening.
I used to teach sociology at Spring Arbor College. At that time, the Bible teachers taught that the justice emphasis of the OT disappeared in the NT. Justice was replaced by personal salvation. Wrong! But thousands of students were taught half the gospel, not knowing the other half--the kingdom of God as justice for the poor and oppressed---was also part of the NT gospel. So finally I had to take two weeks out of my Social Problems class to teach the present and social dimensions of the gospel from the gospel of Luke. The so-called Bible experts were only teaching fragments of justice.
This American failure is so widespread that each of us will have to develop our own NT theology of oppression. To put it simply, think oppression whenever you see the word rich in the NT. Think the word justice whenever you see the word righteousness in the NT.
American experts, even evangelical doctors, can blow it, especially when they ignore Haitian advice about how to fit in. Some American doctors visited Fond-des-Blancs to hold short term medical clinics. At the time, there was no hospital---only a small clinic operated by the Catholic Church staffed by a nurse's aide.
Jean Thomas carefully advised the American medical experts to be sensitive to the fact that they were on Catholic turf, and not to be overly evangelical, and fit in with the existing medical delivery system. The American experts knew better and ignored this wise Haitian advise; they undermined a budding good relationship with Catholics. Is it impossible for experts to be humble?
After living 90 years as a white American, I would estimate that nine out of ten white American experts are partially or totally wrong most of the time. Their ideas are not biblically accurate nor historically and socially informed. So some of us will need to do the hard work/study to provide the more accurate biblical base.
Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, is an expert in civil rights law; she is brilliant. But she confesses that for years she did not see that the mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males was a new system oppression, a new racial caste system. All she saw was a racially tainted criminal justice system. Alexander writes:
"I understood the problems plaguing poor communities of color, including problems associated with crime and rising incarceration rates, to be a function of poverty and the lack access to quality education---the continuing legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Never did I seriously consider the possibility that a new racial caste system was operating in this country. This new system had been developed and implemented swiftly, and it was largely invisible, even to people like me, who spent most of their waking hours fighting for justice."
Alexander was not the only one who missed it; 180 civil rights organizations missed it; the Congressional Black Caucus missed it; the NAACP missed it. None of these experts were biblically, historically nor sociologically informed.
Alexander wrote: "A human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch." Only a few sociologists and social workers saw it, sounded the alarm, but most of the other experts ignored the information. Only when Alexander began to listen to historians and sociologists did she understand what was really happening.
I used to teach sociology at Spring Arbor College. At that time, the Bible teachers taught that the justice emphasis of the OT disappeared in the NT. Justice was replaced by personal salvation. Wrong! But thousands of students were taught half the gospel, not knowing the other half--the kingdom of God as justice for the poor and oppressed---was also part of the NT gospel. So finally I had to take two weeks out of my Social Problems class to teach the present and social dimensions of the gospel from the gospel of Luke. The so-called Bible experts were only teaching fragments of justice.
This American failure is so widespread that each of us will have to develop our own NT theology of oppression. To put it simply, think oppression whenever you see the word rich in the NT. Think the word justice whenever you see the word righteousness in the NT.
American experts, even evangelical doctors, can blow it, especially when they ignore Haitian advice about how to fit in. Some American doctors visited Fond-des-Blancs to hold short term medical clinics. At the time, there was no hospital---only a small clinic operated by the Catholic Church staffed by a nurse's aide.
Jean Thomas carefully advised the American medical experts to be sensitive to the fact that they were on Catholic turf, and not to be overly evangelical, and fit in with the existing medical delivery system. The American experts knew better and ignored this wise Haitian advise; they undermined a budding good relationship with Catholics. Is it impossible for experts to be humble?
After living 90 years as a white American, I would estimate that nine out of ten white American experts are partially or totally wrong most of the time. Their ideas are not biblically accurate nor historically and socially informed. So some of us will need to do the hard work/study to provide the more accurate biblical base.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The Book of James and Haiti
James was writing to churches warning them about the corrupting influences of the godless world. According to James, the godless world had entered the churches. Instead of the kingdom of God whose first citizens were the poor, the churches were honoring the rich and treating the poor like dirt---a fundamental violation of the Royal Law of the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". Especially your poor neighbor.
In the godless world, the poor are despised. The typical citizen of the godless world flees the poor, moves up and out. The citizen of the kingdom moves down and in, to live among God's honored ones. True citizens of the kingdom fellowship with oppressed widows and orphans, not with the rich of the godless world.
The six Caleb CCD leaders are obeying Jesus; they are living among the poor, ministering to the oppressed, and combining faith and works of justice. Christian Community Development honors, prioritizes, the poor and exposes oppression by the rich.
In his excellent book, At Home With The Poor, Jean Thomas writes:
"The Old Testament solution to the problem of unequal distribution of resources was a partial redistribution in the sabbatical year and a complete redistribution during the Jubilee year. During the Jubilee year, everyone was given an opportunity to own the land and resources that over the half century had become concentrated among a few.
"We knew that giving the very poor in Fond-des-Blancs a chance to own pigs would not completely equalize the difference between them and the poor, but they would benefit from owning livestock."
From James, The Message:
"God chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. And here you [the rich] are abusing these same citizens. Isn't it the high and mighty [the rich] who exploit you? . . . . Separate faith and works and you get a [religious] corpse."
In the godless world, the poor are despised. The typical citizen of the godless world flees the poor, moves up and out. The citizen of the kingdom moves down and in, to live among God's honored ones. True citizens of the kingdom fellowship with oppressed widows and orphans, not with the rich of the godless world.
The six Caleb CCD leaders are obeying Jesus; they are living among the poor, ministering to the oppressed, and combining faith and works of justice. Christian Community Development honors, prioritizes, the poor and exposes oppression by the rich.
In his excellent book, At Home With The Poor, Jean Thomas writes:
"The Old Testament solution to the problem of unequal distribution of resources was a partial redistribution in the sabbatical year and a complete redistribution during the Jubilee year. During the Jubilee year, everyone was given an opportunity to own the land and resources that over the half century had become concentrated among a few.
"We knew that giving the very poor in Fond-des-Blancs a chance to own pigs would not completely equalize the difference between them and the poor, but they would benefit from owning livestock."
From James, The Message:
"God chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. And here you [the rich] are abusing these same citizens. Isn't it the high and mighty [the rich] who exploit you? . . . . Separate faith and works and you get a [religious] corpse."
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Haiti: Free But Yet Oppressed
Haiti: Free But Yet Oppressed
Is there hope for the social hell of rural Haiti?
Life is full of paradoxes---seeming contradictions. This makes it difficult for even an honest observer to present a balanced picture of what is going on in a society. But for an ideologue, it is a perfect opportunity to make a half-truth appear to be the whole truth.
Haiti is a social paradox.
On the one hand, Haiti is free. Haiti has its own statue of liberty in the capital city; this statue proudly points to the slave revolution which drove the French oppressors out of Haiti. This statue survived the 2010 earthquake intact while the nearby 'White House' and 'Capitol Building' lay in ruins.
AFTER the earthquake, an old Haitian woman weepingly declared in front of the statue, "The free man will NEVER be broken."
Joy Thomas, in her report after hurricane Matthew, wrote:
"The Haitian people have a right to be weary and faint of heart. Tropical Storm Sandy, the 2010 earthquake and now Hurricane Matthew, all of which gave immense devastation. The loss of life is unimaginable, but for those who survived, life continues and usually with gratefulness to God for what is left. . . . the Haitian people will be refreshed through their constant stamina and their faith in God."
On the other hand---the other side of the paradox---, 500 years of oppression have traumatized Haiti, creating a socioeconomic hell, especially in rural Haiti. If given a chance, nine out of ten Haitians would leave Haiti for the greener pastures of Canada or France or the United States, including most Christians.
Social death, social hell, social dysfunction, social PTSD. But a few remarkable Haitians have decided not only to stay, but to voluntarily descend into the worst of the socioeconomic hell to minister. To name a few of these courageous people: Jean, Joy, Josiah, Joab, Sheslair, Smith, Eddie, Eventual, Kimson. They responded to the call of God not to move up and out, but to move down and in---deeper into the heart of the social hell. They have made a long term commitment to rebuild these devastated poor rural communities.
All three of the following components are required for success:
1. trained Christian community development specialists,
2. a generation in one location,
3. a kingdom of God theology applied as justice for the oppressed.
In the providence of God, very literally so, the Riceville Haiti Mission Team became connected with the best Christian Community Development specialists in Haiti. They are partnering with the best and bringing their best---resources and skills---to assist the local communities. Now RHM needs some other Ricevillians to bring their best to assist the RHM, to enable them to double or triple their effectiveness.
If interested in becoming a partner---a praying partner, a giving partner, a going partner---, call 206-724-7215.
ps. Freedom without justice is shallow, incomplete. Freedom and justice, love and justice, spirituality and justice.
Is there hope for the social hell of rural Haiti?
Life is full of paradoxes---seeming contradictions. This makes it difficult for even an honest observer to present a balanced picture of what is going on in a society. But for an ideologue, it is a perfect opportunity to make a half-truth appear to be the whole truth.
Haiti is a social paradox.
On the one hand, Haiti is free. Haiti has its own statue of liberty in the capital city; this statue proudly points to the slave revolution which drove the French oppressors out of Haiti. This statue survived the 2010 earthquake intact while the nearby 'White House' and 'Capitol Building' lay in ruins.
AFTER the earthquake, an old Haitian woman weepingly declared in front of the statue, "The free man will NEVER be broken."
Joy Thomas, in her report after hurricane Matthew, wrote:
"The Haitian people have a right to be weary and faint of heart. Tropical Storm Sandy, the 2010 earthquake and now Hurricane Matthew, all of which gave immense devastation. The loss of life is unimaginable, but for those who survived, life continues and usually with gratefulness to God for what is left. . . . the Haitian people will be refreshed through their constant stamina and their faith in God."
On the other hand---the other side of the paradox---, 500 years of oppression have traumatized Haiti, creating a socioeconomic hell, especially in rural Haiti. If given a chance, nine out of ten Haitians would leave Haiti for the greener pastures of Canada or France or the United States, including most Christians.
Social death, social hell, social dysfunction, social PTSD. But a few remarkable Haitians have decided not only to stay, but to voluntarily descend into the worst of the socioeconomic hell to minister. To name a few of these courageous people: Jean, Joy, Josiah, Joab, Sheslair, Smith, Eddie, Eventual, Kimson. They responded to the call of God not to move up and out, but to move down and in---deeper into the heart of the social hell. They have made a long term commitment to rebuild these devastated poor rural communities.
All three of the following components are required for success:
1. trained Christian community development specialists,
2. a generation in one location,
3. a kingdom of God theology applied as justice for the oppressed.
In the providence of God, very literally so, the Riceville Haiti Mission Team became connected with the best Christian Community Development specialists in Haiti. They are partnering with the best and bringing their best---resources and skills---to assist the local communities. Now RHM needs some other Ricevillians to bring their best to assist the RHM, to enable them to double or triple their effectiveness.
If interested in becoming a partner---a praying partner, a giving partner, a going partner---, call 206-724-7215.
ps. Freedom without justice is shallow, incomplete. Freedom and justice, love and justice, spirituality and justice.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Devastation in Haiti
Devastation in Haiti
The 2010 earthquake devastated part of Haiti; thankfully, it ended quickly. Hurricane Matthew devastated all of Haiti; thankfully, it lasted only 24 hours. For 500 years, the oppressors, the rich elite, have been and still are today, devastating the poor in Haiti WITHOUT END.
The earthquake was bad, horrible as was the hurricane; but 500 years of past and present oppression are ten times worse. Jean Thomas on the rich in tiny rural Fond-des-Blancs: "A few wealthy families monopolize the business in Fond-des-Blancs. Most were connected with the militia of the Duvalier regime. They owned the means of transportation, controlled the sale of processed goods, and made informal loans to those willing to pay their 100 percent interest rate."
Jesus famously said (and oft misinterpreted), "The poor will always be with you." He could have also said, "The rich will always be with you, exploiting and oppressing you." James did express this sad, eternal truth, "Is it not the rich who oppress you?" (James 2:5). Jesus did say, "Woe to the rich!" See Luke 6:24.
In both the Bible and Haiti, the rich dominate both the political and economic systems using this power to exploit; Isaiah 10:1-2: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to deprive the poor of their rights, to withhold justice from the oppressed." Sometimes the rich dominate the church; Jesus called the Temple "a den of robbers."
Is there a way, the rich can be eliminated without violence? If so, please show us how to do this. Not even Jesus succeeded in doing so, did he?
For more, google "Lowell Noble's Writings"
Release the Oppressed of Haiti
Release the Oppressed of Haiti
In Luke 4, Jesus declared that one of his top priorities was "to release the oppressed, to set the oppressed free." For the past 50 years, I have been trying to figure what this phrase really means. Recently, I have concluded that generations of oppression---for Haiti, 500 years---causes mass individual, family and cultural PTSD. See book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
The OT has 555 references to oppression and its synonyms (see Thomas Hanks), but in American theology, there is almost no theology of oppression. The Hebrew words for oppression mean crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kill.
Haitians have experienced 500 years of brutal oppression---from crushed to killed all of the time. Both Protestants and Catholics have failed to release the Haitian oppressed. A lot of band aids, but little Jubilee justice surgery.
Why have both mission churches and Haitian churches failed to deliver the oppressed, to incarnate kingdom justice among the oppressed poor? What was missing? No biblical theology of oppression; shallow biblical theology of NT justice; not a good present and social theology of the kingdom of God.
John Lewis, noted civil rights leader; as a teenager, he heard one sermon that turned his life around. Over the radio, he heard Martin Luther King preach on the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice here on this earth. Then Lewis was trained for about four months in non-violent social change. From then on, he became a member of an elite special forces unit in the civil rights movement. Though often beaten and jailed, Lewis never stopped in his pursuit of civil rights and justice.
I am looking for 8 people of similar caliber to become partners with Darwin and Leola, Paul and Janet who themselves have made a long term commitment to two Haitian Christian Community Development leaders, Joab and Sheslair.
For more, google "Lowell Noble's Writings."
Haiti Needs Specialists, Not Just Well-meaning Amateurs
Haiti Needs Specialists, not Just Well-Meaning Amateurs
Last week my wife had back surgery. She likes her general practitioner, Dr. N. She has confidence in his medical judgments. Possibly, Dr. N. could have done her back surgery successfully, but the risk of failure would have been high. So she chose a specialist; when we need a specialist, none of us will put up with an amateur.
Because Haiti has been bruised and battered by 500 years of oppression, the country is in bad shape; it needs specialists in Christian Community Development. Well-meaning amateurs, even those who genuinely love the poor, need not apply. Jean Thomas, a CCD specialist says that Haiti is the graveyard of many well meaning failures. Thomas himself says that if he had returned to Haiti after traditional seminary training that he would have made many of these mistakes. Fortunately, Jean had a four year internship in CCD under John Perkins in Mississippi where he learned the principles and strategies of CCD.
I, Lowell Noble, needed a second conversion in 1968---a conversion to social justice, Jubilee justice, kingdom justice. Then I became keenly conscious of the human devastation oppression causes; it crushed people, humiliated them, treated them like animals, makes them poor, enslaves and kills them. I have been on a 50 year pilgrimage to understand biblically oppression, justice and the kingdom of God.
According to Exodus 6:9, oppression breaks the human spirit, sometimes so badly people can't even hear God speak. Haitians have been beaten and battered by oppression for 500 years; everything in society has been damaged, distorted, dysfunctional. Please don't blame the Haitians for their many problems; blame the oppressors.
How can Haitian individuals, families and society been healed? We need specialists, CCD'ers who understand oppression and justice, biblically, historically and sociologically. I would not give a dollar to send Paul and Janet, Darwin and Leola to Haiti on their own. Fortunately, they are partnering with Haitians trained in CCD, Joab and Sheslair.
Joan and Sheslair are the leaders, the specialists; Riceville volunteers work with and under their leadership. Riceville volunteers are amateurs with specialities---farming and plumbing; they are helpful, but not dominate.
Paul and Janet, Darwin and Leola are now heavily committed to Haiti for the long-term; they need additional help for the long term---partners for the next 10 years. 500 years of Haitian oppression must end now; will you help end it? If so, come to the Riceville Methodist Church at 4:00 for more information on how to participate.
For more, google "Lowell Noble's Writings."
For more, google "Lowell Noble's Writings."
The Importance of Doing CCD in One Location for a Generation
THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN ONE LOCATION FOR A GENERATION
Recently some Mennonites talked to my wife about a failed project in Haiti. They worked hard setting up the project, then turned it over to Haitians. They failed to continue it. The Mennonites essentially blamed the Haitians for not following through.
Jean Thomas, a Haitian, says that Haiti is the graveyard of many failed projects. So the question is why do so many well-meaning projects fail?
An important clue can be found in Jean Thomas' book, At Home With The Poor, pages 7-8; Jean is writing about his Haitian brother Paul. Paul was the smartest one in the family, well-educated, and of course, he knew the language and culture. Yet most of the many projects he started in Haiti did not endure.
Jean writes:
"Paul was implementing projects throughout Haiti. . . . Many years later, Paul admitted that for all of his work with so many projects, there is hardly any trace of them left to see, simply because he was able to give so little personal attention to each one. In Fond-des-Blancs, however, a strong foundation was laid, and the projects are still underway.
"When you are submerged within a community [for a generation at one location], you live through the successes and failures of your work. We have seen our share of both in Fond-des-Blancs. Numerous times the people of Fond-des-Blancs thought we were going to leave because of some personal tragedy or project failure. But we stayed, and that encouraged the people to persist through their own struggles as well as ours. . . . The results of our living out the principle of relocation in Haiti speak for themselves. . . . out work is making a real and lasting difference simply because we became a part of the community in which we minister."
A simple but profoundly important truth. Incarnation/relocation in a community for a long period is a non-negotiable principle, even for indigenous leaders, doubly so for outsiders. At Home with the Poor is such an important book that it could be the 29th chapter of Acts.
Recently some Mennonites talked to my wife about a failed project in Haiti. They worked hard setting up the project, then turned it over to Haitians. They failed to continue it. The Mennonites essentially blamed the Haitians for not following through.
Jean Thomas, a Haitian, says that Haiti is the graveyard of many failed projects. So the question is why do so many well-meaning projects fail?
An important clue can be found in Jean Thomas' book, At Home With The Poor, pages 7-8; Jean is writing about his Haitian brother Paul. Paul was the smartest one in the family, well-educated, and of course, he knew the language and culture. Yet most of the many projects he started in Haiti did not endure.
Jean writes:
"Paul was implementing projects throughout Haiti. . . . Many years later, Paul admitted that for all of his work with so many projects, there is hardly any trace of them left to see, simply because he was able to give so little personal attention to each one. In Fond-des-Blancs, however, a strong foundation was laid, and the projects are still underway.
"When you are submerged within a community [for a generation at one location], you live through the successes and failures of your work. We have seen our share of both in Fond-des-Blancs. Numerous times the people of Fond-des-Blancs thought we were going to leave because of some personal tragedy or project failure. But we stayed, and that encouraged the people to persist through their own struggles as well as ours. . . . The results of our living out the principle of relocation in Haiti speak for themselves. . . . out work is making a real and lasting difference simply because we became a part of the community in which we minister."
A simple but profoundly important truth. Incarnation/relocation in a community for a long period is a non-negotiable principle, even for indigenous leaders, doubly so for outsiders. At Home with the Poor is such an important book that it could be the 29th chapter of Acts.
Wanted: Riceville People Who Will Partner
WANTED: RICEVILLE PEOPLE WHO WILL PARTNER
In January 2013, God began a good work in and through the Riceville Haiti Mission Team. People such as Darwin and Leola Kock, Paul and Janet Pickar, Roger and Deb Schroeder met and lived with six Haitian young men who were being trained in Christian Community Development by Jean Thomas in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. They all lived in the same guest house for the week. By the time the week was over, a deep and lasting bonding had taken place. Paul and Janet bonded with Joab; Darwin and Leola with Sheslair.
From friends to partners and now family, as Janet likes to say. Thanks to the internet and cell phones, they stay in close contact. Every year some of the Riceville Haiti team returns to Haiti. I predict the partnering will continue for the rest of their lives.
We need more Riceville Haiti partners---persons who will assist Darwin and Leola, Paul and Janet double their effectiveness. A friend of ours ate dinner with both couples and heard their first-hand moving Haiti story. Soon she sent a $10,000 check to HCDF. Rumor has it that since hurricane Matthew another $10,000 will soon be on its way. She will never make the trip to Haiti, but she is a genuine partner.
Why don't you invite either the Pickars or Kocks over to dinner and hear their Haitian story firsthand. You could become a praying partner, a giving partner, a working partner for the next 10 years.
For more inside information, go to the Riceville library and check out the book, At Home with the Poor, the story of Christian Community Development in rural Haiti. Using the cooperative model with the local people doing the work, HCDF has provided a plentiful supply of clean water, planted millions of trees, started a pig nursery to replenish a diseased pig population, created a school that educates 1500 students, etc.
Much progress has been made, but Jean Thomas writes:
"The poorest of the poor---those with no land, no livestock, no jobs, and almost no hope of acquiring these things---are still very numerous."
These Haitian poor need YOU as their partner; working with Kocks and Pickars, you can give the oppressed poor of Haiti help and hope.
In January 2013, God began a good work in and through the Riceville Haiti Mission Team. People such as Darwin and Leola Kock, Paul and Janet Pickar, Roger and Deb Schroeder met and lived with six Haitian young men who were being trained in Christian Community Development by Jean Thomas in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. They all lived in the same guest house for the week. By the time the week was over, a deep and lasting bonding had taken place. Paul and Janet bonded with Joab; Darwin and Leola with Sheslair.
From friends to partners and now family, as Janet likes to say. Thanks to the internet and cell phones, they stay in close contact. Every year some of the Riceville Haiti team returns to Haiti. I predict the partnering will continue for the rest of their lives.
We need more Riceville Haiti partners---persons who will assist Darwin and Leola, Paul and Janet double their effectiveness. A friend of ours ate dinner with both couples and heard their first-hand moving Haiti story. Soon she sent a $10,000 check to HCDF. Rumor has it that since hurricane Matthew another $10,000 will soon be on its way. She will never make the trip to Haiti, but she is a genuine partner.
Why don't you invite either the Pickars or Kocks over to dinner and hear their Haitian story firsthand. You could become a praying partner, a giving partner, a working partner for the next 10 years.
For more inside information, go to the Riceville library and check out the book, At Home with the Poor, the story of Christian Community Development in rural Haiti. Using the cooperative model with the local people doing the work, HCDF has provided a plentiful supply of clean water, planted millions of trees, started a pig nursery to replenish a diseased pig population, created a school that educates 1500 students, etc.
Much progress has been made, but Jean Thomas writes:
"The poorest of the poor---those with no land, no livestock, no jobs, and almost no hope of acquiring these things---are still very numerous."
These Haitian poor need YOU as their partner; working with Kocks and Pickars, you can give the oppressed poor of Haiti help and hope.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Did The Civil War Really End Slavery?
In the November Sojourners, Lisa Sharon Harper (Shop 'til They Drop) writes: "One of the greatest myths of American history is that the Civil War ended slavery." I agree. Here is her documentation:
"The 13th Amendment abolished slavery 'except as punishment for crime'. In the years following the Civil War, Southern and Midwestern states struggled to recover from the economic impacts of war and sudden loss of 4 million unpaid laborers. These states leveraged the constitutional exception [loophole] to revive flailing economies. They turned to the only thing they knew for the previous 250 years---free labor. . . . "
"Peonage laws (aka 'black codes') sprung up in states throughout the South and West. They lowered the bar of criminality, transforming noncriminal acts, such as sitting on a bench too long, into criminal offenses. Black codes required servitude [slavery] if prisoners could not pay their fines. The business would pay the fine to the state in return for the prisoners' labor. . . . by 1898 as much as 73 percent of Alabama's total state revenue came from convict leasing."
Today racial profiling, mass incarceration and prison labor are combining to create a new form of slavery. "37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations who bring their operations inside prison walls." Corporations such as Nordstrom, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, and Target.
Using the criminal justice system to enable and enforce racial oppression has a long history in America. This is why an apology for past mistreatment of blacks by the criminal justice system by Terrence Cunningham is not good enough. Congress, the Supreme Court and the larger white society, even the white church, need to repent, change, restitute and do justice. This is much more than just a police problem. For much more detail read: Douglas Blackmon's book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II; also Ta-Nehisi Coates' article in The Atlantic, "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration."
"The 13th Amendment abolished slavery 'except as punishment for crime'. In the years following the Civil War, Southern and Midwestern states struggled to recover from the economic impacts of war and sudden loss of 4 million unpaid laborers. These states leveraged the constitutional exception [loophole] to revive flailing economies. They turned to the only thing they knew for the previous 250 years---free labor. . . . "
"Peonage laws (aka 'black codes') sprung up in states throughout the South and West. They lowered the bar of criminality, transforming noncriminal acts, such as sitting on a bench too long, into criminal offenses. Black codes required servitude [slavery] if prisoners could not pay their fines. The business would pay the fine to the state in return for the prisoners' labor. . . . by 1898 as much as 73 percent of Alabama's total state revenue came from convict leasing."
Today racial profiling, mass incarceration and prison labor are combining to create a new form of slavery. "37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations who bring their operations inside prison walls." Corporations such as Nordstrom, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, and Target.
Using the criminal justice system to enable and enforce racial oppression has a long history in America. This is why an apology for past mistreatment of blacks by the criminal justice system by Terrence Cunningham is not good enough. Congress, the Supreme Court and the larger white society, even the white church, need to repent, change, restitute and do justice. This is much more than just a police problem. For much more detail read: Douglas Blackmon's book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II; also Ta-Nehisi Coates' article in The Atlantic, "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration."
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Church Christianity or Kingdom of God Christianity
Pope Francis has called his church to leave the security/comfort of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets. A profound insight! Do you spend more time, invest more money, in the sanctuary or the street---among the poor and oppressed? The Scripture hints that you should be hitting the streets as a top priority. The following scriptural passages are from The Message paraphrase:
Amos 5:20-24: "I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes. . . . Do you know what I want? I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want."
Isaiah 58: "They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people--law-abiding, God-honoring. . . . The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. . . . The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. . . . This the the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts."
Jesus, from the end of Matthew 7: "Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. . . . Knowing the correct password---saying 'Master, Master,' for instance---isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience---doing what my Father wills. . . . But you are doers of injustice (Miranda). . . . But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. . . . it collapsed like a house of cards."
Next read Matthew 23: "Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom."
Are you practicing only churchianity or kingdom of God Jubilee justice among the oppressed poor?
Amos 5:20-24: "I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes. . . . Do you know what I want? I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want."
Isaiah 58: "They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people--law-abiding, God-honoring. . . . The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. . . . The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. . . . This the the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts."
Jesus, from the end of Matthew 7: "Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. . . . Knowing the correct password---saying 'Master, Master,' for instance---isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience---doing what my Father wills. . . . But you are doers of injustice (Miranda). . . . But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. . . . it collapsed like a house of cards."
Next read Matthew 23: "Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom."
Are you practicing only churchianity or kingdom of God Jubilee justice among the oppressed poor?
Monday, October 17, 2016
The Relentless Ones: Jeremiah and Tutu
According to The Message, God called Jeremiah to "demolish, and then start over." Demolish not only the systems of oppression, but also "the old collapsed system of belief, holding on for dear life to an illusion."
Desmond Tutu was called to demolish apartheid in South Africa and then pursue peace and justice. In 2014 ("Never Give Up," Sojourners, November 2016), John Dear reported that Tutu said, "we have to keep working for peace and justice till the day we die." Then Dear wrote: "I was amazed to hear that he planned to leave the next day for Iran. He was in his 80s, in bad health, and relentless."
Later Dear asked, "How do you keep going?" Tutu replied, "My favorite prophet is Jeremiah. . . . Because he cries [weeps] a lot. . . . I cry a lot too. . . . I cry every day." Over oppression caused suffering.
Tutu described Cape Town: "We have the ultimate First World wealth and the worst Third World poverty, the biggest gap between rich and poor in the world." Tutu, Mandela and others had ended racial apartheid, but not economic apartheid. Suffering and oppression are widespread in South Africa today. There is much to weep about.
In Jeremiah 6, and repeated in chapter 8, Jeremiah (The Message) describes the condition of Israel:
"Everyone is after the dishonest dollar,
little people and big people alike.
Prophets and priests and everyone in between
twist words and doctor truth.
My people are broken---shattered!---
and they put on band-aids,
Saying [shalom, shalom], "It's not so bad. You'll be just fine."
But things are not just fine."
Read Jeremiah 7 to discover the depth of oppression, the deception, the distortion, of truth.
Desmond Tutu was called to demolish apartheid in South Africa and then pursue peace and justice. In 2014 ("Never Give Up," Sojourners, November 2016), John Dear reported that Tutu said, "we have to keep working for peace and justice till the day we die." Then Dear wrote: "I was amazed to hear that he planned to leave the next day for Iran. He was in his 80s, in bad health, and relentless."
Later Dear asked, "How do you keep going?" Tutu replied, "My favorite prophet is Jeremiah. . . . Because he cries [weeps] a lot. . . . I cry a lot too. . . . I cry every day." Over oppression caused suffering.
Tutu described Cape Town: "We have the ultimate First World wealth and the worst Third World poverty, the biggest gap between rich and poor in the world." Tutu, Mandela and others had ended racial apartheid, but not economic apartheid. Suffering and oppression are widespread in South Africa today. There is much to weep about.
In Jeremiah 6, and repeated in chapter 8, Jeremiah (The Message) describes the condition of Israel:
"Everyone is after the dishonest dollar,
little people and big people alike.
Prophets and priests and everyone in between
twist words and doctor truth.
My people are broken---shattered!---
and they put on band-aids,
Saying [shalom, shalom], "It's not so bad. You'll be just fine."
But things are not just fine."
Read Jeremiah 7 to discover the depth of oppression, the deception, the distortion, of truth.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Natural Disasters and Social Disasters/Oppression
The damage from a hurricane is dramatically visual, physical and impressive. The damage from systems of oppression are not as dramatically visible and obvious; it is more long term, not immediate.
I have talked with a number of Christians who have been to Haiti; they have been shocked and appalled by the poverty, bad roads, corruption, the voodoo. But none of them have ever mentioned the 500 years of oppression that has caused most of the poverty, lack of education, etc., People instantly grasp the seriousness of physical devastation, but they are slow to understand the seriousness of social oppression.
To hurricane Katrina.
My wife and I have been volunteers in Mississippi for most of each year since our retirement in 1994. We have made a number of trips into the Delta region that stretches from Vicksburg to Memphis. We were not in Mississippi when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, but we returned shortly thereafter.
The American church's response to the Katrina catastrophe was impressive. An example: A group of California churches built prefabricated house in panels, put the panels in railroad cars, and shipped them to Mississippi where locals assembled the houses. Dozens of similar stories could be recounted. This, in my opinion, was the American church's finest hour.
Ironically, some of the mission teams from the North would have driven down I-55, passing along the east side of the Mississippi Delta on their way down to the Gulf Coast. Some studies say that the Delta is the poorest, most oppressed region in the country. Decades of slavery, segregation and sharecropping have done enormous damage to poor blacks. There has been little church response to this social disaster which has done more human damage than Katrina. The weak response by the church represents the church's worst hour.
Back to Haiti and hurricane Matthew.
Hait is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere primarily because for 500 years Haiti has been the most oppressed nation in the western hemisphere. How does social oppression impact the severity of hurricane damage? An example: For over a 100 years, Haiti was a debt slave to France. In 1800, Haitian slaves revolted and expelled their French masters. France threatened to invade and reinslave. To prevent reinslavement, Haiti reluctantly agreed to make yearly massive extortion debt payments---debt slave payments that amounted to as much as 80 percent of their national budget. The U.S. supported this financial extortion.
During this time period, the U.S. was investing large sums on railroads, schools, hospitals and land grant colleges. Haiti due to excessive debt payments had little to spend on roads, schools, housing etc., Houses were poorly constructed, roads were not built properly and were not maintained. So when a hurricane hits, the damage is much greater. Natural disasters and social disasters/oppression are intertwined.
Application to the Haiti Christian Development Fund
The 30 plus year ministry of Haiti Christian Development Fund in rural Fond-des-Blancs Haiti has been responding to crisis after crisis. In the midst of the 500 years of various systems of socioeconomic oppression which makes every other type of crisis worse, HCDF has responded to:
1. The lack of clean water by capping a spring and piping the water to an accessible
'road'.
2. The deforestation crisis by planting millions of trees.
3. The pig disease crisis by creating a pig nursery that repopulated the pigs in the area.
4. The education crisis by establishing a school system that educates around 1500 students.
5. The food crisis by establishing a farming project that has enough corn stored in Sukup donated grain bins to feed 1500 school children lunch for most of the coming year. This is an absolute blessing in light of the crop and garden destruction by hurricane Matthew.
I have talked with a number of Christians who have been to Haiti; they have been shocked and appalled by the poverty, bad roads, corruption, the voodoo. But none of them have ever mentioned the 500 years of oppression that has caused most of the poverty, lack of education, etc., People instantly grasp the seriousness of physical devastation, but they are slow to understand the seriousness of social oppression.
To hurricane Katrina.
My wife and I have been volunteers in Mississippi for most of each year since our retirement in 1994. We have made a number of trips into the Delta region that stretches from Vicksburg to Memphis. We were not in Mississippi when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, but we returned shortly thereafter.
The American church's response to the Katrina catastrophe was impressive. An example: A group of California churches built prefabricated house in panels, put the panels in railroad cars, and shipped them to Mississippi where locals assembled the houses. Dozens of similar stories could be recounted. This, in my opinion, was the American church's finest hour.
Ironically, some of the mission teams from the North would have driven down I-55, passing along the east side of the Mississippi Delta on their way down to the Gulf Coast. Some studies say that the Delta is the poorest, most oppressed region in the country. Decades of slavery, segregation and sharecropping have done enormous damage to poor blacks. There has been little church response to this social disaster which has done more human damage than Katrina. The weak response by the church represents the church's worst hour.
Back to Haiti and hurricane Matthew.
Hait is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere primarily because for 500 years Haiti has been the most oppressed nation in the western hemisphere. How does social oppression impact the severity of hurricane damage? An example: For over a 100 years, Haiti was a debt slave to France. In 1800, Haitian slaves revolted and expelled their French masters. France threatened to invade and reinslave. To prevent reinslavement, Haiti reluctantly agreed to make yearly massive extortion debt payments---debt slave payments that amounted to as much as 80 percent of their national budget. The U.S. supported this financial extortion.
During this time period, the U.S. was investing large sums on railroads, schools, hospitals and land grant colleges. Haiti due to excessive debt payments had little to spend on roads, schools, housing etc., Houses were poorly constructed, roads were not built properly and were not maintained. So when a hurricane hits, the damage is much greater. Natural disasters and social disasters/oppression are intertwined.
Application to the Haiti Christian Development Fund
The 30 plus year ministry of Haiti Christian Development Fund in rural Fond-des-Blancs Haiti has been responding to crisis after crisis. In the midst of the 500 years of various systems of socioeconomic oppression which makes every other type of crisis worse, HCDF has responded to:
1. The lack of clean water by capping a spring and piping the water to an accessible
'road'.
2. The deforestation crisis by planting millions of trees.
3. The pig disease crisis by creating a pig nursery that repopulated the pigs in the area.
4. The education crisis by establishing a school system that educates around 1500 students.
5. The food crisis by establishing a farming project that has enough corn stored in Sukup donated grain bins to feed 1500 school children lunch for most of the coming year. This is an absolute blessing in light of the crop and garden destruction by hurricane Matthew.
Friday, October 14, 2016
Michelle Alexander to UTS
Hey, have you heard? Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling New Jim Crow, has resigned as law professor and has entered Union Theological Seminary as both a student and a teacher. She realizes that unjust mass incarceration and the racial profiling that often accompanies it, is primarily a moral problem, an ethical problem, not just a political or legal problem.
She's right, but I am afraid that, in the end, she will also be profoundly disappointed in the American church. As Pope Francis has said most of the church prefers the comfort, the security, of the sanctuary over the suffering in the streets; stained glass windows over justice for the poor and oppressed. The white church, as a whole, is more a part of the problem than it is leading the way toward a solution. 400 years of oppression. If the church becomes more biblical, it could lead society toward a solution.
Next some quotations from Alexander which reveal the depth of our problem:
"Much of black progress is a myth."
"African Americans, as a group, are no better off than they were in 1968 in many respects. In fact, to some extent, they are worse off. When the incarcerated population is counted in unemployment and poverty rates, the best of times for the rest of America have become among the worst of times for African Americans, particularly black men. As sociologist Bruce Western has shown, the notion that the 1990s---the Clinton years---were good times for African Americans, . . . is pure fiction. As unemployment rates sank to historically low levels in the late 1990s for the general population, jobless rates among non college black men in their twenties rose to their highest levels ever, propelled by skyrocketing incarceration rates. . . . Prisoners are literally erased from the nation's economic picture, leading standard estimates to underestimate the true jobless rate by as much as 24 percentage points for less-educated black men."
She's right, but I am afraid that, in the end, she will also be profoundly disappointed in the American church. As Pope Francis has said most of the church prefers the comfort, the security, of the sanctuary over the suffering in the streets; stained glass windows over justice for the poor and oppressed. The white church, as a whole, is more a part of the problem than it is leading the way toward a solution. 400 years of oppression. If the church becomes more biblical, it could lead society toward a solution.
Next some quotations from Alexander which reveal the depth of our problem:
"Much of black progress is a myth."
"African Americans, as a group, are no better off than they were in 1968 in many respects. In fact, to some extent, they are worse off. When the incarcerated population is counted in unemployment and poverty rates, the best of times for the rest of America have become among the worst of times for African Americans, particularly black men. As sociologist Bruce Western has shown, the notion that the 1990s---the Clinton years---were good times for African Americans, . . . is pure fiction. As unemployment rates sank to historically low levels in the late 1990s for the general population, jobless rates among non college black men in their twenties rose to their highest levels ever, propelled by skyrocketing incarceration rates. . . . Prisoners are literally erased from the nation's economic picture, leading standard estimates to underestimate the true jobless rate by as much as 24 percentage points for less-educated black men."
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Prooftexts or the Whole Truth
Prooftexts divorced from the larger context become misleading facts or even dangerous half truths. We need to be careful that facts are not presented as isolated facts. Some examples:
1. The widely used statement that the country of Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is both true and very misleading. Or the statement that Haiti's basic problem is corruption. The fuller truth, seldom mentioned, is that Haiti has been and is the most oppressed nation in the Western Hemisphere, that oppression is the primary cause of poverty. Spanish genocide and slavery, French slavery and debt slavery, U.S. neocolonialism equal 500 years of devastating oppression.
2. Another misleading fact: black on black crime, and a higher murder rate in the ghetto. Put in its larger context, we must talk about white on black oppression which has caused high abortion rates, high infant mortality rates, high incarceration rates and high separation and divorce rates.
3. It is widely stated or implied that poor blacks are dysfunctional; their individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction proves that blacks are an inferior people. The larger truth is that prolonged white systems of oppression such as slavery cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD. Oppression damage precedes and causes cultural dysfunction.
Since we are a highly individualistic society, 9 out of 10 white Americans tend to begin with a blaming the victim approach rather than an identifying the oppressor approach. So we will consciously have to work on putting the identifying the oppressor approach first. Another reason we begin with a blaming the victim approach is that if we begin with an identifying the oppressor approach, it might implicate us.
Another example of a misleading prooftext:
This might be the most important and most serious misleading prooftext of all time---the John 3:16 text. John 3:16 contains an important biblical truth---personal salvation through Jesus Christ. But standing ALONE, it represents only a half truth.
The whole biblical truth about the complete gospel adds Luke 4:18-19, Matthew 6:33 and Romans 14:17 to the mix; Luke 4:18-9---the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed and Jubilee justice; 6:33---"
Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else" NEB; Romans 14:17---"The kingdom of God is justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Noble paraphrase).
Acts 8:12; 28:23, 31 include both the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as the whole, complete gospel. Another variation of the same holistic theme: Ephesian two asserts that both personal reconciliation and social reconciliation are based on the cross. Yet another variation: James two declares that faith without works [of justice] is dead.
1. The widely used statement that the country of Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is both true and very misleading. Or the statement that Haiti's basic problem is corruption. The fuller truth, seldom mentioned, is that Haiti has been and is the most oppressed nation in the Western Hemisphere, that oppression is the primary cause of poverty. Spanish genocide and slavery, French slavery and debt slavery, U.S. neocolonialism equal 500 years of devastating oppression.
2. Another misleading fact: black on black crime, and a higher murder rate in the ghetto. Put in its larger context, we must talk about white on black oppression which has caused high abortion rates, high infant mortality rates, high incarceration rates and high separation and divorce rates.
3. It is widely stated or implied that poor blacks are dysfunctional; their individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction proves that blacks are an inferior people. The larger truth is that prolonged white systems of oppression such as slavery cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD. Oppression damage precedes and causes cultural dysfunction.
Since we are a highly individualistic society, 9 out of 10 white Americans tend to begin with a blaming the victim approach rather than an identifying the oppressor approach. So we will consciously have to work on putting the identifying the oppressor approach first. Another reason we begin with a blaming the victim approach is that if we begin with an identifying the oppressor approach, it might implicate us.
Another example of a misleading prooftext:
This might be the most important and most serious misleading prooftext of all time---the John 3:16 text. John 3:16 contains an important biblical truth---personal salvation through Jesus Christ. But standing ALONE, it represents only a half truth.
The whole biblical truth about the complete gospel adds Luke 4:18-19, Matthew 6:33 and Romans 14:17 to the mix; Luke 4:18-9---the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed and Jubilee justice; 6:33---"
Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else" NEB; Romans 14:17---"The kingdom of God is justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Noble paraphrase).
Acts 8:12; 28:23, 31 include both the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as the whole, complete gospel. Another variation of the same holistic theme: Ephesian two asserts that both personal reconciliation and social reconciliation are based on the cross. Yet another variation: James two declares that faith without works [of justice] is dead.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Rich, White Males---Class, Race, Gender
Rich, White Males---Class, Race, Gender
Oppressors can use/misuse either class, race or gender in order to discriminate against either a person or a group. Or an oppressive system can use all three at the same time; example, poor black women.
41 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slaveholders.
Half of the writers of the Constitution owned slaves. 12 U.S. presidents owned slaves. During his lifetime, Jefferson owned 600 slaves.
Our founding fathers were a group of rich, white males; women, the poor, Native Americans and African Americans could not vote. There was no equality from the very beginning of this country; no government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
"All men are created equal" apparently did not mean all persons had to be treated equal. From the beginning, a group of mostly deists created the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism/racism which dominated society. The Christian Trinity was holed up inside the church and even there the American trinity found its way inside.
Rich, white males created and maintained systems of oppression which discriminated against women, the poor, all non-whites and many non-rich whites.
Once systems of oppression are established---slaves and women couldn't vote, tax loopholes for the rich and corporations, subsidies for already rich oil companies---they become a normal part of the functioning political and economic systems.
Oppressors sometimes actively oppress and exploit; but many just let the system operate according to unjust but established law. Today many oppressors sin by omission---neglect justice and the love of God. Either by commission or omission, the poor, women, ethnics are exploited.
Today, the white poor and working class are being exploited by class, not race; they are hurting and feel neglected, ignored. So when a demagogue pays them respect, attention, gives them empty promises, they respond positively, hoping for the best but not realizing they will be even worse off should they vote for the demagogue.
Ezekiel 16:
"The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived in the lap of luxury---proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignore the oppressed and the poor. . . . I did away with them."
Oppressors can use/misuse either class, race or gender in order to discriminate against either a person or a group. Or an oppressive system can use all three at the same time; example, poor black women.
41 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slaveholders.
Half of the writers of the Constitution owned slaves. 12 U.S. presidents owned slaves. During his lifetime, Jefferson owned 600 slaves.
Our founding fathers were a group of rich, white males; women, the poor, Native Americans and African Americans could not vote. There was no equality from the very beginning of this country; no government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
"All men are created equal" apparently did not mean all persons had to be treated equal. From the beginning, a group of mostly deists created the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism/racism which dominated society. The Christian Trinity was holed up inside the church and even there the American trinity found its way inside.
Rich, white males created and maintained systems of oppression which discriminated against women, the poor, all non-whites and many non-rich whites.
Once systems of oppression are established---slaves and women couldn't vote, tax loopholes for the rich and corporations, subsidies for already rich oil companies---they become a normal part of the functioning political and economic systems.
Oppressors sometimes actively oppress and exploit; but many just let the system operate according to unjust but established law. Today many oppressors sin by omission---neglect justice and the love of God. Either by commission or omission, the poor, women, ethnics are exploited.
Today, the white poor and working class are being exploited by class, not race; they are hurting and feel neglected, ignored. So when a demagogue pays them respect, attention, gives them empty promises, they respond positively, hoping for the best but not realizing they will be even worse off should they vote for the demagogue.
Ezekiel 16:
"The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived in the lap of luxury---proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignore the oppressed and the poor. . . . I did away with them."
Monday, October 10, 2016
"The Road to Freedom"
In the Sept., 2016 issue of Smithsonian, there is an article titled "The Road to Freedom," about the great migration of southern blacks to the North. At best it was partial freedom, a freedom without justice. It turned out that the North was almost as oppressive as the South.
The author mentions Richard Wright as an example:
"Richard Wright relocated several times in his quest for other suns, fleeing Mississippi for Memphis and Memphis for Chicago and Chicago for New York, where, living in Greenwich Village, barbers refused to serve him and some restaurents refused to seat him. In 1946, near the height of the Great migration, he came to the disheartening recognition that, wherever he went, he faced hostility. So he went to France."
How did the North react to the Great Migration? "white flight, police brutality, systemic ills flowing from government policy restricting fair access to safe housing and good schools. In recent years, the North, which never had to confront its own injustices, has moved toward a crisis that seems to have reached a boiling point in our current day."
"Thus the eternal question is: Where can African-Americans go? It is the same question their ancestors asked and answered only to discover upon arriving that the racial caste system was not Southern but American."
This tragic story reminds me of Ezekiel 16:46, The Message:
"The sin [social evil] of your sister Sodom was this: she lived in the lap of luxury---proud, gluttonous, and lazy. She ignored the oppressed and the poor. . . . I did away with them." Do justice or face judgment.
The author mentions Richard Wright as an example:
"Richard Wright relocated several times in his quest for other suns, fleeing Mississippi for Memphis and Memphis for Chicago and Chicago for New York, where, living in Greenwich Village, barbers refused to serve him and some restaurents refused to seat him. In 1946, near the height of the Great migration, he came to the disheartening recognition that, wherever he went, he faced hostility. So he went to France."
How did the North react to the Great Migration? "white flight, police brutality, systemic ills flowing from government policy restricting fair access to safe housing and good schools. In recent years, the North, which never had to confront its own injustices, has moved toward a crisis that seems to have reached a boiling point in our current day."
"Thus the eternal question is: Where can African-Americans go? It is the same question their ancestors asked and answered only to discover upon arriving that the racial caste system was not Southern but American."
This tragic story reminds me of Ezekiel 16:46, The Message:
"The sin [social evil] of your sister Sodom was this: she lived in the lap of luxury---proud, gluttonous, and lazy. She ignored the oppressed and the poor. . . . I did away with them." Do justice or face judgment.
HCDF Summer Institute
HCDF Summer Institute
The following is my brainstorming only; I have not spoken to any of the prospective teachers about this projected institute.
Motto: Christ, kingdom, church, community, cooperative
1. Jesus Christ: personal salvation, discipleship, justification by faith
2. Kingdom of God: Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
3. Church: the body of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit to incarnate the kingdom of God.
4. Community: teams of Christians rebuilding oppressed communities following CCD principles.
5. Cooperatives: best balance combining individual initiative and community interests.
The first week:
Topic: Comparative examination of U.S. systems of oppression and Haitian systems of oppression.
Teacher: Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow. I think she is the best analyst of U.S. systems of oppression, past and current---unjust mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males.
Content: A cross cultural comparison of U.S. and Haitian systems of oppression. In the U.S. systems of oppression never end; they are only redesigned. A Haitian should assist Alexander in teaching this course.
The second week:
Topic: How generations of oppression cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD.
Teacher: Joy Leary, Afro American with a doctorate in social work; done research in Africa; wrote Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
Content: Prolonged oppression creates deep and pervasive trauma with lasting consequences.
Weeks three and four:
Topic: A comparison of Haiti and Rwanda, two devastated countries; the role of women leaders.
Teacher: Didi Farmer, a Haitian with a doctorate in anthropology, who has lived in Rwanda.
Content: How Rwanda women have provided leadership to begin a rather impressive change in Rwanda; how this model could be applied in Haiti.
Weeks five and six:
Topic: Developing a biblical kingdom of God theology with a present and social emphasis.
Teacher: Josiah Thomas who was born and raised in Haiti.
Content: Understanding the kingdom as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
Weeks seven and eight:
Topic: The kingdom of God applied: the HCDF model.
Teacher: Jean Thomas, a Haitian with 30 plus years doing Christian Community Development.
Content: The principles and practice of CCD in Haiti.
Weeks nine and ten:
Topic: Student internships in community; teams of two, three or four.
Teacher: Jennifer Nelson, a white American with a doctorate in sociology.
Content: teaching and applying the kingdom of God in poor communities.
Week eleven:
Topic: Debriefing and writing a paper on the above.
Teacher: Jennifer Nelson, an American with a doctorate in sociology.
Comment: This would be more training than the Nashville Eight had under Rev. James Lawson. The Nashville Eight became the elite special forces unit of the civil rights movement. Without parental or pastoral support, the Nashville Eight continued the Freedom Rides after the first group of Freedom Riders had been beaten into submission and stopped their freedom rides.
Jean, Is this summer institute feasible? It could stand alone or become the foundation of a university education.
Perspective: I would like to quote at length from a chapter by Didi Farmer, "Mothers and Daughters of Haiti," in Paul Farmer's book Haiti: After the Earthquake.
"In March 2011, just over a year after the quake, a Rwandan colleague of mine put it this way: 'Rwanda and Haiti, they are the same. People lost family members. They lost husbands. They lost wives. They lost children. People's homes were destroyed and everything they owned was taken away from them. And afterward, people had to keep on living.' My colleague is a warm and generous woman with a ready smile and an indefatigable spirit. Even after her husband, a Tutsi, was killed by a neighbor during the genocide, she took in six Hutu orphans to live alongside her own five children, and she has supported all of them ever since. When I asked her how she kept on living in the wake of so much loss, she replied simply: "I worked." And she smiled as she said it."
"As of 1994, 70 percent of Rwanda's population was female. It was largely on the backs of these women---victims of rape and physical violence, wives abandoned by husbands imprisoned or fleeing imprisonment, women who had lost family members, friends, neighbors, lovers, children---that Ruanda was rebuilt. As Paul often likes to say, it was built back better. In Haiti, we often wax poetic about the role of women as the center post of the nation, but Rwanda has actually put this idea into practice, with an emphasis on female leadership, economic empowerment, and education."
"Women are organized into associations and cooperatives. . . .agricultural cooperatives. . . . solidarity and entrepreneurship of its working women."
The following is my brainstorming only; I have not spoken to any of the prospective teachers about this projected institute.
Motto: Christ, kingdom, church, community, cooperative
1. Jesus Christ: personal salvation, discipleship, justification by faith
2. Kingdom of God: Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
3. Church: the body of Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit to incarnate the kingdom of God.
4. Community: teams of Christians rebuilding oppressed communities following CCD principles.
5. Cooperatives: best balance combining individual initiative and community interests.
The first week:
Topic: Comparative examination of U.S. systems of oppression and Haitian systems of oppression.
Teacher: Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow. I think she is the best analyst of U.S. systems of oppression, past and current---unjust mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males.
Content: A cross cultural comparison of U.S. and Haitian systems of oppression. In the U.S. systems of oppression never end; they are only redesigned. A Haitian should assist Alexander in teaching this course.
The second week:
Topic: How generations of oppression cause individual, family, community and cultural PTSD.
Teacher: Joy Leary, Afro American with a doctorate in social work; done research in Africa; wrote Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
Content: Prolonged oppression creates deep and pervasive trauma with lasting consequences.
Weeks three and four:
Topic: A comparison of Haiti and Rwanda, two devastated countries; the role of women leaders.
Teacher: Didi Farmer, a Haitian with a doctorate in anthropology, who has lived in Rwanda.
Content: How Rwanda women have provided leadership to begin a rather impressive change in Rwanda; how this model could be applied in Haiti.
Weeks five and six:
Topic: Developing a biblical kingdom of God theology with a present and social emphasis.
Teacher: Josiah Thomas who was born and raised in Haiti.
Content: Understanding the kingdom as Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.
Weeks seven and eight:
Topic: The kingdom of God applied: the HCDF model.
Teacher: Jean Thomas, a Haitian with 30 plus years doing Christian Community Development.
Content: The principles and practice of CCD in Haiti.
Weeks nine and ten:
Topic: Student internships in community; teams of two, three or four.
Teacher: Jennifer Nelson, a white American with a doctorate in sociology.
Content: teaching and applying the kingdom of God in poor communities.
Week eleven:
Topic: Debriefing and writing a paper on the above.
Teacher: Jennifer Nelson, an American with a doctorate in sociology.
Comment: This would be more training than the Nashville Eight had under Rev. James Lawson. The Nashville Eight became the elite special forces unit of the civil rights movement. Without parental or pastoral support, the Nashville Eight continued the Freedom Rides after the first group of Freedom Riders had been beaten into submission and stopped their freedom rides.
Jean, Is this summer institute feasible? It could stand alone or become the foundation of a university education.
Perspective: I would like to quote at length from a chapter by Didi Farmer, "Mothers and Daughters of Haiti," in Paul Farmer's book Haiti: After the Earthquake.
"In March 2011, just over a year after the quake, a Rwandan colleague of mine put it this way: 'Rwanda and Haiti, they are the same. People lost family members. They lost husbands. They lost wives. They lost children. People's homes were destroyed and everything they owned was taken away from them. And afterward, people had to keep on living.' My colleague is a warm and generous woman with a ready smile and an indefatigable spirit. Even after her husband, a Tutsi, was killed by a neighbor during the genocide, she took in six Hutu orphans to live alongside her own five children, and she has supported all of them ever since. When I asked her how she kept on living in the wake of so much loss, she replied simply: "I worked." And she smiled as she said it."
"As of 1994, 70 percent of Rwanda's population was female. It was largely on the backs of these women---victims of rape and physical violence, wives abandoned by husbands imprisoned or fleeing imprisonment, women who had lost family members, friends, neighbors, lovers, children---that Ruanda was rebuilt. As Paul often likes to say, it was built back better. In Haiti, we often wax poetic about the role of women as the center post of the nation, but Rwanda has actually put this idea into practice, with an emphasis on female leadership, economic empowerment, and education."
"Women are organized into associations and cooperatives. . . .agricultural cooperatives. . . . solidarity and entrepreneurship of its working women."
Monday, October 3, 2016
Smithsonian
To: Smithsonian Editorial Office
From: Lowell Noble
Re: Article for Smithsonian Magazine
Date: October 3, 2016
Congratulations on your magnificent issue on the NMAAHC.
A suggestion for a future related article.
Director Bunch correctly observed:
"Of course, the subject of slavery went to the very core of the American dilemma, the contradiction of a nation built on freedom while denying that right to the enslaved. . . . Smithsonian regents voted to put the museum on the Mall, next to the Washington Monument and within the shadow of the White House."
A title for my proposed article: "The Mall: America's hallowed ground that sanctified white oppression."
The article should put the NMAAHC in its larger local geographical context---Monuments, Memorials and other buildings and show their historical connections to slavery.
1. Washington Monument---our first president owned from 123-318 slaves.
2. White House---built using slave labor; 12 presidents owned slaves.
3. Jefferson Memorial---owned 600 slaves during his lifetime.
4. Capitol Building---built using slave labor.
5. Lincoln Memorial---civil war fought, in part, to end slavery; ended legal slavery, but not systems of oppression to deny freedom and justice to blacks.
6. Supreme Court---made decisions that legitimated first slavery, then segregation, and now mass incarceration---Dred Scott, Plessy, and McCleskey.
7. Declaration of Independence---41 signers owned slaves.
8. Constitution---half of the writers owned slaves.
Suggestion: Use Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, as a consultant or co-author of the article.
Sincerely,
Lowell Noble
From: Lowell Noble
Re: Article for Smithsonian Magazine
Date: October 3, 2016
Congratulations on your magnificent issue on the NMAAHC.
A suggestion for a future related article.
Director Bunch correctly observed:
"Of course, the subject of slavery went to the very core of the American dilemma, the contradiction of a nation built on freedom while denying that right to the enslaved. . . . Smithsonian regents voted to put the museum on the Mall, next to the Washington Monument and within the shadow of the White House."
A title for my proposed article: "The Mall: America's hallowed ground that sanctified white oppression."
The article should put the NMAAHC in its larger local geographical context---Monuments, Memorials and other buildings and show their historical connections to slavery.
1. Washington Monument---our first president owned from 123-318 slaves.
2. White House---built using slave labor; 12 presidents owned slaves.
3. Jefferson Memorial---owned 600 slaves during his lifetime.
4. Capitol Building---built using slave labor.
5. Lincoln Memorial---civil war fought, in part, to end slavery; ended legal slavery, but not systems of oppression to deny freedom and justice to blacks.
6. Supreme Court---made decisions that legitimated first slavery, then segregation, and now mass incarceration---Dred Scott, Plessy, and McCleskey.
7. Declaration of Independence---41 signers owned slaves.
8. Constitution---half of the writers owned slaves.
Suggestion: Use Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, as a consultant or co-author of the article.
Sincerely,
Lowell Noble
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