Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Does Repentance Come Before Forgiveness?
A black Mississippian, Spencer Perkins, has written a powerful essay on grace and forgiveness titled, "Playing the Grace Card," published in Christianity Today, July 1998. Spencer, a black Christian, was writing primarily to fellow black Christians: "We are at an impasse over race because we [blacks] cannot forgive" racist whites who have oppressed us. True, but this is only half the biblical story. White oppressors are called to repent, restitute, and repair the damage done by their oppression. Justice demands this. The call for white repentance should come before and with great urgency before the call for black forgiveness is issued.
Bigotry: Donald T., Hillary C. and Colin K.
Hillary C. is correct in calling Donald T. a racist bigot; even Paul Ryan, a Republican, agrees. Donald T. is correct in asserting that Democrats have not done much to end the endless oppression of blacks. Trump is a blatant bigot or a white nationalist; Clinton is a lady-like bigot who talks the right talk but fails to walk the walk. Neither one has renounced their own and the nation's white superiority and white privilege; to my knowledge, neither has repented, restituted nor repaired the damage American ethnocentrism and oppression has done in the black community. Both need to sit at the feet of Colin Kaepernick, the black quarterback who recently said, "I am not going to stand up and show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color." Or better yet, they should attend a week long seminar led by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.
Democrats have passed some important laws---for example, civil rights and Medicare---but they have not ended white ethnocentrism which is alive and well today and is fueling current racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration. Most Democrats and most Republicans are more interested in preserving their white superiority and white privilege than they are in doing fundamental justice---making things right. Bigotry/ethnocentrism/oppression is an AMERICAN problem, not a political party problem. In American we never end systems of oppression such as slavery, though we think we do; we merely cleverly redesign them.
Being born white in America means being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Both Trump and Clinton were born white in an American culture that prizes and rewards whiteness---Anglo-Saxonism. Almost automatically at birth, you are given white superiority and white privilege---a gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime. Unless Trump and Clinton have recognized this white superiority, renounced it, repented and restituted, they are benefiters from racism and bigotry whether blatant or lady-like. Which is worse is highly debatable.
Bill Clinton, sometimes called the first black president, failed American blacks in public policy. He essentially continued much of Reagan's public policy; Bill did not end mass incarceration begun by Reagan; he did not end the large racial wealth gap doubled under Reagan. So why was Clinton sometimes called the first black president: he was a genuine personal friend, he showed up on black turf, he gave blacks personal respect. Good, but he essentially failed the black community as we can see today.
My wife and I have devotions together and often I point out one scriptural teaching after another on oppression and justice; my wife often asks why I am seemingly almost the only white male who gets it. The answer is a complex one; most American evangelicals want a simple, one cause answer.
Trained as a sociologist and an anthropologist, I see life in society like a spider web, a complex network of multiple causes and connections, as more complex than the intricate human body. I am not aware of a single evangelical scholar that has written a book on the extensive biblical teaching on oppression; there is almost no theology of oppression. The same problem with the NT teaching on justice; nothing. Also nothing on the Spirit, the kingdom and justice.
The question again is: why don't white American evangelicals understand social oppression and social justice---the scriptures are full of such teaching. Here are some possible reasons:
1. Americans are highly individualistic; therefore they don't think deeply sociologically.
2. The American trinity runs wild, largely unchallenged; competes with Christian trinity.
3. White evangelicals are trained to be suspicious of social answers; it might be social gospel.
4. Evangelicals are trained to think right or wrong, either-or, not both-and; both-and answers are suspect.
5. American history has been sanitized, evil sanctified.
6. Even though there are 555 references to oppression in the OT, there is no theology on oppression.
7. American evangelicals are taught that the NT is about individual salvation, not justice.
8. The English NT has been dejusticized; no evangelical has rejusticized the NT.
9. Evangelicals have overly spiritualized and dejusticized the kingdom of God.
Next, I would like to tell you a true story; I was there, I heard it with my own ears.
For over 40 years, Phil Reed has been a faithful disciple of John Perkins who created Christian Community Development in highly oppressive Mississippi. I could create a long list of what Phil and his wife Marsha have done right---taking down-and-outers into their own home for months at a time, pastor of an interracial church for 20 years, director of Voice of Calvary Ministeries, chairperson of the Haiti Christian Development Fund Board for 30 plus years.
But for the purposes of this particular essay, I want to highlight a negative example, one that most white pastors might make. This one failure is seared in my mind. Since my own second conversion in 1968, I have been supersensitive to the biblical teaching on oppression.
On this particular Sunday, Phil was preaching from James 2---on the treatment of rich and poor in the church; he joked that he was preaching only a 2 point sermon, not the traditional 3 point sermon. But this day, the sermon demanded a punch line, a third point. Phil failed to see the reason the church was failing on the rich-poor issue was that they failed to face the glaring fact that the primary cause of poverty was oppression---oppression by the very rich they were honoring in the church.
The American church as a whole is making the same mistake; what is the result?
1. Neglect of justice and the love of God.
2. Participation in or approval of widespread American oppression.
3. Failure to repent of ethnocentrism and oppression; no restitution and repair of damage done.
4. Evangelicals self-righteously think they are or have the answer, not realizing they are part of the oppression/poverty problem.
Americans shouldn't expect too much of their politicians, but they should expect a lot from the church on oppression/justice issues. But when the church is no better than the politicians, the country is in bad shape.
Democrats have passed some important laws---for example, civil rights and Medicare---but they have not ended white ethnocentrism which is alive and well today and is fueling current racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration. Most Democrats and most Republicans are more interested in preserving their white superiority and white privilege than they are in doing fundamental justice---making things right. Bigotry/ethnocentrism/oppression is an AMERICAN problem, not a political party problem. In American we never end systems of oppression such as slavery, though we think we do; we merely cleverly redesign them.
Being born white in America means being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Both Trump and Clinton were born white in an American culture that prizes and rewards whiteness---Anglo-Saxonism. Almost automatically at birth, you are given white superiority and white privilege---a gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime. Unless Trump and Clinton have recognized this white superiority, renounced it, repented and restituted, they are benefiters from racism and bigotry whether blatant or lady-like. Which is worse is highly debatable.
Bill Clinton, sometimes called the first black president, failed American blacks in public policy. He essentially continued much of Reagan's public policy; Bill did not end mass incarceration begun by Reagan; he did not end the large racial wealth gap doubled under Reagan. So why was Clinton sometimes called the first black president: he was a genuine personal friend, he showed up on black turf, he gave blacks personal respect. Good, but he essentially failed the black community as we can see today.
My wife and I have devotions together and often I point out one scriptural teaching after another on oppression and justice; my wife often asks why I am seemingly almost the only white male who gets it. The answer is a complex one; most American evangelicals want a simple, one cause answer.
Trained as a sociologist and an anthropologist, I see life in society like a spider web, a complex network of multiple causes and connections, as more complex than the intricate human body. I am not aware of a single evangelical scholar that has written a book on the extensive biblical teaching on oppression; there is almost no theology of oppression. The same problem with the NT teaching on justice; nothing. Also nothing on the Spirit, the kingdom and justice.
The question again is: why don't white American evangelicals understand social oppression and social justice---the scriptures are full of such teaching. Here are some possible reasons:
1. Americans are highly individualistic; therefore they don't think deeply sociologically.
2. The American trinity runs wild, largely unchallenged; competes with Christian trinity.
3. White evangelicals are trained to be suspicious of social answers; it might be social gospel.
4. Evangelicals are trained to think right or wrong, either-or, not both-and; both-and answers are suspect.
5. American history has been sanitized, evil sanctified.
6. Even though there are 555 references to oppression in the OT, there is no theology on oppression.
7. American evangelicals are taught that the NT is about individual salvation, not justice.
8. The English NT has been dejusticized; no evangelical has rejusticized the NT.
9. Evangelicals have overly spiritualized and dejusticized the kingdom of God.
Next, I would like to tell you a true story; I was there, I heard it with my own ears.
For over 40 years, Phil Reed has been a faithful disciple of John Perkins who created Christian Community Development in highly oppressive Mississippi. I could create a long list of what Phil and his wife Marsha have done right---taking down-and-outers into their own home for months at a time, pastor of an interracial church for 20 years, director of Voice of Calvary Ministeries, chairperson of the Haiti Christian Development Fund Board for 30 plus years.
But for the purposes of this particular essay, I want to highlight a negative example, one that most white pastors might make. This one failure is seared in my mind. Since my own second conversion in 1968, I have been supersensitive to the biblical teaching on oppression.
On this particular Sunday, Phil was preaching from James 2---on the treatment of rich and poor in the church; he joked that he was preaching only a 2 point sermon, not the traditional 3 point sermon. But this day, the sermon demanded a punch line, a third point. Phil failed to see the reason the church was failing on the rich-poor issue was that they failed to face the glaring fact that the primary cause of poverty was oppression---oppression by the very rich they were honoring in the church.
The American church as a whole is making the same mistake; what is the result?
1. Neglect of justice and the love of God.
2. Participation in or approval of widespread American oppression.
3. Failure to repent of ethnocentrism and oppression; no restitution and repair of damage done.
4. Evangelicals self-righteously think they are or have the answer, not realizing they are part of the oppression/poverty problem.
Americans shouldn't expect too much of their politicians, but they should expect a lot from the church on oppression/justice issues. But when the church is no better than the politicians, the country is in bad shape.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Iowa Pharisees, Iowa Hypocrites
My opinion is that white evangelicals throughout American history have often "neglected justice and the love of God" (Luke 11:42). Indian genocide, slavery, segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs, lynching, theft of nearly one-half of Mexico's land, the exploitation of Chinese labor, the imprisonment of innocent Japanese Americans, the stealing of Hawaii, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, have all occurred on our watch, often with our silence or even with our approval and participation. In the midst of this rampant ethnocentrism and oppression, far too few evangelicals have stood for justice and the love of God.
Far too many white evangelicals literally believed and still believe in American exceptionalism---a code word used to legitimate American ethnocentrism---Manifest Destiny, imperialism, White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant, the American trinity. American exceptionalism has been misused much like the OT false prophets misused the beautiful word shalom, to cover oppression. Even today, most candidates in the Iowa cacuses still advocate American exceptionalism---that God has chosen and blessed America---and they do not admit the massive social evil that has been part and parcel of this false teaching.
White evangelicals have been strong on the cross and resurrection gospel, but they have been weak on the kingdom of God gospel as justice for the poor and oppressed; they have been strong on justification by faith, but weak on Jubilee justice.
During the run up to the Iowa caucus, the Holy Spirit has brought my attention again and again to this disturbing verse that Jesus used to describe the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees---"full of greed . . . you neglect justice and the love of God." White evangelicals today are ignoring or approving of the mass incarceration of black males; and they are also participating in an economic system that has created an enormous racial wealth gap; and far too often oppose humane immigration policies. If Iowa evangelicals believe very word in the Bible, why are they violating the extensive biblical teachings on oppression, justice and love?
If Jesus were here in Iowa today and he were visiting all 99 counties preaching the kingdom of God, he would be angrily proclaiming to white evangelicals "Woe to you hypocrites---you are neglecting justice and the love of God. My love, my justice, demands that you stop oppression, release the oppressed. Repent, restitute, repair! Close your church doors for a while, go into the streets, occupy the state house and demand that Iowa stop its unjust participation in the War on Drugs immediately, end racial profiling and the mass incarceration of blacks and Hispanics.
Last Sunday, as she read the Scripture from the pulpit, Leola wept, appropriately so. She was reading from Matthew 25; "I was hungry and you did NOT feed me" etc. With each NOT sentence, she wept.
Jesus himself alternated between weeping and anger. Luke 19:41: "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it." This was the city of God, the city of justice and shalom, that rejected and stoned the prophets. This was the city that soon was going to reject the Son of God and crucify him. This was the city that God was soon going to destroy using the Roman armies. Jesus appropriately wept over Jerusalem.
But quickly, his weeping turned to anger. He entered into the temple area, overturned the money-changer's tables, and drove out those who were selling. He yelled, "You have made my house a den of robbers!" For a fuller description of Jesus' anger, see Matthew 23. Did Jesus' weeping come from his love? Did Jesus' anger flow from his sense of justice?
In Amos 5:24, we are exhorted to "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream." My paraphrase: "Let just judgments flood the land, and let justice flow like an artesian well." Luke 4:18-19, my paraphrase: "The Holy Spirit has anointed the church to preach good news to the poor; the Holy Spirit has anointed the church to release the oppressed; the Holy Spirit has anointed the church to incarnate Jubilee justice in society."
Far too many white evangelicals literally believed and still believe in American exceptionalism---a code word used to legitimate American ethnocentrism---Manifest Destiny, imperialism, White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant, the American trinity. American exceptionalism has been misused much like the OT false prophets misused the beautiful word shalom, to cover oppression. Even today, most candidates in the Iowa cacuses still advocate American exceptionalism---that God has chosen and blessed America---and they do not admit the massive social evil that has been part and parcel of this false teaching.
White evangelicals have been strong on the cross and resurrection gospel, but they have been weak on the kingdom of God gospel as justice for the poor and oppressed; they have been strong on justification by faith, but weak on Jubilee justice.
During the run up to the Iowa caucus, the Holy Spirit has brought my attention again and again to this disturbing verse that Jesus used to describe the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees---"full of greed . . . you neglect justice and the love of God." White evangelicals today are ignoring or approving of the mass incarceration of black males; and they are also participating in an economic system that has created an enormous racial wealth gap; and far too often oppose humane immigration policies. If Iowa evangelicals believe very word in the Bible, why are they violating the extensive biblical teachings on oppression, justice and love?
If Jesus were here in Iowa today and he were visiting all 99 counties preaching the kingdom of God, he would be angrily proclaiming to white evangelicals "Woe to you hypocrites---you are neglecting justice and the love of God. My love, my justice, demands that you stop oppression, release the oppressed. Repent, restitute, repair! Close your church doors for a while, go into the streets, occupy the state house and demand that Iowa stop its unjust participation in the War on Drugs immediately, end racial profiling and the mass incarceration of blacks and Hispanics.
Last Sunday, as she read the Scripture from the pulpit, Leola wept, appropriately so. She was reading from Matthew 25; "I was hungry and you did NOT feed me" etc. With each NOT sentence, she wept.
Jesus himself alternated between weeping and anger. Luke 19:41: "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it." This was the city of God, the city of justice and shalom, that rejected and stoned the prophets. This was the city that soon was going to reject the Son of God and crucify him. This was the city that God was soon going to destroy using the Roman armies. Jesus appropriately wept over Jerusalem.
But quickly, his weeping turned to anger. He entered into the temple area, overturned the money-changer's tables, and drove out those who were selling. He yelled, "You have made my house a den of robbers!" For a fuller description of Jesus' anger, see Matthew 23. Did Jesus' weeping come from his love? Did Jesus' anger flow from his sense of justice?
In Amos 5:24, we are exhorted to "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream." My paraphrase: "Let just judgments flood the land, and let justice flow like an artesian well." Luke 4:18-19, my paraphrase: "The Holy Spirit has anointed the church to preach good news to the poor; the Holy Spirit has anointed the church to release the oppressed; the Holy Spirit has anointed the church to incarnate Jubilee justice in society."
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Haiti: 500 long years of oppression
Haiti's 500 years of oppression can be divided roughly into three periods: first, 200 years of oppression by the Spanish, followed by 200 years of oppression by the French, then approximately 100 years of oppression by Americans. One enormous tragedy followed by another.
The Spanish: they quickly eliminated, through brutality and disease, the total Native American population (total genocide: there are NO American peoples on any of the Caribbean islands); the Spanish then replaced Caribs with African slaves.
The French: they took over Haiti and rapidly increased the slave population. Slaves produced large amounts sugar and other tropical crops making Haiti a very valuable colony---the Pearl of the Antilles. After about 100 years of slavery, the slaves successfully revolted and threw the French oppressors out. The French threatened to reinvade; to prevent this the freed slaves reluctantly agreed to pay a massive extortion; this resulted in 100 years of debt slavery. There was no money left to build schools, roads, etc. crippling Haiti.
The Americans: after the successful slave revolt in 1800, the U.S. regarded Haiti with suspicion and hostility. The U.S. never made Haiti a legal colony but we exerted political and economic dominance over Haitians. For about 15 years, the Marines invaded and occupied Haiti; the U.S. government was friendly to two ruthless dictators, Papa Doc and Baby Doc. Occasionally, we helped Haiti, but the pattern was the U.S. rich and powerful allying with the Haitian elite, exploiting the poor.
Haiti today: the result of 500 years endless oppression is: extreme poverty for the masses, poor roads, limited education, high unemployment, malnutrition, high infant mortality.
Warning: without a knowledge of the profound impact of 500 years of oppression, a person is likely to draw flawed conclusions about Haitians, that the problem is Haitian inferiority, Haitian dysfunction, Haitian corruption, Haitian voodoo, etc., not understanding the enormous damage done by 500 years of oppression. And that oppression continues today both by internal oppressors and outside oppressors. Oppression causes social death---the dysfunction of all social institutions beginning with the family. Or oppression causes social PTSD---individual, family and community. Oppression notably smashes the body; it also crushes the spirit.
Outside missionaries: far too often their ministry is love for the poor, but not justice for the oppressed; love for the poor is good, but justice for the oppressed is best.
Suggested solutions:
1. Know the full truth about Haiti history.
2. Support Christian Community Development ministries such as Haiti Christian Development Fund; read At Home with the Poor.
3. Develop a deep biblical understanding of the kingdom of God. STUDY the following Scripture in a group; Lev. 25, Neh. 5; Isa. 58; Messianic passages---9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-2---Luke 4:18-19; Mt. 6:33; Rom. 14:17 in NEB.
The Spanish: they quickly eliminated, through brutality and disease, the total Native American population (total genocide: there are NO American peoples on any of the Caribbean islands); the Spanish then replaced Caribs with African slaves.
The French: they took over Haiti and rapidly increased the slave population. Slaves produced large amounts sugar and other tropical crops making Haiti a very valuable colony---the Pearl of the Antilles. After about 100 years of slavery, the slaves successfully revolted and threw the French oppressors out. The French threatened to reinvade; to prevent this the freed slaves reluctantly agreed to pay a massive extortion; this resulted in 100 years of debt slavery. There was no money left to build schools, roads, etc. crippling Haiti.
The Americans: after the successful slave revolt in 1800, the U.S. regarded Haiti with suspicion and hostility. The U.S. never made Haiti a legal colony but we exerted political and economic dominance over Haitians. For about 15 years, the Marines invaded and occupied Haiti; the U.S. government was friendly to two ruthless dictators, Papa Doc and Baby Doc. Occasionally, we helped Haiti, but the pattern was the U.S. rich and powerful allying with the Haitian elite, exploiting the poor.
Haiti today: the result of 500 years endless oppression is: extreme poverty for the masses, poor roads, limited education, high unemployment, malnutrition, high infant mortality.
Warning: without a knowledge of the profound impact of 500 years of oppression, a person is likely to draw flawed conclusions about Haitians, that the problem is Haitian inferiority, Haitian dysfunction, Haitian corruption, Haitian voodoo, etc., not understanding the enormous damage done by 500 years of oppression. And that oppression continues today both by internal oppressors and outside oppressors. Oppression causes social death---the dysfunction of all social institutions beginning with the family. Or oppression causes social PTSD---individual, family and community. Oppression notably smashes the body; it also crushes the spirit.
Outside missionaries: far too often their ministry is love for the poor, but not justice for the oppressed; love for the poor is good, but justice for the oppressed is best.
Suggested solutions:
1. Know the full truth about Haiti history.
2. Support Christian Community Development ministries such as Haiti Christian Development Fund; read At Home with the Poor.
3. Develop a deep biblical understanding of the kingdom of God. STUDY the following Scripture in a group; Lev. 25, Neh. 5; Isa. 58; Messianic passages---9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-2---Luke 4:18-19; Mt. 6:33; Rom. 14:17 in NEB.
The Great Biblical/Theological Divorces
I turn 90 in a few days. As I reflect on the state of American Christianity, which is not good, I am pondering the state of our theology which I find deeply flawed. As I see it, there are a number of tragic divorces:
1. The Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God.
2. Repentance and restitution.
3. Cross and the kingdom.
4. Jesus and the kingdom.
5. Love and justice.
6. Faith and works.
7. Kingdom and justice.
8. Poverty and oppression.
9. Spirituality/prayer and justice.
10. Individual reconciliation and social reconciliation.
Any one of these divorces would be bad; the combination is catastrophic.
The result: a gutted gospel, a deeply flawed Americanized Christianity. Who will put the holistic, biblical gospel back together again?
Here is how I see America's Sociotheological Challenges:
Problems:
1. America's Idolatries: WASP's in control, American exceptionalism, whiteness next to godliness.
2. Lack of biblical teaching on oppression and justice.
3. American trinity: individualism, materialism, and ethnocentrism.
4. White superiority: based on both race and class.
5. Systems of oppression: slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, racial wealth gap.
6. Social Death: individual, family, community, and cultural PTSD.
Solutions:
1. The Creator/Redeemer God.
2. Strong biblical teaching on oppression and justice.
3. Holy Spirit, kingdom of God, church, community.
4. All people created in the image of God.
5. A more humane, equitable economic system highlighting cooperative models such as Jubilee justice.
6. Reconciliation and shalom.
Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God:
Old Testament
1. Theology: Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.
2. Theory and Practice: Lev. 25.
3. Practice: Neh. 5---leads to repentance and restitution, making things right.
New Testament
1. Theology: Mark 1:15; Mt. 6:33, and Rom. 14:17 NEB
2. Practice: Luke 4:18-19; Spirit, poor, oppressed, Jubilee justice.
3. Practice: Acts 4:32-35; generous giving.
4. Practice: James 1:12 through chapter 2.
1. The Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God.
2. Repentance and restitution.
3. Cross and the kingdom.
4. Jesus and the kingdom.
5. Love and justice.
6. Faith and works.
7. Kingdom and justice.
8. Poverty and oppression.
9. Spirituality/prayer and justice.
10. Individual reconciliation and social reconciliation.
Any one of these divorces would be bad; the combination is catastrophic.
The result: a gutted gospel, a deeply flawed Americanized Christianity. Who will put the holistic, biblical gospel back together again?
Here is how I see America's Sociotheological Challenges:
Problems:
1. America's Idolatries: WASP's in control, American exceptionalism, whiteness next to godliness.
2. Lack of biblical teaching on oppression and justice.
3. American trinity: individualism, materialism, and ethnocentrism.
4. White superiority: based on both race and class.
5. Systems of oppression: slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, racial wealth gap.
6. Social Death: individual, family, community, and cultural PTSD.
Solutions:
1. The Creator/Redeemer God.
2. Strong biblical teaching on oppression and justice.
3. Holy Spirit, kingdom of God, church, community.
4. All people created in the image of God.
5. A more humane, equitable economic system highlighting cooperative models such as Jubilee justice.
6. Reconciliation and shalom.
Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God:
Old Testament
1. Theology: Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.
2. Theory and Practice: Lev. 25.
3. Practice: Neh. 5---leads to repentance and restitution, making things right.
New Testament
1. Theology: Mark 1:15; Mt. 6:33, and Rom. 14:17 NEB
2. Practice: Luke 4:18-19; Spirit, poor, oppressed, Jubilee justice.
3. Practice: Acts 4:32-35; generous giving.
4. Practice: James 1:12 through chapter 2.
Monday, August 22, 2016
The Elusive Essence of the Kingdom of God
About 25 years ago, after surveying the theological literature on the kingdom of God written during the last century, Marcus Borg, in an article titled "The Kingdom of God," concluded that theologians had NOT provided the church with a "clear and compelling" understanding of the kingdom of God. Borg did provide a strong but underdeveloped hint that the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God were closely tied together as did Howard Snyder in his book A Kingdom Manifesto.
Recently, in a short essay titled "Does anyone know what the kingdom of God is?" Roger E. Olson concludes that the NT itself, though it highlights the importance of the kingdom of God, never defines the kingdom.
If Borg and Olson had read their NT using the NEB translation, they would have discovered an important clue that could provide an answer to their quest for the essence of the kingdom of God. Paul and Jesus agree that justice is the key. Mt. 6:33 "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." Roman 14:17: "The kingdom of God is justice. . . . "
The NEB could have and should have made the point even clearer by translating the beatitudes "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice. . . . " "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice. . . . "
Then they should have turned back and read the Messianic passages from Isaiah (9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-2 --- read 'oppressed poor'.); these very important verses confirm that justice is the essence of the kingdom of God here on earth.
While the kingdom of God is not specifically mentioned in Luke 4:18-19, I think these key verses are a mission statement about the kingdom---Spirit, poor, oppressed, Jubilee justice.
So I would paraphrase Mt. 4:17 and Mk 1:16---"Repent, for the kingdom of God is here." in the following fashion: "First, thoroughly and decisively repent of your deep-seated ethnocentrism and oppression; then get busy doing Jubilee justice on behalf of the oppressed poor; this is the essence of my kingdom. MY SPIRIT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE WISDOM AND POWER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS."
Recently, in a short essay titled "Does anyone know what the kingdom of God is?" Roger E. Olson concludes that the NT itself, though it highlights the importance of the kingdom of God, never defines the kingdom.
If Borg and Olson had read their NT using the NEB translation, they would have discovered an important clue that could provide an answer to their quest for the essence of the kingdom of God. Paul and Jesus agree that justice is the key. Mt. 6:33 "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." Roman 14:17: "The kingdom of God is justice. . . . "
The NEB could have and should have made the point even clearer by translating the beatitudes "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice. . . . " "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice. . . . "
Then they should have turned back and read the Messianic passages from Isaiah (9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-2 --- read 'oppressed poor'.); these very important verses confirm that justice is the essence of the kingdom of God here on earth.
While the kingdom of God is not specifically mentioned in Luke 4:18-19, I think these key verses are a mission statement about the kingdom---Spirit, poor, oppressed, Jubilee justice.
So I would paraphrase Mt. 4:17 and Mk 1:16---"Repent, for the kingdom of God is here." in the following fashion: "First, thoroughly and decisively repent of your deep-seated ethnocentrism and oppression; then get busy doing Jubilee justice on behalf of the oppressed poor; this is the essence of my kingdom. MY SPIRIT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE WISDOM AND POWER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS."
Friday, August 19, 2016
Much More Than a Few Bad Cops
An August 16 Des Moines Register editorial headline reads: "Baltimore a disgrace to all law enforcement: Investigation reveals pervasive racism, sexism and arrogance." A quotation from the editorial:
"Investigators recount story after story of police hounding black residents, systematically stopping, searching and arresting them, often without cause. Though black residents account for 63 percent of the city's population, 91 percent of those arrested on discretionary offenses like trespassing between 2010 and 2016 were African-American. Blacks account for 82 percent of traffic stops."
Our current racial tension run much deeper than a few bad cops, much deeper than a few bad police department such as Ferguson and Baltimore. Congress, President Reagan and the Supreme Court are responsible for much of our current mess asserts Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.
Congress passed the War on Drugs which was terribly misguided public policy; for the most part, drug use, drug addiction is primarily a moral problem (hello, church) and a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem.
The second tragic mistake: President Reagan added racial profiling to the War on Drugs creating a toxic social mix which resulted in the unjust mass incarceration of young black and Latino males which not only destroyed countless individuals lives but also devastated millions of black and Hispanic families as well.
The third mistake: With the McCleskey decision and related decisions, the Supreme Court legitimated the War on Drugs and racial profiling.
And the greatest ethical failure regarding our current racial crisis lies with the white American church; with a few exceptions, the church has been silent and on the sidelines during this our national nightmare, while a new system of radicalized oppression replaced slavery and the old Jim Crow.
Next, I would like to quote Michelle Alexander, America's top expert on these issues; Alexander is black civil rights lawyer when she wrote The New Jim Crow in 2010. She says that 10 years earlier not even she understood that a new racial caste had been created through the misuse of the criminal justice system. She thought it was only some racism tainting what was otherwise a pretty good system.
"In each generation, new tactics have been used for achieving the same goals---goals shared by the Founding Fathers. Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union. . . . An extraordinary percentage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have been throughout most of American history. They are also subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits and jury service, just as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents once were."
"Rather than rely on race, we use the criminal justice system to label people of color 'criminal' [criminalblackman], and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. . . . We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."
At one time, Alexander "understood the problems plaguing poor communities of color, including problems associated with crime and rising incarceration rates, to a function of poverty and lack of 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. The 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."
"In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times those of white men. And in major cities wracked by the drug war, as many as 80 percent of young Africa-American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These young men are part of a growing undercaste, permanently locked up and locked out of mainstream society."
American Pharisees, sometimes known as Evangelicals
Iowa's white evangelicals will soon be voting for bigoted billionaire for president, in large numbers. How do I know? Northwest Iowa is the hotbed of Iowa's white evangelicals. For many years, they have voted to send Rep. King, a fundamentalist conservative back to Congress again and again. D. T. and King share many extreme political ideas; for example, on Mexican immigrants.
Iowa evangelicals are not biblical evangelicals, but are highly Americanized 'evangelicals'. A better name would be Pharisee. Pharisees, according to Jesus, loved money, neglected justice and the love of God. Iowa Pharisees enjoy white superiority and white privilege, American ethnocentrism and American oppression. For them, white is natural and normal, good and right, even divinely ordained.
Such arrogant American Pharisees see no need to repent, restitute, and repair the enormous damage done by nearly 500 years of white ethnocentrism and oppression.
"Investigators recount story after story of police hounding black residents, systematically stopping, searching and arresting them, often without cause. Though black residents account for 63 percent of the city's population, 91 percent of those arrested on discretionary offenses like trespassing between 2010 and 2016 were African-American. Blacks account for 82 percent of traffic stops."
Our current racial tension run much deeper than a few bad cops, much deeper than a few bad police department such as Ferguson and Baltimore. Congress, President Reagan and the Supreme Court are responsible for much of our current mess asserts Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.
Congress passed the War on Drugs which was terribly misguided public policy; for the most part, drug use, drug addiction is primarily a moral problem (hello, church) and a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem.
The second tragic mistake: President Reagan added racial profiling to the War on Drugs creating a toxic social mix which resulted in the unjust mass incarceration of young black and Latino males which not only destroyed countless individuals lives but also devastated millions of black and Hispanic families as well.
The third mistake: With the McCleskey decision and related decisions, the Supreme Court legitimated the War on Drugs and racial profiling.
And the greatest ethical failure regarding our current racial crisis lies with the white American church; with a few exceptions, the church has been silent and on the sidelines during this our national nightmare, while a new system of radicalized oppression replaced slavery and the old Jim Crow.
Next, I would like to quote Michelle Alexander, America's top expert on these issues; Alexander is black civil rights lawyer when she wrote The New Jim Crow in 2010. She says that 10 years earlier not even she understood that a new racial caste had been created through the misuse of the criminal justice system. She thought it was only some racism tainting what was otherwise a pretty good system.
"In each generation, new tactics have been used for achieving the same goals---goals shared by the Founding Fathers. Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union. . . . An extraordinary percentage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have been throughout most of American history. They are also subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits and jury service, just as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents once were."
"Rather than rely on race, we use the criminal justice system to label people of color 'criminal' [criminalblackman], and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. . . . We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."
At one time, Alexander "understood the problems plaguing poor communities of color, including problems associated with crime and rising incarceration rates, to a function of poverty and lack of 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. The 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."
"In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times those of white men. And in major cities wracked by the drug war, as many as 80 percent of young Africa-American men now have criminal records and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These young men are part of a growing undercaste, permanently locked up and locked out of mainstream society."
American Pharisees, sometimes known as Evangelicals
Iowa's white evangelicals will soon be voting for bigoted billionaire for president, in large numbers. How do I know? Northwest Iowa is the hotbed of Iowa's white evangelicals. For many years, they have voted to send Rep. King, a fundamentalist conservative back to Congress again and again. D. T. and King share many extreme political ideas; for example, on Mexican immigrants.
Iowa evangelicals are not biblical evangelicals, but are highly Americanized 'evangelicals'. A better name would be Pharisee. Pharisees, according to Jesus, loved money, neglected justice and the love of God. Iowa Pharisees enjoy white superiority and white privilege, American ethnocentrism and American oppression. For them, white is natural and normal, good and right, even divinely ordained.
Such arrogant American Pharisees see no need to repent, restitute, and repair the enormous damage done by nearly 500 years of white ethnocentrism and oppression.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Bi-Cultural Leaders
Some of our world's greatest leaders were bi-cultural. They probably already possessed character, courage, commitment and intelligence and they would have been leaders of significance without cross-cultural experience or study. But, in my judgment, their biculturalism was a major additional factor which moved them from the category of a good leader to a great leader. Biculturalism breaks the limitations of a one culture world view. A person is more open to new truth, potentially even the leading of the Holy Spirit.
First, a bit of personal testimony. I am sure that my own creativity and understanding of truth, especially biblical truth, has been greatly enhanced by 35 years of living in the black community, i.e., the ghetto of Jackson, Michigan and the poor community of West Jackson, Mississippi. Also my study of anthropology (other cultures), and being mentored by black leaders such as Tom Skinner and John Perkins.
The single greatest human leader of the New Testament church was the apostle Paul. Born and raised in Tarsus, a Greek speaking city outside of Palestine, and a Roman citizen, Paul was bilingual and bicultural. So it was no accident that God chose Paul to be an evangelist to the Greek speaking Gentiles in the Roman Empire. And Paul was the only person to remain true to the faith in the Antioch incident recorded in Galatians 2. Even Peter and Barnabas yielded to the intense Jewish social pressure and withdrew from Gentile Christians.
Jomo Kenyatta, the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Kenya, lived many years in the West, primarily Britain, where he was educated. Kenyatta was thoroughly bicultural and was able to transcend tribalism and black-white divisions as he led Kenya to independence and national unity.
Nkrumah of Ghana, who studied in the U.S., did the same for Ghana. He used the best of Western thought combined with the best of African thought to gain independence for Ghana.
Malcolm X was not freed from his fanatical anti-white attitudes until he traveled to Mecca and experienced the brotherhood of all peoples in Mecca. His travels to Africa added to this cross-cultural understanding. Before his assassination, Malcolm was moving toward the positions of Martin Luther King. Had both X and MLK lived longer, I am quite sure they would have joined forces and become a powerful force for racial harmony in these divided United States.
Martin Luther King, whose roots were in the South, did graduate study in the North where most of his professors were white. King drew heavily from Gandhi as well as his travels to Africa to develop his own unique philosophy of aggressive but nonviolent social change.
John Perkins was born and raised a poor black in highly racist, highly oppressive Mississippi. He lived and worked in California for a number of years before God called him back to Mississippi to minister among oppressed blacks. John believes that a key to developing young black leadership in Mississippi is to get young blacks out of Mississippi, get them a college education; this not only educates but it also breaks the narrow and limiting bondage of white and black Mississippi culture.
Nelson Mandela, who was born and raised in South Africa, was educated as a lawyer in Great Britain. During his long pilgrimage to becoming the president of South Africa, his bicultural experience helped him negotiate his way to some degree of racial harmony without resorting to violence. This was no small achievement because it looked like racial civil war was almost inevitable.
Mahatma Gandhi, possibly the greatest leader of the 20th century, was also a profoundly cross cultural human being. He studied and lived in the West (Britain and South Africa) for over 20 years. He combined the best of Western thought and Christian thought (he prized and tried to live according to Sermon on the Mount principles) with his own Indian and Hindu traditions. He outsmarted the arrogant British, gained India's independence non-violently. The British left as friends.
Currently, my favorite bi-cultural leader is Jean Thomas who was born and raised in Haiti, received his seminary education in the U.S., had a 4 year internship under John Perkins in Mississippi where he learned the principles of Christian Community Development. For the past 30 plus years, Jean has been rebuilding the poor rural community of Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti.
First, a bit of personal testimony. I am sure that my own creativity and understanding of truth, especially biblical truth, has been greatly enhanced by 35 years of living in the black community, i.e., the ghetto of Jackson, Michigan and the poor community of West Jackson, Mississippi. Also my study of anthropology (other cultures), and being mentored by black leaders such as Tom Skinner and John Perkins.
The single greatest human leader of the New Testament church was the apostle Paul. Born and raised in Tarsus, a Greek speaking city outside of Palestine, and a Roman citizen, Paul was bilingual and bicultural. So it was no accident that God chose Paul to be an evangelist to the Greek speaking Gentiles in the Roman Empire. And Paul was the only person to remain true to the faith in the Antioch incident recorded in Galatians 2. Even Peter and Barnabas yielded to the intense Jewish social pressure and withdrew from Gentile Christians.
Jomo Kenyatta, the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of Kenya, lived many years in the West, primarily Britain, where he was educated. Kenyatta was thoroughly bicultural and was able to transcend tribalism and black-white divisions as he led Kenya to independence and national unity.
Nkrumah of Ghana, who studied in the U.S., did the same for Ghana. He used the best of Western thought combined with the best of African thought to gain independence for Ghana.
Malcolm X was not freed from his fanatical anti-white attitudes until he traveled to Mecca and experienced the brotherhood of all peoples in Mecca. His travels to Africa added to this cross-cultural understanding. Before his assassination, Malcolm was moving toward the positions of Martin Luther King. Had both X and MLK lived longer, I am quite sure they would have joined forces and become a powerful force for racial harmony in these divided United States.
Martin Luther King, whose roots were in the South, did graduate study in the North where most of his professors were white. King drew heavily from Gandhi as well as his travels to Africa to develop his own unique philosophy of aggressive but nonviolent social change.
John Perkins was born and raised a poor black in highly racist, highly oppressive Mississippi. He lived and worked in California for a number of years before God called him back to Mississippi to minister among oppressed blacks. John believes that a key to developing young black leadership in Mississippi is to get young blacks out of Mississippi, get them a college education; this not only educates but it also breaks the narrow and limiting bondage of white and black Mississippi culture.
Nelson Mandela, who was born and raised in South Africa, was educated as a lawyer in Great Britain. During his long pilgrimage to becoming the president of South Africa, his bicultural experience helped him negotiate his way to some degree of racial harmony without resorting to violence. This was no small achievement because it looked like racial civil war was almost inevitable.
Mahatma Gandhi, possibly the greatest leader of the 20th century, was also a profoundly cross cultural human being. He studied and lived in the West (Britain and South Africa) for over 20 years. He combined the best of Western thought and Christian thought (he prized and tried to live according to Sermon on the Mount principles) with his own Indian and Hindu traditions. He outsmarted the arrogant British, gained India's independence non-violently. The British left as friends.
Currently, my favorite bi-cultural leader is Jean Thomas who was born and raised in Haiti, received his seminary education in the U.S., had a 4 year internship under John Perkins in Mississippi where he learned the principles of Christian Community Development. For the past 30 plus years, Jean has been rebuilding the poor rural community of Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Kingdom Revolution: From Social Repentance to Social Transformation
After reading two fine books on justice written by evangelicals, Return to Justice and Advocating for Justice, I realize that there is confusion about the nature of biblical justice; there is also mass confusion about the nature of the kingdom of God (see Roger E. Olson, "Does anyone know what the kingdom of God is?"). When there is biblical imprecision about the nature of justice, we all insert our own ideas about justice which may be quite different than biblical justice.
I think there are four levels of biblical justice:
1. Charity: examples of are orphanages, food pantries, feeding the homeless.
2. Development: example: Christian Community Development which rebuilds poor communities.
3. Reform: advocacy that 1) stops bad laws or treaties (see Isaiah 10:1-2), 2) that promotes good laws such as civil rights legislation.
4. Revolution: kingdom of God revolution/transformation; a revolution of values when WASP values are rejected, when the American trinity is rejected and replaced by the kingdom of God as justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit. Shortly before his death, King said he had succeeded only in reforms---civil rights legislation--- but had not succeeded in a "transformation of society, a revolution of values." His beloved community needed both community development and kingdom revolution.
A church ought to be doing all four levels of justice at the same time, not choosing just one type of justice.
Two Scriptures come to mind: Luke 4:18-19 and Nehemiah 5. Nehemiah 5 is an operationalized version of Luke 4. I summarize Nehemiah 5 in this fashion:
1. Oppression rampant: does this oppression create individual, family and cultural PTSD?
2. Oppressors rebuked: by a strong and courageous leader, Nehemiah.
3. Oppressors repent: when faced by truth; background Scriptures: Lev. 25, Deut. 15.
4. Oppressors restitute: required fruit of biblical repentance.
5. Oppression repaired: justice, making things right.
Or another way to analyze Nehemiah 5 would be to divide it into two sections: 5:1-5 and 5:6-12.
5:1-5 Damage Caused by Oppression: 1) poverty, 2) debt/debt slavery, 3) destroyed families; would this combination of negative experiences cause individual, family and community PTSD?
5:6-12 Steps Required for Justice: 1) Oppressors rebuked, 2) oppressors repent, 3) oppressors restitute, 4) if the above happen, then the lives of the oppressed can be repaired; or, in other words, justice---making things right---will be done.
Other Scriptures to ponder:
1. Messianic Passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4. Themes: Spirit, kingdom, justice, oppressed poor [my translation of Isaiah 61:1]
2. Matthew 3:1-11 and 4:17; Mk. 1:15; if oppressors repent of social evil---economic oppression and religious ethnocentrism---then the kingdom of God revolution can occur.
3. Mt. 6:33: "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." NEB. The whole Sermon on the Mount describes a kingdom revolution.
4. Acts 1:1-8: the combination of the Spirit and kingdom are keys to a kingdom revolution.
5. Acts 4:32-35: Acts 1:1-8 implemented by the church.
6. Romans 14:17: description of a successful kingdom revolution; "The kingdom of God is justice, shalom, and joy in the Holy Spirit."
7. Ephesians 2: 1-10, personal reconciliation with God; 11-22, social reconciliation between Jew and Gentile.
8. James 1:26-2:26: Church should stop honoring the rich oppressors and instead give priority to doing good works for the oppressed poor.
More on Leviticus 25---the Sabbath and Jubilee Years; a summary phrase: from ruthless rule to release by redemption; do the oppressed require a socioeconomic redeemer; should the church play that role? Would implementing the kingdom of God as justice be that socioeconomic redeemer?
I think there are four levels of biblical justice:
1. Charity: examples of are orphanages, food pantries, feeding the homeless.
2. Development: example: Christian Community Development which rebuilds poor communities.
3. Reform: advocacy that 1) stops bad laws or treaties (see Isaiah 10:1-2), 2) that promotes good laws such as civil rights legislation.
4. Revolution: kingdom of God revolution/transformation; a revolution of values when WASP values are rejected, when the American trinity is rejected and replaced by the kingdom of God as justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit. Shortly before his death, King said he had succeeded only in reforms---civil rights legislation--- but had not succeeded in a "transformation of society, a revolution of values." His beloved community needed both community development and kingdom revolution.
A church ought to be doing all four levels of justice at the same time, not choosing just one type of justice.
Two Scriptures come to mind: Luke 4:18-19 and Nehemiah 5. Nehemiah 5 is an operationalized version of Luke 4. I summarize Nehemiah 5 in this fashion:
1. Oppression rampant: does this oppression create individual, family and cultural PTSD?
2. Oppressors rebuked: by a strong and courageous leader, Nehemiah.
3. Oppressors repent: when faced by truth; background Scriptures: Lev. 25, Deut. 15.
4. Oppressors restitute: required fruit of biblical repentance.
5. Oppression repaired: justice, making things right.
Or another way to analyze Nehemiah 5 would be to divide it into two sections: 5:1-5 and 5:6-12.
5:1-5 Damage Caused by Oppression: 1) poverty, 2) debt/debt slavery, 3) destroyed families; would this combination of negative experiences cause individual, family and community PTSD?
5:6-12 Steps Required for Justice: 1) Oppressors rebuked, 2) oppressors repent, 3) oppressors restitute, 4) if the above happen, then the lives of the oppressed can be repaired; or, in other words, justice---making things right---will be done.
Other Scriptures to ponder:
1. Messianic Passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4. Themes: Spirit, kingdom, justice, oppressed poor [my translation of Isaiah 61:1]
2. Matthew 3:1-11 and 4:17; Mk. 1:15; if oppressors repent of social evil---economic oppression and religious ethnocentrism---then the kingdom of God revolution can occur.
3. Mt. 6:33: "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." NEB. The whole Sermon on the Mount describes a kingdom revolution.
4. Acts 1:1-8: the combination of the Spirit and kingdom are keys to a kingdom revolution.
5. Acts 4:32-35: Acts 1:1-8 implemented by the church.
6. Romans 14:17: description of a successful kingdom revolution; "The kingdom of God is justice, shalom, and joy in the Holy Spirit."
7. Ephesians 2: 1-10, personal reconciliation with God; 11-22, social reconciliation between Jew and Gentile.
8. James 1:26-2:26: Church should stop honoring the rich oppressors and instead give priority to doing good works for the oppressed poor.
More on Leviticus 25---the Sabbath and Jubilee Years; a summary phrase: from ruthless rule to release by redemption; do the oppressed require a socioeconomic redeemer; should the church play that role? Would implementing the kingdom of God as justice be that socioeconomic redeemer?
Reviews of Return to Justice and Advocating for Justice.
In 2016, two fine, must-read books have appeared, Return to Justice and Advocating for Justice, by excellent evangelical scholars. Both books are strongest on historical and current evangelical efforts to do justice; Advocating for Justice devotes three chapters to establishing a biblical foundation for advocacy. power, powers, and the role of the Trinity. I highly recommend that you carefully read both books.
But, strangely, I am deeply disappointed by both books. Neither book provides a clear and concise definition of the essence of biblical justice. Neither book attempts to 'rejusticize' the English NT. Neither book provides clarity on the nature of the NT kingdom of God. Chaos continues to reign in evangelical circles about the essence of the kingdom even though Jesus began his ministry by stating, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here."
So, on the one hand, I agree with Miriam Adeney who writes: "This stellar book [Advocating for Justice] asserts that evangelicals are anemic with regard to structural evil. We don't know how to think about power, so we settle for strategies that are too simple. Yet we are animated by the God who both creates and conquers powers. Clear, orderly, theoretically rich, theologically vibrant, and full of examples, this book is a must-read."
On the other hand, all five authors are white and it shows in the text and bibliography. In this day and age, in a book centered on ministry to the poor and oppressed, this is an unpardonable sin. Fortunately, Return to Justice has an ethnic author and features ministries of John Perkins and Tom Skinner. More on the lack of ethnic diversity later in the review.
First, some excerpts from Advocating for Justice:
"Misuse of power [oppression] either causes or perpetuates the poverty at hand."
The heart of the book is a "theology of advocacy." "Structural issues lie at the root of reflective engagement with poverty."
Purpose of book: "we define evangelical transformational advocacy as intentional acts of witness by the body of Christ that hold people and institutions accountable for creating, implementing, and sustaining just and good policies and practices geared toward the flourishing of society. Transformational advocacy challenges injustice and obstacles to human flourishing at whatever level it is practiced by humbly engaging with people who can address the wrong, trusting God's Spirit to change all those involved as well as the institutions involved."
"We believe that evangelicals have not developed a sufficient theological and theoretical base in which to ground their advocacy efforts." And they still haven't.
From a footnote on page 57: "History reveals that whenever a people compromise their view of God, society unravels into a horrid tangle of ever-increasing distortions. Brueggemann explains, 'The much greater and more pervasive problem in ancient Israel is not a refusal to speak of Yahweh . . . but the temptation to engage in wrong speech about Yahweh, which amounts to idolatry. In that ancient community, as even now, idolatry rather than atheism (refusal to speak about God) is the more compelling and dangerous issue.'" This is a tragically accurate analysis of modern American evangelicalism which far too often easily blends God-talk with religious ethnocentrism and economic oppression.
Page 68 has a good but far too brief discussion of the kingdom of God. Need a whole chapter on the kingdom or better yet the Spirit and the kingdom (see Acts 1:1-8).
The first sentence of the book Advocating for Justice might be the importance sentence in the book both for what it said and for what it didn't say. The sentence from Ackknowlegements reads: "The authors of this book are a diverse bunch. . . . scholar and practitioner. . . . different churches in different denominations. . . . different faith and life experiences." But missing is any mention of any ethnic or racial diversity; this is because all the authors are white. Whiteness---white superiority and white privilege---profoundly affects what a person sees and doesn't see, the questions a person asks the Scripture and doesn't ask the Scripture.
I know this from personal experience; it took 35 years living in the black ghetto, years of mentoring by Tom Skinner and John Perkins, before I began to understanding the extensive biblical teaching on socioeconomic oppression and social justice, before I began to grasp the central importance of the kingdom of God, before I prayed a Daniel 9 type prayer for our nation, before I understood and began to apply a Nehemiah 5 repentance, restitution and repair gospel, before I discovered the Messianic passages from Isaiah, before I understood Luke 4:18-30 as central to the kingdom.
When there is no mention of James Cone, Tom Skinner, John Perkins and Jim Wallis nor Michelle Alexander, I know the authors are prisoners of narrow white scholarship, as good as it might be in some ways.
Fortunately, Return to Justice corrects some of these weaknesses. One author is an ethnic person; the ministries of two black evangelicals, John Perkins and Tom Skinner are highlighted. So both books should be read at the same time.
From the Introduction of Return to Justice:
"Evangelicals have come a long way in their pursuit of justice, but we also have a long way to go. . . . It is much harder to advocate for a cause that calls for personal repentance than one that only requires fighting a common enemy. This book is a call not only to admiringly emulate leaders of the past but also to critically reform the work that they have courageously begun."
From the chapter on World Vision:
"Too often when successful church planters, authors, or college graduates discover 'a heart for justice,' they assume that doing justice is straightforward. If they've been successful in other areas, they reason, surely it can't be that hard to help the poor. So they spring into action, armed only with good intentions and zeal---and often as not cause more harm than good."
"If we want to do justice, we must deeply study injustice [something few white evangelicals have done] with the same commitment we give to other spiritual disciplines. For today's evangelicals, this often means investing long, hard hours studying the reality that (in) justice is structural."
"Doing justice is also complicated [and complex] because we ourselves are a part of the injustice. . . . But doing justice always involves repentance [and restitution and repair.]"
"The FTL's rereading of the Bible's teaching on justice and mission from the context of pervasive Latin American poverty and oppression was just what was needed at a time when individualism, racism, and materialism often went unchallenged in pulpits across the United States."
Social Repentance Required BEFORE Advocacy
Evangelicals have always emphasized a personal sin, personal repentance, personal conversion gospel, but they have not understood the need for social repentance---repentance regarding social evil, social ethnocentrism, social oppression. When Jesus in Mark 1:15 said "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here," I think he was referring primarily to social repentance---economic oppression and religiously legitimated ethnocentrism (see Luke 4:18-30).
BEFORE a person or a church begins a ministry of advocacy, they need to see if the church measures up to a biblical checklist. For more details, see my blog "Kingdom Revolution" And you should also read the chapter on repentance in America's Original Sin.
Based both on personal experience and 90 years of observation of white evangelicals, I think that most, if not all, need a second conversion---a social conversion that comes to grips with the horror of oppression and then moves on to a passionate pursuit of justice.
After this social conversion, the following questions should be addressed in your church:
1. Have you identified and renounced any form of white superiority and white privilege?
2. Are you bearing the fruits of repentance such as giving generously to the poor (see Acts 4:32-35)?
3. Are you at least aware of racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration in your city or state? If not, read The New Jim Crow.
4. Are you at least aware of the large racial wealth gap? If not, read The Hidden Cost of Being African American.
See my next blog "Kingdom Revolution" for ideas that should be added to both books.
But, strangely, I am deeply disappointed by both books. Neither book provides a clear and concise definition of the essence of biblical justice. Neither book attempts to 'rejusticize' the English NT. Neither book provides clarity on the nature of the NT kingdom of God. Chaos continues to reign in evangelical circles about the essence of the kingdom even though Jesus began his ministry by stating, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here."
So, on the one hand, I agree with Miriam Adeney who writes: "This stellar book [Advocating for Justice] asserts that evangelicals are anemic with regard to structural evil. We don't know how to think about power, so we settle for strategies that are too simple. Yet we are animated by the God who both creates and conquers powers. Clear, orderly, theoretically rich, theologically vibrant, and full of examples, this book is a must-read."
On the other hand, all five authors are white and it shows in the text and bibliography. In this day and age, in a book centered on ministry to the poor and oppressed, this is an unpardonable sin. Fortunately, Return to Justice has an ethnic author and features ministries of John Perkins and Tom Skinner. More on the lack of ethnic diversity later in the review.
First, some excerpts from Advocating for Justice:
"Misuse of power [oppression] either causes or perpetuates the poverty at hand."
The heart of the book is a "theology of advocacy." "Structural issues lie at the root of reflective engagement with poverty."
Purpose of book: "we define evangelical transformational advocacy as intentional acts of witness by the body of Christ that hold people and institutions accountable for creating, implementing, and sustaining just and good policies and practices geared toward the flourishing of society. Transformational advocacy challenges injustice and obstacles to human flourishing at whatever level it is practiced by humbly engaging with people who can address the wrong, trusting God's Spirit to change all those involved as well as the institutions involved."
"We believe that evangelicals have not developed a sufficient theological and theoretical base in which to ground their advocacy efforts." And they still haven't.
From a footnote on page 57: "History reveals that whenever a people compromise their view of God, society unravels into a horrid tangle of ever-increasing distortions. Brueggemann explains, 'The much greater and more pervasive problem in ancient Israel is not a refusal to speak of Yahweh . . . but the temptation to engage in wrong speech about Yahweh, which amounts to idolatry. In that ancient community, as even now, idolatry rather than atheism (refusal to speak about God) is the more compelling and dangerous issue.'" This is a tragically accurate analysis of modern American evangelicalism which far too often easily blends God-talk with religious ethnocentrism and economic oppression.
Page 68 has a good but far too brief discussion of the kingdom of God. Need a whole chapter on the kingdom or better yet the Spirit and the kingdom (see Acts 1:1-8).
The first sentence of the book Advocating for Justice might be the importance sentence in the book both for what it said and for what it didn't say. The sentence from Ackknowlegements reads: "The authors of this book are a diverse bunch. . . . scholar and practitioner. . . . different churches in different denominations. . . . different faith and life experiences." But missing is any mention of any ethnic or racial diversity; this is because all the authors are white. Whiteness---white superiority and white privilege---profoundly affects what a person sees and doesn't see, the questions a person asks the Scripture and doesn't ask the Scripture.
I know this from personal experience; it took 35 years living in the black ghetto, years of mentoring by Tom Skinner and John Perkins, before I began to understanding the extensive biblical teaching on socioeconomic oppression and social justice, before I began to grasp the central importance of the kingdom of God, before I prayed a Daniel 9 type prayer for our nation, before I understood and began to apply a Nehemiah 5 repentance, restitution and repair gospel, before I discovered the Messianic passages from Isaiah, before I understood Luke 4:18-30 as central to the kingdom.
When there is no mention of James Cone, Tom Skinner, John Perkins and Jim Wallis nor Michelle Alexander, I know the authors are prisoners of narrow white scholarship, as good as it might be in some ways.
Fortunately, Return to Justice corrects some of these weaknesses. One author is an ethnic person; the ministries of two black evangelicals, John Perkins and Tom Skinner are highlighted. So both books should be read at the same time.
From the Introduction of Return to Justice:
"Evangelicals have come a long way in their pursuit of justice, but we also have a long way to go. . . . It is much harder to advocate for a cause that calls for personal repentance than one that only requires fighting a common enemy. This book is a call not only to admiringly emulate leaders of the past but also to critically reform the work that they have courageously begun."
From the chapter on World Vision:
"Too often when successful church planters, authors, or college graduates discover 'a heart for justice,' they assume that doing justice is straightforward. If they've been successful in other areas, they reason, surely it can't be that hard to help the poor. So they spring into action, armed only with good intentions and zeal---and often as not cause more harm than good."
"If we want to do justice, we must deeply study injustice [something few white evangelicals have done] with the same commitment we give to other spiritual disciplines. For today's evangelicals, this often means investing long, hard hours studying the reality that (in) justice is structural."
"Doing justice is also complicated [and complex] because we ourselves are a part of the injustice. . . . But doing justice always involves repentance [and restitution and repair.]"
"The FTL's rereading of the Bible's teaching on justice and mission from the context of pervasive Latin American poverty and oppression was just what was needed at a time when individualism, racism, and materialism often went unchallenged in pulpits across the United States."
Social Repentance Required BEFORE Advocacy
Evangelicals have always emphasized a personal sin, personal repentance, personal conversion gospel, but they have not understood the need for social repentance---repentance regarding social evil, social ethnocentrism, social oppression. When Jesus in Mark 1:15 said "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here," I think he was referring primarily to social repentance---economic oppression and religiously legitimated ethnocentrism (see Luke 4:18-30).
BEFORE a person or a church begins a ministry of advocacy, they need to see if the church measures up to a biblical checklist. For more details, see my blog "Kingdom Revolution" And you should also read the chapter on repentance in America's Original Sin.
Based both on personal experience and 90 years of observation of white evangelicals, I think that most, if not all, need a second conversion---a social conversion that comes to grips with the horror of oppression and then moves on to a passionate pursuit of justice.
After this social conversion, the following questions should be addressed in your church:
1. Have you identified and renounced any form of white superiority and white privilege?
2. Are you bearing the fruits of repentance such as giving generously to the poor (see Acts 4:32-35)?
3. Are you at least aware of racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration in your city or state? If not, read The New Jim Crow.
4. Are you at least aware of the large racial wealth gap? If not, read The Hidden Cost of Being African American.
See my next blog "Kingdom Revolution" for ideas that should be added to both books.
Friday, August 5, 2016
Confusion in Marriage
Confusion in Marriage: The Troubled Transition from Marriage as a Social Institution to Marriage as a Personal Relationship.
In the "old days", and in most cultures, marriage was primarily a matter of commitment to a social institution with rather fixed roles. A person became a husband or wife, a mother or father. Personal identity was shaped or controlled by social position or role. A female person entered marriage and "dwindled into a wife" and mother. As long as society was rather stable and the content of marriage as a social institution remained, there were enough external constraints on marriage to hold it together in most cases, miserable as it might be at times.
Today, in modern America, marriage is being seen as primarily a personal relationship and secondarily as a social institution. "The piece of paper" received on the wedding day highlighting the social legitimacy of marriage is minimized. Marriage is now a love relationship so sex before marriage, especially during the engagement period, is now considered more legitimate because the couple "love each other".
Under the new definition of marriage as a personal relationship, there is much greater freedom, but often without the character, knowledge or skills to make that freedom into an asset rather than a liability. American individualism corrupts that freedom into an emphasis upon my rights, the fulfillment of my needs, my happiness. That freedom is not yet balanced with the character needed to maintain a long term commitment, a sense of responsibility which transcends individual rights, a mature love which puts the spouse's needs at least on a par with one's own needs.
Romantic love focuses on finding the right person, not being or becoming the right person. Compatibility is given priority over character.
Ironically, a person can go to the Scriptures and find some justification for both concepts of marriage. The Scriptures do treat marriage as a social institution; therefore, a spate of books defending a traditional view of marriage and family.
But Paul also saw the place for an emphasis on the quality of personal relationships and the responsibilities that follow. So in Ephesian 5, Paul tells husbands to love their wives, not to assert their headship. Both husbands and wives were to submit to each other. So now we have a spate of books on marriage as a relationship.
Now divorce is increasing even in Christian circles. One reason is we are trying to plug square pegs (rigid roles of marriage as a social institution) into round holes (marriage as a personal relationship). This is graphically illustrated in the divorce of a pastor and his wife, at about 50 years of age. They married under a traditional concept of marriage; he was head, dominant; she was to be a helpmate, to support his ministry. Gradually, over the years, she began to chafe under this concept of marriage. She wanted to have a career as a nurse. He strongly opposed this move, but she went ahead and became a nurse, a good one.
In spite of extensive counseling, the marriage could not be saved. He remained firmly committed to the old definition of marriage as a social institution with fixed roles and he thought this position was biblical. She was firmly committed to a new understanding of marriage as a personal relationship, an equal relationship, with freedom to develop her potential as a person; she believed this position was biblical. End result: divorce.
David Seamand's states: "Too often in the past Christians have taken a static view of marriage. We have described it as a 'state' or an 'estate' into which two people enter through a ceremony." Seamand's focuses upon the wedding as the beginning of a marriage relationship---a relationship of change and growth.
My definition of marriage: Marriage is primarily a relationship between two equal persons, and secondarily a matter of husband-wife roles. To emphasize the point I have paraphrased Jesus' comments on the Sabbath and applied them to marriage: Marriage is made for man (and woman) and not man for marriage.
Marriage does need external constraints as well as inner quality. In our rush to develop quality personal relationships in marriage, we must avoid jettisoning the good and needed aspects of marriage as a social institution.
Walter Trobisch, author of I Married You, highlights the Scriptural definition of marriage as leave, cleave and one flesh. He states: "There can be no marriage without leaving. The word 'leaving' indicates that a public and legal act has to take place in order to make a marriage a marriage." The leaving, the wedding ceremony, indicates both a clear break with parents---an independent social institution is being established---and an announcement to society at large that a couple has made a serious marriage commitment. Society and the church expect this legal and public declaration.
Cleaving is the more personal, the love commitment side of marriage. As Trobisch says: "Husband and wife are glued/bonded together."
One flesh signifies the physical union between husband and wife; also the two persons sharing life together.
Trobisch calls 'leave, cleave, one flesh', the marriage triangle. "The message is that these three parts are inseparable from each other. If one of the parts is lacking, the marriage is not complete."
In the "old days", and in most cultures, marriage was primarily a matter of commitment to a social institution with rather fixed roles. A person became a husband or wife, a mother or father. Personal identity was shaped or controlled by social position or role. A female person entered marriage and "dwindled into a wife" and mother. As long as society was rather stable and the content of marriage as a social institution remained, there were enough external constraints on marriage to hold it together in most cases, miserable as it might be at times.
Today, in modern America, marriage is being seen as primarily a personal relationship and secondarily as a social institution. "The piece of paper" received on the wedding day highlighting the social legitimacy of marriage is minimized. Marriage is now a love relationship so sex before marriage, especially during the engagement period, is now considered more legitimate because the couple "love each other".
Under the new definition of marriage as a personal relationship, there is much greater freedom, but often without the character, knowledge or skills to make that freedom into an asset rather than a liability. American individualism corrupts that freedom into an emphasis upon my rights, the fulfillment of my needs, my happiness. That freedom is not yet balanced with the character needed to maintain a long term commitment, a sense of responsibility which transcends individual rights, a mature love which puts the spouse's needs at least on a par with one's own needs.
Romantic love focuses on finding the right person, not being or becoming the right person. Compatibility is given priority over character.
Ironically, a person can go to the Scriptures and find some justification for both concepts of marriage. The Scriptures do treat marriage as a social institution; therefore, a spate of books defending a traditional view of marriage and family.
But Paul also saw the place for an emphasis on the quality of personal relationships and the responsibilities that follow. So in Ephesian 5, Paul tells husbands to love their wives, not to assert their headship. Both husbands and wives were to submit to each other. So now we have a spate of books on marriage as a relationship.
Now divorce is increasing even in Christian circles. One reason is we are trying to plug square pegs (rigid roles of marriage as a social institution) into round holes (marriage as a personal relationship). This is graphically illustrated in the divorce of a pastor and his wife, at about 50 years of age. They married under a traditional concept of marriage; he was head, dominant; she was to be a helpmate, to support his ministry. Gradually, over the years, she began to chafe under this concept of marriage. She wanted to have a career as a nurse. He strongly opposed this move, but she went ahead and became a nurse, a good one.
In spite of extensive counseling, the marriage could not be saved. He remained firmly committed to the old definition of marriage as a social institution with fixed roles and he thought this position was biblical. She was firmly committed to a new understanding of marriage as a personal relationship, an equal relationship, with freedom to develop her potential as a person; she believed this position was biblical. End result: divorce.
David Seamand's states: "Too often in the past Christians have taken a static view of marriage. We have described it as a 'state' or an 'estate' into which two people enter through a ceremony." Seamand's focuses upon the wedding as the beginning of a marriage relationship---a relationship of change and growth.
My definition of marriage: Marriage is primarily a relationship between two equal persons, and secondarily a matter of husband-wife roles. To emphasize the point I have paraphrased Jesus' comments on the Sabbath and applied them to marriage: Marriage is made for man (and woman) and not man for marriage.
Marriage does need external constraints as well as inner quality. In our rush to develop quality personal relationships in marriage, we must avoid jettisoning the good and needed aspects of marriage as a social institution.
Walter Trobisch, author of I Married You, highlights the Scriptural definition of marriage as leave, cleave and one flesh. He states: "There can be no marriage without leaving. The word 'leaving' indicates that a public and legal act has to take place in order to make a marriage a marriage." The leaving, the wedding ceremony, indicates both a clear break with parents---an independent social institution is being established---and an announcement to society at large that a couple has made a serious marriage commitment. Society and the church expect this legal and public declaration.
Cleaving is the more personal, the love commitment side of marriage. As Trobisch says: "Husband and wife are glued/bonded together."
One flesh signifies the physical union between husband and wife; also the two persons sharing life together.
Trobisch calls 'leave, cleave, one flesh', the marriage triangle. "The message is that these three parts are inseparable from each other. If one of the parts is lacking, the marriage is not complete."
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Community and Reconciliation: Alternatives to the American Trinity
In a previous blog, "The Cry for Justice," I identified the American trinity of hyper individualism, hyper materialism and hyper ethnocentrism as the unrecognized, underlying cause of our unending massive social problems and of our moral disintegration. In this blog, I will propose solutions, alternatives to the American trinity.
Stewart Burns, author of the book Social Movements of the 1960s, quoted Martin Luther King's goal for America: "a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism." Burns concluded: "rarely did they [the leaders of the social movements] think about how the two languages of American political culture could speak to each other, how society could be reorganized so that individuality and community could nourish rather than deplete each other."
Individualism
Because of their fear of political tyranny, our founding fathers built the protection of individual rights into the Constitution with the exception of the poor, women, Native Americans and Afro Americans. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in the 1960s that the American legal and judicial systems had expanded these individual rights so much over the years that as a nation we may be in danger of collapse because we have carried to an extreme the principle upon which we were founded.
Individual rights are precious and must be guarded, but they must be balanced with an equal obligation to social responsibility or they degenerate into individualism; we are now in the state of hyper individualism.
If we emphasize the individual-in-community, we can maintain both individual rights and social responsibility. Galatians 5:13 exhorts us to hold freedom and love in balance---"For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another." Too much emphasis on individual freedom can lead to spiritual self-indulgence; love should counter this dangerous tendency and lead to servanthood.
The Corinthians vigorously pursued the gifts, but often primarily for self-edification, so Paul in chapters 13 and 14 told the Corinthians that the primary purpose for the spiritual gifts was for the edification of others, the church.
Among sociologists, Karl Marx, in reaction to an overly individualized, capitalistic society that was destroying community, stressed the collective which ended up with the individual being submerged in society. Another sociologist, Emile Durkheim, developed a more balanced understanding of the individual and society. Durkheim saw the individual and society or individuality and community as complementary, not as opposing forces.
Individualism leads to marriage and family disintegration. Families flourish when supported by a strong sense of community.
Materialism
Robert Wuthnow, in a 1993 article entitled "Pious Materialism," which studied how American Christians view faith and money, discovered that they were well aware of the evil of materialism, but they lived materialistically anyway. Why? Because there is little in-depth understanding of the biblical teaching on money or mammon or how widespread the condemnation of riches is in the Bible. Wuthnow concludes, "Although 92 percent of us believe that the condition of the poor is a social problem, our hearts are fundamentally with the rich."
What can be done to reduce the seductive attraction of materialism?
First, make a comprehensive and fearless analysis of what the Scriptures teach about the rich and poor, economic oppression and Jubilee justice. You will discover that the Scriptures identify the rich as the social problem, not the poor. Also that oppression, not laziness, is the primary cause of poverty. The rich and powerful oppress the poor. Leaders in society are exhorted to pass laws to protect the poor and restrict the rich. Judges are exhorted to lean over backwards to protect the rights of the powerless, the orphans, the widows, the stranger.
Second, stop subsidizing the rich. Though we have been propagandized endlessly about how the government subsidizes the poor, the truth is just the opposite. The rich and the middle class are highly subsidized. There is massive corporate welfare. Much of our excessive military spending goes to big corporations who are usually guaranteed generous profits.
Third, encourage alternatives to corporate capitalism such as cooperatives.
Arthur Jones, in his book Capitalism and Christians, asserts that "though I love business, . . . I don't like capitalism." Jones has studied and written on business, finance and economics all his life; also he has written on the poor, poverty. Catholic social teaching and Protestant insights inform his views.
Jones likes free enterprise, small and medium sized business, but he dislikes modern large corporate capitalism. Ugly corporate capitalism is "detrimental to the common good, injurious to the planet [pollution], but, worst of all, it promotes a false god, materialism, in the form of personal affluence and social success." Ugly corporate capitalism takes resources from the poor, dominates and damages all other social institutions in society including family and religion, and seeks legitimation from Judeo-/Christian values.
In Spain, there is a Catholic cooperative called Mondragon. In 1987, there were 172 worker-owned cooperatives that employed 20,000 people. They ran industrial, agricultural, housing, educational and supermarket cooperatives. During the 1981-1986 recession, not one worker was laid off; they all took less pay. No factory has been moved overseas destroying the local community in the process.
We can build a more humane economic system which produces adequate goods, but which values people over things.
Ethnocentrism
Beginning with the Puritan attitudes and actions against Native Americans, racism or ethnocentrism has been a dominant value in American society. One way it manifests itself today is in extensive racial profiling in every area of society but especially in our criminal justice system. The damage done to millions of persons and ethnic groups has been and continues to be enormous---comparable to that in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.
Jonah was much like the Puritans; he was prejudiced against the Ninevites (Assyrians), Israel's bitter enemies. Jonah wanted Nineveh destroyed; he welcomed judgment upon the despised and wicked Assyrians. When Nineveh repented and God forgave them, Jonah was disappointed. Jonah could not grasp that God loved the Assyrians as much as he did the Israelites.
In the NT, ethnocentrism within the Christian church against Gentiles was a continuing problem which Paul had to address again and again. Paul would not tolerate ethnic, class or gender divisions within the church. He aggressively promoted reconciliation. See Ephesian, chapter two and Galatians 3:28.
The following is a true story. I had an evangelical student who was from a fundamentalist school. This school prided itself as superior bible scholars. This student took a course in biblical hermeneutics; the passage the prof chose was Ephesians, chapter two. The class made a through analysis of this passage. The theme of Ephesians two is reconciliation.
2:1-10 is about personal reconciliation with God based on the cross; verses 11-22 are about social reconciliation, ethnic (Jew and Gentile) reconciliation between despised ethnic enemies based on the cross. These themes are as plain as the nose on your face. But her prof and her class missed the point that social reconciliation is a fundamental part of the gospel. She was stunned when she discovered this.
Apparently a previous theological bias---that the gospel is about individual salvation only---or American cultural blinders prevented her from seeing this biblical truth. Based on 90 years of living in America, I would assert that most American Christians have missed this biblical truth as well.
Stewart Burns, author of the book Social Movements of the 1960s, quoted Martin Luther King's goal for America: "a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism." Burns concluded: "rarely did they [the leaders of the social movements] think about how the two languages of American political culture could speak to each other, how society could be reorganized so that individuality and community could nourish rather than deplete each other."
Individualism
Because of their fear of political tyranny, our founding fathers built the protection of individual rights into the Constitution with the exception of the poor, women, Native Americans and Afro Americans. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in the 1960s that the American legal and judicial systems had expanded these individual rights so much over the years that as a nation we may be in danger of collapse because we have carried to an extreme the principle upon which we were founded.
Individual rights are precious and must be guarded, but they must be balanced with an equal obligation to social responsibility or they degenerate into individualism; we are now in the state of hyper individualism.
If we emphasize the individual-in-community, we can maintain both individual rights and social responsibility. Galatians 5:13 exhorts us to hold freedom and love in balance---"For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another." Too much emphasis on individual freedom can lead to spiritual self-indulgence; love should counter this dangerous tendency and lead to servanthood.
The Corinthians vigorously pursued the gifts, but often primarily for self-edification, so Paul in chapters 13 and 14 told the Corinthians that the primary purpose for the spiritual gifts was for the edification of others, the church.
Among sociologists, Karl Marx, in reaction to an overly individualized, capitalistic society that was destroying community, stressed the collective which ended up with the individual being submerged in society. Another sociologist, Emile Durkheim, developed a more balanced understanding of the individual and society. Durkheim saw the individual and society or individuality and community as complementary, not as opposing forces.
Individualism leads to marriage and family disintegration. Families flourish when supported by a strong sense of community.
Materialism
Robert Wuthnow, in a 1993 article entitled "Pious Materialism," which studied how American Christians view faith and money, discovered that they were well aware of the evil of materialism, but they lived materialistically anyway. Why? Because there is little in-depth understanding of the biblical teaching on money or mammon or how widespread the condemnation of riches is in the Bible. Wuthnow concludes, "Although 92 percent of us believe that the condition of the poor is a social problem, our hearts are fundamentally with the rich."
What can be done to reduce the seductive attraction of materialism?
First, make a comprehensive and fearless analysis of what the Scriptures teach about the rich and poor, economic oppression and Jubilee justice. You will discover that the Scriptures identify the rich as the social problem, not the poor. Also that oppression, not laziness, is the primary cause of poverty. The rich and powerful oppress the poor. Leaders in society are exhorted to pass laws to protect the poor and restrict the rich. Judges are exhorted to lean over backwards to protect the rights of the powerless, the orphans, the widows, the stranger.
Second, stop subsidizing the rich. Though we have been propagandized endlessly about how the government subsidizes the poor, the truth is just the opposite. The rich and the middle class are highly subsidized. There is massive corporate welfare. Much of our excessive military spending goes to big corporations who are usually guaranteed generous profits.
Third, encourage alternatives to corporate capitalism such as cooperatives.
Arthur Jones, in his book Capitalism and Christians, asserts that "though I love business, . . . I don't like capitalism." Jones has studied and written on business, finance and economics all his life; also he has written on the poor, poverty. Catholic social teaching and Protestant insights inform his views.
Jones likes free enterprise, small and medium sized business, but he dislikes modern large corporate capitalism. Ugly corporate capitalism is "detrimental to the common good, injurious to the planet [pollution], but, worst of all, it promotes a false god, materialism, in the form of personal affluence and social success." Ugly corporate capitalism takes resources from the poor, dominates and damages all other social institutions in society including family and religion, and seeks legitimation from Judeo-/Christian values.
In Spain, there is a Catholic cooperative called Mondragon. In 1987, there were 172 worker-owned cooperatives that employed 20,000 people. They ran industrial, agricultural, housing, educational and supermarket cooperatives. During the 1981-1986 recession, not one worker was laid off; they all took less pay. No factory has been moved overseas destroying the local community in the process.
We can build a more humane economic system which produces adequate goods, but which values people over things.
Ethnocentrism
Beginning with the Puritan attitudes and actions against Native Americans, racism or ethnocentrism has been a dominant value in American society. One way it manifests itself today is in extensive racial profiling in every area of society but especially in our criminal justice system. The damage done to millions of persons and ethnic groups has been and continues to be enormous---comparable to that in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.
Jonah was much like the Puritans; he was prejudiced against the Ninevites (Assyrians), Israel's bitter enemies. Jonah wanted Nineveh destroyed; he welcomed judgment upon the despised and wicked Assyrians. When Nineveh repented and God forgave them, Jonah was disappointed. Jonah could not grasp that God loved the Assyrians as much as he did the Israelites.
In the NT, ethnocentrism within the Christian church against Gentiles was a continuing problem which Paul had to address again and again. Paul would not tolerate ethnic, class or gender divisions within the church. He aggressively promoted reconciliation. See Ephesian, chapter two and Galatians 3:28.
The following is a true story. I had an evangelical student who was from a fundamentalist school. This school prided itself as superior bible scholars. This student took a course in biblical hermeneutics; the passage the prof chose was Ephesians, chapter two. The class made a through analysis of this passage. The theme of Ephesians two is reconciliation.
2:1-10 is about personal reconciliation with God based on the cross; verses 11-22 are about social reconciliation, ethnic (Jew and Gentile) reconciliation between despised ethnic enemies based on the cross. These themes are as plain as the nose on your face. But her prof and her class missed the point that social reconciliation is a fundamental part of the gospel. She was stunned when she discovered this.
Apparently a previous theological bias---that the gospel is about individual salvation only---or American cultural blinders prevented her from seeing this biblical truth. Based on 90 years of living in America, I would assert that most American Christians have missed this biblical truth as well.
Monday, August 1, 2016
Part II, The Cry for Justice
Why Do White Americans Tend to Blame the Victim, but not the Oppressor?
The clever and effective white false teaching goes like this: white superiority and white privilege are natural and normal, evenly divinely ordained; black inferiority is the cause of high poverty and crime rates, of individual, family and community dysfunction.
The biblical teaching, which is ignored even by those who believe every word in the Bible is divinely inspired, is: oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves and even kills persons created in the image of God. This sentiment is repeated 555 times in the Hebrew OT. Strangely, there is very little theological literature on this very important subject.
Applied to modern America, the truth is that white oppressors---from the first British colonists down to 2016---have crushed all non-whites. White ethnocentric oppressors have crushed, humiliated, animalized, impoverished, enslaved and killed blacks, Native Americans, Mexicans, etc.
The damage done by white oppressors creates black dysfunction. Damage precedes dysfunction. White oppressors have created, maintained and redesigned various systems of oppression---from slavery to segregation to mass incarceration. Unending oppression creates unending poverty and dysfunction. But false teaching twists the historical and social facts and blames the victim, not the oppressor.
Silence from the American pulpit allows this demonic system to continue from one generation to the next generation. Warning: the Temple which was a 'den of robbers'---a system of oppression---was destroyed by God using the Romans in 70 AD.
In no way, shape, or form should any of the stained glass windows in the National Cathedral reflect American oppression.
Love and Justice: The Biblical Siamese Twins
Love and justice, love and justice, love and justice; the foundational principles of the OT Law and Prophets; the foundational principles of the NT kingdom of God.
If love is separated from justice, it becomes only a warm feeling with little power to fundamentally change things. Biblical love is an action word; biblical love should always result in doing justice. Loving one's neighbor means doing justice in behalf of your neighbor, especially your ethnic neighbor.
But even love and justice are not enough. Love and justice must be preceded by repentance and followed by release. When Jesus first introduced the kingdom of God in Matthew and Mark, he preceded this offer of the kingdom with the requirement of repentance. For white Americans, this would mean repentance from participation in or tolerance of systems of oppression (sins of omission and sins of commission) followed by release of the oppressor poor.
If your understanding and practice of love and justice does not include repentance and release, it is not much more than pious platitude. By the way, any talk about freedom that does not include justice is shallow, hollow, deceptive. Remember slaves were freed but not given justice; soon they lost their freedom to neoslavery---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs, and lynching.
America is full of pious talk about freedom and love; but seldom are they combined with Jubilee justice, kingdom justice, that ends systems of oppression, that fully releases the oppressed.
The clever and effective white false teaching goes like this: white superiority and white privilege are natural and normal, evenly divinely ordained; black inferiority is the cause of high poverty and crime rates, of individual, family and community dysfunction.
The biblical teaching, which is ignored even by those who believe every word in the Bible is divinely inspired, is: oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves and even kills persons created in the image of God. This sentiment is repeated 555 times in the Hebrew OT. Strangely, there is very little theological literature on this very important subject.
Applied to modern America, the truth is that white oppressors---from the first British colonists down to 2016---have crushed all non-whites. White ethnocentric oppressors have crushed, humiliated, animalized, impoverished, enslaved and killed blacks, Native Americans, Mexicans, etc.
The damage done by white oppressors creates black dysfunction. Damage precedes dysfunction. White oppressors have created, maintained and redesigned various systems of oppression---from slavery to segregation to mass incarceration. Unending oppression creates unending poverty and dysfunction. But false teaching twists the historical and social facts and blames the victim, not the oppressor.
Silence from the American pulpit allows this demonic system to continue from one generation to the next generation. Warning: the Temple which was a 'den of robbers'---a system of oppression---was destroyed by God using the Romans in 70 AD.
In no way, shape, or form should any of the stained glass windows in the National Cathedral reflect American oppression.
Love and Justice: The Biblical Siamese Twins
Love and justice, love and justice, love and justice; the foundational principles of the OT Law and Prophets; the foundational principles of the NT kingdom of God.
If love is separated from justice, it becomes only a warm feeling with little power to fundamentally change things. Biblical love is an action word; biblical love should always result in doing justice. Loving one's neighbor means doing justice in behalf of your neighbor, especially your ethnic neighbor.
But even love and justice are not enough. Love and justice must be preceded by repentance and followed by release. When Jesus first introduced the kingdom of God in Matthew and Mark, he preceded this offer of the kingdom with the requirement of repentance. For white Americans, this would mean repentance from participation in or tolerance of systems of oppression (sins of omission and sins of commission) followed by release of the oppressor poor.
If your understanding and practice of love and justice does not include repentance and release, it is not much more than pious platitude. By the way, any talk about freedom that does not include justice is shallow, hollow, deceptive. Remember slaves were freed but not given justice; soon they lost their freedom to neoslavery---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs, and lynching.
America is full of pious talk about freedom and love; but seldom are they combined with Jubilee justice, kingdom justice, that ends systems of oppression, that fully releases the oppressed.
The Cry for Justice
Why does America need a new political vision? Why should Christians be involved in creating this new biblically-based political vision?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of modern America? Strangely, this nation has some enormous strengths and some terrible weaknesses.
Few countries in the world have as many strengths as these United States do. Some of these strengths are: democracy, freedom, economic opportunity and prosperity, abundant natural resources, an educated people, and a highly religious people when compared to secular Western Europe. The reader might wish to add other strengths to this list. People from all over the world desire to immigrate to this country.
What are our weaknesses as a nation? Andrew Shapiro recently compared the U.S. with 18 other industrial nations. He found that the U.S. ranked first (worst) in 21 social problem categories such as : murder rate, reported rapes, incarceration rate, drunken driving fatalities, hazardous waste per capita, children and elderly in poverty, inequality of wealth distribution, divorce, single-parent families and infant mortality.
How could a great country, an educated and religious country, have such a horrible record of social problems? What is the fundamental flaw in American society? One might expect secular Europe to experience these social problems, but not religious America. The millions of Christians ought to be salt and light in society reducing the severity of our social problems. Apparently, this is not the case.
Before I try to answer this difficult question, I would like examine the gospel of Luke regarding social justice, kingdom justice.
Luke specifically address, by teaching or example, the problem of rich and poor, ethnic divisions, and the treatment of women, but he is silent on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
At the time of Christ, Jewish society was much like it was at the time of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. The rich and powerful elite oppressed the poor. In the gospel of Luke, the poor had many problems, but the rich were identified as THE social problem. Ethnic difference divided society; Jews despised Gentiles and Samaritans. Women were treated as second-class citizens.
If our nation today would choose the same set of priorities that Jesus did, how could this help us establish a better political vision for America.
The priorities established by our founding fathers affect all of us today in both positive and negative ways. We are all familiar with the positive contributions of our founding father, yes, they were all male, so let us examine the less recognized negative contributions.
The Puritans were a profoundly biblical people in many ways, but they also had a serious weakness which the passed on to future generations. The Puritans saw themselves as God's chosen, unique people to set up a Christian nation; the negative side of this belief was that they viewed Native Americans as inferior, dangerous heathen. When Puritan numbers increased and they wanted more land, they did not hesitate to destroy whole villages, men, women and children. Then they paused to praise God for their victory. They also paid bounties for the scalps of Indians. One could conclude that the Puritans erroneously saw themselves as a religious elite---a religiously based ethnocentrism that legitimated their oppression of Indians.
Our founding fathers apparently had the same social disease as the Puritans. Some historians characterize our found fathers as an elite of white Properties (rich) males. Ethnic, the poor and women were second class citizens. In a highly pro-American book, The Rebirth of America, the author admits the elitism of our founding fathers though he tries to turn the undemocratic vice into a virtue. The signers of the Declaration of Independence "were not poor men,. . . . they were men of means. . . wealthy landowners. . . . " The author did not mention that a numbers of them were slave owners.
Have these problems persisted throughout our history? In January 1966, David Gergen editorialized that Income inequality belongs at the top of our national agenda. The gap between the rich and poor has continued to widen to unbelievable proportions in 2016.
Back to the question, I raised at the beginning of this article. Why does a nation with great strengths have such enormous problems? In part, they were built into the founding of America; these weaknesses continues to undermine us today.
After wrestling with this issue for many years both from a sociological and a biblical perspective, I have concluded that our fundamental flaw is the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism. These negative values interact to undermine our social cohesion so that our families and communities are disintegrating.
Once the social fabric is torn, social problems such as abortion, infant mortality, poverty, homelessness, etc. will abound.
Next, I would like cite a current example of the failure of the American church to understand and act biblically. I sent the following letter to the editor of Christian Century; only a small portion was printed due to lack of space
"I read with great interest the July 6, 2016, news article "Cathedral to remove glass Confederate flag." I applaud this important symbolic step. But much more important are the planned discussions around the theme of race/racism. I especially noted the July theme, "What the White Church must do." If these discussions move beyond the usual pious platitudes to actual repentance and restitution (see America's Original Sin), they could have groundbreaking impact.
But I am profoundly worried about how deep these discussions will go; here's why I am concerned. I noted an American flag---the Stars and Stripes---in a bottom left panel; in a second panel, another American flag. In the news article, there was no mentions of these two American flags, their coming removal, nor a discussion of the immense social evils associated with the Stars and Stripes. I personally think the evils committed under the Stars and Stripes are ten times worse than those committed under the Confederate flag. So I want to highlight some of the American actions connected with American ethnocentrism and oppression.
Christian historian George Marsden asserts, contrary to popular opinion, that the British tyranny at the time of the American Revolution was not bad enough to justify a violent revolution (see The Wars of America: Christian Views). The War of 1812 was also unjustified; it was an act of American aggression. And the Mexican-American War: at the point of a gun, America stole nearly half of Mexico's land (see The Wars of America, Ronald Wells).
Under the glorious banner of the Stars and Stripes, this nation committed genocide against Indians and stole their land. Under the Stars and Stripes, America engaged in the incredibly evil slave trade which was primarily a northern enterprise (Inheriting the Trade). And these United States of America brutally conquered the Philippines at the cost of one million lives (The Philippine Reader). We illegally imprisoned Japanese American U.S. citizens during World War II.
Today, this nation is unjustly incarcerating large numbers of young black and Latino males (The New Jim Crow). And we have a huge racial wealth gap (The Hidden Cost of Being African American).
The panel to the left refers to West Point; in other words, our military. The U.S. Armed Forces have been involved in many of our worst national social evils---Indian massacres, Viet Nam, Iraq, to name only a few. Recently I read the U.S. will be spending a trillion dollars to modernize the nuclear arsenal. Probably half of our nearly $20 trillion dollar national debt is due to the cost of unwise wars, excessive military spending, VA medical costs, interest on the debt, etc. This panel represents national insanity and immorality; it must be removed in its entirety; it has no place in a church.
The panel to the right refers to Mexico; I presume to the Mexican America War. This was a war of pure imperialism, ethnocentrism, oppression, land theft---evil, evil, evil. This panel must be removed, all of it; it has no place in a church. In their place, how about a panel on the Prince of Peace or Jubilee justice.
In my blog (Lowell Noble's Writings), after the Charleston church murders, I wrote: "Recently the sanctimonious North has been engaged in a lot of self-righteous blather about the Confederate flag. But the North itself is deeply racist, both past and present, though it has never flown the Confederate flag."
See part II of "The Cry for Justice."
What are the strengths and weaknesses of modern America? Strangely, this nation has some enormous strengths and some terrible weaknesses.
Few countries in the world have as many strengths as these United States do. Some of these strengths are: democracy, freedom, economic opportunity and prosperity, abundant natural resources, an educated people, and a highly religious people when compared to secular Western Europe. The reader might wish to add other strengths to this list. People from all over the world desire to immigrate to this country.
What are our weaknesses as a nation? Andrew Shapiro recently compared the U.S. with 18 other industrial nations. He found that the U.S. ranked first (worst) in 21 social problem categories such as : murder rate, reported rapes, incarceration rate, drunken driving fatalities, hazardous waste per capita, children and elderly in poverty, inequality of wealth distribution, divorce, single-parent families and infant mortality.
How could a great country, an educated and religious country, have such a horrible record of social problems? What is the fundamental flaw in American society? One might expect secular Europe to experience these social problems, but not religious America. The millions of Christians ought to be salt and light in society reducing the severity of our social problems. Apparently, this is not the case.
Before I try to answer this difficult question, I would like examine the gospel of Luke regarding social justice, kingdom justice.
Luke specifically address, by teaching or example, the problem of rich and poor, ethnic divisions, and the treatment of women, but he is silent on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
At the time of Christ, Jewish society was much like it was at the time of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. The rich and powerful elite oppressed the poor. In the gospel of Luke, the poor had many problems, but the rich were identified as THE social problem. Ethnic difference divided society; Jews despised Gentiles and Samaritans. Women were treated as second-class citizens.
If our nation today would choose the same set of priorities that Jesus did, how could this help us establish a better political vision for America.
The priorities established by our founding fathers affect all of us today in both positive and negative ways. We are all familiar with the positive contributions of our founding father, yes, they were all male, so let us examine the less recognized negative contributions.
The Puritans were a profoundly biblical people in many ways, but they also had a serious weakness which the passed on to future generations. The Puritans saw themselves as God's chosen, unique people to set up a Christian nation; the negative side of this belief was that they viewed Native Americans as inferior, dangerous heathen. When Puritan numbers increased and they wanted more land, they did not hesitate to destroy whole villages, men, women and children. Then they paused to praise God for their victory. They also paid bounties for the scalps of Indians. One could conclude that the Puritans erroneously saw themselves as a religious elite---a religiously based ethnocentrism that legitimated their oppression of Indians.
Our founding fathers apparently had the same social disease as the Puritans. Some historians characterize our found fathers as an elite of white Properties (rich) males. Ethnic, the poor and women were second class citizens. In a highly pro-American book, The Rebirth of America, the author admits the elitism of our founding fathers though he tries to turn the undemocratic vice into a virtue. The signers of the Declaration of Independence "were not poor men,. . . . they were men of means. . . wealthy landowners. . . . " The author did not mention that a numbers of them were slave owners.
Have these problems persisted throughout our history? In January 1966, David Gergen editorialized that Income inequality belongs at the top of our national agenda. The gap between the rich and poor has continued to widen to unbelievable proportions in 2016.
Back to the question, I raised at the beginning of this article. Why does a nation with great strengths have such enormous problems? In part, they were built into the founding of America; these weaknesses continues to undermine us today.
After wrestling with this issue for many years both from a sociological and a biblical perspective, I have concluded that our fundamental flaw is the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism. These negative values interact to undermine our social cohesion so that our families and communities are disintegrating.
Once the social fabric is torn, social problems such as abortion, infant mortality, poverty, homelessness, etc. will abound.
Next, I would like cite a current example of the failure of the American church to understand and act biblically. I sent the following letter to the editor of Christian Century; only a small portion was printed due to lack of space
"I read with great interest the July 6, 2016, news article "Cathedral to remove glass Confederate flag." I applaud this important symbolic step. But much more important are the planned discussions around the theme of race/racism. I especially noted the July theme, "What the White Church must do." If these discussions move beyond the usual pious platitudes to actual repentance and restitution (see America's Original Sin), they could have groundbreaking impact.
But I am profoundly worried about how deep these discussions will go; here's why I am concerned. I noted an American flag---the Stars and Stripes---in a bottom left panel; in a second panel, another American flag. In the news article, there was no mentions of these two American flags, their coming removal, nor a discussion of the immense social evils associated with the Stars and Stripes. I personally think the evils committed under the Stars and Stripes are ten times worse than those committed under the Confederate flag. So I want to highlight some of the American actions connected with American ethnocentrism and oppression.
Christian historian George Marsden asserts, contrary to popular opinion, that the British tyranny at the time of the American Revolution was not bad enough to justify a violent revolution (see The Wars of America: Christian Views). The War of 1812 was also unjustified; it was an act of American aggression. And the Mexican-American War: at the point of a gun, America stole nearly half of Mexico's land (see The Wars of America, Ronald Wells).
Under the glorious banner of the Stars and Stripes, this nation committed genocide against Indians and stole their land. Under the Stars and Stripes, America engaged in the incredibly evil slave trade which was primarily a northern enterprise (Inheriting the Trade). And these United States of America brutally conquered the Philippines at the cost of one million lives (The Philippine Reader). We illegally imprisoned Japanese American U.S. citizens during World War II.
Today, this nation is unjustly incarcerating large numbers of young black and Latino males (The New Jim Crow). And we have a huge racial wealth gap (The Hidden Cost of Being African American).
The panel to the left refers to West Point; in other words, our military. The U.S. Armed Forces have been involved in many of our worst national social evils---Indian massacres, Viet Nam, Iraq, to name only a few. Recently I read the U.S. will be spending a trillion dollars to modernize the nuclear arsenal. Probably half of our nearly $20 trillion dollar national debt is due to the cost of unwise wars, excessive military spending, VA medical costs, interest on the debt, etc. This panel represents national insanity and immorality; it must be removed in its entirety; it has no place in a church.
The panel to the right refers to Mexico; I presume to the Mexican America War. This was a war of pure imperialism, ethnocentrism, oppression, land theft---evil, evil, evil. This panel must be removed, all of it; it has no place in a church. In their place, how about a panel on the Prince of Peace or Jubilee justice.
In my blog (Lowell Noble's Writings), after the Charleston church murders, I wrote: "Recently the sanctimonious North has been engaged in a lot of self-righteous blather about the Confederate flag. But the North itself is deeply racist, both past and present, though it has never flown the Confederate flag."
See part II of "The Cry for Justice."
HAITI: FALLOW AND FERTILIZE
From the August 3, 2016, Christian Century "Field of Greens." by Terra Brockton.
"My brother Henry's fields work hard growing vegetables for two years, and then they get two years off to rest and regenerate. Back in March, Henry tilled in the winter cover crops and then seeded the fallow field with a mixture of legumes and grasses. . . . " The hay was baled.
"The hay will be used to mulch the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, kale, and potatoes. . . . Each legume (alfalfa, clover,) is actually a solar-powered nitrogen fertilizer factory. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live on legume roots transform atmospheric nitrogen into a form that's available for plants. In this way, Henry is able to grow his own nitrogen fertilizer rather than purchase synthetically produced nitrogen fertilizer made by burning immense amounts of fossil fuels. And while the field lies fallow and the soil is undisturbed, other microorganisms do their important underground work---multiplying and connecting, creating networks that go broad and deep, making the 'glue' that hold healthy soil together and makes nutrients available to grow the vegetables."
Haiti can grow 3 or 4 crops a year with additional water. Should one of those growing seasons be used to grow a legume/grass crop?
"My brother Henry's fields work hard growing vegetables for two years, and then they get two years off to rest and regenerate. Back in March, Henry tilled in the winter cover crops and then seeded the fallow field with a mixture of legumes and grasses. . . . " The hay was baled.
"The hay will be used to mulch the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, kale, and potatoes. . . . Each legume (alfalfa, clover,) is actually a solar-powered nitrogen fertilizer factory. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live on legume roots transform atmospheric nitrogen into a form that's available for plants. In this way, Henry is able to grow his own nitrogen fertilizer rather than purchase synthetically produced nitrogen fertilizer made by burning immense amounts of fossil fuels. And while the field lies fallow and the soil is undisturbed, other microorganisms do their important underground work---multiplying and connecting, creating networks that go broad and deep, making the 'glue' that hold healthy soil together and makes nutrients available to grow the vegetables."
Haiti can grow 3 or 4 crops a year with additional water. Should one of those growing seasons be used to grow a legume/grass crop?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)