Haiti and James: Where Was The Church?

Systems of oppression can continue on largely unchallenged and unchanged for generations.  Two U.S. systems of oppression come to mind:  the wealth gap doubled under President Reagan.  The unjust and damaging wealth gap continued on under Presidents Bush,  Clinton, Bush and Obama.  Neither a Democratic nor a Republican president ended economic inequality.  The same could be said of the unjust mass incarceration of young black males.  The American church did little to stop either system of oppression.

The rich-poor wealth gap was terrible during New Testament times.  This is why the book of James was fiercely anti-rich.  James 5 describes the oppression with this strong language:

"A final word to you arrogant rich:  Take some lessons in lament.  You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you.  Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink.  Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within.  You thought you were piling up wealth.  What you piled up is judgment.

"All the workers you've exploited and cheated [oppressed] cry out for judgment.  The groans of the workers you've used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger.  You've looted the earth and lived it up.  But all you'll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.  In fact, what you have done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it."  The Message.

And to top it off, the church itself was imitating the godless world---honoring the rich oppressors and disrespecting the oppressed poor.  See James, chapter two.

Unfortunately, this passage of Scripture accurately describes the nation of Haiti; read Haiti, State Against Nation.  A small, rich, urban elite controls the economic system of Haiti; they have exploited the poor peasants for generations.  Papa Doc and Baby Doc were brutal, corrupt dictators, but the economic oppression started well before and continued after their dictatorships.  Haiti has long suffered from an enduring and deep-seated system of oppression.  Where was the church?

Some quotations from the book, Haiti: State Against Nation:

"At the bottom of the social scale, but vitally important for the entire nation, was a peasantry divided into several strata: landless people, sharecroppers, small proprietors and rich peasants.  Together, these men and women did the work and furnished almost all the country's wealth. . . . most of the fruits of the peasantry's toil were seized by the alliance of the rulers and merchants and transferred abroad.  In Haiti, the peasantry is the nation.

"Any solution to the Haitian crisis must face the peasant question.  It must find its roots in the resources of that peasantry, the very same resources that have contributed to the fortunes of thousands of Haitians and foreigners during a century and a half of unbridled exploitation."