Under the category of Jubilee are found three chapters: Reclamation, Renovation and Implications.
Chapter 7: Reclamation: Justice in an Unjust World
The Jubilee is a powerful image "that captures both the joyous sense of release implied in liberation and also the sense of rectification of power balance implied in redress." The Sabbatical-Jubilee laws provide for both "freedom and economic restructuring." The Jubilee contains both personal freedom and social justice. The American Emancipation Proclamation dealt with freedom but not socioeconomic justice. Without justice to complete and protect their freedom, exslaves soon were re-enslaved by segregation and sharecropping. Jesus emphasizes the necessity of both freedom and socioeconomic justice in Luke 4:18-19. Lebacqz states:
"The Jubilee shows clearly that no rearrangement of structures will constitute 'justice' unless it truly provides for new beginnings. It is not enough to remove shackles. Unless land, equipment, the means for making living are provided, the cycle of poverty will begin again. It is precisely this cycle of poverty [and oppression] that the jubilee year prevents."
This chapter which focuses on the Jubilee is stunningly powerful, wise and balanced. Only one weakness: it would have been very helpful if Lebacqz had tied the Jubilee to kingdom of God as the NT application of the principles of the Jubilee.
Chapter 8: Renovation: From Injustice to Justice
This chapter focuses a modern attempt to apply the principles of the Jubilee through the Rainbow Workers Cooperative which took over a plant that was closing. An excellent idea, but the workers did not have the proper management skills so they failed. For a successful cooperative venture, google Mondragon.
Is it possible to apply the land reform principles of the Jubilee on a national scale? After World War II, land reform was implemented by the victorious Allies successfully in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Read A Captive Land. During the Civil War, General Grant, for a short period of time, implemented Jubilee principle for exslaves on the Jefferson Davis plantation.
Chapter 9: Implications for a Theory of Justice
Using the insights of the previous chapters, Lebacqz critiques the theories of justice held by Rawls, Nozick, R. Niebuhr, Miranda, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. She also lists some foundations for a theory of justice.
1. "The formal principle of justice is therefore not to give each what is due but to correct injustices."
2. The social sciences will be more helpful than philosophy.
3. A theory of justice must be historical before it is philosophical.
4. "Injustice takes primary forms in different parts of the world; sexism here, racism there, economic oppression in one place, political repression in another, and so on." Often there will be a web of injustice.
5. "Because justice emerges out of protest against injustice, justice is not so much a state of being as a struggle and a constant process. . . . It is the process of providing new beginnings, not an ideal state of distribution." Again, google the Mondragon model.
Next, Lebacqz lists the rudiments of theory of justice:
1. "Justice will move toward righteousness as its plumb line."
2. "Justice will reside in responsibilities and duties, not rights."
3. "Domination and oppression are injustices because they are violations of a covenant of mutual responsibility. The violate the relationship and the violate the personhood of both parties [oppressed and oppressor]."
4. "God's justice for the oppressed consists in liberation from oppression."
5. "No theory of justice is adequate that does not provide for an assessment of the incomplete and partial nature of the historical jubilees that are created."
This is a relatively short book---160 pages---and the author humbly insists that it is not a complete theory of justice. It is written at the level of an educated layperson. A CCD practitioner could grasp its powerful message. I highly recommend it as one of the 15 best books have read over my 90 year career. Most American Christians have grasped only a few pieces of the justice puzzle. This book will greatly accelerate the putting of the many pieces of the justice puzzle together.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Justice in An Unjust World, Part 3
Chapter 4: Righteousness: Injustice and God
"Human justice is born in relationship with God." God is love; God loves justice; God desires justice to be done in society. If social oppression is the norm in society, then the church's acts of liberation are required for justice. As all persons are sinners, so also all societies are oppressive in one form or another.
The liberation of the slaves in Exodus continues in principle in the gospel of Luke as described in Luke 4:18-19---a radical mission statement about the kingdom of God. The Messiah comes to liberate his people with a special concerned for the oppressed poor. A stern word for the oppressor:
"Biblical justice does not permit hiding from personal responsibility. . . . The first word of God to the oppressor is rebuke. Oppressors prefer to think that justice can be done without rebuke, without condemnation, without punishment. 'Righteousness works in two directions. Positively, it brings liberation to the righteous; negatively, it damns the godless'"
The story of the exploiter Zacchaeus illustrates some important points. Jesus initiates the confrontation. In the presence of pure love and justice, Zacchaeus realizes his sin and acts with repentance and restitution.
Oppression and justice have to do with relationships and community.
Chapter 5: Injustice and the Oppressed
Knowing that God is on their side, the oppressed must resist oppression. Outcry, even anger and rage, is an appropriate response though usually not violence. Also repudiation: "refusing to permit oppressors to define reality." Also refusing cheap reconciliation---a reconciliation without justice. And resolve---determination to resist even to the point of death. And rebellion: "The Hebrew midwives . . . rebelled against their oppressors. They refused to obey their oppressors decree."
Chapter 6: Injustice and the Oppressor
The oppressor is called to respect---to recognize that everyone is created in the image of God and has dignity and rights. Also responsibility: the justice of involvement:
"I would urge, against much of the contemporary discussion of justice, that justice does not begin in respect of rights. Justice begins in responsibility. But the language of rights is not distinctively biblical. The language of duty or responsibility [and love] is more biblical."
We have a responsibility to see to it that the operation of social structures is just; a responsibility for the church to give a preferential option for the poor because biblically the poor are a litmus test for justice; a responsibility to do acts of solidarity with the poor.
We must recognize, admit our past wrongs and then act to correct them. Rebuke may be needed to force recognition as Nathan did with David. Recognition should lead to repentance; repentance should result in public "renunciation and reparations." In the U.S., there was a call from blacks for reparations. "The white churches and synagogues simply tried to share a little of their abundance without any pain or any real shift in power." Oppressors are masters at nickel-and-diming an issue to death, making only minor cosmetic changes to appease the oppressed. This is not biblical justice because the system of oppression continues on as before. Reparations are a costly type of restitution; genuine biblical repentance leads to restitution. Reparations "restore the balance of power, repay the debt, and reestablish right relationship."
See next blog for Part 4.
"Human justice is born in relationship with God." God is love; God loves justice; God desires justice to be done in society. If social oppression is the norm in society, then the church's acts of liberation are required for justice. As all persons are sinners, so also all societies are oppressive in one form or another.
The liberation of the slaves in Exodus continues in principle in the gospel of Luke as described in Luke 4:18-19---a radical mission statement about the kingdom of God. The Messiah comes to liberate his people with a special concerned for the oppressed poor. A stern word for the oppressor:
"Biblical justice does not permit hiding from personal responsibility. . . . The first word of God to the oppressor is rebuke. Oppressors prefer to think that justice can be done without rebuke, without condemnation, without punishment. 'Righteousness works in two directions. Positively, it brings liberation to the righteous; negatively, it damns the godless'"
The story of the exploiter Zacchaeus illustrates some important points. Jesus initiates the confrontation. In the presence of pure love and justice, Zacchaeus realizes his sin and acts with repentance and restitution.
Oppression and justice have to do with relationships and community.
Chapter 5: Injustice and the Oppressed
Knowing that God is on their side, the oppressed must resist oppression. Outcry, even anger and rage, is an appropriate response though usually not violence. Also repudiation: "refusing to permit oppressors to define reality." Also refusing cheap reconciliation---a reconciliation without justice. And resolve---determination to resist even to the point of death. And rebellion: "The Hebrew midwives . . . rebelled against their oppressors. They refused to obey their oppressors decree."
Chapter 6: Injustice and the Oppressor
The oppressor is called to respect---to recognize that everyone is created in the image of God and has dignity and rights. Also responsibility: the justice of involvement:
"I would urge, against much of the contemporary discussion of justice, that justice does not begin in respect of rights. Justice begins in responsibility. But the language of rights is not distinctively biblical. The language of duty or responsibility [and love] is more biblical."
We have a responsibility to see to it that the operation of social structures is just; a responsibility for the church to give a preferential option for the poor because biblically the poor are a litmus test for justice; a responsibility to do acts of solidarity with the poor.
We must recognize, admit our past wrongs and then act to correct them. Rebuke may be needed to force recognition as Nathan did with David. Recognition should lead to repentance; repentance should result in public "renunciation and reparations." In the U.S., there was a call from blacks for reparations. "The white churches and synagogues simply tried to share a little of their abundance without any pain or any real shift in power." Oppressors are masters at nickel-and-diming an issue to death, making only minor cosmetic changes to appease the oppressed. This is not biblical justice because the system of oppression continues on as before. Reparations are a costly type of restitution; genuine biblical repentance leads to restitution. Reparations "restore the balance of power, repay the debt, and reestablish right relationship."
See next blog for Part 4.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Justice in An Unjust World, Part 2
Chapter Two: Christian Complicity
Oppression in and of itself is a horror. But it becomes a double horror when Christians become part of the system of oppression and then rationalize their participation as the will go God. Christians should be part of the answer, not part of the problem. But again and again in American history, Christians such as the Puritans have either been silent about oppression or been participants in oppression. At times Christians have even created a twisted theology to rationalize their oppression, i.e., a theology of slavery. Lebacqz comments:
"Christian views toward poverty have been ambivalent. On the one hand, poverty is seen as a curse, a punishment from God. On the other hand, poverty is seen as a special state given by God for some reason. In either case, however, the result is the same: the poor are made to feel that they are to blame for their poverty and that nothing can or should be done about it. Mark 14:7 ("The poor you will always have with you") is used to keep the poor in their place and diffuse efforts to better their conditions. . . . poverty and the plight of the poor have taken a back seat to the protection of the property rights of the rich."
Theology regarding the poor and oppressed has often been shallow and based on distorted proof texts.
The Puritans claimed to be a biblical people chosen by God to set up a Christian nation. Their sense of chosenness quickly degenerated into an arrogant ethnocentrism when they began to treat Indians as Canaanites to be destroyed. Puritans killed whole villages---men, women and children; they paid money for the scalps of Indians. Their religiously based ethnocentrism led to acts of oppression. Puritans thought they were doing the will of God.
A summary comment by Lebacqz:
"The church itself often does not practice what it preaches. It preaches equality, love, and justice, but it practices inequality, exclusion, and discrimination. The greatest challenge for the African women, declares one church member, is in the church itself."
Chapter Three: On Ethical Method in an Unjust World
Lebacqz warns about ethical theory which wittingly or unwittingly supports the oppressors
by failing to see the brutal realities of oppression. She says that two noted writers on justice, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, both fail to take "current injustices as a beginning place for deriving a theory of justice."
"Both Rawls and Nozick reveal certain Western liberal biases. For example, both operate on an individualistic understanding of human nature that does not cohere with the collective understanding of many cultures. Both ignore class analysis and the conflictual elements that such analysis would bring. Neither attends to the differences between oppressor and oppressed and to the possible implications of this difference for a theory of justice.
"Hence, the logic in both theories tends in fact to support the [oppressive] status quo. This support is demonstrated clearly in the affirmation each gives to modern capitalist systems."
To correct past theological and philosophical errors, we need to adopt an 'epistemological privilege' to see and interpret the Scriptures from the standpoint of the poor and oppressed. Any attempt to create universal principles must be relevant to the historical realities of a specific oppressed people, be relevant to the quality of social relationships, be relevant to the doing of justice. If these things are not done, "scholarship can be a tool of oppression." Scholarship can and should be a "tool of liberation" from oppression, of finding effective ways to do justice.
Next blog, Part 3
Oppression in and of itself is a horror. But it becomes a double horror when Christians become part of the system of oppression and then rationalize their participation as the will go God. Christians should be part of the answer, not part of the problem. But again and again in American history, Christians such as the Puritans have either been silent about oppression or been participants in oppression. At times Christians have even created a twisted theology to rationalize their oppression, i.e., a theology of slavery. Lebacqz comments:
"Christian views toward poverty have been ambivalent. On the one hand, poverty is seen as a curse, a punishment from God. On the other hand, poverty is seen as a special state given by God for some reason. In either case, however, the result is the same: the poor are made to feel that they are to blame for their poverty and that nothing can or should be done about it. Mark 14:7 ("The poor you will always have with you") is used to keep the poor in their place and diffuse efforts to better their conditions. . . . poverty and the plight of the poor have taken a back seat to the protection of the property rights of the rich."
Theology regarding the poor and oppressed has often been shallow and based on distorted proof texts.
The Puritans claimed to be a biblical people chosen by God to set up a Christian nation. Their sense of chosenness quickly degenerated into an arrogant ethnocentrism when they began to treat Indians as Canaanites to be destroyed. Puritans killed whole villages---men, women and children; they paid money for the scalps of Indians. Their religiously based ethnocentrism led to acts of oppression. Puritans thought they were doing the will of God.
A summary comment by Lebacqz:
"The church itself often does not practice what it preaches. It preaches equality, love, and justice, but it practices inequality, exclusion, and discrimination. The greatest challenge for the African women, declares one church member, is in the church itself."
Chapter Three: On Ethical Method in an Unjust World
Lebacqz warns about ethical theory which wittingly or unwittingly supports the oppressors
by failing to see the brutal realities of oppression. She says that two noted writers on justice, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, both fail to take "current injustices as a beginning place for deriving a theory of justice."
"Both Rawls and Nozick reveal certain Western liberal biases. For example, both operate on an individualistic understanding of human nature that does not cohere with the collective understanding of many cultures. Both ignore class analysis and the conflictual elements that such analysis would bring. Neither attends to the differences between oppressor and oppressed and to the possible implications of this difference for a theory of justice.
"Hence, the logic in both theories tends in fact to support the [oppressive] status quo. This support is demonstrated clearly in the affirmation each gives to modern capitalist systems."
To correct past theological and philosophical errors, we need to adopt an 'epistemological privilege' to see and interpret the Scriptures from the standpoint of the poor and oppressed. Any attempt to create universal principles must be relevant to the historical realities of a specific oppressed people, be relevant to the quality of social relationships, be relevant to the doing of justice. If these things are not done, "scholarship can be a tool of oppression." Scholarship can and should be a "tool of liberation" from oppression, of finding effective ways to do justice.
Next blog, Part 3
Justice in an Unjust World
Justice in an Unjust World was written by Karen Lebacqz in 1987. Lebacqz wrote her doctoral dissertation at Harvard which was later published as Six Theories of Justice: Perspectives from Philosophical and Theological Ethics. She essentially concluded that the best of Western scholars who wrote about justice did not fully understand justice What was the fundamental flaw in their theories? Where they began to construct their theory; none of them began with injustice, with oppression. None of them, brilliant though they were, personally knew the pain, the horror of oppression.
Their pursuit of an understanding of justice was too rational, too philosophical. By contrast, oppression is primarily relationship issue between the oppressor and the oppressed, an experience. Before one tries to develop a theory of justice, a person must personally listen to the cries, the voices, the stories of the oppressed. Only after you have personally felt some of the agony of the oppressed, should you begin the pursuit of a theory, a theology, of justice. Personally, I needed 35 years of living in black communities, including a personal tour by John Perkins of rural black Mississippi. John and Vera Mae some of their own personal stories of oppression.
Lebacqz is brilliant, wise and radical. Every reader of her book will be offended at some point; all readers will be forced to rethink what they now know about oppression and justice. Evangelicals especially will need to heed the message of this book because they lack a well thought out theology of society. Far too many white evangelicals side with the oppressive status quo which protects their white superiority and privilege. A terrible thing for professed Christians to do. There is so much poor teaching, partial teaching or even false teaching in the church that we desperately need a wise, biblical teacher to guide us.
Some fine Christian scholars such as Nicholas Wolterstorff and Stephen Mott have written some good books on justice (Until Justice and Peace Embrace; Justice: Rights and Wrongs; and Biblical Ethics and Social Change). But the studies could have been much improved by an in-depth biblical study of oppression. Thomas Hanks is the only Biblical Hebrew scholar who has done a complete analysis of the Hebrew roots for oppression (God So Loved The Third World; The Biblical Vocabulary of Oppression, 1983). From Hanks I learned that biblically oppression means to crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kills person created in the image of God. Hanks summarizes: "Oppression smashed the body and crushes the spirit." Only after a person grasps the HORROR of oppression, can one understand and develop a PASSIONATE concern for justice. Few white Christians I know have developed a horror about oppression.
Lebacqz does begin with injustice---the stories of the oppressed. She lets the oppressed speak for themselves. For her oppression is a social/historical experience and fact, not primarily a philosophical category. Only after a person begins with the horror of oppression, can one move to reason, history, tradition and revelation. Then we can stop oppression and do justice.
Chapter One: "The Reign of Injustice
Unfortunately, injustice is pervasive, everywhere. Yet, if a person is middle or upper class, one may be only dimly aware of most oppression because the same system that is oppressing the poor is directly or indirectly benefiting them. So such a person needs to take a different type of vacation, live among the oppressed for a while, see the "tears from the slums." From the perspective of the slums:
"Mang Juan, a peasant leader, suggests that people live in two different worlds: 'you live in the world of the birds of the air, and we, in that of the fishes of the sea.' The implications of these two worlds are profound: birds move fast 'because they fly,' argues Manganese's Juan. But 'when we fishes move, we move slower because we have to swim in an ocean . . . of usury, tenancy, and other unjust forces' 'very few of the educated people will come into our world and see the reality of our problems and aspirations from our point of view."
Lebacqz claims her book is a genuine attempt to see oppression and justice through the eyes of the oppressed. A person who tries to understand the poor apart from understanding oppression will likely point out the flaws of the poor (blame the victim) instead of seeing the flaws of the oppressed. In fact, such a person may indeed from benefit oppression or even be the oppressor but deny it.
Lebacqz tells the story of a black South African woman, Johanna Masilele, who was a victim of "sexual, racial, economic, political, cultural and social injustice." For the rest of the chapter, she investigates each of these forms of oppression primarily through the personal stories supported by sociological and historical facts. Even the language, the rhetoric, of oppression is discussed.
"Injustices feed each other. Political injustice reinforces economic injustice. Verbal injustice supports ethnic and sexual injustice. Ethnic injustice is used to undergird political injustice. The result is a WEB OF INJUSTICE that ensnares and destroys those within it"
To be followed by Part 2 in next blog.
Their pursuit of an understanding of justice was too rational, too philosophical. By contrast, oppression is primarily relationship issue between the oppressor and the oppressed, an experience. Before one tries to develop a theory of justice, a person must personally listen to the cries, the voices, the stories of the oppressed. Only after you have personally felt some of the agony of the oppressed, should you begin the pursuit of a theory, a theology, of justice. Personally, I needed 35 years of living in black communities, including a personal tour by John Perkins of rural black Mississippi. John and Vera Mae some of their own personal stories of oppression.
Lebacqz is brilliant, wise and radical. Every reader of her book will be offended at some point; all readers will be forced to rethink what they now know about oppression and justice. Evangelicals especially will need to heed the message of this book because they lack a well thought out theology of society. Far too many white evangelicals side with the oppressive status quo which protects their white superiority and privilege. A terrible thing for professed Christians to do. There is so much poor teaching, partial teaching or even false teaching in the church that we desperately need a wise, biblical teacher to guide us.
Some fine Christian scholars such as Nicholas Wolterstorff and Stephen Mott have written some good books on justice (Until Justice and Peace Embrace; Justice: Rights and Wrongs; and Biblical Ethics and Social Change). But the studies could have been much improved by an in-depth biblical study of oppression. Thomas Hanks is the only Biblical Hebrew scholar who has done a complete analysis of the Hebrew roots for oppression (God So Loved The Third World; The Biblical Vocabulary of Oppression, 1983). From Hanks I learned that biblically oppression means to crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kills person created in the image of God. Hanks summarizes: "Oppression smashed the body and crushes the spirit." Only after a person grasps the HORROR of oppression, can one understand and develop a PASSIONATE concern for justice. Few white Christians I know have developed a horror about oppression.
Lebacqz does begin with injustice---the stories of the oppressed. She lets the oppressed speak for themselves. For her oppression is a social/historical experience and fact, not primarily a philosophical category. Only after a person begins with the horror of oppression, can one move to reason, history, tradition and revelation. Then we can stop oppression and do justice.
Chapter One: "The Reign of Injustice
Unfortunately, injustice is pervasive, everywhere. Yet, if a person is middle or upper class, one may be only dimly aware of most oppression because the same system that is oppressing the poor is directly or indirectly benefiting them. So such a person needs to take a different type of vacation, live among the oppressed for a while, see the "tears from the slums." From the perspective of the slums:
"Mang Juan, a peasant leader, suggests that people live in two different worlds: 'you live in the world of the birds of the air, and we, in that of the fishes of the sea.' The implications of these two worlds are profound: birds move fast 'because they fly,' argues Manganese's Juan. But 'when we fishes move, we move slower because we have to swim in an ocean . . . of usury, tenancy, and other unjust forces' 'very few of the educated people will come into our world and see the reality of our problems and aspirations from our point of view."
Lebacqz claims her book is a genuine attempt to see oppression and justice through the eyes of the oppressed. A person who tries to understand the poor apart from understanding oppression will likely point out the flaws of the poor (blame the victim) instead of seeing the flaws of the oppressed. In fact, such a person may indeed from benefit oppression or even be the oppressor but deny it.
Lebacqz tells the story of a black South African woman, Johanna Masilele, who was a victim of "sexual, racial, economic, political, cultural and social injustice." For the rest of the chapter, she investigates each of these forms of oppression primarily through the personal stories supported by sociological and historical facts. Even the language, the rhetoric, of oppression is discussed.
"Injustices feed each other. Political injustice reinforces economic injustice. Verbal injustice supports ethnic and sexual injustice. Ethnic injustice is used to undergird political injustice. The result is a WEB OF INJUSTICE that ensnares and destroys those within it"
To be followed by Part 2 in next blog.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Purposes of Anointing
March 26 my pastor preached a sermon on anointing using the story of Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfumed oil. She mentioned three occasions for anointing: death, healing, a king. I thought of three other purposes that Jesus mentioned in Luke 4:18-19. He said he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach good news to the poor, to release the oppressed and to proclaim and do Jubilee justice.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Has Truth Perished?
In the March 29, 2017 issue of Christian century, Brian Bantum, black theology professor at Seattle Pacific University, asks the question, "Who gets to interpret me?" Or this question could be rephrased, "How does society define me?" Or "Who in society oppresses me?"
Far too often, in American history, rich, white, males have defined who Brian is. Sometimes it has been religious, rich, white, males who have defined who everyone in society is; in other words, they have played the role of God. And they have passed and enforced laws based on these flawed definitions.
Professor Bantum begins his article in this way:
"They say it's best to avoid conversations about religion, sex, and politics. . . . Foolishly or not, I tend not to heed it. But recently I have found myself in strange territory. Not simply angry or frustrated, but lost---as though we were all looking out the same window yet describing different worlds. Again and again, conversation on these subjects conjure Babel. We want to see and know God, but it all ends in chaos and confusion." Standards of truth have disappeared replaced by deception and lies. We talk past each other on issues such as Black Lives Matter and gay people and a host of other social and political issues.
Race is a white "social construction." "For centuries bodies like mine have been read [by rich, white, males] as dangerous, unwholesome, deviant, and. unqualified."
Bantum refers to Gal. 3:28 where Paul refers to Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. During Paul's time Jews defined Gentiles as inferior and unclean; the gulf was wide and unbridgeable. The socioeconomic gap between slave and owner was huge; so also the gap between male and female. In Christ, these sinful distinctions had to go, both theologically and socially, especially in the church community.
Bantum refers often to the Protestant Reformation as a time of "profound cultural and political upheaval. . . . a church struggling to gain its bearings in a radically shifting social, religious, and cultural moment. . . .a crisis of truth." Bantum does not refer to Jeremiah 7, but I see in this chapter another "crisis of truth" and obedience to that truth.
Jeremiah declares that truth has perished, disappeared, even in the sacred Temple. "Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies." The people from top to bottom, including prophets and priests, were doctoring the biblical truths, twisting words such as shalom to cause people to ignore idolatry and oppression, making people think "Everything is fine."
They chose to ignore the biblical truth that Jeremiah was proclaiming:
that the sacred Temple was a den of robbers,
that more lies than truth were spoken in the Temple,
that religious people worshipping in the Temple were oppressing the poor.
The Protestant Reformation was not radical enough; we needed but did not get a Protestant Revolution. The Second Protestant Reformation should include the following four biblical principles: the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God, a combination of love and justice, radical Jubilee justice, and the release of the oppressed of the world.
PS About the same time that Bantum wrote his article in the Christian Century, the Conservative Wall Street Journal published an editorial about Trump's huge credibility problem. And TIME's front page headline blared "Is Truth Dead?" Truth and trust are closely related.
Far too often, in American history, rich, white, males have defined who Brian is. Sometimes it has been religious, rich, white, males who have defined who everyone in society is; in other words, they have played the role of God. And they have passed and enforced laws based on these flawed definitions.
Professor Bantum begins his article in this way:
"They say it's best to avoid conversations about religion, sex, and politics. . . . Foolishly or not, I tend not to heed it. But recently I have found myself in strange territory. Not simply angry or frustrated, but lost---as though we were all looking out the same window yet describing different worlds. Again and again, conversation on these subjects conjure Babel. We want to see and know God, but it all ends in chaos and confusion." Standards of truth have disappeared replaced by deception and lies. We talk past each other on issues such as Black Lives Matter and gay people and a host of other social and political issues.
Race is a white "social construction." "For centuries bodies like mine have been read [by rich, white, males] as dangerous, unwholesome, deviant, and. unqualified."
Bantum refers to Gal. 3:28 where Paul refers to Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. During Paul's time Jews defined Gentiles as inferior and unclean; the gulf was wide and unbridgeable. The socioeconomic gap between slave and owner was huge; so also the gap between male and female. In Christ, these sinful distinctions had to go, both theologically and socially, especially in the church community.
Bantum refers often to the Protestant Reformation as a time of "profound cultural and political upheaval. . . . a church struggling to gain its bearings in a radically shifting social, religious, and cultural moment. . . .a crisis of truth." Bantum does not refer to Jeremiah 7, but I see in this chapter another "crisis of truth" and obedience to that truth.
Jeremiah declares that truth has perished, disappeared, even in the sacred Temple. "Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies." The people from top to bottom, including prophets and priests, were doctoring the biblical truths, twisting words such as shalom to cause people to ignore idolatry and oppression, making people think "Everything is fine."
They chose to ignore the biblical truth that Jeremiah was proclaiming:
that the sacred Temple was a den of robbers,
that more lies than truth were spoken in the Temple,
that religious people worshipping in the Temple were oppressing the poor.
The Protestant Reformation was not radical enough; we needed but did not get a Protestant Revolution. The Second Protestant Reformation should include the following four biblical principles: the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God, a combination of love and justice, radical Jubilee justice, and the release of the oppressed of the world.
PS About the same time that Bantum wrote his article in the Christian Century, the Conservative Wall Street Journal published an editorial about Trump's huge credibility problem. And TIME's front page headline blared "Is Truth Dead?" Truth and trust are closely related.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
My 49 Year Pilgrimage Toward Biblical Justice
My 49 Year Pilgrimage Toward Biblical Justice
During the first 42 years of my life, I fully believed the widespread American ideology that our founding fathers were Christians, that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were almost sacred documents, that this chosen nation had a democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
But in April of 1968, at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, I had a second conversion---a conversion away from American racism and toward social justice. In a divine personal revelation from the Holy Spirit, I was suddenly and keenly aware of the fact that American was racist at its core, and that racism was demonic. American exceptionalism was being used to legitimate evil racism. Since 1968, I have been discovering and working out the biblical, historical and sociological ramifications of oppression and justice.
My latest ramification: the first Reformation did not address oppression and justice. So we need to create a second Reformation built upon these biblical principles: the kingdom of God, love and justice, Jubilee justice and the release of the oppressed peoples of the world.
For the first 15 years after my second conversion, 1968-1983, I used common American terms such as racism and social justice to think with. Most white theologians, pastors and churches had done little scholarship on racism so I turned to four black scholars/activists---Tom Skinner, John Perkins, Martin Luther King and James Cone---and secular sociologists for insights. And I memorized portions of Isaiah 58, Matthew 25 and James 2.
In 1983, I discovered two books written by two Latin American biblical scholars---Thomas Hanks and Elsa Tamez. Before their Spanish books were translated into English, there was no theology on the extensive (555 references to oppression in the OT) biblical teaching on oppression. Since 1983, I have preferred to use the more precise biblical concepts of oppression and ethnocentrism, not racism.
And since 1983-2007, I prefer the Biblical term Jubilee justice over social justice. After reading Kingdom Ethics in which Stassen and Gushee reinterpret the Sermon on the Mount through the Isaiah Messianiac passages, reading Wolterstorff's severe critique of English translations of the NT as having been 'dejusticized', after reading Steven Voth's comparison of Spanish, French and Latin translations of the NT having 100 references to justice whereas the English NIV has only 16, I now use Jubilee justice and kingdom of God justice interchangeably.
During the first 42 years of my life, I fully believed the widespread American ideology that our founding fathers were Christians, that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were almost sacred documents, that this chosen nation had a democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
But in April of 1968, at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, I had a second conversion---a conversion away from American racism and toward social justice. In a divine personal revelation from the Holy Spirit, I was suddenly and keenly aware of the fact that American was racist at its core, and that racism was demonic. American exceptionalism was being used to legitimate evil racism. Since 1968, I have been discovering and working out the biblical, historical and sociological ramifications of oppression and justice.
My latest ramification: the first Reformation did not address oppression and justice. So we need to create a second Reformation built upon these biblical principles: the kingdom of God, love and justice, Jubilee justice and the release of the oppressed peoples of the world.
For the first 15 years after my second conversion, 1968-1983, I used common American terms such as racism and social justice to think with. Most white theologians, pastors and churches had done little scholarship on racism so I turned to four black scholars/activists---Tom Skinner, John Perkins, Martin Luther King and James Cone---and secular sociologists for insights. And I memorized portions of Isaiah 58, Matthew 25 and James 2.
In 1983, I discovered two books written by two Latin American biblical scholars---Thomas Hanks and Elsa Tamez. Before their Spanish books were translated into English, there was no theology on the extensive (555 references to oppression in the OT) biblical teaching on oppression. Since 1983, I have preferred to use the more precise biblical concepts of oppression and ethnocentrism, not racism.
And since 1983-2007, I prefer the Biblical term Jubilee justice over social justice. After reading Kingdom Ethics in which Stassen and Gushee reinterpret the Sermon on the Mount through the Isaiah Messianiac passages, reading Wolterstorff's severe critique of English translations of the NT as having been 'dejusticized', after reading Steven Voth's comparison of Spanish, French and Latin translations of the NT having 100 references to justice whereas the English NIV has only 16, I now use Jubilee justice and kingdom of God justice interchangeably.
Courageous Coretta King
Coretta Scott King was a full peer and partner to her more well known husband, Martin. She tells her story in a 2017 book, My Life, My Love, My Legacy. Loretta describes herself in this way as her life began in Alabama: "a child born in Nowhere, USA, into a race that was virtually disqualified from humanity and a gender condemned to silence." But God turned her life around; at the end of her life, she became a respected citizen of the world, a full human being, and an effective woman leader for nonviolent social change.
First, two quotations:
"Too often, we respond by doing nothing at all and resign ourselves to live with oppression, which is wrong because, as Martin said,"non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good." Or oppose/expose oppression and do justice. "Or we meet violence with violence, creating more social problems and leaving a bitter legacy for the next generation." Both Haiti and the USA were born in violence and throughout history violence has been a tragic part of each nation's life. "Martin's ideology demanded that we confront violence in faith and love, which sometimes means moving directly into the line of fire. That is a call to pick up the Cross of Jesus, to follow him and be prepared to die."
The other quotation is about India's nonviolent achieving of Independence.:
"The Mountbattens [British] and Nehru [Indian] could have been bitter enemies, yet they remained friends, because of Gandhi's policy of love and nonviolence, in which the main objective and ideal aftermath of a nonviolent revolution is reconciliation and the creation of the Beloved Community. . . . a new relationship of friendship between the oppressed and the oppressor."
CSK and MLK were genuine partners not only in marriage but also in ministry---civil rights movement and human rights, in love, nonviolence, reconciliation and the Beloved Community. Also in courage and commitment. Without Loretta as a full partner, Martin wouldn't have made it. Martin correctly said of Coretta "If I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Loretta, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions."
Though rarely recognized as such, Loretta was Martin's peer and full partner in ministry. After you read her memoir, you will understand why I write this glowing praise.
First, two quotations:
"Too often, we respond by doing nothing at all and resign ourselves to live with oppression, which is wrong because, as Martin said,"non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good." Or oppose/expose oppression and do justice. "Or we meet violence with violence, creating more social problems and leaving a bitter legacy for the next generation." Both Haiti and the USA were born in violence and throughout history violence has been a tragic part of each nation's life. "Martin's ideology demanded that we confront violence in faith and love, which sometimes means moving directly into the line of fire. That is a call to pick up the Cross of Jesus, to follow him and be prepared to die."
The other quotation is about India's nonviolent achieving of Independence.:
"The Mountbattens [British] and Nehru [Indian] could have been bitter enemies, yet they remained friends, because of Gandhi's policy of love and nonviolence, in which the main objective and ideal aftermath of a nonviolent revolution is reconciliation and the creation of the Beloved Community. . . . a new relationship of friendship between the oppressed and the oppressor."
CSK and MLK were genuine partners not only in marriage but also in ministry---civil rights movement and human rights, in love, nonviolence, reconciliation and the Beloved Community. Also in courage and commitment. Without Loretta as a full partner, Martin wouldn't have made it. Martin correctly said of Coretta "If I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Loretta, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions."
Though rarely recognized as such, Loretta was Martin's peer and full partner in ministry. After you read her memoir, you will understand why I write this glowing praise.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Socialism for the Rich
In the April 2017 issue of Sojourners, Jim Wallis has one of his finest editorials titled "Robin Hood in Reverse." Or "Socialism for the Rich." Wallis begins:
"The richest eight people [mostly rich white Americans] in the world, according to an Oxfam report this January, own more wealth between them than the poorest 50 percent of humanity---3.6 billion people. . . . simply grotesque."
What has happened since the 2008 crash? "To put it bluntly, the class of the people who had the most to do with causing the crisis ended up benefiting the most from it."
Is there a measure of white privilege? White privilege comes in large part from free land (Indian Removal) and free labor (slavery and sharecropping); or the fruits of centuries of white ethnocentrism and oppression, not primarily because of white hard work or brilliance.
"As the Pew Research Center documented in 2014, the median white household in the U.S. is 13 times wealthier than the median black household and 10 times wealthier than the median Latino household."
Currently, the redistribution is to the rich; instead, biblically, the redistribution should be towards the poor. The rich control the political and economic systems and they write the laws to favor them.
"Unfortunately, Congress seems committed to passing large tax cuts that will again disproportionately benefit the wealthy, . . . . One of the greatest political hypocrites of the modern political era will be to watch President Donal Trump, the self-heralded champion of the common person, become the great implementer of these massive tax cuts for wealthy people like him."
True, but socialism for the rich began well before Trump.
"The richest eight people [mostly rich white Americans] in the world, according to an Oxfam report this January, own more wealth between them than the poorest 50 percent of humanity---3.6 billion people. . . . simply grotesque."
What has happened since the 2008 crash? "To put it bluntly, the class of the people who had the most to do with causing the crisis ended up benefiting the most from it."
Is there a measure of white privilege? White privilege comes in large part from free land (Indian Removal) and free labor (slavery and sharecropping); or the fruits of centuries of white ethnocentrism and oppression, not primarily because of white hard work or brilliance.
"As the Pew Research Center documented in 2014, the median white household in the U.S. is 13 times wealthier than the median black household and 10 times wealthier than the median Latino household."
Currently, the redistribution is to the rich; instead, biblically, the redistribution should be towards the poor. The rich control the political and economic systems and they write the laws to favor them.
"Unfortunately, Congress seems committed to passing large tax cuts that will again disproportionately benefit the wealthy, . . . . One of the greatest political hypocrites of the modern political era will be to watch President Donal Trump, the self-heralded champion of the common person, become the great implementer of these massive tax cuts for wealthy people like him."
True, but socialism for the rich began well before Trump.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Oppression Damage or Cultural Dysfunction
Walter Williams has written an editorial titled "Blacks Must Stop Being Liberal Pawns." But Williams does not tell the whole story. He should tell the rest of the story in another article called "Whites Must Stop Being Oppressors of Blacks." White oppression causes black dysfunction. Nine out off ten whites will agree with Williams because he lets them off the hook. If it is the blacks' fault, then whites need not repent.
If you leave the 400 years of white political, economic and criminal justice systems of oppression out of the analysis, then Williams wins the argument. If you have only read Williams, but not Michelle Alexander (The NewJim Crow) or Joy Leary (Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome), then Williams wins the argument that blacks are highly criminal. If you have not deeply pondered Exodus, chapter one, Exodus 6:1-9; James 5:1-6 and James, chapter two, then Williams wins the argument.
400 years of unending oppression have caused deep damage; in modern terminology, PTSD or PTSS in individuals, families and communities. To ignore white oppression in a discussion of black criminality, is dishonest, unethical and hypocritical.
In the last generation, we have learned that soldiers who suffer from PTSD are not weak, crazy or flawed human beings. An external force, an external trauma---war---has caused their deep dysfunction. It would be a terrible thing to falsely blame them---the victim of trauma---for their dysfunction. Those who sent them into an unjust war are to blame.
Yet we constantly blame blacks for their dysfunction. Not only have blacks been traumatized by 4000 years of oppression, but also, today, two systems of oppression are continuing the trauma---unjust mass incarceration and the vast racial wealth gap.
For some whites, 'criminalblackman' has replaced the 'n' word in their vocabulary.
Do we blame blacks because whites want to maintain their superior position in society and their white economic privilege? Are we too self-righteous to repent, restitute and repair? I can understand why white secular Americans would want to preserve their white superiority and white privilege at any cost. But white American Christians doing the same seems to contradict the Bible.
If you leave the 400 years of white political, economic and criminal justice systems of oppression out of the analysis, then Williams wins the argument. If you have only read Williams, but not Michelle Alexander (The NewJim Crow) or Joy Leary (Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome), then Williams wins the argument that blacks are highly criminal. If you have not deeply pondered Exodus, chapter one, Exodus 6:1-9; James 5:1-6 and James, chapter two, then Williams wins the argument.
400 years of unending oppression have caused deep damage; in modern terminology, PTSD or PTSS in individuals, families and communities. To ignore white oppression in a discussion of black criminality, is dishonest, unethical and hypocritical.
In the last generation, we have learned that soldiers who suffer from PTSD are not weak, crazy or flawed human beings. An external force, an external trauma---war---has caused their deep dysfunction. It would be a terrible thing to falsely blame them---the victim of trauma---for their dysfunction. Those who sent them into an unjust war are to blame.
Yet we constantly blame blacks for their dysfunction. Not only have blacks been traumatized by 4000 years of oppression, but also, today, two systems of oppression are continuing the trauma---unjust mass incarceration and the vast racial wealth gap.
For some whites, 'criminalblackman' has replaced the 'n' word in their vocabulary.
Do we blame blacks because whites want to maintain their superior position in society and their white economic privilege? Are we too self-righteous to repent, restitute and repair? I can understand why white secular Americans would want to preserve their white superiority and white privilege at any cost. But white American Christians doing the same seems to contradict the Bible.
Steps to Releasing the Oppressed
Required Steps to Releasing the Oppressed
Oppression has run rampant from biblical times (555 references to oppression and its synonyms in the OT) to modern times and on every continent. For example, Haiti has suffered from 500 years of Spanish, French and American external oppression plus internal oppression by Haitian dictators and an elite.
Tragically, the church has little or no theology of oppression, little theology and practice of Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed. The oppressed of the world immediately need thousands of experts on oppression, on Jubilee justice, on the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God. Remember, biblically, oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit. Are we going to stand idly by while thousands more bodies are smashed and thousands more spirits are crushed causing PTSD/PTSS?
Here are some specific steps we can and must take:
1. Read James 5:1-6 to learn God's perspective on arrogant rich oppression. Summarize in one sentence.
2. The two NT key verses on how to release the oppressed: Luke 4:18-19 and Mt. 6:33 "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." A key OT verse, Amos 5:24 (The Message): "I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it."
3. James 1:27: "Pure religion---minister to orphans and widows---the oppressed poor."
4. James 2: honor/favor the oppressed poor.
5. Think long term; in one location/community for a whole generation.
6. Two or three couples relocate among the oppressed under indigenous leadership.
7. Read A Quiet Revolution by John Perkins; At Home with the Poor by Jean Thomas; The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
8. Attend the week long Chicago April Immersion on Christian Community Development sponsored by CCDA.
For those flying to Haiti: as you are between Miami and Port-au-Prince, read again Exodus, chapter one and James 5:1-6.
As you drive by the horrible slums of Port-au-Prince, remember that you are seeing more than terrible poverty, you are seeing the results of 500 years of oppression. Some of the rich oppressors are living in the hills above the city.
When you you arrive on Fond-des-Blancs. reread James 5:1-6 and Luke 4:18-19.
Oppression has run rampant from biblical times (555 references to oppression and its synonyms in the OT) to modern times and on every continent. For example, Haiti has suffered from 500 years of Spanish, French and American external oppression plus internal oppression by Haitian dictators and an elite.
Tragically, the church has little or no theology of oppression, little theology and practice of Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed. The oppressed of the world immediately need thousands of experts on oppression, on Jubilee justice, on the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God. Remember, biblically, oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit. Are we going to stand idly by while thousands more bodies are smashed and thousands more spirits are crushed causing PTSD/PTSS?
Here are some specific steps we can and must take:
1. Read James 5:1-6 to learn God's perspective on arrogant rich oppression. Summarize in one sentence.
2. The two NT key verses on how to release the oppressed: Luke 4:18-19 and Mt. 6:33 "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." A key OT verse, Amos 5:24 (The Message): "I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it."
3. James 1:27: "Pure religion---minister to orphans and widows---the oppressed poor."
4. James 2: honor/favor the oppressed poor.
5. Think long term; in one location/community for a whole generation.
6. Two or three couples relocate among the oppressed under indigenous leadership.
7. Read A Quiet Revolution by John Perkins; At Home with the Poor by Jean Thomas; The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
8. Attend the week long Chicago April Immersion on Christian Community Development sponsored by CCDA.
For those flying to Haiti: as you are between Miami and Port-au-Prince, read again Exodus, chapter one and James 5:1-6.
As you drive by the horrible slums of Port-au-Prince, remember that you are seeing more than terrible poverty, you are seeing the results of 500 years of oppression. Some of the rich oppressors are living in the hills above the city.
When you you arrive on Fond-des-Blancs. reread James 5:1-6 and Luke 4:18-19.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Palm Sunday: Parade or Protest
Was Palm Sunday was a peaceful parade or a prophetic protest? The following ideas come from the March 15, 2017 Christian Century, "Reflections on the lectionary."
"Jesus' retinue is a crowd of common people---people seeking hope and justice, . . . . his first act is to cleanse the Temple, driving out merchants and money-changers. . . . Jesus appropriates the symbols of the prophet. . . . the town is in an uproar---a shaking (eseisthe), like the earthquake that strikes days later as Jesus dies. But even as the city explodes in chaos, the crowds do not really know whom they are greeting or what his full agenda is. . . . All of which leads me to wonder: as we enter Palm Sunday this year, instead of a sweet children's parade, . . . what if we treated this day as the protest it really was."
Some additional thoughts: The so-called cleansing of the Temple, Jesus called "a den of robbers." This phrase comes from Jeremiah 7; it is important to read 7:1-15 for context of this hugely prophetic action. In other words, the whole religion-politico-economic system was corrupt and oppressive---a religiously legitimated system of oppression.
The current religious system needed to be replaced by a new agenda---the kingdom of God which is described in some detail in Isaiah's Messianic passages---9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-4.
"Jesus' retinue is a crowd of common people---people seeking hope and justice, . . . . his first act is to cleanse the Temple, driving out merchants and money-changers. . . . Jesus appropriates the symbols of the prophet. . . . the town is in an uproar---a shaking (eseisthe), like the earthquake that strikes days later as Jesus dies. But even as the city explodes in chaos, the crowds do not really know whom they are greeting or what his full agenda is. . . . All of which leads me to wonder: as we enter Palm Sunday this year, instead of a sweet children's parade, . . . what if we treated this day as the protest it really was."
Some additional thoughts: The so-called cleansing of the Temple, Jesus called "a den of robbers." This phrase comes from Jeremiah 7; it is important to read 7:1-15 for context of this hugely prophetic action. In other words, the whole religion-politico-economic system was corrupt and oppressive---a religiously legitimated system of oppression.
The current religious system needed to be replaced by a new agenda---the kingdom of God which is described in some detail in Isaiah's Messianic passages---9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-4.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Rivers or Trickles of Justice
Rivers or Trickles of Justice
In the light of the unjust mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males and the massive racial wealth gap in America, we need oceans of justice, rivers of fairness (Amos 5:24, The Message), not just trickles of justice or fragments of justice. For the most part, the American church is either silent about oppression or far too often a participant in systems of oppression, rarely a vigorous and active doer of comprehensive Jubilee justice.
With a few exceptions such as CCDA, Sojourners and IJM, most of the American church fits the James 2 (The Message) description "God-talk [about justice] without God-acts is outrageous nonsense."
For the direct opposite of biblical justice, read Allan Bean's article "How corporate Evangelicalism elected a president." Far too much of American evangelicalism has been a reflection of Mississippi evangelicalism---justification without justice.
In the light of the unjust mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males and the massive racial wealth gap in America, we need oceans of justice, rivers of fairness (Amos 5:24, The Message), not just trickles of justice or fragments of justice. For the most part, the American church is either silent about oppression or far too often a participant in systems of oppression, rarely a vigorous and active doer of comprehensive Jubilee justice.
With a few exceptions such as CCDA, Sojourners and IJM, most of the American church fits the James 2 (The Message) description "God-talk [about justice] without God-acts is outrageous nonsense."
For the direct opposite of biblical justice, read Allan Bean's article "How corporate Evangelicalism elected a president." Far too much of American evangelicalism has been a reflection of Mississippi evangelicalism---justification without justice.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Capitalism: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Capitalism: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
The following insights have been gleaned from Capitalism and Christians: Tough Gospel Challenges in a Troubled World Economy by Arthur Jones by Arthur Jones, 1992. Jones is Catholic and he draws heavily from Catholic social teaching. His academic background is economics; his experience lies in writing and editing for business and financial magazines.
In addition to writing on business, finance and economics, Jones has also spent years writing about poverty. In addition to the marketplace, an ethical base is needed.
Jones asserts that "though I love business, . . . I don't like capitalism." Jones likes small and medium sized businesses, but he disapproves of modern, large, corporate capitalism as practiced in modern America.
For Jones, much of corporate capitalism, is ugly capitalism, oppressive capitalism. It is: "a) detrimental to the common good, b) injurious to the planet [pollution], c) 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 religious ones, and seeks legitimation from Judeo-Christian values. Corporations dominate the world economy; and they widen income and wealth inequality.
What are the alternatives to ugly, corporate capitalism? Certainly not ugly communism. But how about cooperatives such as is found among the Basque in northern Spain. They founded a cooperative movement called Mondragon. Mondragon was founded after the Spanish Civil War by a Catholic priest. In 1987, there were 172 worker owned cooperatives that employed 20,000 people:
"Mondragon embraces ninety-four industrial cooperatives that manufacture everything from machine tools to refrigerators to auto parts; nine agribusinesses from cattle raising to forestry; seventeen housing cooperatives and forty-four educational facilities; a supermarket chain with two hundred and twenty-five outlets, plus research and development assistance centers. During the 1981-1986 recession, not one job was lost---workers took home eighty percent of their previous pay, worked longer hours, but they were doing it for themselves, their community and their fellow workers.'
Mondragon is based on Catholic social teaching.
More on economic inequality. What explains America's current racial wealth divide? America's top expert on our racial wealth gap, Thomas Shapiro, has done it again. See the review of his brand new 2017 book titled The Asset Value of Whiteness in the Chuck Collins weekly blog inequality@1ps-dc.org
See also an older but very good book, 1954, Money and Power by Jacques Ellul; the following are excerpts of a review that I wrote:
One cannot Christianize the rich and the powerful. First, they will have to repent, change and restitute. "The Communist party is a typical example of the rich and powerful as described in the Scripture. It is the party that uses the poor, quite a different thing from being a party of the poor."
"The Bible plants the poor in the very center of truth and Life. Mt. 25 is God's question to us; it demands a response. God adopts the poor in order to put us all in question. The church needs to continually hear this question because the church is largely the church of the comparatively rich."
"Scripture shows us that the rich do not like this question at all, and this is why they do not like the poor at all. The rich build their wealth on the poverty of the poor; they are rich and they deprive the poor of their wages (James 2:2-6 and 5:1-6)."
The rich emphasize their rights, but neglect their responsibilities. The rich put property rights ahead of people responsibility. The rich need the poor to humanize them.
The following insights have been gleaned from Capitalism and Christians: Tough Gospel Challenges in a Troubled World Economy by Arthur Jones by Arthur Jones, 1992. Jones is Catholic and he draws heavily from Catholic social teaching. His academic background is economics; his experience lies in writing and editing for business and financial magazines.
In addition to writing on business, finance and economics, Jones has also spent years writing about poverty. In addition to the marketplace, an ethical base is needed.
Jones asserts that "though I love business, . . . I don't like capitalism." Jones likes small and medium sized businesses, but he disapproves of modern, large, corporate capitalism as practiced in modern America.
For Jones, much of corporate capitalism, is ugly capitalism, oppressive capitalism. It is: "a) detrimental to the common good, b) injurious to the planet [pollution], c) 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 religious ones, and seeks legitimation from Judeo-Christian values. Corporations dominate the world economy; and they widen income and wealth inequality.
What are the alternatives to ugly, corporate capitalism? Certainly not ugly communism. But how about cooperatives such as is found among the Basque in northern Spain. They founded a cooperative movement called Mondragon. Mondragon was founded after the Spanish Civil War by a Catholic priest. In 1987, there were 172 worker owned cooperatives that employed 20,000 people:
"Mondragon embraces ninety-four industrial cooperatives that manufacture everything from machine tools to refrigerators to auto parts; nine agribusinesses from cattle raising to forestry; seventeen housing cooperatives and forty-four educational facilities; a supermarket chain with two hundred and twenty-five outlets, plus research and development assistance centers. During the 1981-1986 recession, not one job was lost---workers took home eighty percent of their previous pay, worked longer hours, but they were doing it for themselves, their community and their fellow workers.'
Mondragon is based on Catholic social teaching.
More on economic inequality. What explains America's current racial wealth divide? America's top expert on our racial wealth gap, Thomas Shapiro, has done it again. See the review of his brand new 2017 book titled The Asset Value of Whiteness in the Chuck Collins weekly blog inequality@1ps-dc.org
See also an older but very good book, 1954, Money and Power by Jacques Ellul; the following are excerpts of a review that I wrote:
One cannot Christianize the rich and the powerful. First, they will have to repent, change and restitute. "The Communist party is a typical example of the rich and powerful as described in the Scripture. It is the party that uses the poor, quite a different thing from being a party of the poor."
"The Bible plants the poor in the very center of truth and Life. Mt. 25 is God's question to us; it demands a response. God adopts the poor in order to put us all in question. The church needs to continually hear this question because the church is largely the church of the comparatively rich."
"Scripture shows us that the rich do not like this question at all, and this is why they do not like the poor at all. The rich build their wealth on the poverty of the poor; they are rich and they deprive the poor of their wages (James 2:2-6 and 5:1-6)."
The rich emphasize their rights, but neglect their responsibilities. The rich put property rights ahead of people responsibility. The rich need the poor to humanize them.
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