Israel was judged by God and sent into Babylonian exile for three major sins: idolatry, immorality and injustice/oppression. In exile, Daniel, a righteous and holy person, confessed Israel's national sins as if they were his own. Read Daniel nine.
America's national sins, past and present, are also idolatry/ethnocentrism, widespread rape of the oppressed, and massive injustice/oppression. I have not heard any white American Daniel confess our national sins, which are many, as Daniel did.
Idolatry/ethnocentrism: white Americans/WASPs believe they were chosen by God to establish a Christian nation, that they are exceptional. If so, they should be exceptionally holy, just.
This means that all non-whites are not chosen by God, they are not special nor equal. And WASPs treated Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans as if they were inferior. WASPs killed, murdered, stole land ruthlessly, without mercy.
With oppression, rape is often widespread. Fannie Lou Hamer's grandmother, a slave, gave birth to 20 half-white offspring (raped at least 20 times?). An estimated 70 percent of American blacks have some white blood flowing in their veins.
Free land (stolen from Indians and Mexicans) and free or cheap labor (slaves and Mexicans) played a huge part in America's economic productivity and wealth. White economic privilege---the fruit of oppression.
All of white America needs to pray the Daniel 9 prayer and then do Nehemiah 5---repentance and restitution.
To summarize the negative side of American history:
1. Mass murder/genocide
2. Mass rape of people and land
3. Mass theft of land and labor
4. Mass white ethnocentrism and white oppression; not just a few rotten apples.
5. All of the above demonic activity was necessary to establish a Christian nation.
P.S. Today we would need to add mass incarceration and mass armament.
Tragic conclusion: After hundreds of years of American history, there is still no mass repentance and restitution by the American church for its mass silence or participation in white superiority and white economic privilege.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
A Radical Kingdom of God Revolution Desperately Needed
Michelle Alexander states and summarizes in her excellent book The New Jim Crow that in America we never really end systems of oppression, though white Americans think we do and historians say we do; we really only redesign our efficient and deadly systems of oppression. We whites benefit from these systems of oppression; much of our enormous wealth is generated from the oppression of generations of Native Americans and black Americans.
The abolitionists thought they were leading a major revolution, but it turned out that abolished legal slavery was soon replaced by legal segregation, economic sharecropping oppression, prison gang slavery and lynching---not much of an improvement over slavery.
Why this failure? White Americans never fully repent, change, restitute, repair the damage oppression has done. Some reforms, but never revolutionary change.
The brilliant and passionate, Michelle Alexander, declares that nothing less than revolutionary change will end the unjust, racially based, mass incarceration of young, black and Latino males.
Over my 90 years I have not found many white Christians who have taken Jesus' call to repent seriously, deeply as the only way to enter the kingdom of God. Few are willing to renounce and reject white superiority and white economic privilege. So white generated systems of oppression continue on generation after generation---slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, massive economic inequality. I see few signs of revolutionary white repentance today; is a Babylonian exile just around the corner?
Here is some documentation from the pen of Michelle Alexander:
"Much of black progress is a myth."
"Although some African Americans are doing very well, . . . as a group, African Americans are doing no better than they were when Martin Luther King was assassinated [1968] . . . .Nearly one-fourth of African Americans live below the poverty line today, approximately the same as in 1968. The child poverty rate is actually higher today than it was then."
"When the incarcerated population is counted in unemployment and poverty rates, the best of times for the rest of America [the Clinton years] have been among the worst of times particularly for black men."
Without a complete shift in white morals, values, "the racial caste system will emerge in a new form" even if mass incarceration is ended. Martin Luther King's Dream never emerged; instead, it has been an 'ongoing racial nightmare.'
"The criminalization and demonization of black men is one habit white America seems unlikely to break without addressing head-on the racial dynamics that have given rise to successive caste systems."
Nothing less than the just biblical kingdom of God will suffice.
Black men are demonized by demonic white oppressors. White oppressors blame black inferiority, not white oppression. Generations of white oppression have caused enormous damage among blacks---poverty, illness, illiteracy, PTSD, rape, etc. Oppression damages every area of life. According to the OT, oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves and kills persons created in the image of God. Oppression causes black dysfunction---individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction.
The white oppressor propaganda machine incessantly puts the blame on blacks. They have succeeded in convincing most whites and some blacks that blacks are inferior and dysfunctional.
Unless they repent and engage in massive restitution, white oppressors should be sent into Babylonian exile, put on a desert island, sent into Outer Mongolia or sent on a one way trip to Mars.
The abolitionists thought they were leading a major revolution, but it turned out that abolished legal slavery was soon replaced by legal segregation, economic sharecropping oppression, prison gang slavery and lynching---not much of an improvement over slavery.
Why this failure? White Americans never fully repent, change, restitute, repair the damage oppression has done. Some reforms, but never revolutionary change.
The brilliant and passionate, Michelle Alexander, declares that nothing less than revolutionary change will end the unjust, racially based, mass incarceration of young, black and Latino males.
Over my 90 years I have not found many white Christians who have taken Jesus' call to repent seriously, deeply as the only way to enter the kingdom of God. Few are willing to renounce and reject white superiority and white economic privilege. So white generated systems of oppression continue on generation after generation---slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, massive economic inequality. I see few signs of revolutionary white repentance today; is a Babylonian exile just around the corner?
Here is some documentation from the pen of Michelle Alexander:
"Much of black progress is a myth."
"Although some African Americans are doing very well, . . . as a group, African Americans are doing no better than they were when Martin Luther King was assassinated [1968] . . . .Nearly one-fourth of African Americans live below the poverty line today, approximately the same as in 1968. The child poverty rate is actually higher today than it was then."
"When the incarcerated population is counted in unemployment and poverty rates, the best of times for the rest of America [the Clinton years] have been among the worst of times particularly for black men."
Without a complete shift in white morals, values, "the racial caste system will emerge in a new form" even if mass incarceration is ended. Martin Luther King's Dream never emerged; instead, it has been an 'ongoing racial nightmare.'
"The criminalization and demonization of black men is one habit white America seems unlikely to break without addressing head-on the racial dynamics that have given rise to successive caste systems."
Nothing less than the just biblical kingdom of God will suffice.
Black men are demonized by demonic white oppressors. White oppressors blame black inferiority, not white oppression. Generations of white oppression have caused enormous damage among blacks---poverty, illness, illiteracy, PTSD, rape, etc. Oppression damages every area of life. According to the OT, oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves and kills persons created in the image of God. Oppression causes black dysfunction---individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction.
The white oppressor propaganda machine incessantly puts the blame on blacks. They have succeeded in convincing most whites and some blacks that blacks are inferior and dysfunctional.
Unless they repent and engage in massive restitution, white oppressors should be sent into Babylonian exile, put on a desert island, sent into Outer Mongolia or sent on a one way trip to Mars.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Memorial Day Memo
Memorial Day Memo
1. Today we honor our veterans including my brothers Joe, Dale, Russell and the one who recently passed away at age 94, Weston.
But I have a radical idea. Cut the military budget in half and use the billions saved to train a million peacekeepers or better yet, peace builders, or better yet community developers, or better yet builders of beloved communities. Close one half of our overseas bases and convert them into community development centers including training people how to start cooperatives.
It took only one sermon on "beloved community" from the lips of Martin Luther King and one course in non-violent social change to turn the teenager John Lewis into a fearless and effective civil rights movement leader.
Would this not be an effective anti-terrorism strategy---a million peace-builders building schools, medical clinics, cooperatives, etc., etc? Under the supervision of national local churches or NGOs, teams of two, three or more could fan out across the world spreading the gospel of love and justice. After serving for two, three or four years, these peace-builders would return to the U.S. and become among our best citizens.
Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
2. Monuments and Memorials
Should the ten U.S. who owned slaves been impeached including Washington and Jefferson?
The beautiful St. Louis Arch was built to celebrate the spread of Western civilization all the way to the Pacific Coast. Manifest Destiny fulfilled!!
But it also celebrates the end of Indian culture west of the Mississippi---the near genocide of both people and their culture including the near extinction of the buffalo.
So also the Washington Monument which hovers over the new African American Museum honors our first president. But our first president was a filthy rich, slaveholder.
Our criminal justice system is necessary for law and order in society. But throughout American history, it has also been the tragic enforcer of racial oppression, racial profiling. Our criminal justice arrested runaway slaves but not evil slaveholders who often raped slaves.
3. The Gettysburg Address
On Sunday, in our Methodist Church, the Gettysburg Address was read with great enthusiasm as a part of the American gospel---the white American gospel. The GA is eloquent but one-sided, eloquent but dishonest, eloquent but half-myth.
Many of our founding fathers, such as Washington and Jefferson, were filthy rich, slaveholders. So the ending, beautiful sentence---"a government of the people, by the people, and for the people" is not true. More accurate is---a government of the rich, white, male elite, by the rich, white, male elite, and for the rich, white, male elite.
Liberty and justice for all? Liberty for the filthy, rich slaveholder, but no liberty nor justice for slaves, women, the poor nor Native Americans.
Soon after the Civil War, the Gilded Age arrived, another era of the filthy rich. The filthy rich had made a killing during the Civil War. Lincoln saw it coming with alarm.
America recently elected another filthy, rich person as president. Elected by white evangelicals, no less.
American Christians who believe the whole Bible seem to ignore Luke 6:24: "Woe to the rich!"
1. Today we honor our veterans including my brothers Joe, Dale, Russell and the one who recently passed away at age 94, Weston.
But I have a radical idea. Cut the military budget in half and use the billions saved to train a million peacekeepers or better yet, peace builders, or better yet community developers, or better yet builders of beloved communities. Close one half of our overseas bases and convert them into community development centers including training people how to start cooperatives.
It took only one sermon on "beloved community" from the lips of Martin Luther King and one course in non-violent social change to turn the teenager John Lewis into a fearless and effective civil rights movement leader.
Would this not be an effective anti-terrorism strategy---a million peace-builders building schools, medical clinics, cooperatives, etc., etc? Under the supervision of national local churches or NGOs, teams of two, three or more could fan out across the world spreading the gospel of love and justice. After serving for two, three or four years, these peace-builders would return to the U.S. and become among our best citizens.
Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
2. Monuments and Memorials
Should the ten U.S. who owned slaves been impeached including Washington and Jefferson?
The beautiful St. Louis Arch was built to celebrate the spread of Western civilization all the way to the Pacific Coast. Manifest Destiny fulfilled!!
But it also celebrates the end of Indian culture west of the Mississippi---the near genocide of both people and their culture including the near extinction of the buffalo.
So also the Washington Monument which hovers over the new African American Museum honors our first president. But our first president was a filthy rich, slaveholder.
Our criminal justice system is necessary for law and order in society. But throughout American history, it has also been the tragic enforcer of racial oppression, racial profiling. Our criminal justice arrested runaway slaves but not evil slaveholders who often raped slaves.
3. The Gettysburg Address
On Sunday, in our Methodist Church, the Gettysburg Address was read with great enthusiasm as a part of the American gospel---the white American gospel. The GA is eloquent but one-sided, eloquent but dishonest, eloquent but half-myth.
Many of our founding fathers, such as Washington and Jefferson, were filthy rich, slaveholders. So the ending, beautiful sentence---"a government of the people, by the people, and for the people" is not true. More accurate is---a government of the rich, white, male elite, by the rich, white, male elite, and for the rich, white, male elite.
Liberty and justice for all? Liberty for the filthy, rich slaveholder, but no liberty nor justice for slaves, women, the poor nor Native Americans.
Soon after the Civil War, the Gilded Age arrived, another era of the filthy rich. The filthy rich had made a killing during the Civil War. Lincoln saw it coming with alarm.
America recently elected another filthy, rich person as president. Elected by white evangelicals, no less.
American Christians who believe the whole Bible seem to ignore Luke 6:24: "Woe to the rich!"
Friday, May 26, 2017
The Four American Narratives
In a remarkably insightful op-ed, David Brooks (NYT, The Four American Narratives) discusses four current ideologies for America, all of which he rejects as inadequate for modern America.
Brooks begins with the ideal of America, a Judeo-Christian story, new promised land, that Brooks asserts no longer holds today. "But that civic mythology no longer unifies." Brooks apparently believes this civic mythology was once real in America. If so, it was only true for a rich, white, male elite, for WASPs. And at the expense of Native Americans, African Americans, women and the poor.
The Judeo-Christian mythology was riddled with white ethnocentrism and white oppression. Whites, WASPs have never repented, restituted of this monstrous social evil.
The four rival and inadequate narratives are: the libertarian narrative, globalized America, multicultural America, and the America First narrative.
Then Brooks mentions two more narratives suggested by Michael Lind: the mercantilist model---"the one major power in competition with rival powers." The second narrative is "the talented community" which includes the poor.
A final paragraph by Brooks:
"The mercantilist model sees America as a new Rome, a mighty fortress in a dangerous world. The talented community sees America as a new Athens, a creative crossroads leading an open and fundamentally harmonious world. It is an Exodus story for an information age."
Athens is better than Rome, but we need a Jerusalem story. The kingdom of God narrative goes beyond the Exodus story. It fulfills the Law and the Prophets---love and justice; it is a justice that releases the oppressed.
Brooks begins with the ideal of America, a Judeo-Christian story, new promised land, that Brooks asserts no longer holds today. "But that civic mythology no longer unifies." Brooks apparently believes this civic mythology was once real in America. If so, it was only true for a rich, white, male elite, for WASPs. And at the expense of Native Americans, African Americans, women and the poor.
The Judeo-Christian mythology was riddled with white ethnocentrism and white oppression. Whites, WASPs have never repented, restituted of this monstrous social evil.
The four rival and inadequate narratives are: the libertarian narrative, globalized America, multicultural America, and the America First narrative.
Then Brooks mentions two more narratives suggested by Michael Lind: the mercantilist model---"the one major power in competition with rival powers." The second narrative is "the talented community" which includes the poor.
A final paragraph by Brooks:
"The mercantilist model sees America as a new Rome, a mighty fortress in a dangerous world. The talented community sees America as a new Athens, a creative crossroads leading an open and fundamentally harmonious world. It is an Exodus story for an information age."
Athens is better than Rome, but we need a Jerusalem story. The kingdom of God narrative goes beyond the Exodus story. It fulfills the Law and the Prophets---love and justice; it is a justice that releases the oppressed.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Anti-Terrorism or Anti-Oppression
Anti-Terrorism or Anti-Oppression
Anti-Oppression measures should take priority over anti-terrorism measures. Right now all the emphasis is on anti-terrorism. Anti-oppression means we, as a nation, must take a hard look inward. U.S. imperialism, ethnocentrism, oppression in Iraq was a primary factor in the rise of ISIS.
A people always needs to expose internal social evil before concentrating on external evil. In NT times, most Jews focused on the very real oppression connected with the Roman occupation of Palestine. But Jesus did not focus on the external evil. Instead his emphasis was on the system of oppression located in the sacred Temple (Matthew 23) that was controlled by the rich politico-religio-economic elite.
The U.S. oppressed and exploited Iran before Iran made the U.S. its main enemy and invaded our embassy.
If Canada had treated the U.S. like America has treated Iran and Iraq, we would have invaded Canada long ago.
Anti-Oppression measures should take priority over anti-terrorism measures. Right now all the emphasis is on anti-terrorism. Anti-oppression means we, as a nation, must take a hard look inward. U.S. imperialism, ethnocentrism, oppression in Iraq was a primary factor in the rise of ISIS.
A people always needs to expose internal social evil before concentrating on external evil. In NT times, most Jews focused on the very real oppression connected with the Roman occupation of Palestine. But Jesus did not focus on the external evil. Instead his emphasis was on the system of oppression located in the sacred Temple (Matthew 23) that was controlled by the rich politico-religio-economic elite.
The U.S. oppressed and exploited Iran before Iran made the U.S. its main enemy and invaded our embassy.
If Canada had treated the U.S. like America has treated Iran and Iraq, we would have invaded Canada long ago.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Review of Hillbilly Elegy
Thirty-one year J.D. Vance, himself an Appalachian white of Scots-Irish descent, has written his memoir titled Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, 2016. It has quickly become a New York Times bestseller, deservedly so. Much the same that has happened to Appalachian whites has happened to African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans and other ethnic groups who have the misfortune of meeting ethnocentric and oppressive White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who arrogantly assume they are God's favorites.
On the surface, there is much documentation of widespread individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction. Unfortunately, this will be the takeaway that many readers conclude. But if the reader reflects deeply, possibly reads the book a second time, she will discover hints that it is rich, white oppression that precedes and causes poor white dysfunction. Never forget, oppression causes dysfunction; dysfunction does not cause dysfunction unless it has become so deeply ingrained because of generations of oppression that it does become self-perpetuating.
After reading The Truly Disadvantaged and Losing Ground, Vance concluded that though these book were written about inner city blacks that "they had described my home [family, town, culture] perfectly."
Vance writes several pages about ACEs or adverse childhood experiences or childhood PTSD. Trauma by definition is caused by an outside force, not an inner weakness or inferiority. Oppression, for example, causes trauma. Some of the most common ACEs are:
* "being sworn at, insulted, or humiliated by parents.
* being pushed, grabbed, or having something thrown at you.
* feeling that your family didn't support each other.
* having parents who were separated or divorced.
* living with an alcoholic or a drug user.
* living with someone who was depressed or attempted suicide.
* watching a loved one be physically abused."
Vance experienced all of these traumas. Vance writes that "ACEs happen everywhere, in every community. But studies have shown that ACEs are far more common among" hillbilly culture. "Children with multiple ACEs are more likely to struggle with anxiety and depression, to suffer from heart disease and obesity, and to contract certain types of cancers. . . . constant stress can actually change the chemistry of a child's brain."
"No other country experiences anything like this---[family instability, home chaos]. In France, the percentage of children exposed to three or more maternal partners is 0.5 percent. . . . In the United States, the figure is a shocking 8.2 percent---about one in twelve---and the figure is even higher in the working class. The most depressing part is that relationship instability, like home chaos, is a vicious cycle."
"It's no surprise that every single person in my family who has built a successful home . . . married someone from outside our little culture." As did J.D. Vance.
Vance sadly reports that "chaos begets chaos. Instability begets instability. Welcome to family life for the American hillbilly."
Remember though, that oppression precedes and causes dysfunction; oppression causes trauma and then trauma causes dysfunction
The church needs to specialize in identifying and eliminating systems of oppression. For whites, this begins awfully close to home.
On the surface, there is much documentation of widespread individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction. Unfortunately, this will be the takeaway that many readers conclude. But if the reader reflects deeply, possibly reads the book a second time, she will discover hints that it is rich, white oppression that precedes and causes poor white dysfunction. Never forget, oppression causes dysfunction; dysfunction does not cause dysfunction unless it has become so deeply ingrained because of generations of oppression that it does become self-perpetuating.
After reading The Truly Disadvantaged and Losing Ground, Vance concluded that though these book were written about inner city blacks that "they had described my home [family, town, culture] perfectly."
Vance writes several pages about ACEs or adverse childhood experiences or childhood PTSD. Trauma by definition is caused by an outside force, not an inner weakness or inferiority. Oppression, for example, causes trauma. Some of the most common ACEs are:
* "being sworn at, insulted, or humiliated by parents.
* being pushed, grabbed, or having something thrown at you.
* feeling that your family didn't support each other.
* having parents who were separated or divorced.
* living with an alcoholic or a drug user.
* living with someone who was depressed or attempted suicide.
* watching a loved one be physically abused."
Vance experienced all of these traumas. Vance writes that "ACEs happen everywhere, in every community. But studies have shown that ACEs are far more common among" hillbilly culture. "Children with multiple ACEs are more likely to struggle with anxiety and depression, to suffer from heart disease and obesity, and to contract certain types of cancers. . . . constant stress can actually change the chemistry of a child's brain."
"No other country experiences anything like this---[family instability, home chaos]. In France, the percentage of children exposed to three or more maternal partners is 0.5 percent. . . . In the United States, the figure is a shocking 8.2 percent---about one in twelve---and the figure is even higher in the working class. The most depressing part is that relationship instability, like home chaos, is a vicious cycle."
"It's no surprise that every single person in my family who has built a successful home . . . married someone from outside our little culture." As did J.D. Vance.
Vance sadly reports that "chaos begets chaos. Instability begets instability. Welcome to family life for the American hillbilly."
Remember though, that oppression precedes and causes dysfunction; oppression causes trauma and then trauma causes dysfunction
The church needs to specialize in identifying and eliminating systems of oppression. For whites, this begins awfully close to home.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Odds and Ends: May 2017
1. 2016 Presidential Election
There are many variables that determine the results of an election. I wish to focus on two factors. First, it is widely agreed that the Russians through hacking and release of information gleaned tried to influence the election in favor of Trump. The FBI and James Comey are officially investigating the Russian connection with the Trump campaign. Irony of ironies, Comey himself in talking publicly about Clinton's emails (which amounted to nothing) might have influenced the outcome of the election more than the Russians. A recent study of polls before and after Comey's public comments concluded that Comey's comments alone may have been enough to effect the close election outcome.
2. Practicing Deep Listening or Listening With Care
The following is from Anthony B. Robinson's article in the Christian Century, May 10, 2017 titled "The 'no cross talk' rule."
Robinson refers to Mary who was "clearly an extrovert and a bright person who thrived on a rapid-fire exchange of thoughts and ideas." Could she follow the tough no cross talk guidelines?
"When people refrain from advice and judgmental comments, they create a safety zone."
"If there is no advice given, no fixing or judging, and no care taking, what is it that the group does offer? Listening. Deep listening. Someone was heard---without comment, without rebuttal, without affirmation or applause. It turns out that this is a gift. As David Augsburger puts it, "Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable."
"When we took a break Mary rushed over to me. "That was amazing," she said. "In our group some people spoke who never say anything. Great comments, too. Wow, what insight! . . . I think we heard one another in a new way---at least I know I did." "We may receive the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit."
"Somehow, when we didn't need to worry so much about the outcome or try to control things, it was like we were letting God be part of it; like we were letting or asking God to, well, be God."
3. Reduction of Extreme Poverty
"Some 42 percent of the world's population lived in extreme poverty in 1981, but by 2013 that figure had dropped to 10.7. . . . Economic historians say this radical improvement is unprecedented."
The bad news: the ranks of the poor increased because most of the extreme poor moved up only to slightly less poverty.
4. "A majority of Americans agree that the tax rate should be increased for people earning $250,000 a year or more." 72 percent of all Americans; 58 percent of Republicans agree.
5. Trump Care Bill
Very good news for the rich---massive tax cut. Very bad news for the poor---reduced health care.
There are many variables that determine the results of an election. I wish to focus on two factors. First, it is widely agreed that the Russians through hacking and release of information gleaned tried to influence the election in favor of Trump. The FBI and James Comey are officially investigating the Russian connection with the Trump campaign. Irony of ironies, Comey himself in talking publicly about Clinton's emails (which amounted to nothing) might have influenced the outcome of the election more than the Russians. A recent study of polls before and after Comey's public comments concluded that Comey's comments alone may have been enough to effect the close election outcome.
2. Practicing Deep Listening or Listening With Care
The following is from Anthony B. Robinson's article in the Christian Century, May 10, 2017 titled "The 'no cross talk' rule."
Robinson refers to Mary who was "clearly an extrovert and a bright person who thrived on a rapid-fire exchange of thoughts and ideas." Could she follow the tough no cross talk guidelines?
"When people refrain from advice and judgmental comments, they create a safety zone."
"If there is no advice given, no fixing or judging, and no care taking, what is it that the group does offer? Listening. Deep listening. Someone was heard---without comment, without rebuttal, without affirmation or applause. It turns out that this is a gift. As David Augsburger puts it, "Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable."
"When we took a break Mary rushed over to me. "That was amazing," she said. "In our group some people spoke who never say anything. Great comments, too. Wow, what insight! . . . I think we heard one another in a new way---at least I know I did." "We may receive the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit."
"Somehow, when we didn't need to worry so much about the outcome or try to control things, it was like we were letting God be part of it; like we were letting or asking God to, well, be God."
3. Reduction of Extreme Poverty
"Some 42 percent of the world's population lived in extreme poverty in 1981, but by 2013 that figure had dropped to 10.7. . . . Economic historians say this radical improvement is unprecedented."
The bad news: the ranks of the poor increased because most of the extreme poor moved up only to slightly less poverty.
4. "A majority of Americans agree that the tax rate should be increased for people earning $250,000 a year or more." 72 percent of all Americans; 58 percent of Republicans agree.
5. Trump Care Bill
Very good news for the rich---massive tax cut. Very bad news for the poor---reduced health care.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Legal Evil
Most systems of oppression/evil are legalized; 'law and order' may, at times, be a codeword for oppression. Note Isaiah 10:1-2:
"Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims.
Laws that make misery for the poor
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless poor.
Contrast this with the reason for the coming Messiah, 11:1-4:
"A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse's stump,
The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him.
. . . . . . . . . .
He will judge the needy by what is right,
render decisions on the earth's poor with justice."
Throughout the history of America, presidents, Congress and the Supreme Court have all legislated or legitimated evils such as slavery, segregation and mass incarceration.
Black scholar and activist, Lisa Sharon Harper (The Very Good Gospel) describes how the Constitution, revered by whites, looks to blacks:
"The newly formed United States of America enacted the racialization of power. Congress passed the three-fifths compromise, which increased the number of members in the House of Representatives who represented slave states. Congress determined that each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a human being."
"Three years later Northerners got their way on the first national census in 1790. Enslaved black people were listed as chattel---nonhuman property---along with pitchforks and horses.
"In the same year, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, which declared that only free white men could become naturalized citizens. This was significant because only citizens can vote,"
The U.S. census categories have always been racialized.
"Why does the federal government ask for the nations of origin for Asian and Latino people, tribal affiliation for American Indian people, and include 'Africa American' (a specific ethnic group within the racial category of 'black') but does not ask 'white' people to identify their ethnicity or nation of origin."
"It's because of power. The only category on the national census that did not change from 1790 to 2010 was 'white'. In the United States, whiteness is the centerpiece around which all else revolves. That was and is intentional. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin argued . . . America should be kept an exclusively Anglo-Saxon colony to protect the race." Harper concludes:
"The core lie of Western civilization is that God reserved the power of dominion for some, but not all. Since the Enlightenment era, that lie has been racialized. . . . God reserved the right of dominion for white people and no one else."
I fully agree with Harper's perspective. For a fuller description of legal evil in the U.S., see the book The Color of Law which is a detailed description of how the federal government legalized segregation/oppression in the U.S. Segregated housing was the major contributor to our current 20 to 1 racial wealth gap; 20 to 1, not 2 to 1. Federal law and policies resulted in subsidies for whites; in other words, 'affirmative action' for whites on a massive scale.
"Doom to you who legislate evil,
who make laws that make victims.
Laws that make misery for the poor
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless poor.
Contrast this with the reason for the coming Messiah, 11:1-4:
"A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse's stump,
The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him.
. . . . . . . . . .
He will judge the needy by what is right,
render decisions on the earth's poor with justice."
Throughout the history of America, presidents, Congress and the Supreme Court have all legislated or legitimated evils such as slavery, segregation and mass incarceration.
Black scholar and activist, Lisa Sharon Harper (The Very Good Gospel) describes how the Constitution, revered by whites, looks to blacks:
"The newly formed United States of America enacted the racialization of power. Congress passed the three-fifths compromise, which increased the number of members in the House of Representatives who represented slave states. Congress determined that each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a human being."
"Three years later Northerners got their way on the first national census in 1790. Enslaved black people were listed as chattel---nonhuman property---along with pitchforks and horses.
"In the same year, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, which declared that only free white men could become naturalized citizens. This was significant because only citizens can vote,"
The U.S. census categories have always been racialized.
"Why does the federal government ask for the nations of origin for Asian and Latino people, tribal affiliation for American Indian people, and include 'Africa American' (a specific ethnic group within the racial category of 'black') but does not ask 'white' people to identify their ethnicity or nation of origin."
"It's because of power. The only category on the national census that did not change from 1790 to 2010 was 'white'. In the United States, whiteness is the centerpiece around which all else revolves. That was and is intentional. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin argued . . . America should be kept an exclusively Anglo-Saxon colony to protect the race." Harper concludes:
"The core lie of Western civilization is that God reserved the power of dominion for some, but not all. Since the Enlightenment era, that lie has been racialized. . . . God reserved the right of dominion for white people and no one else."
I fully agree with Harper's perspective. For a fuller description of legal evil in the U.S., see the book The Color of Law which is a detailed description of how the federal government legalized segregation/oppression in the U.S. Segregated housing was the major contributor to our current 20 to 1 racial wealth gap; 20 to 1, not 2 to 1. Federal law and policies resulted in subsidies for whites; in other words, 'affirmative action' for whites on a massive scale.
Philip Yancey: From Hate to Love
Philip Yancey, noted Christian author, was born and raised in the South; he was Christianized in a legalistic, fundamentalist church which went along with a Klan like culture. Fortunately Yancey rejected this cultic brand of Christianity and found a much more biblical God. His book, Soul Survivor, tells about 13 mentors such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi who showed him the more excellent way.
As a teenagers, Yancey witnessed a Klan beating of a group of black males. He comments:
"Although nearly four decades have passed, I can still hear the crowd's throaty rebel yells, the victim's pleas, and the crunch of the Klansmen's bare fists against flesh. And with much shame I still recall the adolescent thrill I felt---my first experience of the mob instinct---mixed in with horror, as I watched that scene transpire.
"Today I feel shame, remorse, and also repentance. It took years for God to break the stranglehold of blatant racism in me---.. . .with perhaps the most toxic societal efforts. When experts discuss the underclass in urban America, they blame in turn drugs, changing values, systemic poverty, and the breakdown of the nuclear family. Sometimes I wonder if all those problems are consequences of a deeper, underlying cause: our centuries-old sin of racism."
Yancey moved from a Klan culture of hate to a King culture of love. She represents radical repentance. Few American whites do this. Good, very good, but not good enough. Yancey does not talk about restitution, rejection of white privilege, and Jubilee justice. Yancey's repentance still does not match the magnitude of America's centuries of continuing racism, even in 2017.
As a teenagers, Yancey witnessed a Klan beating of a group of black males. He comments:
"Although nearly four decades have passed, I can still hear the crowd's throaty rebel yells, the victim's pleas, and the crunch of the Klansmen's bare fists against flesh. And with much shame I still recall the adolescent thrill I felt---my first experience of the mob instinct---mixed in with horror, as I watched that scene transpire.
"Today I feel shame, remorse, and also repentance. It took years for God to break the stranglehold of blatant racism in me---.. . .with perhaps the most toxic societal efforts. When experts discuss the underclass in urban America, they blame in turn drugs, changing values, systemic poverty, and the breakdown of the nuclear family. Sometimes I wonder if all those problems are consequences of a deeper, underlying cause: our centuries-old sin of racism."
Yancey moved from a Klan culture of hate to a King culture of love. She represents radical repentance. Few American whites do this. Good, very good, but not good enough. Yancey does not talk about restitution, rejection of white privilege, and Jubilee justice. Yancey's repentance still does not match the magnitude of America's centuries of continuing racism, even in 2017.
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