Dreams or Nightmares?

Nightmares and Dreams

About 25 years ago I wrote the following.

I am haunted by a continuing nightmare, but I am inspired by a beautiful dream.  At this point in American history, my mind and spirit are dominated by the crushing impact of oppression.  I see multiplied millions of people being crushed, humiliated, animalized, enslaved, and killed by white ethnocentrism, racism and oppression, by political and economic oppression in the United States, South Africa and in much of the Third World.  There seems to be no end in sight to this crushing of persons creating in the image of the Almighty God.  The oppressed cry out, "Who will deliver us from this massive and pervasive social evil?"  The answer that echoes back is thundering silence.

By faith, I see the answer in my dream.  The kingdom of God is hovering on the horizon waiting for the people of God to see it and to bring it nigh to the oppressed.  The incarnated kingdom of God could/would lift up the crushed, give dignity to the humiliated, humanize the animalized, liberate the enslaved, and stop the killing of the innocent.

The answer is at hand.  Why is it delayed?  The people of God need the power of the Holy Spirit to incarnate the kingdom of God among the poor and oppressed.  Through a combination of love and justice, this answer can be activated through works of grace.  The Spirit has anointed the church to preach good news to the poor and release the oppressed (Luke 4:18).  The kingdom of God is justice, shalom and joy on the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 14:17).

Recently I created a diagram to clarify oppression damage and cultural dysfunction.

At the top of the diagram are "System and Generations of Oppression."  Next, I list five consequences of oppression:  "illiteracy, poverty, unbelief, trauma and rape."  Then I note how these five factors create "individual, family, community, and cultural dysfunction."  Out of oppression damage and cultural dysfunction, flow "high use of legal and illegal drugs and high incarceration rates."

Next some notes and elaboration of the diagram.

* Isaiah called for the release of the oppressed---Isaiah 58:6.
* Quoting Isaiah 58:6, Jesus said that he came to release the oppressed---Luke 4:18.
* Therefore, the church must give high priority to ministries that release the oppressed.
* The church must intervene at all levels of the diagram; for example, Christian Community Development at the level of family and community dysfunction.

*  Sabbatical and Jubilee laws: release slaves every 7 years; cancel debts every 7 years.  This prevents lifelong or generational oppression. Return land every 50 years; this provides every family a free and fresh start.
* Nehemiah practiced the Sabbatical/Jubilee laws; he ended oppression and restored justice in just a few days/weeks; see chapter 5.

* There are 555 references to oppression and it synonyms in the OT.  Hebrew roots often translated as oppression have the following meanings: crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kill.  How should American white Christians respond?  Repentance, restitution, Jubilee justice, kingdom justice are required to release the oppressed.

* After the oppression cycle is started and has created massive poverty, systems of oppression can end and the poverty can continue on its own.

* Michelle Alexander:  In America we really don't end systems of oppression, though most historians teach that we do; we merely redesign them.  The abolitionist movement ended legal slavery, but it was quickly replaced with segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching.  The civil rights ended legal racial segregation, but it was replaced by informal segregation, class segregation, mass incarceration, and a massive racial wealth gap.

* Recommended reading:  God So Loved the Third World: The Biblical Vocabulary of Oppression; Google "Lowell Noble's Writings"; The New Jim Crow; The Very Good Gospel; America's Original Sin; Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome; Tally's Corner; Hillbilly Elegy.

* Compared to other democracies, America's drug use, trauma rates and incarceration rates are astronomically high.  Why?  Values crisis?  Has the American trinity of individualism, materialism and ethnocentrism replaced the Christian Trinity?