Are you and your church prophetic? Are you stopping oppression and doing justice?
See the January 2018 Sojourners magazine for an article titled, "relentless hope: prophetic imagination in a time of despair." by Kenyatta Gilbert. This article is about Walter Brueggemann's 40 year old book titled The Prophetic Imagination. Kwok Pui-lan asserts "Rarely would you find a classic that speaks so poignantly to today's political situation as it was published 40 years ago."
Will Willimon, Duke Divinity School writes:
"Languishing in a forlorn inner-city parish, in despair at the lack of movement [progress], God gave me Walt's book. I read it cover to cover at one sitting. When I finished, I was born again [a second conversion].
Walt showed me that what my church needed was not my carping criticism, but God's gift of prophetic imagination. This book gave me the guts to work with God in raising the dead through nothing but [prophetic] words. Compromised, too-eager-to-please me, got to be Jeremiah."
From the pen of Gilbert:
"In the Bible, this consciousness echoes through the despair-penetrating hope that Jeremiah and Isaiah offered to exile-weary Israelites. Today, this consciousness reverberates through people such as William Barber II [and John Perkins] who speak out against white nationalism, police violence, and corporate greed to remind us another way is possible.
"The ideological opposite of the prophetic tradition is imperialism. . . . "
Today, we need a church that preaches a 'justice-to-hope' message and practices a 'release the oppressed' gospel.
Pope Francis was speaking prophetically to the Catholic Church when he exhorted it to "leave the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets." I would paraphrase Pope Francis with the following amplification:
"After worship, take the spirituality of the sanctuary with you as you enter into the suffering on the streets where the church becomes flesh---an incarnation of kingdom justice that releases the oppressed and then rebuilds their communities."
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
How British White Supremacy Became American White Supremacy
The following ideas have been gleaned from George M. Fredrickson's White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History, 1981. Fredrickson asserts that :
"white supremacy refers to the attitudes, ideologies, and policies associated with the rise of blatant forms of white or European dominance over 'nonwhite' populations. . . . It suggests systematic and self conscious efforts to make race or color a qualification for membership in the civil community."
The concept of savagery developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and "constituted a distorting lens through which the early colonists assessed the potential and predicted the fate of non-European peoples they encountered." English plans for colonization were first practiced and perfected against the Irish and later applied across the Atlantic. In 1565, the British officially announced their goal to conquer and colonize Ireland:
"Between 1565 and 1576 a serious of colonization enterprises were organized and promoted, involving many of the same West Country gentlemen who were to be leading figures in the earliest projects for English settlements in North America."
"The rationale for expropriating their land and removing them from it was that the Celtic Irish were savages, so wild and rebellious that they could only be controlled by a constant and ruthless exercise of force."
The Christianity of the Irish was weak and superficial and could not control their savage impulses. So the consciences of the British did not bother them as they implemented
"virtually every kind of atrocity that would ever be perpetrated against American Indians---women and children were massacred, and whole communities were uprooted and consigned to special reservations."
Once ethnic cleansing had occurred four-fifths of Northern Ireland was set aside for British and Scottish settlers. Fredrickson states that the Puritans who settled New England were an "intensely ethnocentric English community." So it is not surprising that the British settlers soon labeled Native Americans savages and started oppressing them.
It is not surprising that the French treated Haitians as savages for 200 years and that Americans have also treated Haitian as inferior, second-class citizens for 200 years.
"white supremacy refers to the attitudes, ideologies, and policies associated with the rise of blatant forms of white or European dominance over 'nonwhite' populations. . . . It suggests systematic and self conscious efforts to make race or color a qualification for membership in the civil community."
The concept of savagery developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and "constituted a distorting lens through which the early colonists assessed the potential and predicted the fate of non-European peoples they encountered." English plans for colonization were first practiced and perfected against the Irish and later applied across the Atlantic. In 1565, the British officially announced their goal to conquer and colonize Ireland:
"Between 1565 and 1576 a serious of colonization enterprises were organized and promoted, involving many of the same West Country gentlemen who were to be leading figures in the earliest projects for English settlements in North America."
"The rationale for expropriating their land and removing them from it was that the Celtic Irish were savages, so wild and rebellious that they could only be controlled by a constant and ruthless exercise of force."
The Christianity of the Irish was weak and superficial and could not control their savage impulses. So the consciences of the British did not bother them as they implemented
"virtually every kind of atrocity that would ever be perpetrated against American Indians---women and children were massacred, and whole communities were uprooted and consigned to special reservations."
Once ethnic cleansing had occurred four-fifths of Northern Ireland was set aside for British and Scottish settlers. Fredrickson states that the Puritans who settled New England were an "intensely ethnocentric English community." So it is not surprising that the British settlers soon labeled Native Americans savages and started oppressing them.
It is not surprising that the French treated Haitians as savages for 200 years and that Americans have also treated Haitian as inferior, second-class citizens for 200 years.
Monday, December 18, 2017
What Putin Fears
There is an excellent article in Jan/Feb 2018 The Atlantic by Julia Ioffe titled, "What Putin Really Wants." But as I read further into this article, I concluded that it was primarily about Putin's deep-seated fears of 1) a coming Russian collapse which, of course, would take him down, or 2) a U.S. sponsored regime change which would depose him. One of the reasons he hacked into the U.S. elections was to try to defeat Clinton who he thought would try to depose him.
The following are quotations from the Atlantic article:
"But most Russians don't recognize the Russia portrayed in this [American]story: powerful, organized, and led by an omniscient, omnipotent leader who is able to both formulate and execute a complex and highly detailed plot."
"A businessman who is high up in Putin's United Russia party said, "everything in Russia works poorly. . . . Rosneft --- the state-owned oil giant---doesn't work well. Our health-care system doesn't work well. Our education system doesn't work well. . . . "
And it [hacking of America] is classically Putin, and classically Russian: using daring aggression to mask weakness, to avenge deep resentments, and, at all costs, to survive."
Putin believes: "Under the guise of promoting democracy and human rights, Washington had returned to its Cold War---era policy of deposing and installing foreign leaders. Even the open use of military force was now fair game."
"You toppled the most successful government in North Africa [Libya]. . . . In the end, we got a ruined government. a brutally murdered American ambassador, chaos, and Islamic radicals."
"Putin had always been suspicious of democracy promotion, but two moments convinced him that America was coming for him under its guise." The two recent historical incidents were Libya and the Ukraine. In 2013, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president was overthrown and a pro-Western government installed. "To Putin, it was clear what had happened: American had toppled his closest ally, in a country he regarded as an extension of Russia itself."
"Putin loathes revolutions. . . . Putin governs with the twin collapses of 1917 and 1991 at the forefront of his mind. He fears for himself when another collapse comes. . . . He is constantly trying to avoid it." The weak economy and widespread corruption is leading to an imminent collapse, it is widely believed.
"Meanwhile, the already sluggish Russian economy has lost cheap Western financing, following the imposition of American and European sanctions. Putin's response to those sanctions---banning food imports from the United States and the EU---made food prices climb by double-digit percentages. The economy sank into a recession."
"Ironically, Putin has laid the groundwork for exactly the kind of chaotic collapse that he has spent his political life trying to avoid, the kind of collapse that gave rise to his reign."
The following are quotations from the Atlantic article:
"But most Russians don't recognize the Russia portrayed in this [American]story: powerful, organized, and led by an omniscient, omnipotent leader who is able to both formulate and execute a complex and highly detailed plot."
"A businessman who is high up in Putin's United Russia party said, "everything in Russia works poorly. . . . Rosneft --- the state-owned oil giant---doesn't work well. Our health-care system doesn't work well. Our education system doesn't work well. . . . "
And it [hacking of America] is classically Putin, and classically Russian: using daring aggression to mask weakness, to avenge deep resentments, and, at all costs, to survive."
Putin believes: "Under the guise of promoting democracy and human rights, Washington had returned to its Cold War---era policy of deposing and installing foreign leaders. Even the open use of military force was now fair game."
"You toppled the most successful government in North Africa [Libya]. . . . In the end, we got a ruined government. a brutally murdered American ambassador, chaos, and Islamic radicals."
"Putin had always been suspicious of democracy promotion, but two moments convinced him that America was coming for him under its guise." The two recent historical incidents were Libya and the Ukraine. In 2013, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president was overthrown and a pro-Western government installed. "To Putin, it was clear what had happened: American had toppled his closest ally, in a country he regarded as an extension of Russia itself."
"Putin loathes revolutions. . . . Putin governs with the twin collapses of 1917 and 1991 at the forefront of his mind. He fears for himself when another collapse comes. . . . He is constantly trying to avoid it." The weak economy and widespread corruption is leading to an imminent collapse, it is widely believed.
"Meanwhile, the already sluggish Russian economy has lost cheap Western financing, following the imposition of American and European sanctions. Putin's response to those sanctions---banning food imports from the United States and the EU---made food prices climb by double-digit percentages. The economy sank into a recession."
"Ironically, Putin has laid the groundwork for exactly the kind of chaotic collapse that he has spent his political life trying to avoid, the kind of collapse that gave rise to his reign."
Monday, December 11, 2017
Wanted: Biblical Social Surgeons
Wanted: Thousands of Biblical Social Surgeons
Both my wife and I have had surgery recently; she for a herniated disc; me, hernia surgery. Thanks to skilled surgeons, our surgeries were a success. Correction: thanks to skilled surgical teams---surgeon, anathesiologist, and nurses, our surgeries were successful. Every one on the team had to function at at high level.
But my wife early on was misdiagnosed with a sciatic nerve problem. For two months she suffered from deep pain. While medical diagnosis and surgery is highly skilled and continually improving, social diagnosis of social evils and social surgery is, by comparison, full of erroneous diagnoses and poor quality solutions.
Early on in his ministry (Luke 4:18-30), Jesus precisely identified the two major social evils plaguing Jewish society---internal economic oppression (Luke 4:18) and internal religiously based ethnocentrism (4:25-30). By sharp contrast, in modern America, white evangelical theologians have largely ignored or downplayed white American ethnocentrism and oppression. This theological omission has allowed ethnocentrism and oppression to run rampant, unchecked and unchallenged throughout 400 years of American history. Even today, with some exceptions, the American church is doing little to end enormous economic inequality nor discrimination against all non-white ethnics.
Christian colleges, universities and seminaries need to give high priority to training teams of experts in social diagnosis and social solutions: prophets skilled in analysis/diagnosis; sociologists/social workers to assist in diagnosis and solutions; business persons who create just economic systems. To my knowledge, there is not a single theologian skilled in oppression analysis. We may need to create a new discipline---sociotheology---whose primary assignment would be to understand the biblical teaching on oppression and how to apply these insights to American society.
Without these biblical teams, false prophets will rule the day claiming that there is shalom, shalom while in reality idolatry and oppression are running rampant. American false prophets are claiming freedom, freedom in the absence of justice. Or exceptionalism, exceptionalism without justice.
Without full recognition and rejection of the past and present American ethnocentrism and oppression, without repentance and restitution by the white American church, the evils of the past will continue into the present and also cloud the future. Systems of oppression will, when under pressure, simply be redesigned and renamed. In reality, the oppressed will not be released nor will justice be done on their behalf.
Both my wife and I have had surgery recently; she for a herniated disc; me, hernia surgery. Thanks to skilled surgeons, our surgeries were a success. Correction: thanks to skilled surgical teams---surgeon, anathesiologist, and nurses, our surgeries were successful. Every one on the team had to function at at high level.
But my wife early on was misdiagnosed with a sciatic nerve problem. For two months she suffered from deep pain. While medical diagnosis and surgery is highly skilled and continually improving, social diagnosis of social evils and social surgery is, by comparison, full of erroneous diagnoses and poor quality solutions.
Early on in his ministry (Luke 4:18-30), Jesus precisely identified the two major social evils plaguing Jewish society---internal economic oppression (Luke 4:18) and internal religiously based ethnocentrism (4:25-30). By sharp contrast, in modern America, white evangelical theologians have largely ignored or downplayed white American ethnocentrism and oppression. This theological omission has allowed ethnocentrism and oppression to run rampant, unchecked and unchallenged throughout 400 years of American history. Even today, with some exceptions, the American church is doing little to end enormous economic inequality nor discrimination against all non-white ethnics.
Christian colleges, universities and seminaries need to give high priority to training teams of experts in social diagnosis and social solutions: prophets skilled in analysis/diagnosis; sociologists/social workers to assist in diagnosis and solutions; business persons who create just economic systems. To my knowledge, there is not a single theologian skilled in oppression analysis. We may need to create a new discipline---sociotheology---whose primary assignment would be to understand the biblical teaching on oppression and how to apply these insights to American society.
Without these biblical teams, false prophets will rule the day claiming that there is shalom, shalom while in reality idolatry and oppression are running rampant. American false prophets are claiming freedom, freedom in the absence of justice. Or exceptionalism, exceptionalism without justice.
Without full recognition and rejection of the past and present American ethnocentrism and oppression, without repentance and restitution by the white American church, the evils of the past will continue into the present and also cloud the future. Systems of oppression will, when under pressure, simply be redesigned and renamed. In reality, the oppressed will not be released nor will justice be done on their behalf.
Saturday, December 9, 2017
The Declaration and the Constitution are in Conflict
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are in serious conflict.
The Declaration was a statement to explain and legitimize the American colonial rebellion against the British. The British were tyrants who oppressed the colonialists, denying them freedom and equality. The bedrock principle of the Declaration: "all men are created equal."
The Declaration was a statement of purpose and principle; the Constitution was a governing statement---how this new nation would govern itself. Surprise of surprises! A statement of tyranny, a denial of equality was included in the Constitution. Black slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.
Oppression was built into the Constitution. The founding fathers themselves became tyrants. The oppressed became oppressors. The founding father elite replaced the British elite. The founding fathers failed to practice the principle of the Declaration.
As a result, all through American history the supposed inferiority/inequality of others dominated the supposed equality of all. All non-whites were oppressed. The principle of equality became only a pious platitude.
Bedrock principle or pious platitude or deceptive lie to cover demonic acts. "Liberty and justice for all" or ethnocentrism and oppression for all ethnics. A "government of the people, by the people and for the people" or a government of rich, white males, by rich, white males, and for rich males? A government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite?
Result: Indian genocide, African enslavement, Mexican land theft, etc., etc., became part and parcel of an American tyranny far worse than the British tyranny against the colonies.
The American church needs to lead a national repentance from ethnocentrism and oppression and then initiate a movement of the kingdom of God---a justice that release the oppressed. After that, that rebuilds their damaged communities.
Read Jeremiah 7 for an eerily similar pattern of religious lies and oppression. Read Nehemiah 5 for a model solution.
The Declaration was a statement to explain and legitimize the American colonial rebellion against the British. The British were tyrants who oppressed the colonialists, denying them freedom and equality. The bedrock principle of the Declaration: "all men are created equal."
The Declaration was a statement of purpose and principle; the Constitution was a governing statement---how this new nation would govern itself. Surprise of surprises! A statement of tyranny, a denial of equality was included in the Constitution. Black slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.
Oppression was built into the Constitution. The founding fathers themselves became tyrants. The oppressed became oppressors. The founding father elite replaced the British elite. The founding fathers failed to practice the principle of the Declaration.
As a result, all through American history the supposed inferiority/inequality of others dominated the supposed equality of all. All non-whites were oppressed. The principle of equality became only a pious platitude.
Bedrock principle or pious platitude or deceptive lie to cover demonic acts. "Liberty and justice for all" or ethnocentrism and oppression for all ethnics. A "government of the people, by the people and for the people" or a government of rich, white males, by rich, white males, and for rich males? A government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite?
Result: Indian genocide, African enslavement, Mexican land theft, etc., etc., became part and parcel of an American tyranny far worse than the British tyranny against the colonies.
The American church needs to lead a national repentance from ethnocentrism and oppression and then initiate a movement of the kingdom of God---a justice that release the oppressed. After that, that rebuilds their damaged communities.
Read Jeremiah 7 for an eerily similar pattern of religious lies and oppression. Read Nehemiah 5 for a model solution.
Friday, December 8, 2017
The Second Civil War: 1870-72
General Grant won the first Civil War- 1861-65; President Grant won the second Civil War--1870-72.
I discovered the second Civil War as I read Ron Chernow's excellent biography about Grant. Fearing their loss of control over blacks and facing domination by blacks as they gained the right to vote, in an extreme panic reaction to the Reconstruction, the Klan through terror, violence and murder replaced the normal political and criminal justice system operations in the South. Here is Chernow's description:
"The important story of Grant's presidency was his campaign to crush the Ku Klux Klan. Through the Klan, white supremacists tried to overturn the civil war's outcome and restore the [racist] status quo. No southern sheriff would arrest the hooded night riders who terrorized [and frequently murdered] black citizens and no southern jury would convict them. Grant had to cope with a complete collapse of evenhanded law enforcement in the Confederate states. In 1870 he oversaw creation of the Justice Department, its first duty to bring thousands of anti-Klan indictments. By 1872 the monster had been slain, although its spirit resurfaced as the nation retreated from Reconstruction's lofty aims. Grant presided over the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote, and landmark civil-rights legislation, including the 1875 act outlawing racial discrimination in public places."
Hooray for Grant! But before the century was out, the South, which had lost the War had won the peace as it redesigned a new system of oppression to replace slavery---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynchings.
Lincoln and Grant were great presidents in some ways. Yet their pursuit of justice for blacks ultimately failed in large measure. Why? American whites never rejected the false claims of American exceptionalism nor did they ever repent of white ethnocentrism and oppression. The power of the presidency is more limited than most Americans realize.
Next a broader look at American history that will help explain the power and pervasiveness of white ethnocentrism and oppression.
Shortly before the British colonists invaded America, the British perfected their ethnocentrism and oppression in a brutal conquest of nearby Ireland. Then they brought their religiously legitimated ethnocentrism and oppression (think Puritan) to America. This now American ethnocentrism and oppression has permeated all of American history from the early 1600s down to the present.
From time to time, heroic efforts by Lincoln and King have slowed down or temporarily reversed the American steamroller of ethnocentrism and oppression which has crushed every ethnic group in its path from Indian to Filipino. A severe white backlash usually reverses some of the progress and a new system of oppression is created. In the 1860s and 70s, Lincoln and Grant made valiant to achieve a measure of justice. A major reason for their limited success was the ongoing and deep racism of the North which by the way conducted and profited from control of most of the slave trade; the North also profited from the sale of slave produced cotton to Britain.
The American church is primarily to blame. It never developed a biblical theology about ethnocentrism and oppression nor a good NT theology of justice to replace it.
I discovered the second Civil War as I read Ron Chernow's excellent biography about Grant. Fearing their loss of control over blacks and facing domination by blacks as they gained the right to vote, in an extreme panic reaction to the Reconstruction, the Klan through terror, violence and murder replaced the normal political and criminal justice system operations in the South. Here is Chernow's description:
"The important story of Grant's presidency was his campaign to crush the Ku Klux Klan. Through the Klan, white supremacists tried to overturn the civil war's outcome and restore the [racist] status quo. No southern sheriff would arrest the hooded night riders who terrorized [and frequently murdered] black citizens and no southern jury would convict them. Grant had to cope with a complete collapse of evenhanded law enforcement in the Confederate states. In 1870 he oversaw creation of the Justice Department, its first duty to bring thousands of anti-Klan indictments. By 1872 the monster had been slain, although its spirit resurfaced as the nation retreated from Reconstruction's lofty aims. Grant presided over the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote, and landmark civil-rights legislation, including the 1875 act outlawing racial discrimination in public places."
Hooray for Grant! But before the century was out, the South, which had lost the War had won the peace as it redesigned a new system of oppression to replace slavery---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynchings.
Lincoln and Grant were great presidents in some ways. Yet their pursuit of justice for blacks ultimately failed in large measure. Why? American whites never rejected the false claims of American exceptionalism nor did they ever repent of white ethnocentrism and oppression. The power of the presidency is more limited than most Americans realize.
Next a broader look at American history that will help explain the power and pervasiveness of white ethnocentrism and oppression.
Shortly before the British colonists invaded America, the British perfected their ethnocentrism and oppression in a brutal conquest of nearby Ireland. Then they brought their religiously legitimated ethnocentrism and oppression (think Puritan) to America. This now American ethnocentrism and oppression has permeated all of American history from the early 1600s down to the present.
From time to time, heroic efforts by Lincoln and King have slowed down or temporarily reversed the American steamroller of ethnocentrism and oppression which has crushed every ethnic group in its path from Indian to Filipino. A severe white backlash usually reverses some of the progress and a new system of oppression is created. In the 1860s and 70s, Lincoln and Grant made valiant to achieve a measure of justice. A major reason for their limited success was the ongoing and deep racism of the North which by the way conducted and profited from control of most of the slave trade; the North also profited from the sale of slave produced cotton to Britain.
The American church is primarily to blame. It never developed a biblical theology about ethnocentrism and oppression nor a good NT theology of justice to replace it.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Are Christian Colleges Fully Biblical?
Are Christian Colleges fully biblical?
Though every Christian college, university and seminary in the country will be insulted by my answer, all are biblical flawed, severely so. Here is my documentation.
As a student, I was educated in Christian colleges. As a teacher, I taught at Christian colleges. In my retirement (1994-2010), as a volunteer teacher, I taught at the Perkins Center located in West Jackson, Mississippi where I interacted with numerous mission teams from across the country, many from Christian colleges.
There are, of course, many good things about a Christian college education, but in this blog I will focus on some glaring and disturbing deficiencies.
1. While I was not a history major, I had a brother-in-law who was, the history I was taught was not distinctly Christian; it was essentially a secular history taught by Christians. Only later, through self-education, did I slowly develop a biblical perspective on American history. I will share one key book which revolutionized my thinking. The book: The Wars of America: Christian views.
Around 1980, eight professional Christian historians, each an expert on one of America's many wars, described each war, why we fought, what values drove us into war, why most of our wars were not just wars, why most wars were imperialistic and oppressive.
The American Revolution was analyzed by George Marsden. Marsden concluded that British tyranny was not bad enough to justify a violent revolution. I agree. Here is my further interpretation and application.
The Declaration of Independence was written to justify a violent revolution---independence from British tyranny. But there was also a second unwritten declaration---freedom for the founding fathers to continue their American tyranny over Indians and slaves. This founding father tyranny was far worse than the British tyranny. This was so glaring that John Wesley saw it and therefore opposed the American Revolution. The demonic social evil of slavery was essentially sanctified by our founding fathers.
The Wars of America should be required reading for all Christian college students; I have seen little evidence that it has been widely read.
2. I taught sociology and slowly tried to develop a distinctively Christian sociology or a sociotheology. During the 1980s and early 90s, each June sociologists who taught at Christian colleges would gather to present papers and discuss ideas. I was the only sociologist who thought Christian sociologists could and should develop a distinctly biblical sociology. All others opposed the idea. For them, sociology was an empirical, a scientific, discipline where as theology was a value oriented discipline. The two could not be combined.
Essentially, all these Christian sociologists were teaching a secular discipline; in reality, they were more secular than biblical.
3. From 1994, I was a volunteer at the Perkins Center. Many mission teams from Christian colleges, churches, pastors, seminaries came to learn about Christian Community Development from John Perkins. I asked many of them to write down a one-sentence of the kingdom of God. In my opinion almost all definitions were shallow and superficial; seldom were they present and social definitions. The teams represented the cream of the crop from the American church, but they were biblically ignorant about the essence and purpose of the kingdom of God here on earth.
My definition: The kingdom of God is all about justice, a justice that releases the oppressed (Matthew 6:33 and Luke 4:18-19).
I found the same biblical shallowness about oppression. One spring three mission teams from three different Christian colleges visited the Perkins Center. None of the 40 students had been taught about oppression---the 555 OT references to oppression, that oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit.
The same could be said about justice.
These Christian colleges are biblically shallow on social problems.
Though every Christian college, university and seminary in the country will be insulted by my answer, all are biblical flawed, severely so. Here is my documentation.
As a student, I was educated in Christian colleges. As a teacher, I taught at Christian colleges. In my retirement (1994-2010), as a volunteer teacher, I taught at the Perkins Center located in West Jackson, Mississippi where I interacted with numerous mission teams from across the country, many from Christian colleges.
There are, of course, many good things about a Christian college education, but in this blog I will focus on some glaring and disturbing deficiencies.
1. While I was not a history major, I had a brother-in-law who was, the history I was taught was not distinctly Christian; it was essentially a secular history taught by Christians. Only later, through self-education, did I slowly develop a biblical perspective on American history. I will share one key book which revolutionized my thinking. The book: The Wars of America: Christian views.
Around 1980, eight professional Christian historians, each an expert on one of America's many wars, described each war, why we fought, what values drove us into war, why most of our wars were not just wars, why most wars were imperialistic and oppressive.
The American Revolution was analyzed by George Marsden. Marsden concluded that British tyranny was not bad enough to justify a violent revolution. I agree. Here is my further interpretation and application.
The Declaration of Independence was written to justify a violent revolution---independence from British tyranny. But there was also a second unwritten declaration---freedom for the founding fathers to continue their American tyranny over Indians and slaves. This founding father tyranny was far worse than the British tyranny. This was so glaring that John Wesley saw it and therefore opposed the American Revolution. The demonic social evil of slavery was essentially sanctified by our founding fathers.
The Wars of America should be required reading for all Christian college students; I have seen little evidence that it has been widely read.
2. I taught sociology and slowly tried to develop a distinctively Christian sociology or a sociotheology. During the 1980s and early 90s, each June sociologists who taught at Christian colleges would gather to present papers and discuss ideas. I was the only sociologist who thought Christian sociologists could and should develop a distinctly biblical sociology. All others opposed the idea. For them, sociology was an empirical, a scientific, discipline where as theology was a value oriented discipline. The two could not be combined.
Essentially, all these Christian sociologists were teaching a secular discipline; in reality, they were more secular than biblical.
3. From 1994, I was a volunteer at the Perkins Center. Many mission teams from Christian colleges, churches, pastors, seminaries came to learn about Christian Community Development from John Perkins. I asked many of them to write down a one-sentence of the kingdom of God. In my opinion almost all definitions were shallow and superficial; seldom were they present and social definitions. The teams represented the cream of the crop from the American church, but they were biblically ignorant about the essence and purpose of the kingdom of God here on earth.
My definition: The kingdom of God is all about justice, a justice that releases the oppressed (Matthew 6:33 and Luke 4:18-19).
I found the same biblical shallowness about oppression. One spring three mission teams from three different Christian colleges visited the Perkins Center. None of the 40 students had been taught about oppression---the 555 OT references to oppression, that oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit.
The same could be said about justice.
These Christian colleges are biblically shallow on social problems.
Oppressors, Oppressed, Systems of Oppression
RHD board:
More on oppression:
Old Testament
Oppressors: Pharaoh; Exodus, chapter 1
Rich, religious leaders; Jeremiah 6 and 7
Oppressed: Hebrew slaves; Exodus chapter 1
Poor masses; Jeremiah 6 and 7, Isaiah 61 (NSRV)
System of Oppression: slavery; Exodus 1
temple, "den of robbers" Jeremiah 7
Definition of Oppression: "Oppression smashes the body and crushes
the spirit." Thomas Hanks
Damage caused by Oppression: broken in spirit; individual, family,
community and cultural dysfunction
or mass PTSD; Exodus 6:9
Solution: Justice; Amos 5:24, Lev. 25, Deut. 15, Neh. 5, Isaiah's
Messianic passages: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17:
42:1-4; 61:1-4 (NRSV)
New Testament
Oppressors: rich, religious leaders; Woe to the rich because the rich
oppress the poor. Luke 6:24 and James 2:6.
Oppressed: the poor masses of Palestine, around 80 percent were
poor or near poor. Luke 4:18
System of Oppression: economic/landlords; James 5
temple, "den of robbers" Luke 19:46
Definition of Oppression: "Oppression smashes the body and crushes
the spirit."
Damage caused by Oppression: poor in spirit, spirit of despair, Mt. 5:3
Solution: Jubilee justice, Luke 4:19; kingdom justice, Mt. 6:33 (NEB)
United States
Oppressors:
Oppressed:
System of Oppression:
Definition of Oppression:
Damage caused by Oppression:
Solution:
Haiti
Oppressors:
Oppressed:
System of Oppression:
Definition of Oppression:
Damage caused by Oppression:
Solution:
Definitions of the kingdom of God
"Clear and compelling" or shallow and superficial? Most definitions of the kingdom of God have been shallow and superficial in that they have skirted the difficult issues of justice and oppression.
One theologian surveyed all the theological literature on the kingdom of God that had been written during the last century and he concluded that theology lacked a "clear and compelling" understanding of the biblical kingdom of God. I personally asked hundreds of persons who came to the Perkins Center in Mississippi from all over the United States---from Presbyterian to Pentecostal, from Mennonite to Methodist. No one, no group, including a group of Afro American pastors from New Jersey, provided a clear and compelling definition of the kingdom of God.
John Perkins commented that it often seemed like this was the first time that most of these people had given any serious thought to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God should be a top priority in any person's theology, not an after thought.
John Lewis, when a black teenager in Alabama, heard a radio sermon on "the beloved community" (King's term for the kingdom of God). ONE clear and compelling sermon on the kingdom gave Lewis his life's direction. A few years later, Rev. James Lawson trained Lewis and others how to implement the kingdom in the segregated South. Read The Children.
The following are a variety of definitions of the kingdom of God; you choose your favorite definition:
1. Jesus Christ: justice. "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else." Mt. 6:33, NEB.
I believe this is Jesus' summary of Isaiah's
Messianic passages beginning with 9:7 and ending with 61:1-4
NRSV.
2. Billy Graham: justice for all. Add the kingdom of God as justice for all to the Cross and
Resurrection gospel.
3. Pledge of Allegiance: liberty and justice for all.
4. Sabbatical/ Jubilee laws: cancel debts, free slaves, restore land. These God-designed
for Hebrew society, Hebrew economics, addressed three keys
for any economic system---capital, labor and finance.
5. Isaiah: Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed poor. 61:1-4, NRSV.
6. Luke: Jubilee justice that releases the oppressed poor. Luke 4:18-19, NIV.
7. Isaiah: justice/shalom or justice/peace. 9:7, NIV
8. Paul: justice, shalom and joy (also power and wisdom) in the Holy Spirit. Rom. 14:17.
9. Noble: Jubilee justice releases the oppressed poor; then justice rebuilds, repairs
damaged oppressed communities. Implied: Christian Community Development
and long term partnerships.
10. Noble's second definition: When the Spirit, kingdom and justice are combined, then
the oppressed poor can be released.
Monday, December 4, 2017
White South African Evangelicals
Do white South Africans have the same weaknesses in their theology in the areas of oppression and justice as white American evangelicals do? Yes, but some are recognizing the problem and are beginning to seriously wrestle with the issue.
In July 1986, a group of South African evangelicals published "Evangelical Witness in South Africa," in which they critiqued their own theology and practice in regard to the apartheid racial crisis in South Africa. The full text of this highly important theological document was printed in the January/March 1987 issue of Transformation.
As these South African evangelicals faced their racial crisis, they realized that though they were born again believers, their "theology nevertheless was inadequate to address the crisis. . . . " Their past theology dealt with personal sin, but not with their social oppression. In their document the words oppressed, oppression and oppressors occur 39 times along with many other similar words such as exploitation, injustice and structural sin. By contrast, the positive words such as justice or just 16 times, kingdom of God 7 times, and radical (in the positive biblical sense) 25 times.
I have summarized the key points with the following comments:
1. "We wish to confess that to a large extent the evangelical community has chosen to avoid the socio-political crisis in this country. . . . We wish to confess that our evangelical family has a track record of supporting and legitimating oppressive regimes here and elsewhere. That this family has tended to assume conservative positions which tend to maintain the [oppressive] status quo."
2. Because conformity to secular social structures is often the norm among white evangelicals, they have to rationalize their rejection of the radical kingdom of God that Jesus taught. "In fact, evangelicals go to great lengths claiming Jesus did not teach what he clearly did. We have to, because to admit he taught what he did, would require us either to change (repent) or to criticize him. And neither of these is acceptable." For Jesus, the kingdom was about justice that releases the oppressed.
3. "The problem is that Jesus was a radical and we are moderates."
4. There is one type of oppression that evangelicals do recognize---the dangers of Communist oppression, because this is an oppression which would oppress them. The apartheid system does not oppress them; in fact, they benefit economically from this oppression.
5. Why this selective and limited recognition of social evil? No comprehensive biblical theology of ethnocentrism and oppression. They do not know about the biblical teaching that "oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit."
6. Why this blindness to the full message of the Bible by those who profess to believe every word and thought in the Bible? Cultural conformity? "We must therefore be conscious of how society around us influences and even distorts our thinking."
7. Is there any hope? Things are so bad I think we need a Second Reformation that combines justification and justice, the Holy Spirit and the kingdom as justice that releases the oppressed.
In July 1986, a group of South African evangelicals published "Evangelical Witness in South Africa," in which they critiqued their own theology and practice in regard to the apartheid racial crisis in South Africa. The full text of this highly important theological document was printed in the January/March 1987 issue of Transformation.
As these South African evangelicals faced their racial crisis, they realized that though they were born again believers, their "theology nevertheless was inadequate to address the crisis. . . . " Their past theology dealt with personal sin, but not with their social oppression. In their document the words oppressed, oppression and oppressors occur 39 times along with many other similar words such as exploitation, injustice and structural sin. By contrast, the positive words such as justice or just 16 times, kingdom of God 7 times, and radical (in the positive biblical sense) 25 times.
I have summarized the key points with the following comments:
1. "We wish to confess that to a large extent the evangelical community has chosen to avoid the socio-political crisis in this country. . . . We wish to confess that our evangelical family has a track record of supporting and legitimating oppressive regimes here and elsewhere. That this family has tended to assume conservative positions which tend to maintain the [oppressive] status quo."
2. Because conformity to secular social structures is often the norm among white evangelicals, they have to rationalize their rejection of the radical kingdom of God that Jesus taught. "In fact, evangelicals go to great lengths claiming Jesus did not teach what he clearly did. We have to, because to admit he taught what he did, would require us either to change (repent) or to criticize him. And neither of these is acceptable." For Jesus, the kingdom was about justice that releases the oppressed.
3. "The problem is that Jesus was a radical and we are moderates."
4. There is one type of oppression that evangelicals do recognize---the dangers of Communist oppression, because this is an oppression which would oppress them. The apartheid system does not oppress them; in fact, they benefit economically from this oppression.
5. Why this selective and limited recognition of social evil? No comprehensive biblical theology of ethnocentrism and oppression. They do not know about the biblical teaching that "oppression smashes the body and crushes the spirit."
6. Why this blindness to the full message of the Bible by those who profess to believe every word and thought in the Bible? Cultural conformity? "We must therefore be conscious of how society around us influences and even distorts our thinking."
7. Is there any hope? Things are so bad I think we need a Second Reformation that combines justification and justice, the Holy Spirit and the kingdom as justice that releases the oppressed.
Friday, December 1, 2017
Send Lazarus; We Need Each Other
"There was a rich man . . . at his gate lay a poor man." (Luke 16:19).
Only after it was too late, did the rich man realize that he needed Lazarus; then he cried out in torment "Send Lazarus!"
During his lifetime, the rich man was self-sufficient; he didn't think he needed Lazarus. In fact, Lazarus was probably an embarrassment, sitting on his doorstep. Lazarus, to him, was a nameless nothing who had nothing to give the rich man.
In 1987, I wrote the following meditation on "Send Lazarus."
"Lazarus may have needed the crumbs leftover from the rich man's meal in order to survive, but certainly the rich man did not need Lazarus. The rich man was self-sufficient; he needed neither man nor God. So it seemed. His riches blinded him to truth, to humanity, to justice, and even to God.
"People who feel they are superior to others are half blind and don't know it. The whites of this world often think they are superior to blacks. American Christian whites need to cry out "Send me a black Lazarus to teach me."
"The males of this world often act as if they are superior to females; males, especially rich, white, males, need to cry out "Send me a female Lazarus."
"The masters of this world dominate their slaves. Masters need to cry out "Send me a Lazarus."
It will take teams of persons---males and females, slaves and masters, blacks and whites---to solve some of our deep-seated problems.
WE REALLY DO NEED EACH OTHER.
Only after it was too late, did the rich man realize that he needed Lazarus; then he cried out in torment "Send Lazarus!"
During his lifetime, the rich man was self-sufficient; he didn't think he needed Lazarus. In fact, Lazarus was probably an embarrassment, sitting on his doorstep. Lazarus, to him, was a nameless nothing who had nothing to give the rich man.
In 1987, I wrote the following meditation on "Send Lazarus."
"Lazarus may have needed the crumbs leftover from the rich man's meal in order to survive, but certainly the rich man did not need Lazarus. The rich man was self-sufficient; he needed neither man nor God. So it seemed. His riches blinded him to truth, to humanity, to justice, and even to God.
"People who feel they are superior to others are half blind and don't know it. The whites of this world often think they are superior to blacks. American Christian whites need to cry out "Send me a black Lazarus to teach me."
"The males of this world often act as if they are superior to females; males, especially rich, white, males, need to cry out "Send me a female Lazarus."
"The masters of this world dominate their slaves. Masters need to cry out "Send me a Lazarus."
It will take teams of persons---males and females, slaves and masters, blacks and whites---to solve some of our deep-seated problems.
WE REALLY DO NEED EACH OTHER.
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