Digging deeper on oppression and poverty

The late Archbishop Camara of Brazil is famous for this saying: “If I feed the poor, they call me a saint.   If I ask why the poor are poor, they call me a communist.”

In other words the oppression question is often a very troubling one. 

John Wesley was probably called the equivalent of a saint many times, but I doubt if he was ever called the equivalent of a communist.  

Hebrew scholar Thomas Hanks, after thorough analysis of the 555 references to oppression in the Old Testament, concluded that oppression is the primary cause of poverty.  Sometimes the cause of poverty is laziness or famine, but the principle cause of most poverty is oppression –systems of political and economic oppression.

Being pro poor is good, but alone, not good enough.  John Wesley started a powerful religious movement among the poor later called Methodism.  It manifested a deep love for the poor, but since Wesley never fully understood the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice, he made several huge mistakes. 

Wesley believed in the divine right of kings to rule the people, but unfortunately, most kings rule oppressively.  For Wesley this included not raising fundamental questions about the existing economic system, which during the industrial revolution included exploiting the labor of women and children.

Wesley preached good news to the poor, but he did not release the oppressed. According to Luke 4:18, Jesus said the church is called to do both.  Part of preaching good news to the poor is to release the oppressed.  Wesley failed to release the oppressed so during the next century, God had to raise up a secular atheistic prophet named Marx.  Marx developed a strategy to release the oppressed that unfortunately turned violent. 

Moral of the story:  Never talk about the poor without identifying their oppressors and then developing a strategy to release the oppressed.  It is heresy to preach and practice only ½ of Luke 4:18.  To release the oppressed, demands a comprehensive knowledge of the biblical teaching on oppression and justice.   To my knowledge, no white pastor/church has developed both a comprehensive theology on oppression and a comprehensive theology of justice based on the New Testament.