The Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year had the same basic
purpose: to give person access to the resources required to provide the
necessities of life.
Sabbatical
The following Scriptural quotations are highlights from Deut. 15
whose basic principle is that, "At the end of every seven years, you must
cancel debts." [RSV "grant a release;" RSV uses the word
release five times in this chapter.] The ideal was that there
"should be no poor among you." There would not be if "you
fully obey the Lord your God," because then "he will richly bless
you."
However, because of the damage of sin, there will be some poor
people. "If there is a poor man among your brothers freely lend him
whatever he needs. . . . Give generously. . . . Supply him liberally. . . .
Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you."
The message is: economic justice requires the periodic
canceling of debts and generous giving to those in need. Could an
economic system really work if the principle of grace is
applied? Is grace key to justice?
Jubliee
The following Scriptural quotations are highlights from Lev. 25:
"Count off seven sabbaths of years. . . . Consecrate the fiftieth year and
proclaim liberty throughout the land. . . . It shall be a jubilee for you; each
one of you is to return to his family property. . . . The land must not be sold
permanently, because the land is mine. . . . But if he does not acquire the
means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer
until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can
then go back to his property."
Then there follows three sets of instructions regarding the
different circumstances under which "one of your countrymen become
poor:" 1) lend money without interest and sell food at cost,
2) hire him as a hired worker, not as a slave, 3) the poor Jew
retains these same rights if hired out to a non-Jew.
Three times (25:43, 46 and 53) the people are warned not to take
advantage of the powerless poor and oppress them--"rule over them
ruthlessly. . . ."
Again, the economic principle of the Jubilee is grace. Grace
is one key to economic justice.
Perry Yoder, under the statement, "By seeking justice for the
needy, biblical law is an instrument for shalom," wrote:
These laws were a type of economic reform legislation
to redistribute the
capital resources of the community so they would not
become concentrated
in the hand of a few. . . . two resources are to be
redistributed: land and money.
Donald Kraybill summarizes the purposes of the Sabbatical/Jubilee
years as follows:
Their religious practices, however, turned social life
upside-down. . . .
Land was given a vacation. . . . Slaves were
release. . . . Debts were
erased. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As God's social blueprint for his people, the
Jubilee dream put its finger on the three
major factors which generate socioeconomic
inequality. Control of land represents
access to natural resources. Ownership of
slaves symbolized the human labor
necessary for production. Borrowing and
lending money points to the management
of capital and credit. The use of these three
factors -- natural resources, human
resources, and financial capital are the keys to
determining the amount of inequity
in any society. . . .
It is clear that the religion-economic principles of the Jubilee
were not minor cosmetic adjustments to the economic system, but instead they
were a major overhaul. Jubilee type justice is crucial to dealing with
rich-poor issues.
So Jesus was not speaking idle, casual words when he read from
Isaiah 61 and said he had come to minister to the poor and oppressed and to
proclaim a Jubilee type of justice for them. This good news for the
oppressed poor was also bad news for most of the rich of that time.
Throughout much of the rest of the gospel of Luke, Jesus scorches the
rich as symbolized by this statement from Luke 6:24:
"Woe to the rich. . . ." For Luke the poor had
problems, but the rich were the social problem. They had
monopolistic control over the resources and wealth leaving the masses poor.
Much of this was legitimated by the religio-politico-economic elite in
Jerusalem. They were part and parcel of the massive system of oppression.
To what extent is the American economic system similar to the
Jewish economic system at the time of Christ? Do our Christian leader
legitimate a system of economic oppression as the Jewish leader did? How
does the American economic system measure up to Jubilee principles?
Kevin Phillips is a respected, veteran political analyst with a
conservative Republican perspective; he worked for Ronald Reagan. But in
the 1990s, Phillips has become a vocal critic of a politics, a public policy,
that favors the rich. He wrote a book on the issue The Politics
of Rich and Poor, and as a commentator on National Public Radio he has
again and again sharply critiqued the growing gap between the rich and poor.
In The Politics of Rich and Poor, Phillips
states:
that the 1980s had been a
decade of fabulous wealth accumulation by the richest Americans
while many others
stagnated or declined; that the 1980s were, in fact, the third such
capitalist
and conservative heyday
over the last century or so;
Philips argues that trickle-down economics was not working; during
the Reagan era both billionaires and the homeless grew in number. At
times, the excessive growth in wealth was aided by public policy. Since
then, Phillips has argued that for the most part, the Clinton administration
has continued policies that favor the rich; as a result, the gap between the
rich and poor continues to grow.
Are biblical principles relevant to modern economic systems?
Can efficiency and profit mix with justice and grace? Could Jubilee
principles be applied in a non-Christian setting? YES!!! We have
some 20th century historical examples to prove it:
As a part of the WWII Peace Treaty in the Pacific region, Russia,
America, and other nations approved comprehensive land reform programs in
Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Previously in each of these countries a small
number of landlords owned most of the agricultural land. They were
required by the treaty to divest themselves of almost all of their land.
Then the governments made this land available for purchase by the
landless peasants. These peasants, now owners of the land, soon increased
production and this just economic base laid the foundation for future national
economic growth in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
It was the Russians, the atheistic Communists who pushed hardest
for land reform that was much like the OT Jubilee land reform. The
Americans grudgingly went along with the Russian demand. The American
preferred the capitalist landlord status quo over what they thought was a
socialist idea. So supposedly Christian America did not fully support the
biblical land reform solution.
Much the same happened in parts of India after India gained its
independence in the late 1940s. Comprehensive land reform became public
policy making it possible for landless peasants to own their own land.
Government extension agents aided the farmers and again production soared
and the previously dirt poor farmers began to prosper.
General MacArthur refused to push for comprehensive land reform in
the Philippines after WWII because he was friends of the Filipino elite.
As a result of this failure, Filipino society has often been torn by
civil war largely fueled by a poor peasantry wanting access to their own land.
Sabbatical/Jubilee principles of justice are good economic and
public policy. If properly implemented, not only the poor but also the
total society can benefit and prosper and live in relative peace.
On Friday, October 13, 1989, the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy
article on poverty in the Mississippi Delta. A Congressional study
certified the lower Mississippi Delta as the poorest region in America.
This Delta region not only includes part of the state of Mississippi but
also parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois.
The Journal headline read: "River of Despair: Along the Rich
Banks of the Mississippi Live Poorest of U.S. Poor." A rich land
filled with poor people:
For here is a region that
epitomizes the extremes of American wealth and poverty.
It is almost unbelievably
fertile, with topsoil 25 feet thick or more. It has mansions and
big cars and a wealthy gentry
that for decades has gathered round the fountain in the
orante lobby of the Memphis
grand old Peabody Hotel.
The Delta "has county poverty rates that range from 20
percent to 50 percent plus." It has medical problems and an infant
mortality rate that approximates a Third World country. In Tunica county
approximately one-half of "the high school graduates, girls as well as
boys, go into the military. It's a way out, an escape."
Could the Jubilee be an answer to the poverty of the Delta?
A brief moment in the past history hints that this could be so.
After General Grant had conquered Mississippi, he initiated a bold
experiment. He gave the old Jefferson Davis plantation to freed blacks.
"Seventy able men were given 30 acres a piece." The first
year of farming was a success so the Army expanded the program in 1865.
"Five thousand acres were divided among more than 1,800 blacks
organized into 181 associations or companies." The government loaned
them equipment and supplies. The ex-slaves set up stores, schools, local
government, etc.
The system was an astounding
success. The year 1865 was a good one for cotton, and by its
end, the colonists had sold
over $400,000 worth of cash crops. After paying their loans, they
cleared nearly $180,000. . . .
"
After the Civil War was over, the Davis brothers were pardoned and
their plantation was returned to them. The "grand experiment"
abruptly stopped. The lesson: "If the David Bend experiment
had been allowed to continue, it might have offered a real solution to the
problem of securing political and economic rights for newly freed black
Mississippians."
Emancipation, freedom was a large step in the right direction but
because it was not followed by a comprehensive Jubilee type of justice, freed
blacks were soon put back into the semi-slavey of segregation.
In an article in the May-June, 1998 Sojourners magazine,
Marie Dennis writes about a worldwide movement for Third World debt relief.
She asserts that this movement for debt relief is rooted in the Jubilee.
Dennis claims that there is a link between debt and poverty and that this
link "is one of the most pressing moral issues for people of faith as we
approach the new millennium. . . . Every person in the global South now
owes about $300 (U.S.) to foreign creditors, more than an entire year's income
for many of our world's peoples."
The debt is so large for many Third World countries that it takes
one-half of their national budget to make the payment. Because of the
need to earn hard currency, such as US dollars, debt shapes the type of
economy, for example, cash crops. It also reduces the amount spent on
health and education.
Many of the loans made by Western governments and banks were made
to corrupt leaders; the people did not benefit much from these loans. But
now excessive payments to repay these loans drain the wealth of the poor
countries and the poor people. The creditor nations as well as the debtor
nations should share the responsibilities and the risk. Excessive debt
equals bondage and poverty.
This has sparked an
international movement, named Jubilee 2000, of people who agree that it is
time for a definitive level of
cancellation of the debt that prevents countries from providing a
dequately for the basic rights and needs of their people.
Jubilee 2000 does not call for a universal cancellation of all
debts, but only "death-dealing debt in impoverished countries and at a
level substantial enough for lasting benefit." This debt relief must
be coupled with efforts to reform unjust economic systems in Third World
countries.
In an article in the March/April 1998 Prism magazine, Fred Clark argues that
there are numerous businesses in the US that take advantage of the poor by
charging them excessive interest. Technically, usury is a felony in most
states, but many businesses have found a way to get around these laws.
Michael Hudson in Merchants
of Misery (1996) states:
The poverty industry is made up
of an array of businesses: pawnshops, check-cashing outlets,
rent-to-own stores, finance
companies, used-car dealers, high-interest mortgage lenders, trade
schools for the poor and
uneducated. It's growing in size and raking in dollars at a
dizzying
pace by targeting people on the
bottom third of the economic ladder - perhaps 60 million
consumers who are virtually
shut out by banks and other conventional merchants. Many live
below the poverty line, but many
more are solidly blue-collar folks squeezed by falling wages
and lousy credit records.
The poverty industry fills a niche for them - at a stiff price. An
affluent credit-card holder can
shop around and pay as little as 6 or 8 percent annual interest to
borrow money and make purchases
on credit. But a sheet-metal worker with a dubious credit
record may pay as much as 240
percent for a loan from a pawnbroker, 300 percent for a finance-
company loan, 20 percent for a
second mortgage, even 2,000 percent for
a quick "payday" loan
from a check-cashing outlet.
These businesses are often funded by our nations most prestigious
banks. Apart from tightening the laws, what can be done. "We
also need to promote more positive options, such as credit unions, community
development loan funds or local banks that allow low-balance, no-fee checking
accounts."
In the July-September 1990 issue of Together, there is a story of
how World Vision broke the bondage of debt in a farming community in the
Philippines (Barangay Escalante).
To put in a rice crop, a farmer must borrow money for fertilizer,
etc., and pay a high rate of interest - 10 percent monthly. To pay off his
loans, the farmer sells his rice at harvest time when the price is lowest.
Marginal farmers like Mang Juan
lived for years with the unscrupulous and unfair trading
practices of the usurers and
middlemen, silently submitting as victims of exploitation. . . .
They are obliged to sell their produce to those who provide their capital. . . . Many Juan may
inherited poverty or indebtedness from his parents, and he may pass on larger debts to his
children. . . .
To help break the bondage of debt and oppression, World Vision started a community development program. Working with the people a worker helped them develop a toilet construction project and a water system. Then they started a credit union which loaned money to farmers for 3 percent a month. They started a cooperative to buy and sell rice thus eliminating the middleman. Slowly, but surely, this farming community is taking control of its economic destiny; economic oppression is being replaced by economic self-sufficiency.
Hudson, Michael. Merchants of Misery. Common Courage Press, 1996.
Kraybill, Donald. The Upside-Down Kingdom. Herald Press, 1976.
Loewen, James W. and Charles Sallis, editors. Mississippi: Conflict and Change, Rev. ed., Pantheon
Books, 1980, pp. 136-7.
Phillips, Kevin. The Politics of Rich and Poor, 1990.
Putzel, James. A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines, Manila Univ
Press, 1992.
Wiser, Williams and Charlotte. Behind Mud Walls: 1930-1960.
Univ of Calif. Press, 1971.
Yoder, Perry. Shalom. Faith and Life Press, 1987.
The rich and poor, wealth and poverty, are prominent themes in the gospel of Luke. In one setting, read all of the following verses:
1:52-53
3:4-14
4:18
6:20-24
7:22-23
8:14
12:13-34
14:12-14
14:21-22
16:1-15
16:19-31
18:18-30
19:1-10
20:45-47
21:1-4
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