From Moses to Haiti!

From Moses to Isaiah, to Jesus to Haiti.  What is their common theme?  Release the oppressed!!

Moses was called to release the oppressed slaves, Ex 1:1-6
Isaiah was called to release the oppressed poor, 58:6
Jesus was called to release the oppressed poor, Luke 4:18

Throughout its history, Haiti has been full of oppressed slaves and oppressed poor, but few Christians have responded to the biblical call to release the oppressed in Haiti.

Who oppressed the Hebrew slaves?  The ethnocentric Egyptians.  Who oppressed the poor in Isaiah's time?  The oppressors were ethnocentric, religious Jews.  Who oppressed the poor in Jesus' time?
Ethnocentric, religious, rich Jews.  Who oppressed the Haitian poor?  Ethnocentric, rich, French, ethnocentric rich Americans, ethnocentric Haitian elite.

Isaiah 10:1-2 applies to all four of the above, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and Haiti.  This version of
Isaiah 10:1-2 is a Noble paraphrase:

"Woe [doomed to hell] to the rich who make unjust laws.  Woe to the rich who issue oppressive decrees.  Woe to the rich who deprive my poor of their rights.  Woe to the rich who withhold justice from the oppressed.  Woe to the rich who make defensless widows and orphans their prey."

Moses is good, but not good enough.  Isaiah is better.  Isaiah prophesied about justice and the coming of the Messianic kingdom.  9:7;11:1-14; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.  These Messianic passages were all about the justice that would release the oppressed poor.

Isaiah is very good, but Jesus is better.  Jesus to describe the kingdom of God that he was initiating referred back to Isaiah 61, a Messianic passage.  So in Luke 4:18-19 we find the Holy Spirit, the poor, the oppressed and Jubilee justice highlighted.  When we turn to Haiti, in the midst of endless poverty and oppression, we find a bright light shining in Fond-des-Blancs county.

Jean Thomas and the Haiti Christian Development Fund are showing us how to move beyond releasing the oppressed to rebuilding oppressed communities.  Jean Thomas calls this Christian Community Development.  He has been doing this for 35 years in Fond-des-Blansc.  Separately, but alongside HCDF, the Catholics have been doing their own version of Christian Community Development.  Moving from just a medical clinic to a rather sophisticated hospital for poor, rural Haiti.  The Kellogg Foundation spotted these two remarkable efforts to rebuild the village/county of Fond-des-Blancs.  So they are putting considerable funds into both the hospital and an effort to expand community development even beyond HCDF's remarkable efforts.

So, as a reminder, we need to move beyond the remarkable ministry of Moses to release the oppressed, beyond the remarkable ministry of Isaiah, the remarkable ministry of Jesus to release the oppressed, to the super remarkable ministry to release the oppressed and rebuild oppressed communities that is now occurring in rural Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti.

For proof, read At Home with the Poor.