Isaiah 1:15: "No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening, and do you know why? Because you have been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody."
In other words, people who oppress others have no grounds on which to pray.
- Haitians have been brutalized by French and U.S. oppressors for 300 YEARS.
- The Bible teaches that oppression TRAUMATIZES. [crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves, and kills.] Haitian individuals, families, communities, and culture have long suffered and still are suffering from oppression-caused trauma. In other words, varying degrees of PTSD.
- Is there a biblical answer to the complexities and difficulties associated with PTSD? Yes, the biblical answer is justice--JUBILEE JUSTICE AND KINGDOM JUSTICE. Biblical justice releases and rebuilds; justice releases the oppressed, then rebuilds oppressed communities.
- The kingdom of God is designed to implement the type of justice that releases and rebuilds.
- Anyone who wants to help Haitians heal should be deeply grounded in the above biblical teachings. Go online--lowellnobleswritings--and take the 13 week email Bible study, entitled Spirituality With Justice or Spirituality Without Justice.
- Christian Community Development is a proven strategy to rebuild oppressed communities. Haitian Christian Development Fund, directed by Haitian, Jean Thomas, has implemented thirty-five years of CCD in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. For this remarkable story, see the book: At Home with the Poor.
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