Can We End Extreme Poverty/Extreme Oppression?

Can we end extreme poverty for a billion people in 15 years? Only if we engage in extreme biblical justice. The World Bank (see hashtag #faith2endpoverty) and 30 faith-based organizations say YES, we can. The World Bank's, an bank of reconstruction and development, official goal is to reduce poverty, but in the past its leaders have blundered as often as they have succeeded. Now for the first time, World Bank has a leader who has had extensive experience in delivering medical services to people in extreme poverty; one of those countries is Haiti. Dr. Kim has a medical degree from Harvard and a doctorate in anthropology. So both from experience and education, Kim is exceptionally qualified. He is also a close friend and colleague of Dr. Paul Farmer who has given his life to the Haitian poor. Read Mountains Beyond Mountains for Farmer's remarkable life story.

"Kim has led the World Bank to establish two goals: 1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and 2) boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries." So states Bread for the World, one of the faith-based organizations.

Situations of extreme poverty/extreme oppression are literally life and death situations, social catastrophes; both natural and social catastrophes demand a crisis response---an all hands on deck approach. After hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi church and the national church responded beautifully, but these same churches largely ignored the ongoing social catastrophe in the nearby Delta characterized by extreme poverty/oppression.

The Bible can help us understand extreme poverty/oppression and give the church direction on what to do. In New Testament times, the people of Palestine suffered from internal oppression/poverty at the hands of a corrupt Jewish elite; they also suffered from external oppression/poverty by a Roman elite. So Jesus, in anger, cried out "Woe to the rich" and "release the oppressed." And Jesus urged this crisis response: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." "With urgency, give incarnating the kingdom of God as justice, your highest priority." (Noble paraphrase of Mt. 6:33)

How bad was extreme oppression/poverty in New Testament times? Karl Allen Kuhn, in his 2015 book, The Kingdom according to Luke and Acts, documents who the oppressors were and how bad the poverty was. Kuhn quotes Richard Rohrbaugh:

"obviously disease and high death rates . . . fell disproportionately upon the lower classes of both city and village. For most lower-class people who did make it to adulthood, their health would have been atrocious." Kuhn adds: "As a result, the life expectancy of the urban peasantry was in the low twenties, and the rural peasantry in the low thirties. Infant mortality rates were about 30 percent. . . . In short, many of the underclass were struggling to survive, their days filled with worry about the next harvest, the next tax, tribute, rent, or loan payment, and often the next meal."

The economic system was rigged for failure---high interest, high debt, predatory lending, land foreclosure---by the rich and powerful. ". . . the priestly aristocracy had acquired much of the arable land through onerous lending policies and peasant foreclosure." The internal oppression was already in place when the external Roman oppression added to the misery of the Palestinian poor. Jesus focused primarily on the internal oppression/poverty, not the external Roman oppression. " . . . vast majority of the population (82-90 percent) live slightly above, at, or below the precarious edge of subsistence." So the majority of the population were poor or extremely poor.

In a series of "Woe to the Pharisees" (chapter 11 in Luke), Jesus condemns the Pharisee for being lovers of money who neglected justice and the love of God, not lovers of their poor neighbors. They, the religious people, either were a part of the problem---ran the system of oppression, the temple, which Jesus called "a den of robbers," or they were silent and neglected justice.

Incarnating the kingdom of God as love and justice is the crisis response to extreme poverty/oppression. In The Message, Luke chapter 9:57-62, Jesus rejects excuses, even good ones:

"First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent [social catastrophe]. Announce God's kingdom. . . . No procrastination. No backward look. You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day."

More from Kuhn's book The Kingdom according to Luke and Acts:

"Luke also regards the hoarding of resources by the elite as central to perversion of the current [fallen] world order. Jesus problematizes wealth in a society where many struggle to survive." "Rather than the evangelist to the poor, Luke is an exceptionally keen critic of the rich and wants their conversion, which is possible only by way of radical renunciation (renunciation of half their possessions,) and unpleasant specific actions (risky loans, cancellation of debts, gifts." Walter Pilgrim summarizes: "the challenge of the Jerusalem church is that of a new kind of community, where there is neither rich nor poor, where economic needs are met by practical and costly action."

From the Poverty and Justice Contemporary English Version Bible on the "Sabbath." Just as systems of oppression such as genocide or slavery are sweeping, radical and negatively holistic, so must biblical justice be sweeping, radical, holistic or revolutionary and transformative.

"Leviticus is often viewed as a book full of obscure rules and ritual, yet it contains one of the most astonishing pieces of social legislation in history: the Sabbath years and the Jubilee. Every seven years, the land had a Sabbath, 'time off,' allowing it to recover. During this year slaves were to be freed (Exodus 21:2) and debts were to be cancelled (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)."

"And every fiftieth year there was a Jubilee, a kind of Sabbath of Sabbaths, where the entire social structure of Israel was to be reset. Every Israelite became, once again, a free citizen. Everyone could wipe the slate clean and start again, and significantly, the year began on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9)---the day of national repentance and reconciliation. So, fresh starts spiritually and physically [socially]---a whole life view."

The Jubilee Year included the return of any alienated land---the family farm---if it had been lost due to misfortune or oppression. In Hebrew society, land ownership was sacred; God really owned it; he only "leased" it to a family. In an agricultural society, a family farm was the key to self-sufficiency and a guard against oppression.

So the Sabbath Year and the Jubilee Year demanded release/justice in three key economic areas---land, labor and capital. Oppressors try to gain control of land and/or labor and/or capital. A God-designed economic system requires a fresh start every seven years; this avoids the social catastrophe of lifelong or even generational systems of oppression.

Does this mean society became a level playing field with neither rich nor poor? Proverbs 30:8 says, "Give me neither riches nor poverty." In the Jubilee, do all have equal access to land, labor and capital again? Is Acts 4:32-35, a reflection of this Jubilee principle?

Extreme oppression/poverty in society demands that the church become an agent of extreme justice---Sabbath year/Jubilee year justice, kingdom of God justice. For more see my blog [Lowell Noble's Writings], "Rejusticizing the Sermon on the Mount."

Did President Reagan Oppress Blacks More Than The Klan?

Many Americans think President Ronald Reagan was one of the best presidents in American history, that his face should be on Mt. Rushmore. There is no doubt that he was a patriotic American. I think that he was the high priest of American civil religion or the high priest of the American trinity.

Some inconvenient historical facts seem to tell a different story, that Reagan did much to reverse the Civil Rights Revolution.

First, the witness of Kevin Phillips, a one time bright, zealous conservative Republican, now a disillusioned one; here is how he tells the story of the 1980s---the Reagan era. From his book, The Politics of Rich and Poor, 1990:

"The basic messages of The Politics of Rich and Poor were essentially these: 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; . . . ."

Phillips cites study after study which indicates that the rich got richer and concludes that "trickle down wasn't trickling." Historically, the masses, even many Republicans, resent the rich getting richer at the expense of the middle class and the poor. While Americans are materialistic, they do have some sense of fairness and thereby react against economic extremes.

Phillips begins his book with this hard-hitting paragraph:

"The 1980s were the triumph of upper America---an ostentatious celebration of wealth, the political ascendancy of the richest third of the population and a glorification of capitalism, free markets and finance. But while money, greed and luxury had become the stuff of popular culture, hardly anyone asked why such great wealth had concentrated at the top, and whether this was the result of public policy."

According to Phillips, "Since the American Revolution the distribution of American wealth has depended significantly on who controlled the federal government, for what policies, and in behalf of which constituencies." During the Reagan era, both billionaires and the homeless grew in numbers; and the U.S. had the greatest gap between the rich and poor of any nation.

The presidents following Reagan---Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama---did little to change the dominance of the rich; the Reagan legacy remains intact. So the wealth gap is not just a Democratic or Republican one; it is an American issue.

Next, the perspective of Michelle Alexander, author the the best-selling (over 400,000) The New Jim Crow. Alexander is just as critical of the Reagan era, but more from a racism perspective:

"President Ronald Reagan officially announced the current drug war in 1982, before crack became an issue in the media or a crisis in poor black neighborhoods. . . . The Reagan administration hired staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine in 1985 as part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support for the war. The media campaign was an extraordinary success. Almost overnight, the media was saturated with images of black 'crack whores,' 'crack dealers,' and 'crack babies'---images that seemed to confirm the worst negative racial stereotypes about inner-city residents. . . . helped to catapult the War on Drugs from an ambitious federal policy to an actual war."

Again the presidents following Reagan---Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama---have done little to reverse the War on Drugs, the mass incarceration of young black and Latino males; the Reagan legacy remains intact in 2015. See pages 47-53 for more information on how the Reagan administration reversed much of the Civil Right Movement. A master at the use of code words to avoid Klan type bigotry, Reagan was more dangerous than the Klan for his legacy continues today as an American legacy.

Now another black voice on the 1960s and what has happened since, that of Michael Eric Dyson; a Princeton Ph.D in Religion, a prolific author, an activist. His 2008 book on Martin Luther King is entitled April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.s Death and how it changed America. This book is about death---physical, psychological and social death; it is also about leadership under these difficult circumstances---King, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Chapter Three, Facing Death, is about the damage---physical, psychological and social---centuries of oppression have done. Chapter Five, Black Family and Black Inequality, discusses the individual, family and cultural dysfunction that oppression has caused. Dyson has a fine grasp of both the social and historical factors.

Next, a few quotations from chapter three, Facing Death. While Dyson doesn't use the term post-traumatic stress disorder, he does describe the deep psychological damage systems of oppression have done to blacks:

"I am referring to the pernicious self-doubt, . . . race-doubt---that is the ontological residue of collective self-hate. . . . In then name of King's movement against all forms of oppression, we must be released. . . . And in the public realm, we hardly do better. We don't buy black, shop black, or even love black, because we think and have been taught, and often still believe, that our blackness is just not good or beautiful enough."

"Finally, one of the ugliest forms of black death is how the poor are subject to a symbolic social death.. . . . The suffer from social alienation: They lack standing, status, and protection. They are mercilessly flogged in the press, demonized by fellow citizens, made a football by politicians, viciously criticized by policy makers, and assaulted by scholars and intellectuals. The stigma the poor carry bans them from the presumption of political innocence, of being good citizens; they carry the weight of social pariah."

Dyson quotes King:

"But the problem is that the church has sanctioned every evil in the world. Whether it's racism, or whether it's the evils of monopoly-capitalism, or whether it's the evils of militarism." "we have remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows."

"The system is rigged."

"The system is rigged." So says Elizabeth Warren.

"Woe to the rich." So says Jesus, the Christ.

Combining these two statements: "The financial, economic, political and sometimes part of the religious systems favor the rich; therefore, the rich are getting richer."

In NT times, Jesus said that the religious Pharisees were lovers of money; also neglecters of justice and the love of God. The operation of the temple was so corrupt, so oppressive, that Jesus called it a "den of robbers." Or a religiously legitimated system of oppression. God hates oppression; God requires justice.

Our founding fathers were a rich, white, male elite; not a government of, by and for the people; instead a government by the rich elite and for the rich elite.

According to Dean Starkman (The New Republic, June 30, 2014, "Closing the Racial Wealth Gap,") the current system is rigged; it creates a racial wealth gap of $236,500. Here are some key thoughts from the article:

1. The key economic inequality issue is the wealth gap, not the income gap.

2. Government policies and programs, primarily initiated under President Reagan, have benefitted the rich. None of the following presidents have made fundamental corrections.

3. Many government programs have become systems of oppression which benefit the rich.

4. "Centuries of discrimination against African Americans---a story of wealth stolen or denied."

5. "Income feeds your stomach but wealth is accumulated over generations."

6. "All the main structural factors that drive the wealth gap. . . . are traceable to [Reagan] policies put in place in the post-Civil Rights era."

7. "Wealth in America has continued to be quietly and overwhelmingly funneled to whites, principally because the asset-building policies now in place are aimed at people who already have assets."

8. "The racial nature of mortgage predations that led to the financial crisis . . . an African American . . . three times more likely to wind up with a subprime loan than a white person."

9. "1 trillion in minority housing wealth destroyed during the crash."

10. "Maybe the best way to move the nation toward racial wealth equality is simply start ending the abuses [federal laws and policies] that make the divided worse."

America needs to repent, then release the oppressed, then repair the damage oppression has done.

Were our Founding Fathers tyrants?

Were our Founding Fathers worse tyrants than the British tyrants they overthrew? Was there an American family/clan operating at the same time, unrestrained, that was worse than Pharaoh? Does American history need to be rewritten?

Supposedly, the American Revolution took place to overthrow the tyrannical British. But a few historical facts appear to challenge this widely accepted thesis. Both countries legally ended the slave trade at about the same time---1807 and 1808; in America, some illegal slave trade continued as late as 1859. The British ended slavery in 1833; America in 1863. The British tyrants ended slavery BEFORE the American tyrants.

In America, slavery was quickly replaced by neoslavery---segregation, sharecropping, lynching and prison gangs. When slavery and neoslavery are combined, this type of oppression did not end until the 1960s. Beginning in the 1980s, the racial wealth gap exploded and continues down to this day---2015. Beginning in the 1980s, the criminal justice system became the new agent of oppression---the combination of extensive racial profiling and the resulting mass incarceration; this criminal oppression system continues to this day---2015. In America, tyrants/oppressors really don't end systems of oppression, they merely redesign them. In my opinion, the DeWolf clan that was engaging in the slave trade and slavery during and after the Revolution were more evil than Pharaoh because Pharaoh never engaged in the slave trade, only slavery. In Bristol, the DeWolfs are honored as the "great folks"; in reality, the DeWolfs, though church members, were an evil clan. For more of the DeWolf clan, read Inheriting the [Slave] Trade.

Next, a partial list of America's historical failures/paradoxes:

1. The Bible-believing Puritans paid money for the scalps of Indians.
2. The great Puritan theologian, Jonathan Edwards, went down to Rhode Island and purchased his own slave.
3. Our founding fathers who celebrated their freedom from the British tyrants denied freedom and equality to the poor, women, Native Americans and African Americans.
4. Lincoln declared that our nation was conceived in liberty; in reality, our nation was conceived with a perverse mixture of oppression and liberty.
5. The supposed government of, by, and for the people was really a government by a rich, white, male elite for a rich, white male elite.
6. At Asuza Street, the Holy Spirit broke down racial and ethnic divisions; within 10 years, white racism divided Pentecostalism into white and black streams.

Where was the American church in all of this? Why was it powerless to stop these evils? Why did it far too often participate in these social evils? What negative values did it let go unchallenged? I suggest three sets of negative values that have pervaded American history from our founding down to today:

1. The American Trinity: hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism, and hyperethnocentrism.
2. The American Trinity: whiteness, richness, and maleness.
3. WASPs: white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (race, culture and religion).

The abolitionists, many of them Christians, eliminated legal slavery; good, but not good enough; personal liberty but not economic justice.

The civil rights movement eliminated legal segregation; good, but not good enough; civil rights but not economic justice.

The Christian Community Development movement rebuilt poor communities; good, but not good enough; it did not change the larger white evangelical church.

The progressive evangelical movement, led by persons such Ron Sider and Jim Wallis, developed a strong applied political and social ethic; good, but not good enough. The next generation must do better.

None of the above movements produced a biblical theology on ethnocentrism and oppression, never a NT theology of oppression and justice, never a theology of the Spirit and the kingdom. Therefore, in 2010, Michelle Alexander could still write that America never solves its systems of oppression, only redesigns them, only repeats the mistakes of the past.

To summarize, we must ask the question why the American church is so impotent, so uninvolved; why such a flawed, incomplete theology of society. American evangelicals, self-righteous as they are, have never repented of their part in American ethnocentrism and oppression, never restituted to repair the damage done to the oppressed. Americans have not developed a theology of society built around the Spirit, the kingdom and justice. Our Christian colleges and seminaries have failed us. Are they a part of the problem, not the solution?

Wanted: 12 Dangerous Sermons on Oppression and Justice

Do you have a prophetic streak in your spirit? If so, please seriously consider preaching a series of 12 sermons on the extensive biblical teaching on oppression/injustice and justice. I suggest that you preach a sermon on oppression and follow that sermon with another on justice; six months, 12 sermons. Illustrate your sermons with U.S. examples. But you better have a plan B because I predict that half of the white preachers will be fired if they do preach these 12 sermons.

Suggested Six Sermons on Oppression

Background books to read: God So Loved The Third World: The Biblical Vocabulary of Oppression by Thomas Hanks. Inheriting the [Slave} Trade by Thomas DeWolf.

Sermon 1: based on Exodus, chapters 1-5 with an emphasis on chapter one.

* Lifelong and generational systems of oppression crush, humiliate, animalize, impoverish, enslave and kill persons created in the image of God.
* Systems of oppression smash the body and crush the spirit.
* Systems of oppression not only damage individuals, but also families and communities; oppression damage leads to individual, family and community dysfunction. Damage precedes dysfunction.
* Systems of oppression are sweeping, radical, extreme and holistic; therefore, the solutions also need to be sweeping, radical, extreme and holistic.
* Adjectives and nouns from Exodus 1-5: forced labor, hard labor, ruthless, kill, misery, suffering, crying out, slave drivers, beaten, groaning, yoke, cruel bondage.

Sermon 2: Exodus 6:9; read from both the RSV and The Message " . . . . They could not hear (believe) him---they were that beaten down in spirit. . . ."

* For the Hebrew slaves, it seemed that God had gone on a deistic vacation and forgotten them for 400 years. So even as God presented himself as the I AM---the present and personal God---the crushed slaves could not believe.

* Note that those whose spirits have been crushed by oppression cannot believe God.
* Compare to soldiers suffering PTSD.
* See my blog [Lowell Noble's Writings] for the blog "Can Oppression Cause PTSD?" See also the comment by the Haitian Jean Thomas; Haiti has experienced 500 years of Spanish, French and American oppression.
* American colonial leaders committed genocide and slavery.
* Was the DeWolf clan "Great Folks" or "evil people". Were James DeWolf and klan worse than Pharaoh because they were involved in both the slave trade and slavery? Was the DeWolf clan worse than the Ku Klux Klan?

Sermon 3: Jeremiah 7:1-10, Amos 2:7 and 5:21-24, Isaiah 58:1-5

* religious institutions can become systems of oppression.
* Both Jeremiah and Jesus called the temple "a den of robbers".
* Worship without justice is dead.

Sermon 4: Luke 6:24

* "Woe to the rich" the religious, male, rich oppressors.
* Search the rest of Luke for numerous references to money, wealth, possessions, riches.
* Pharisees were condemned for being "lovers of money." and neglecters of justice---11:41 and 16:14.
* Rich man and Lazarus---16:19-31.

Sermon 5: Luke 19:45

* The TEMPLE: a religiously legitimated system of oppression, "a den of robbers," soon to be destroyed by the Romans.
* The Temple leaders were a male, religious rich
* Episcopal and Reformed churches were built on top of slave dungeons in West Africa.
* Pastor/Pope Francis has called upon priest and p[eople to leave the security of the stain-glassed sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets.

Sermon 6: James 1:27 through James chapter two and 5:1-4

* Pure religion releases the oppressed widows and orphans from their oppression and then protects them from systems of oppression.
* Pure religion honors the poor; worthless religion, flawed churches, favor the rich over the poor.
* The rich exploit/oppress the poor.

Six Sermons on Justice

Begin or end each sermon on justice by reading the following "Sabbath" quotation from the Poverty and Justice Contemporary English Version Bible. Just as systems of oppression such as genocide or slavery are sweeping, radical and holistic so must biblical justice be sweeping, radical, holistic or revolutionary and transformative.

"Leviticus is often viewed as a book full of obscure rules and ritual, yet it contains one of the most astonishing pieces of social legislation in history: the Sabbath years and the Jubilee. Every seven years, the land had a Sabbath, 'time off', allowing it to recover. During this year slaves were to be freed (Exodus 21:2) and debts were to be cancelled. (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)."

"And every fiftieth year there was a Jubilee, a kind of Sabbath of Sabbaths, where the entire social structure of Israel was to be reset. Every Israelite became, once again, a free citizen. Everyone could wipe the slate clean and start again, and significantly, the year began on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9)---the day of national repentance and reconciliation. So, fresh starts spiritually and physically [socially]---a whole life view."

Sermon 1: Lev. 25; Deut. 15, Exodus 21:2

* Quote CEV on the "Sabbath".
* These are God designed principle/laws to prevent lifelong, even generational, systems of oppression.
* If American churches had practiced the Sabbath/Jubilee, would this have prevented Indian genocide and African slavery?
* Use Habitat for Humanity as a modern application of Jubilee justice; the 'rich' gave the money for capital funds so no interest is charged to the working poor reducing the cost of the house by one half or more depending on the rate of interest and the length of the mortgage.

Sermon 2: Amos 5:24, The Message

* "I want justice---oceans of it. I want fairness---rivers of it."
* A good Hebrew could not claim to be personally righteous unless she/he were also socially just.
* Read Job 29:7-17.

Sermon 3: Isaiah 58:6-14

* What true spirituality/justice is and does.
* How God blesses those who do justice.

Sermon 4: Luke 4:18-19; Messianic passages from Isaiah: 9:6-7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4

* The Spirit-filled church releases the oppressed poor by preaching and practicing Sabbath year/Jubilee justice; then, and only then, is the gospel really good news to the poor.
* The Spirit, the poor, the oppressed, Jubilee justice are the four key concepts.
* Implied concepts: the rich, the oppressors, shalom and the kingdom of God.

Sermon 5: Mt. 6:33 NEB "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice."

* See my blog "Rejusticizing the Sermon on the Mount".

Sermon 6: James 2:8-26

See my blog "Jesus AND the kingdom of God."



Keep the 12 sermons in mind as you read the following: "Is Pope Francis a Prophet?"

Will Pope Francis end up splitting the Catholic Church? Possibly, asserts Conservative Catholic scholar/journalist, Ross Douthat in a fine article in the May 2015 issue of The Atlantic entitled, "Will Pope Francis Break the Church?" Douthat is a fair and balanced Catholic conservative, not an ideologue. He is well read, rigorously logical and historically informed. He present the facts as he sees them, but he avoids dogmatic predictions about the future. Douthat does caution that the supposed right/left or conservative/liberal divide is overdrawn, that historically the church has proved to be adaptable and flexible, accommodating the extremes in various orders. In the U.S., Francis is equally popular among conservatives and progressives.

"Will Pope Francis Break the Church?" is the type of question a conservative Catholic would ask. But this is not the question Pope Francis is asking. Can Francis redirect the whole church to giving a high priority to the poor? Can he do this while making difficult reforms within the institutional Catholic Church? Pope Francis wants priest and people to move beyond the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets. In this regard, Douthat states the following about the "broadest theme of his pontificate: his constant stress on economic issues, the Church's social [justice] teaching, and the plight of the unemployed, the immigrant, the poor. . . . a sharp, prophetic stance."

For Pope Francis, the real question is, will the Church (not just an order within the church) return to a more biblical, prophetic stance or will it prioritize institutional church doctrine and leave the ministry among the poor as an afterthought, as an issue of charity instead of love and justice? The Catholic Church has a long history of bureaucracy and institutionalization. If Pope Francis succeeds in making a prophetic concern for the poor central, this will be the miracle of miracles. Even churches that begin among the poor such as Methodism quickly lose the priority of the poor in subsequent generations.

Douthat declares that "Francis seems to be trying to occupy a carefully balanced center between two equally dangerous poles." The prophetic pole is only "equally dangerous" to an overly institutionalized church. A biblically prophetic position is not "equally dangerous."

Next, some quotations from Douthat's article:

"The church is not yet in the grips of a revolution. . . . But his moves and choices have given a revolutionary atmosphere around Catholicism."

Regarding Francis's life: "youthful success, defeat and exile, unexpected vindication and ascent [to Pope]."

Now my interpretation. I see strong signs that Prophet Francis is taking the church back to its original calling---justice for the oppressed poor or to a James 2 gospel which combines faith and works. My question is: will Pope Francis live long enough to complete his revolution? And does he himself have a deep enough understanding of the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice to bring about the needed transformation. I am afraid Pope Francis doesn't yet have this deep biblical understanding. But possibly the Holy Spirit will lead him in this direction. Intercessory prayers are in order.

Best Biblical Practices: Works of Jubilee Justice

Best Biblical Practices: Works of Jubilee Justice

Introduction

A quotation from the Poverty and Justice Bible(CEV), Insert, page 21, "Sabbath."

"Leviticus is often viewed as a book full of obscure rules and ritual, yet it contains one of the most astonishing pieces of social legislation in history: the Sabbath years and the Jubilee. Every seven years, the land had a Sabbath, 'time off', allowing it to recover. During this year slaves were to be freed (Exodus 21:2) and debts were to be cancelled (Deuteronomy 15:1-11)."

"And every fiftieth year there was a Jubilee, a kind of Sabbath of Sabbaths, where the entire social structure of Israel was to be reset. Every Israelite became, once again, a free citizen. Everyone could wipe the slate clean and start again, and significantly, the year began on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9)---the day of national repentance and reconciliation. So, fresh starts spiritually and physically [socially]---a whole life view."

Note the following from the Bible:

1. Worship without justice is dead (Amos 5:21-24).
2. Faith without works [of justice] is dead, a religious corpse (James 2:14-26).
3. Grace without works of justice is dead (Ephesians 2:8-10).
4. Love without works of justice is dead (I John 3:10-14).
5. Spirituality without works of justice is dead (Isaiah 58 and the Sermon on the Mount).

Mass Incarceration: Best Practices and Underlying Causes

The church should be heavily involved in drug rehabilitation; a friend of mine, now clean for years, told me that counselors told him that drugs are only five percent of a drug addict's problem. The underlying personal and emotional issues are 95 percent of the problem; the church could and should excel in dealing with the 95 percent.

The church should also be heavily involved in prisoner re-entry programs. But since I don't have experience and expertise in this area, I will let others speak to best practices in this area. But I would like to present ideas regarding underlying causes and possible solutions regarding mass incarceration.

Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling (over 400,000) The New Jim Crow, asserts that America never really ends systems of oppression such as slavery; it only redesigns them. And, she says, that even if America ends mass incarceration but does not address the underlying causes, it will soon create another system of oppression to replace mass incarceration. True, but a correction. The fourth system of oppression already exists alongside mass incarceration. The two systems interact, each making the other worse. The existing fourth system of oppression is the racial wealth gap---white households have 20 times the wealth as black households---which has existed since the founding of this country.

Ivory Phillips, an expert in black history, declares that at no point in American history have blacks experienced anything close to economic justice/equality; a measure of temporary freedom---Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Movement---but never economic justice. Martin Luther King, in a December 1967 speech that I have dubbed "I Live a Nightmare" asserted that his "black brothers and sisters were perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

Martin Luther King has also addressed the underlying causes behind mass incarceration---a trinity of racism, capitalism and militarism. Most of the American church has either tolerated or sanctified these underlying causes so the church is a part of the problem. American theology has not yet dug into the extensive biblical teaching on oppression and justice, on the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God. Therefore, American theology is deficient, unable to identify and change these underlying causes. Other descriptions of these underlying causes are: 1) the rich, male, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and 2) the American trinity of hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism, and hyperethnocentrism.

Justice and Reconciliation

Attempts at reconciliation without works of justice is justice lite or cheap reconciliation; many blacks smell a rat and don't want to have anything to do with reconciliation which avoids the justice issue. This is why faith, love, grace and works MUST be closely tied to works of justice.

Works of Jubilee justice must precede or accompany efforts at personal reconciliation. In order to move from economic oppression to economic justice, repentance and restitution are REQUIRED (John the Baptist, Luke 3:10-14, and Zacchaeus, Luke 19:8). Both Roman and Jewish law required that a person must pay back four times the amount that was taken. But, in American churches, repentance and restitution are seldom even a part of the discussion. Wilberforce left out the repentance/restitution package in his political compromise to get rid of slavery. Britain paid reparations to slave owners, not to slaves.

Another way of putting it is that Jubilee justice requires action in order to achieve release and restoration. Justice is not a theological abstraction. Reconciliation is not a theological transaction devoid of works of justice.

The biblical principles of justice and reconciliation are both important to John Perkins. But a hint. The titles of John Perkins first two books are: Let Justice Roll Down and Justice for All. For a poor and oppressed person from Mississippi, biblical justice, Jubilee justice, kingdom justice, is of prime importance. Perkins defines biblical justice as: "Justice is an economic issue, an ownership issue, a management issue, a stewardship issue. Justice has to do with equal access to the resources of God's creation."

In my opinion, most of Perkins' closest disciples have put reconciliation ahead of justice; none of them have fully developed and applied the extensive biblical teaching on oppression/injustice---the 555 OT references to oppression and the anti-rich teaching of the NT. For expert help, I highly recommend first Thomas Hank's book For God So Loved The Third World: The biblical vocabulary of oppression. Then read Parry Yoder's book Shalom which is excellent on oppression, justice and shalom.

John Perkins wants us all to be biblically based; do your own biblical research.

Suggested Papers for the Best Practices Conference

1. Oppression in the OT.
2. Oppression (rich) in the NT.
3. Justice, reconciliation and shalom (peace) in the NT.
4. The Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God.
5. King's trinity of racism, capitalism and militarism; my American trinity of hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism and hyperethnocentrism; or the rich, male, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

Jesus AND the kingdom of God

The following reflection on the NT Gospel comes from notes from a prayer summit, an article by Wesleyan theologian, Donald Dayton, entitled "Wesleyan Option for the Poor," and meditations on Amos 5:21-24 and the book of James. The question: What is the Gospel?

Some say the Gospel is all about Jesus and personal justification. Wrong! A full biblical Gospel must also include and give equal emphasis to the kingdom of God as justice for the oppressed. Acts 8:12 and 28:23 and 31 tie Jesus and the kingdom of God together as Siamese twins. Acts 1:1-8 tie the Spirit and the kingdom of God together as twins never to be separated. The key verse in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 6:33, NEB) reads, "Seek first God's kingdom and his justice. . . . " Jesus begins his public ministry declaring, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is here." Luke 4:18-19 provides the content or key characteristics of the Kingdom: The Spirit, the poor, the oppressed and Sabbath Year justice. All four components are crucial, but few white theologians have kept all four components together; some highlight the Spirit and the poor but neglect releasing the oppressed and implementing the sweeping and radical principles of the Sabbath Year.

John Wesley and B.T. Roberts, the founder of the Free Methodist Church, highlighted the Spirit, the poor and love, but they were weak on oppression and justice with the one exception of slavery. As a result the second and third generations of Methodists and Free Methodists soon lost the original vision and became largely a middle class church.

The charismatic/Pentecostal churches are strong on worship and the gifts of the Spirit but weak on systems of oppression and kingdom justice. Do they fit into Amos 5:21-24 where God severely critiques worship without justice? Just as faith without works is dead so also worship without justice is dead. I would hazard a guess that nine out of ten white American churches practice worship without justice. A biblical church should give equal time to both worship and justice. Amos 5:26 ties worship without justice and judgment (exile) together. Amos 5:24 (The Message) declares: "I want justice---oceans of it." In America, the ocean is almost dry.

My paraphrase of Luke 4:18-19 would read as follows: "The Spirit has anointed me [and empowered the church] to release the oppressed by implementing Sabbath Year justice; this is truly good news for the poor whom I love dearly."

The church, if it is to practice pure, biblical religion must give high priority to releasing the oppressed poor such as widows and orphans by doing works based on love and justice. This will include charity, but much more than charity. The church must not in any way engage in worldly, worthless religion by favoring and honoring the rich and disrespecting and insulting the poor. How stupid! After all, it is the rich who oppress the poor.

Does your worship lead you to do justice by releasing the oppressed? Does your church devote as much time, energy and resources to doing justice as it does in worship? Does your church heed Pope Francis' exhortation to priest/pastor and people---to leave the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets?

Continuing the theme of Jesus AND the kingdom of God through the book of James. The letter from James to the church focused on ethical behavior, kingdom ethics, works of love and justice. Most white, male, American Bible scholars don't seem to understand fully this deep dimension of James, that James was fleshing out Mt. 6:33 "Seek first God's kingdom and his justice. . . ."

Elsa Tamez, a woman, a Mexican, a Methodist, does grasp the oppression-justice message of James. As she reads her Spanish NT, Tamez encounters justice around 100 times. A reader of the KJV NT never encounters the word justice; a reader of the English NIV NT sees justice only 16 times. Note that injustice is a synonym of oppression.

Tamez already had a deep understanding of oppression before she wrote The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without Works is Dead, 1992. Based on her OT analysis of oppression, Tamez had previously written Bible of the Oppressed. No white, male, American theologian begins with this advantage. The gender and cultural blindness is so pervasive and so damaging that it appears there must be a conspiracy in our seminaries to avoid analysis of the extensive and important biblical teaching on oppression. In reality, it is a cultural conspiracy which whites can't or won't transcend.

Next, some insights from Elsa Tamez:

"We are dealing with a servant of Jesus Christ concerned with the poor and oppressed people of his time who were undergoing unbearable suffering. . . . "

"There is a community of believers that suffers [Remember that oppression smashes bodies and crushes spirits]. There is a group of rich people who oppress them and drag them before the tribunals. . . .by rich farmers who accumulate wealth at the expense of the workers' salaries. There is a class of merchants who lead a carefree life, with no concern for the poor."

"The oppressed in the Epistle of James are principally the poor. . . . The poor are poor generally because they are oppressed and exploited."

"Another group of oppressed people mentioned in the letter are the widows and orphans (1:27). In the Hebrew Bible these groups continually appear as representative of the oppressed classes. They are poor and oppressed because they have no one to defend them, nor can they defend themselves. They are truly helpless. Everyone takes advantage of them, especially those in power, . . . "

"The word used for oppression in this text is the Greek term thlipsis, commonly translated as 'tribulation,' 'difficulty,' 'affliction,'"
But these are weak English translations; oppression is a better translation.

"A [Greek] manuscript of the seventeenth century reads in 1:27, "Protect them [widows and orphans] from the world," instead of "keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world." The world as it is structured is hostile to the poor, for it keeps them out of the system constructed by the rulers and the powerful for their own benefit. James, then, urges that they be protected from the oppressive world."

"The poor were the ptochos, a Greek term designating those who totally lacked the means of subsistence and lived from alms; they were the beggars. The poor were also the penes, those who at least had a job but owned no property. Both groups were exploited by the rich and powerful, . . . ."

Next, James's summary of the characteristics of the rich:

1. "Unlike the poor, they dress elegantly."
2. "The rich are those who oppress the poor and drag them before the courts."
3. "The rich are anxious to acquire more and scheme to get it."
4. "They accumulate wealth."
5. "They live luxuriously, devoted to their pleasures."
6. "They condemn and kill the just person."

According to James 2, showing partiality or favoritism (rich over poor; also implied, Jew over Gentile, male over female) is wrong, sin evil. Especially so in the church. Instead, the church should preach and practice Gal. 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Or from The Message: "In Christ's family there can be no [social] division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. . . . you are all equal."

God's royal rule of love rules out, prohibits, forbids any type of segregation or disrespect.

James 2:1-4 declares what is wrong, evil, sin in the church. James 2:5-9 show why honoring the rich and dishonoring the poor is not only wrong, evil and sin, but also stupid. According to Douglas Moo:

1. God show no partiality; neither should the church.
2. Partiality insults the poor who are created in the image of God.
3. Partiality on behalf of the rich is stupid because the rich oppress the poor.
4. Partiality violates the law of love which requires love of neighbor, other ethnic groups, even enemies.
5. Partiality violates kingdom principles such as justice.

Remember, worship without justice is dead (Amos 5:21-24); instead give your highest priority to God's kingdom and his justice (Mt. 6:33).