My first conversion, my born again experience in 1949, did not address the important biblical issues of oppression and justice. In other words, it was a spirituality without justice conversion. In 1968, I needed a second justice conversion to create a biblical blend of spirituality and justice (Isaiah 58:6 ff, Luke 4:18-19). Until April 1968, I had only a shallow understanding of the issues driving the civil rights movement. Then God used the death of Martin Luther King to bring about new life in me. At the time of King's assassination, I saw for the first time the depth of the social evil of white racism in America. I saw that white racism was at the core of American identity. About twelve years later, I began to grasp that the American vocabulary of prejudice, discrimination, race and racism was not adequate to explain fully the depth of this American social evil. I discovered much better biblical concepts - ethnocentrism and oppression.
I also began to discover the American concepts of justice and the concept of social justice were not adequate concepts so I began using the terms Jubilee justice and kingdom justice. These biblical concepts have more specific content to them. They refer to a justice that releases the oppressed and rebuilds oppressed communities.
Once I had better biblical concepts, I could now reinterpret American history and current social problems. Nearly everyday, my understandings, insights, and actions have deepened on oppression and justice.
For fifty years, I have constantly been reading and writing on oppression/justice issues, biblically, historically and sociologically. To read my nearly 470 blogs that I have written over the past five years, google my blog "Lowell Noble's Writings". I have been forced to reinterpret, relearn nearly everything I learned about the Bible, American history, American sociology, even those things I learned at Christian liberal arts colleges. After living ninety-one years, teaching thousands of white evangelical students in college, listening to hundreds of sermons, I think that almost all of my fellow white Christians also need a second conversion, a conversion to the justice issues of the Bible.
Now some more comments on Martin Luther King's impact upon me. When Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, 1068, the Holy Spirit used this tragic event to show me the horror of racism; a flood light revealed the nature of this deep seeded social evil and soon I began to see the need for social justice. This concern bout oppression and justice burns as brightly today, fifty years later, as it did in 1968.
In 1968, the white evangelical American church had very little theology to help me understand social evil and social justice, so I turned to secular sociology for help. For the next twelve years, I milked sociology and anthropology for insights; I also memorized portions of Isaiah 58, Matthew 25, and James 2.
At the same time my wife and I lived in the black community in Jackson, MI for a period of twenty years, during which time I taught sociology at Spring Arbor College, a overwhelmingly white, middle class, Christian liberal arts college located ten miles west of Jackson. So daily I moved back and forth between the relatively poor Afro-American community and the much richer Euro-American college community. Daily I experienced the differences in culture and economics. At the same time I was teaching courses of social problems of racial and cultural minorities, wrestling with these same issues intellectually. The sociological concepts of prejudice and discrimination were helpful in understanding of what was going on, but in 1980 I became keenly aware that the problem was much deeper than the best of sociological insights. I realized I need to develop a theology of society - a set of biblical concepts to explain social evil - such as principalities and powers, cosmos, ethnocentrism, and oppression.
See my blog Lowell Noble's Writings for more on this theology of society.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Systems and laws, more than prejudice and discrimination
Racism is much more a matter of systems, laws and government policy than it is personal prejudice and personal discrimination. Personal prejudice is only a small part of the total picture.
An example: In regards to slavery, individual slave owners would die, but the system of slavery continued on from one generation to the next generation.
Two books highlight the systems of oppression or racism in law and government. In 2012, Michelle Alexander wrote "The New Jim Crow", a book about the crucial role of the criminal justice system combined with racial profiling and the war on drugs; the result was the mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males.
The second book I recommend, a 2017 book, is entitled "The Color of Law". Here is how a book review in the November 8, 2017, "Christian Century" describes this book.
"The law has never been blind. In fact, when it comes to race and segregation, the law has often done more harm to African American residential communities than racial customs and traditions have. It has done so intentionally. Richard Rothstein, an expert on race, education, and social policy at the Economic Policy Institute, details what the African American community has always known about residential segregation, shoddy housing and schools, and lack of meaningful job opportunities. He reveals how the consequences of residential segregation from the 1920s to today have been legal, intentional, and long lasting."
This book review by Shana L. Haines also says, "The suburbs laid down the welcome mat for white families - who built walls, burned crosses, and threw bricks through the windows of those African Americans foolish enough to think that the American dream was meant for them."
So many of the racial problems making the headlines today have a long history. Once racism becomes a system of oppression, a matter of law and government, individuals cannot then plead ignorance and assume no personal responsibility for the racism that continues on unabated.
The real question is not whether you are personally prejudiced; the real question is what are you doing to end systems of oppression, to release the oppressed, to rebuild oppressed poor communities.
The real issue is oppression damage caused dysfunction in which the rich oppress the poor or whites oppress blacks. This is the demonic at work as it crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves, and kills peoples created in the image of God. But in many white person's mind, the problem has moved from oppression damage dysfunction to blame the victim dysfunction where Indians are called savages and blacks are regarded as inferior. Or another way to put it, supposed biological flaws or cultural inferiority are falsely blamed.
When you look at statistics on infant mortality, unemployment or poverty, over the last fifty years, you still find the statistics for blacks doubled for infant mortality, unemployment and poverty. So- called racial progress in employment disappears when incarceration numbers are included. See "The New Jim Crow" for documentation. When whites can blame blacks for dysfunction, whites then are not guilty. They can claim they are righteous; if whites are righteous and blacks are to blame, whites need not repent and do not repent. For whites, there is not repentance, restitution or an obligation to repair oppressed communities.
An example: In regards to slavery, individual slave owners would die, but the system of slavery continued on from one generation to the next generation.
Two books highlight the systems of oppression or racism in law and government. In 2012, Michelle Alexander wrote "The New Jim Crow", a book about the crucial role of the criminal justice system combined with racial profiling and the war on drugs; the result was the mass incarceration of young black and Hispanic males.
The second book I recommend, a 2017 book, is entitled "The Color of Law". Here is how a book review in the November 8, 2017, "Christian Century" describes this book.
"The law has never been blind. In fact, when it comes to race and segregation, the law has often done more harm to African American residential communities than racial customs and traditions have. It has done so intentionally. Richard Rothstein, an expert on race, education, and social policy at the Economic Policy Institute, details what the African American community has always known about residential segregation, shoddy housing and schools, and lack of meaningful job opportunities. He reveals how the consequences of residential segregation from the 1920s to today have been legal, intentional, and long lasting."
This book review by Shana L. Haines also says, "The suburbs laid down the welcome mat for white families - who built walls, burned crosses, and threw bricks through the windows of those African Americans foolish enough to think that the American dream was meant for them."
So many of the racial problems making the headlines today have a long history. Once racism becomes a system of oppression, a matter of law and government, individuals cannot then plead ignorance and assume no personal responsibility for the racism that continues on unabated.
The real question is not whether you are personally prejudiced; the real question is what are you doing to end systems of oppression, to release the oppressed, to rebuild oppressed poor communities.
The real issue is oppression damage caused dysfunction in which the rich oppress the poor or whites oppress blacks. This is the demonic at work as it crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves, and kills peoples created in the image of God. But in many white person's mind, the problem has moved from oppression damage dysfunction to blame the victim dysfunction where Indians are called savages and blacks are regarded as inferior. Or another way to put it, supposed biological flaws or cultural inferiority are falsely blamed.
When you look at statistics on infant mortality, unemployment or poverty, over the last fifty years, you still find the statistics for blacks doubled for infant mortality, unemployment and poverty. So- called racial progress in employment disappears when incarceration numbers are included. See "The New Jim Crow" for documentation. When whites can blame blacks for dysfunction, whites then are not guilty. They can claim they are righteous; if whites are righteous and blacks are to blame, whites need not repent and do not repent. For whites, there is not repentance, restitution or an obligation to repair oppressed communities.
Monday, April 2, 2018
The Spirit, The Kingdom, and Jubilee Justice
I wish to highlight three different scriptural passages which tie the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, and Jubilee justice together.
1. Luke 4:18-19 - This passage defines the kingdom of God and is built around four key concepts:
the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed, and Jubilee justice.
2. Messianic Passages from Isaiah: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4 (in the NRSV, Isaiah 61:1 is translated as oppressed instead of poor) Again we find the Spirit, the kingdom, Jubilee justice and the oppressed poor as central concepts.
3. Acts 1:1-8; 2:38-45; 4:32-35 Here again the Spirit, the kingdom, the poor and justice are closely tied together.
Back to Luke 4:18-19. The kingdom message and ministry of a Spirit-filled church is described as follows: release the oppressed poor by doing Jubilee justice. This is the essence of the kingdom of God here on earth.
In Acts 1:3, immediately after his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus continued to talk incessantly about the kingdom of God. One might have thought Jesus would have spent this time, this brief time, before Pentecost explaining in some detail the meaning of the cross and the resurrection. Instead he was talking about the kingdom and the kingdom as justice that releases the oppressed. In Acts 1:6 his disciples asked Jesus a question, "Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus gave a yes and yes answer. Yes, to Israel, if Israel will repent. See Chapter 2:38, 40. In Jerusalem at this time it was full of poverty and oppression. See Isaiah Chapter 10:1-2 The kingdom could be restored back to Israel only if the Jews would repent and then do justice. Here is a description of Jubilee justice which they immediately did. Chapter 2:45, "Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need."
When the Spirit and kingdom are authentically combined, economic need revolving around oppression is immediately addressed. (see Nehemiah 5 and Act 4:32-35 for more detail).
Next, further elaboration on Luke 4:18-19:
On rich and poor, based on James 2:1-7 from The Message: James condemns the church for favoring the rich and discriminating against the poor. James says God favors the poor; "God has chosen the down and outers, the poor and oppressed, as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges."
Is your church favoring the rich or the poor? Prove it!
Based on Isaiah 58:6 from The Message: Releasing the oppressed is a profoundly spiritual act, "to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the work place, cancel debts."
In what ways is your church releasing the oppressed?
On Jubilee justice - based on Amos 5:24 from The Message: "I want justice - oceans of it. I want fairness - rivers of it."
A challenge - In five years could your church devote 50% of its budget to justice/mission ministries?
What percentage of your church's current budget is devoted to justice ministries?
Thursday, March 22, 2018
America: A Godly people or a Godless nation?
For the first forty-two years of my life, I believed the godly people version of the history of America. God called the Puritans, a Biblical people, to settle New England to begin a Christian nation - America. I was taught this version of American history at Christian colleges.
On April 4th, 1968, I had a second conversion - the conversion to a spirituality that included biblical justice. This second conversion included a keen awareness that America was fundamentally flawed with ethnocentrism/racism and economic oppression. In other words, America was born Godless than godly.
Today I am aware of the fact that the Puritans also packed British ethnocentrism and oppression next to their Bibles. Second and third generation Puritans often put greed, ethnocentrism and oppression ahead of the Biblical message. Soon Puritans were even paying money for the scalps of Indians.
The Reverand Bill McGill may be right when he declares: "The Christian coalition should stop preaching the lie that this country was founded on Christian principles and teach their children that only a godless people would be responsible for Indian genocide and African enslavement."
If you are confused about American history, I completely understand. On the one hand, we have the Washington Monument with its double message: Celebrate our first president, our founding father, but the second message is George and Martha Washington owned around three hundred slaves: Thus they participated in a massive social evil. Our founding fathers did not have the courage or wisdom to end slavery, so later these United States had to fight a Civil War at great human cost in order to eliminate slavery.
Then there is also the St. Louis Arch with its double message: Westward expansion and Indian oppression. St Louis was the base for expansion of western Christian civilization clear to the west coast. It was also the base for the destruction of Indian peoples and cultures and the stealing of Indian land.
On April 4th, 1968, I had a second conversion - the conversion to a spirituality that included biblical justice. This second conversion included a keen awareness that America was fundamentally flawed with ethnocentrism/racism and economic oppression. In other words, America was born Godless than godly.
Today I am aware of the fact that the Puritans also packed British ethnocentrism and oppression next to their Bibles. Second and third generation Puritans often put greed, ethnocentrism and oppression ahead of the Biblical message. Soon Puritans were even paying money for the scalps of Indians.
The Reverand Bill McGill may be right when he declares: "The Christian coalition should stop preaching the lie that this country was founded on Christian principles and teach their children that only a godless people would be responsible for Indian genocide and African enslavement."
If you are confused about American history, I completely understand. On the one hand, we have the Washington Monument with its double message: Celebrate our first president, our founding father, but the second message is George and Martha Washington owned around three hundred slaves: Thus they participated in a massive social evil. Our founding fathers did not have the courage or wisdom to end slavery, so later these United States had to fight a Civil War at great human cost in order to eliminate slavery.
Then there is also the St. Louis Arch with its double message: Westward expansion and Indian oppression. St Louis was the base for expansion of western Christian civilization clear to the west coast. It was also the base for the destruction of Indian peoples and cultures and the stealing of Indian land.
Friday, March 16, 2018
Are white evangelicals idolatrous?
In the April 2018 issue of Sojourners Magazine Kelly Brown Douglas wrote an article titled "How Evangelicals Became White". In a one sentence summary of the article Douglas stated, "By linking Anglo-Saxonism with godliness, evangelical Christianity has become complacent in promoting a great America that is equated with white supremacy."
A term that was used by scholars in the mid-1900s needs to be revived: that term is "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant" Today white evangelicals equate WASP as an Americanized Kingdom of God. This turns white ethnocentrism into a type of idolatry.
Why is the evangelical social ethic so deeply flawed, so easily corrupted by the worst of Americanism? Why has white evangelicalism degenerated into a spirituality without justice? A couple of possible reasons: There is no biblical theology of oppression in spite of the fact that there are 555 references to oppression in the Old Testament, and there is no New Testament theology of justice in spite of the fact that there are over 300 dik-stems in the New Testament.
A term that was used by scholars in the mid-1900s needs to be revived: that term is "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant" Today white evangelicals equate WASP as an Americanized Kingdom of God. This turns white ethnocentrism into a type of idolatry.
Why is the evangelical social ethic so deeply flawed, so easily corrupted by the worst of Americanism? Why has white evangelicalism degenerated into a spirituality without justice? A couple of possible reasons: There is no biblical theology of oppression in spite of the fact that there are 555 references to oppression in the Old Testament, and there is no New Testament theology of justice in spite of the fact that there are over 300 dik-stems in the New Testament.
Friday, January 26, 2018
Racism and US Law: Intended Consequences
In the Nov. 8, 2017 Christian Century, there is a book review of The Color of Law; reviewed by Shana L. Haines. The following is the first paragraph of the review:
"The law has never been blind. In fact, when it comes to race and segregation, the law has often done more harm to African American residential communities than racist customs and traditions have. And it has done so intentionally. Richard Rothstein, an expert on race, education, and social policy at the Economic Policy Institute, details what the African African community has always known about residential segregation, shoddy housing and schools, and lack of meaningful job opportunities. He reveals how the consequences of residential segregation from the 1920s to today have been legal, intentional, and long-lasting."
By contrast, "the suburbs [aided by federal government subsidies] laid down the welcome mat to white families."
The whole criminal justice system along with the culture at large and the thundering silence of most of the church combined to continue the racialized oppression of blacks and all other ethnic groups.
A similar critique of American law is found in the book review of Hitler's American Model authored by James Whitman, reviewed by Ira Katznelson ( November 2017, The Atlantic). The Review is titled "What America Taught the Nazis."
In the 1930s, 45 Nazi lawyers came to New York to "gain special insight into the workings of American [racial] law. . . . the leader of the group was Ludwig Fischer. As the governor of the Warsaw District half a decade later, he would preside over the brutal order of the ghetto."
Whitman states "that the Nuremberg Laws themselves reflect direct American influence."
"The law has never been blind. In fact, when it comes to race and segregation, the law has often done more harm to African American residential communities than racist customs and traditions have. And it has done so intentionally. Richard Rothstein, an expert on race, education, and social policy at the Economic Policy Institute, details what the African African community has always known about residential segregation, shoddy housing and schools, and lack of meaningful job opportunities. He reveals how the consequences of residential segregation from the 1920s to today have been legal, intentional, and long-lasting."
By contrast, "the suburbs [aided by federal government subsidies] laid down the welcome mat to white families."
The whole criminal justice system along with the culture at large and the thundering silence of most of the church combined to continue the racialized oppression of blacks and all other ethnic groups.
A similar critique of American law is found in the book review of Hitler's American Model authored by James Whitman, reviewed by Ira Katznelson ( November 2017, The Atlantic). The Review is titled "What America Taught the Nazis."
In the 1930s, 45 Nazi lawyers came to New York to "gain special insight into the workings of American [racial] law. . . . the leader of the group was Ludwig Fischer. As the governor of the Warsaw District half a decade later, he would preside over the brutal order of the ghetto."
Whitman states "that the Nuremberg Laws themselves reflect direct American influence."
Friday, January 19, 2018
Oppression Causes Dysfunction
Oppression causes individual, family, community and cultural dysfunction often resulting in PTSD.
Once established, dysfunction creates more dysfunction. Most theologians and sociologists look at the dysfunction creating more dysfunction, but miss the oppression causing dysfunction part.
All great books deserve a rereading so I have just reread Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, himself an Appalachian white, a despised and exploited Scots-Irish white, exploited and despised by Anglo-Saxon whites. Hillbilly Elegy excels in its analysis of of dysfunction but is weak in its analysis of oppression. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio but his families' cultural heritage came from the coal country of eastern Kentucky, namely Jackson, KY. Coal made this area rich (for the coal companies) but this area was full of poor people (exploited coal miners).
Hillbilly Elegy is a personal story, a family story, not a historical treatise nor a sociological analysis though there are bits and pieces of both historical and social analysis. This book is a true story, but it is not the whole truth. An important half truth about individual, family and community dysfunction. But if the half-truth is taken as the whole truth, it is a deceptive half-truth. Since most readers will be individualistic Americans with little in depth understanding of either history or sociology, Hillbilly Elegy will be understood by them as the complete truth.
I am not an expert on Appalachian history and sociology so I cannot point the reader to the book on Appalachia that would complete the story. But about 40 years ago I showed a documentary film on Appalachia titled Rich Land, Poor People---rich coal companies and poor miners.
Over Christmas, I met a gentleman who was teaching at an Indian school in South Dakota. He had read Hillbilly Elegy so I asked him if similar dysfunction existed on Indian reservations. He said, Yes. Vance himself said poor hill whites shared similar individual, family and cultural dysfunction with poor blacks.
Possibly Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism and oppression equally crushed Scots-Irish white, poor blacks and Indians. Oppression causes trauma, dysfunction and stress. Stress can cause miscarriages; Vance's grandmother had nine miscarriages. It was recently reported that the likely cause of the much higher rate of premature births among blacks is prolonged stress.
Oppression causes dysfunction, trauma, stress, poverty, illiteracy---a witches brew of social toxins.
Vance: "Writing this book, . . . I learned much I didn't know about my culture, my neighborhood and my family. And I relearned much that I had forgotten."
Neither religion (God) nor country (patriotism), both highly revered among hill whites, came through for Appalachian whites when the chips were down. Religion (God) turned out to be only spirituality without justice; only justice ends oppression. Nation/country exploited hill patriotism---labor without fair compensation and full citizenship.
These myths have left hill people pessimistic and disillusioned; they have provided no answers. Broken spirits, internal conflicts and now drug addiction along with poverty.
Once established, dysfunction creates more dysfunction. Most theologians and sociologists look at the dysfunction creating more dysfunction, but miss the oppression causing dysfunction part.
All great books deserve a rereading so I have just reread Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, himself an Appalachian white, a despised and exploited Scots-Irish white, exploited and despised by Anglo-Saxon whites. Hillbilly Elegy excels in its analysis of of dysfunction but is weak in its analysis of oppression. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio but his families' cultural heritage came from the coal country of eastern Kentucky, namely Jackson, KY. Coal made this area rich (for the coal companies) but this area was full of poor people (exploited coal miners).
Hillbilly Elegy is a personal story, a family story, not a historical treatise nor a sociological analysis though there are bits and pieces of both historical and social analysis. This book is a true story, but it is not the whole truth. An important half truth about individual, family and community dysfunction. But if the half-truth is taken as the whole truth, it is a deceptive half-truth. Since most readers will be individualistic Americans with little in depth understanding of either history or sociology, Hillbilly Elegy will be understood by them as the complete truth.
I am not an expert on Appalachian history and sociology so I cannot point the reader to the book on Appalachia that would complete the story. But about 40 years ago I showed a documentary film on Appalachia titled Rich Land, Poor People---rich coal companies and poor miners.
Over Christmas, I met a gentleman who was teaching at an Indian school in South Dakota. He had read Hillbilly Elegy so I asked him if similar dysfunction existed on Indian reservations. He said, Yes. Vance himself said poor hill whites shared similar individual, family and cultural dysfunction with poor blacks.
Possibly Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism and oppression equally crushed Scots-Irish white, poor blacks and Indians. Oppression causes trauma, dysfunction and stress. Stress can cause miscarriages; Vance's grandmother had nine miscarriages. It was recently reported that the likely cause of the much higher rate of premature births among blacks is prolonged stress.
Oppression causes dysfunction, trauma, stress, poverty, illiteracy---a witches brew of social toxins.
Vance: "Writing this book, . . . I learned much I didn't know about my culture, my neighborhood and my family. And I relearned much that I had forgotten."
Neither religion (God) nor country (patriotism), both highly revered among hill whites, came through for Appalachian whites when the chips were down. Religion (God) turned out to be only spirituality without justice; only justice ends oppression. Nation/country exploited hill patriotism---labor without fair compensation and full citizenship.
These myths have left hill people pessimistic and disillusioned; they have provided no answers. Broken spirits, internal conflicts and now drug addiction along with poverty.
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