Deep damage done to Native Americans

How to live in hope, by Charles R. Pinches:

"CHIEF PLENTY COUPS, of the Crow Nation, guided his people through the deep crisis brought by the invasion of the white man.  Shortly before his death in 1932, he said to his biographer:
'When the buffalo went away the hearts of my people fell to the ground, and they could not lift them up again.  After this, nothing happened.'

This was the chief's way of describing both individual PTSD and cultural PTSD.

In a Des Moines Register editorial, Reverend Bill McGill stated:
"The Christian coalition should stop preaching the lie that this country was founded on Christian principles and values, and teach their children that only a godless people would be responsible for Indian genocide and African enslavement."

From Martin Luther King's book, Why we can't wait: "Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.  Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations."

An appropriate response by white oppressors would be repentance and restitution.

Jubilee Justice, Part I: The Biblical Solution to the Bondage of Debt

The biblical scholar, John Howard Yoder, once described debt as "the paradigmatic social evil".  In other words, in the Bible, debt is the classic expression of social evil.

The prophet Elisha (II Kings 4:1-7) performed a miracle to solve the problem of debt for the wife of a prophet whose husband had died.  The wife cried out to Elisha, ". . . . the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves".  Elisha told her to borrow many vessels from her neighbors and to start pouring her remaining jar of oil into them.  She did so and the oil kept flowing until all the vessels were full.  Elisha told her, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest."  Through the miracle of Jubilee justice, we need to give the poor of this world access to the basic resources of life so they can be self-sufficient.

Debt had a different meaning in Bible times than it does today.  It was much worse.  Failure to repay one's debts in both the Old and New Testaments, could not only mean the loss of your land, , house, etc., but you and your children might be sold into slavery until your debts were paid.  Often excessive interest charges were added to your total debt so that the chances of ever fully repaying your debt were nil because the debt became larger and larger.  Or you might be imprisoned because of your unpaid debt.

What might drive a family into debt?  Famine, excessive taxation or crop failure.  Even if crops were poor, the taxes were still due.  To avoid losing one's farm to the tax collector, the farmer would borrow money, often at a high rate of interest, to pay the taxes.  Come another year, the farmer would not only have a heavy tax bill to pay, but he would have to repay the borrowed money as well -- an impossible task so the farm would be lost.

For awhile, the peasant farmer might become a sharecropper, but this usually would not earn enough income to pay off his debt.  The debt would continue to grow.  The next step might be slavery -- the whole family legally could be enslaved over an unpaid debt.

In modern US society, we have bankruptcy laws which protect against a person being sold into slavery if one cannot pay his or her debts.  Usually, a person can keep their house so the family will not be homeless or destitute.  It may be that our bankruptcy laws reflect something of Sabbatical/Jubilee laws which were designed to break the bondage of debt and enslavement.

When Robert Boynton interviewed Glenn Loury for The New Yorker, (May 1, 1995), Loury mentioned that Nehemiah had relevance for Afro Americans today.  Boynton went home and read Nehemiah and found some startling information.  Chapter five is the story of famine, debt, and exploitation and Nehemiah's solution to these problems.

Because of famine, families were "mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain. . . ."  Also, some had borrowed money to pay the heavy taxes; and excessive interest was being charged.  The result: "we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves," and they were powerless to do anything about it because, "other men have our fields and our vineyards".

So, Nehemiah held an assembly and pointedly condemned this oppression:
"The thing that you are doing is not good. . . . Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards and their houses, and also the interest that you have been charging."  The people promised, "We will restore these and require nothing from them".

As leader of the Jerusalem Jews, Nehemiah did not lay heavy tax burdens on the people.  He acted justly in every way and did not become rich by taking advantage of his power and authority.  Nehemiah operationalized the principles of the Sabbatical/Jubilee laws to stop oppressions and greed in the economic system.

This same pattern of excessive taxation, excessive interest, indebtedness, land loss, enslavement or imprisonment existed at the time of Christ.  Especially in Galilee, peasant farmers were losing their land and even control of their own lives and families at an increasing rate.  Galilee -- a rich land full of poor people.  Large landholders, some of them Sadducees from Jerusalem's ruling elite, controlled most of the good agricultural land leaving many landless and poor.  The rich were getting richer and numbers of poor were increasing.

With this background, a person can better understand why John the Baptist urged people to repent of their economic sins(Luke 3): collecting excessive taxes or robbing people by false accusation or violence.

With this background, a person can also understand why Jesus received an enthusiastic reception when he stood up in the Nazareth synagogue and read from Isaiah 61:

                                       The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
                                            because he has anointed me to preach
                                            good news to the poor. [Woe to the rich!]
                                         He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
                                           and recovering of sight to the blind,
                                           to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
                                           to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. [Jubilee justice]

This passage breathes hope with the use of the Sabbatical/Jubilee words of release and liberty.  For the poor and oppressed, the bruised and downtrodden, there is the possibility of not only spiritual release and forgiveness, but also economic freedom -- release from the burden of debt and oppression.  The year of the Lord refers to the Jubilee and Jubilee principles are designed to restore economic justice for the poor.  And there were plenty of landless, indebted poor in Galilee.

No wonder "all spoke well of him," (Luke 4:22).

Jesus came to fulfill the Jubilee principles and to incarnate kingdom of God justice.  When this happens, then Isaiah 61:3-4 will be fulfilled: the poor and oppressed will have:

                                          a crown of beauty
                                          instead of ashes
                                          the oil of gladness
                                          instead of mourning
                                          a garment of praise
                                          instead of a spirit of despair.
                                          They will be called oaks of righteousness. . . .
                                          They will rebuild the ancient ruins and
                                           restore the places long devastated.

With the above background, the parable of the unmerciful servant makes more sense (Mt 18:21-35).  Remember how serious debts were in Bible times.

Just prior to this parable, Peter asks Jesus, "how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?"  Then Jesus follows with a parable on forgiveness.  Forgiveness is grace operationalized -- in this case in the economic realm:

                                          Therefore, the kingdom of heaven [God] is like a king who
                                           wanted to settle accounts with his servants. . . . a man who
                                           owed him ten thousand talents [several million dollars],
                                           was brought to him.  Since he was not able to pay, the master
                                           ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that
                                           he had be sold to repay the debt.

The servant begged for mercy and the master had compassion, "cancel the debt and let him go."  But, this same servant went out and ordered a person who owed him money to repay him immediately; he showed no mercy and threw the debtor into prison.

The unmerciful servant was reported to his master and the master threw the unmerciful servant into prison.

What was Jesus' application:  "If you don't forgive your brother as God forgives you, you will be severely punished.  Grace, forgiveness and justice must be combined in a comprehensive ministry to the poor and the oppressed."

If this Sabbatical/Jubilee type of justice is so important, we should examine it more closely.

[See my next blog: Jubilee justice, Part 2: Restoring Economic Justice]

Those who do justice shall live

Hendrik Hart, a Reformed philosopher, wrote an article published in the Christian Scholars Review, titled "The Just Shall Live: reformed reflections in public justice and racist attitudes", March 1987.

Hart was deeply troubled about the persistent racism that existed in some Calvinistic communities, such as South Africa, Grand Rapids, Michigan and northwest Iowa.  Hart listed multiple possible reasons:

1. Calvinism was often too intellectual, too philosophical, making "ideas powerless for action".

2. Calvinists often saw faith as "opposed to works".

3. Calvinists often misinterpreted Habakkuk 2:4 as being more about justification by faith than justice.  Whereas Hart interpreted Habakkuk 2:4 as "your life lies in doing justice by faith".  Habakkuk grappled with injustice and God's call to do justice.

4. "Our justice will have to be sacrificial."  The privileged must extend their privileges to the underprivileged, the poor and the oppressed.

5. "Racism is religious rebellion."  It is a form of idolatry, when I do not see God's image in another person.

6. "Justice requires our conversion and repentance."  Rich whites will have to repent of their privilege.

Noble's additional comments:

Reformed Christians and all western Christians will have to add the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, and Jubilee Justice to their existing theology.  This gap in theology is so large and so important that it may take a Second Reformation to pull it off.  As Graham Cray said, "The agenda of the kingdom of God is justice; the dynamic of the kingdom of God is the Holy Spirit."

More from the prophet Habakkuk; he asked "God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? . . . . justice is a joke.  God, you chose the godless Babylonians for judgement.  You stand around and watch."

In chapter 2, God replies in essence, "Quit complaining about me.  My marching orders for you are to stand up, be counted, and do justice."

The Spirit, The kingdom of God, and Justice

Biblically these three concepts, The Spirit, the kingdom and justice were closely tied together, but I've heard two church historians say that two centuries after the book of Acts, the kingdom of God largely disappeared from the church vocabulary; meaning, of course The Spirit and the kingdom were separated.  This was a tragic divorce with severe consequences.  To my knowledge, The Spirit and the kingdom are not tied closely together today.

Next, we are going to look at the Messianic Passages, where you will see The Spirit, the kingdom and justice closely tied together:

Isaiah 9:7  "Of the increase of his government and shalom there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness."

Isaiah 11: 1-4  "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. . . . with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor."

Isaiah 16:5  "In love a throne will be established . . . . one from the house of David who seeks justice and speeds the case of righteousness."

Isaiah 28: 16-17  "I lay s stone in Zion . . . . a precious cornerstone . . . . I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line."

Isaiah 42: 1-4  "Here is my servant . . . . I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations."

Isaiah 61: 1-4  (Noble paraphrase)  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the oppressed poor, to proclaim freedom and release by practicing Jubilee justice for the oppressed poor.

To bestow on the poor a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

These transformed poor will be called oaks of righteousness of trees of justice.  These transformed poor will rebuild the ruined cities . . . . For I, the Lord, love justice.

When Jesus introduces himself, in his kingdom of God ministry, in Nazareth, he quotes a Messianic passage--Luke 4:18-19-- which combines the Spirit, the kingdom and Jubilee justice together.  Any effective ministry to the poor and oppressed must be built on the Spirit, the kingdom and justice.

Acts 1:1-8 -- There are two major concepts in this passage.  The kingdom of God and the coming Holy Spirit.  I see the Spirit and the kingdom tied together throughout the book of Acts.

Romans 14:17  ties the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God together. And according to the NE Bible, justice as well.

Matthew 6:33 (NEB) ties the kingdom of God and justice together.

The failures of the Protestant Reformation, at this point, are enormous.  I see little effort to tie the Spirit, the kingdom and justice together.  I think we need a Second Reformation which renews the biblical tie between the Spirit, the kingdom and justice.  Then, and only then, will we have a Gospel strong enough to deliver the poor from their oppression.

The Rich Oppress the Poor

What do the U.S. and Haiti have in common?  Also in common with NT times?  That the rich oppress the poor.  There may be more about the rich in the NT than about the poor.

The rich create and maintain systems of oppression.  The evil rich are predatory, corrupt, and demonic.

NT Times:

Jesus, himself, declared, "Woe to the rich."  Jesus also said, "You cannot serve both God and Money."  And Jesus said the religious rich ran the Temple as a 'den of robbers'.  James 2 asserts the rich oppress the poor.  James 5 vividly describes the oppression of agricultural laborers.

The whole NT is fiercely anti-rich.  Why?  Because the rich oppress the poor.

Haiti:

Haitian peasants suffered from French slavery for about one hundred years.  Then they suffered from French debt slavery for one hundred plus years.  They experienced two hundred plus years of extreme oppression.

The U.S. was an ally of the French during debt slavery.  At the same time, the US exploited Haiti.  For about twenty years, Haitian dictators, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, ruthlessly ruled Haiti.

From 1987-2018, supposedly ruthless dictators were gone and a semblance democracy reigned.  But in reality, a small rich Haitian elite ran the country.

So in reality, Haiti has suffered from three hundred years of extreme oppression and three hundred years of extreme poverty.

The U.S.:

Our founding fathers were a rich, white, male elite--a slave holding elite.  They were not a democracy, government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Flash forward to the year 2018, according to Matthew Stewart, (June 2018 The Atlantic), the US is currently being run by a largely rich, white, male elite.  10 percent of the population controls the other 90 percent.  The other 90 percent are oppressed to one degree or another.  The poor, through predatory lending, the rest of us through a predatory taxation system, and a predatory government spending system, both of which are rigged to favor the rich.  This is not a democracy.

Back to our founding father, Jefferson, who wrote, "All men are created equal."  But in practical terms it translated into 'only men are created equal.'  Women were not treated as equal citizens, the poor were not treated as equal citizens, neither were Native Americans nor African Americans.  As second class citizens, they were oppressed by the rich, white, male elite.

Conclusion:

If we understand clearly the NT teaching on rich and poor, oppression and justice, these NT teachings will apply directly to Haiti and to the US.

The next blog will be built around the Spirit, the kingdom of God, and Justice.  These three concepts are the Biblical answer to the rich oppressing the poor.  But for the most part, the Western Church has put these three important concepts in their back pocket and seldom preached or practiced them.  So the next blog will talk about the biblical solution about the rich oppressing the poor.

A final quotation from the book, An Unbroken Agony:

"Haiti is arguably the Carrabean's most racial segregated and class-riven society.  Even element of the international community who defend the unseemly excesses of Haiti's wealthy, were often shocked by the breadth of the divide that separates Haiti's rich from its poor.  Paradis said, "the rich are so rich there. . . .but the poor is unbelievable."  In other words, "Extreme riches, extreme oppression, extreme poverty."

Democracy or Plutocracy (rule by the rich)???

Two score and ten years ago, a rich, white, male president, John F. Kennedy, was assonated.  Seven score and ten years ago, a poor, white, male president, Abraham Lincoln, gave his Gettysburg Address.  Neither president understood the nature and necessity of justice for the nation.  In 1776, a rich, white, male elite drafted the Declaration of Independence; in 1787, a rich, white, male elite drafted the US Constitution.

These documents are treasured by Americans, but I place the Pledge of Allegiance above the Declaration and the Constitution.  Why?  The Declaration and Constitution do refer to the concepts of freedom and equality, but they omit the equally important and absolutely necessary concept of justice.  The Pledge ends with this fundamental requirement of democracy -- "With liberty and justice for all."
"With liberty and justice for all" happens to be Billy Graham's definition of the kingdom of God.

Without justice for all its citizens, freedom and equality ring hollow.  For example:

• Without justice, slavery can be abolished and legal freedom gained; but they were quickly followed by a new birth of oppression --- legal segregation.
• Without justice, legal segregation can be abolished and legal freedom regained; but these victories were quickly followed by an exploding racial wealth gap and the mass incarceration of young Black an dHispanic males.
• Without justice, the beautiful and eloquent phrase "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people," becomes, in tragic reality, "a government created by a rich, white, male elite for a rich, white, male elite."

Justice demands that we look underneath the oppressive systems of slavery, segregation, wealth gap and mass incarceration to find the underlying causes/values and uproot them---something neither Lincoln nor Kennedy did.  As a nation, we must confess and repent from our national sins of American exceptionalism, white supremacy, WASPness (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant), and the American trinity of hyper individualism, hypermaterialism and hyperethnocentrism---something the nation has never done.

Without a public statement of confession and repentance, we repeat the same national sins, slightly revised, over and over again.  The Declaration and the Constitution did not lead us from repentance to justice.  Neither does the Pledge, but at least the Pledge, for the first time in American history, publicly tied freedom and justice together.

We need to add another sentence or two to our Pledge:  "We pledge, under God, in a spirit of repentance and restitution, to free all our oppressed people.  We will pursue, under God, Jubilee justice for all our citizens."

Slave-holding capitalists wrote the Declaration and the Constitution; a socialist wrote the pledge.

Luke 4-Oppression and Ethnocentrism

This blog on Luke 4 analyzes the social evils of oppression and ethnocentrism.  Ideally a person should have completed the thirteen Bible study lessons on oppression and justice from the previous blog titled: "Spirituality without justice, Spirituality with justice".  The point of Luke 4 would be much clearer and sharper if you have already made an in-depth study of oppression and justice.

Luke 4: 18-19 highlights four key concepts: the Spirit, the poor, the oppressed, and Jubilee Justice.

The following scripture verses from Luke, highlight the negative role of the rich, wealth, possessions, money.  In Luke, the rich and powerful elite are identified as the social problem, not the poor.  See these scriptures:
Luke 1:13; 3:11-14; 6:24; 8:14; 12:13-21; 12:22-34; 16:13-31; 18:18-30; 19:1-10; 19:45-46.

All of these are essentially anti-rich so a person doing an in-depth analysis of Luke 4:18-19, which doesn't specifically mention the rich, needs to understand that in Luke the rich were seen as the oppressors of the poor.

In Luke 4:25-30, the issue of ethnocentrism comes up-the supposed superiority of Jew over Gentile.
William Barclay says this about the the relationship of Jew and Gentile during NT times: "The Jew had an immense contempt for a Gentile.  The Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.  It was not even lawful to help a Gentile mother giving birth. . . . to bring another Gentile in the world. . . . the barrier between them was absolute.  If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, the funeral of that Jewish boy was carried out."

Jesus tells two familiar OT stories.  He interprets these stories essentially saying God's grace is equally available to Gentiles, or God loves the Gentiles as well as the Jews.  When the Nazareth Jews heard this interpretation, which was pro Gentile, they were so enraged that they tried to kill Jesus on the spot.

So early on in his ministry, Jesus puts two social evils, oppression and ethnocentrism, front and center.  These social evils must be addressed as a part of the kingdom of God here on earth.

My understanding of modern American society is that we as well are plagued with soceconomic oppression and ethnocentrism.  Most American whites put down Native Americans, black Americans, Mexicans, Asians; anyone who is non-white, so we desperately need the message of Luke 4 today just as the Nazareth Jews needed it back in their day.

The following quotation comes from the Contemporary English Version:

"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, 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). [Noble: Debt economics and slavery can quickly become systems of oppression; Sabbath/Jubilee laws prevented lifelong, even generational, systems of oppression from taking hold.] And every fiftieth year there was to be a Jubilee, . . . 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 Jubilee year began on the Day of Atonement [forgiveness] (Lev. 25:9)---the day of national repentance and reconciliation. So fresh starts spiritually and physically [socially]---a whole life view. . . . The Jubilee idea survives. Today it is being applied to global debt. The Jubilee Campaign recognizes that there are countries who have fallen so far into debt that only drastic action can get them out."

Commentary from NIV Faith in Action Study Bible: Luke 4:14-30:

"Luke placed Jesus' sermon in his hometown of Nazareth as the inaugural message for his ministry.  Jesus' choice of Isaiah as his subject caused a stir.  All Israel believed this passage not only to be the text that would announce the Messiah's coming, but also the one that instituted the Year of the Jubilee ("the year of the Lord's favor"). When the Messiah came, everyone was to get a new beginning--the poor, the oppressed, the blind, and the indebted.  When Jesus cited outsiders as recipients of God's blessing, he provoked rage.  His ministry began with people trying to kill him!"

From Insurgence, Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom pages 271-280:
Excellent on the deceitfulness of riches.


From Insurgence, Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom pages 336 - 337:
"The world of the first century was littered with racism and oppression.  In the mind of a first-century Jew, Gentiles (Africans, Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Asians, etc) were created to fuel the fires of hell."

"When a Jew called a Gentile "uncircumcised," he spit it.  It was a name of profound contempt."

"In all of human history, there has never been so much animosity, hatred, and violence between two groups of people as there has been between the Jew and Gentile.  But alas, in the first century, there emerged a group of radicals on the planet who transcended this entrenched  racial (ethnic) hostility."

"Here was a group of people who saw themselves as members of the same family. . . a people made up of Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free, rich, poor, male, and female."

"These were the early followers of Jesus.  The Roman world stood in awe as they saw a people who hated each other begin to love one another and do life together in the name of Jesus."

"Watch them walking into the marketplace together, arm in arm, singing with joy in their hearts."

Jew and Gentile.
Slave and free.
Rich and poor.
Male and female.

"Look at them closely.  Jew and Gentile eating together, working together, greeting one another with a holy kiss, raising their children together, taking care of one another, marrying one another, and burying one another."

"This fact blew the circuitry of every person living in Century One.  It shook the Roman Empire to its very foundations."

"For the first two hundred years, the Christians only addressed each other by their first names.  The reason?"

"Because their last names indicated their social position in society."

"Here was a classless, raceless society where all social distinctions were erased."

"To their minds, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor no longer existed.  The early believers saw themselves as part of the same family.  They were a new race . . . a colony from another realm, not of or from this earth.  Yet for this earth."