When Jesus began his ministry, he announced, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." What were the existing kingdoms like? The Roman Empire? The Jewish kingdom?
Donald Kraybill, in his book The Upside-Down Kingdom, gives us a sociological analysis of the political, religious and economic conditions of New Testament times in Palestine. Chapter two describes the political situation.
First, a brief history. Alexander the Great conquered Palestine in 332 BC introducing Greek language and culture. His successors ruled Palestine for over 100 years. In 198 BC, Syria captured the Jewish kingdom and a madman devastated Palestine.
In 63 BC, Rome conquered Palestine. Herod the Great ran the show. He built the magnificent temple, but soon after its full completion, it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Herod taxed the people ruthlessly, but he did allow the Jews religious freedom as long as they obeyed Rome.
The Zealots could not tolerate the Roman occupation of their sacred land so they led a violent resistance movement just before and during Jesus' time. Dagger men engaged in a "slit and run" tactic. "Palestine was in a state of boiling revolution."
Next, from politics to religion. Or more accurately, the reign of a Jewish religio-politico-economic elite. Church and state were not separate in Jewish society. This was an highly institutionalized religion built around a magnificent temple:
The temple treasury, functioning as a huge national bank, contained the tithes and offerings required of Jews throughout the world and held title to a considerable amount of property. The temple was no small business. It was an elaborate operation which generated the major source of revenue for the city of Jerusalem.
Closely tied to the temple was the Jewish Sanhedrin:
This great [70 member] council had complete judicial and administrative authority in religious and civil matters.
A further comment on the nature of the Jewish kingdom which Jesus often confronted:
The political, social, and religious affairs of all Judea and international Judism were oriented toward the great temple in Jerusalem. Synagogues in each village throughout the countryside faced the holy temple. The temple's influence permeated the hinterland through the network of 18,000 priests and Levites whose social and religious status was tied to the temple operation. The frequent pilgrimages and trips for sacrifice cemented even the ordinary Jewish peasant into the temple's mystique.
The Sadducees were conservative in terms of religious doctrine, but rich and powerful politically and economically. They dominated the Sanhedrin. Jesus found this system oppressive so again and again he directly confronted this corrupt perversion of God's will.
What about the economic situation? Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee. "Poor peasant farmers are pushed off the land by ruthless creditors. . . . the masses are suffering under a system of excessive taxation."
While Jerusalem was the home of much wealth, the masses (90 percent were "people of the land") were dirt poor or near poverty. Galilee was full of these "scum of the earth" people. The common people despised not only the Roman occupiers but also the pious rich Jewish elite. Galilee was a rich land (agriculture and fish) full of poor people. Landlords and landless poor:
Within a few decades, small and middle-sized plots of land had disappeared, whereas the properties owned by the temple and the [Roman] imperial crown grew beyond proportion. . .. At the core of poverty was a system of double taxation [Jewish and Roman]; from forty to seventy percent of the peasants annual income.
Fraud and force, very rich and very poor, few middle class; not a just society. Kraybill summarizes the situation:
A close scrutiny of Jesus' mission shows that his new way undercut the leverage of the three major social institutions of his day: political force, established religion, and conventional economics.
As often happens, these three institutional structures were closely interwoven together. The rich aristocracy of chief priests and Sadducees in Jerusalem owned large estates in Galilee which crushed small peasant farmers. They controlled the mighty Jewish supreme court---the Sanhedrin. This body, in turn, controlled the temple ritual and religious regulations. It was this same upper crust of Jerusalem which was in cahoots with the Romans. They wanted the Romans to stay so their property and plush living would be protected from the rebellious countryside bandits. . . . It was this Jerusalem crowd that shouted, "Crucify him, crucify him," for they perceived the new way of Jesus to be more dangerous---more upsetting in its totality---than the threat of the rebel leader Barabbas who led a revolt in the city. . . . But a new teaching, a new way of living which overturned the political, religious, and economic tables was too dangerous to the plush security and luxury of the Jerusalem elite.
Into the midst of these terrible conditions, Jesus announced, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor [most of the hearers were poor], . . . to release the oppressed [most of his hearers were likely oppressed], and to incarnate Jubilee/Sabbath Year justice for the poor [designed to break patterns of poverty and oppression.]"
Haiti and Galilee have a lot in common: a small rich elite oppressing the poor masses.
This is the first of three blogs on the Kingdom of God. The next blog will be titled Isaiah's Definition of the Kingdom; the third blog will be about a possible creedal statement of the kingdom of God.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
The Black Church: Past and Present
The following is my book review of three books by black authors: Marvin A. McMickle, Preaching to the Black Middle Class, 2000 and Dwight Perry, Breaking Down Barriers: A Black Evangelical Explains the Black Church, 1998; Bruce Fields, Introducing Black Theology; Three Crucial Questions for the Evangelical Church, 2001.
The dilemma of the black middle class: How does a person escape the clutches of poverty and racism but avoid being ensnared by individualism and materialism?
The author of Preaching to the Black Middle Class knows from bitter personal experience what it is like to be poor and oppressed, and what the intense seduction of materialism is like. So his writings show insightful understanding of the black middle class, but also a warning and a challenge not to settle for a materialistic mess of pottage. He exhorts the black middle class to aim higher than achieving the American Dream.
But before, I examine the contemporary scene through the teachings and preachings of McMickle, I want to look at the past history of Afro Americans and the black church through the informed eyes of Rev. Dwight Perry, D. Min and Ph.D, author of Breaking Down Barriers. First a quotation:
Africans brought with them a hope for liberation, a strong oral tradition, and a sense of connectedness between their spiritual and physical lives. When Blacks converted to Christianity, these characteristics contributed to a Christian community that was, and is, distinctly different than the White church.
Contrary to many Euro evangelicals who are conservative religiously, politically and economically, many Afro Christians are "staunchly conservative from a religious point of view, while liberal politically and socially." White evangelicals are conservative politically and economically because it helps to preserve the status quo which favors them, helps them preserve white privilege; black evangelicals are liberal because they desperately need revolutionary change to stop oppression and create justice.
Perry states:
The White church in this country developed in the absence of oppression; it could afford to dichotomize the gospel, allowing it to apply to spiritual issues but not to social ones.
True, but I would state this in a stronger fashion. The Euro church was often a part of the oppression of blacks and benefited from their oppression. Therefore, it was to their advantage to divorce the spiritual from the social, especially when other ethnic groups were involved. They could appear to be individually righteous while socially evil with no contradiction, or so they falsely believed; at judgment day, they will discover how wrong they were.
Regarding the Civil War and Reconstruction, Perry notes that there was over 150 years of slavery, then suddenly freedom. Freedom, but not much justice followed. For example, most of the work of the Freedmen's Bureau centered around "temporary relief" which was badly needed, but economic issues such as "property ownership and economic equity" were not addressed. Soon a new form of slavery was instituted and institutionalized---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching.
Perry asserts that Euro evangelicals have the "right theology but wrong sociology." By this I assume that he means the evangelicals have a good theology of personal sin and personal salvation based on the cross and resurrection, but they do not practice social justice. I would say that white evangelicals have a partial or incomplete theology which leads to a terrible practice of sociology. Their theology not address ethnocentrism and oppression as the Bible does. Their theology does not understand the kingdom of God as justice that releases the oppressed poor.
Back to McMickle, the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio; he has a doctorate and teaches at Ashland Theological Seminary. The following quotation reflects the theme of his book:
There is a black middle class that is becoming more and more affluent. There is at the same time, a black underclass that is becoming increasingly impoverished. The question for this book is what the class disparity within the black community means for the ministry of black churches. More precisely, what are the ministry obligations and opportunities of black middle-class churches that are physically located within America's inner cities?
McMickle knows what it is like to be hungry and poor, also the desperate pursuit for something better---a middle class life style; here are some insights from his own personal journey:
The pursuit of prosperity and the American Dream is an especially delicate issue with the black middle class. Many of them are the first generation in their families to enjoy any measure of prosperity. . . . My family never owned its own home. When my father abandoned us, I was ten years old. From that time on, we never owned a car. I will never forget standing on the street corners in Chicago in subzero weather waiting for public transportation. . . . My memories of growing up helped me understand those persons who, like Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, have vowed to themselves "never to be hungry again."
As a teenager, McMickle visited a plush suburban home. But as he returned to his small, dingy apartment, he sobbed and sobbed "because the life I had lived for the past two days seemed out of my reach."
McMickle adds:
I fell into the money cycle immediately following my graduation from high school. . . . Not only was I making union scale as a regular wage, but I could earn double time if I worked Sundays. After having grownup as an active member of a church in Chicago, I worked Sundays without hesitation because in a choice between God and mammon, I chose the mammon. I was determined never again to face an empty closet or a bare pantry. Had my call to the ministry not occurred in the summer of 1966 while I was working in that print shop, I wonder if I would ever have broken out of that cycle.
The intense human desire to escape poverty is understandable, but potentially dangerous. A person, a community, even a church can become quite materialistic in the process. A person may escape poverty, gain the whole world, yet lose one's soul. We must remember to give highest priority to God's kingdom and his justice; then God will take care of the necessities of life.
Most of his book consists of wise advice regarding the ministry of the black church.
Next, Introducing Black Theology by Bruce Fields.
I am angry. What could and should have been a great book, a desperately needed book, a ground breaking book for American evangelicalism, turned out to be incomplete, too theological, not biblical enough. Many theologians were quoted, but there was not much original biblical analysis.
There were some tantalizing statements which led me to believe that this would be a great book:
* "As a symbol of oppression, the concept of blackness allows for fruitful theological reflection."
* "I will address the need for the church to adopt a more prophetic stance on the specific matters of racism and the potential tolerance of systemic sin."
* The church, however, is not totally unlike its societal surroundings. We are still in days of racial tension and division, and it is sheer naivete to believe that a follower of Jesus Christ living and ministering in this present setting is automatically and completely immune to such influences."
* "Racism is a faith. It is a form of idolatry."
These statements reveal the author's personal sensitivity to oppression/justice issues, but there are major omissions in his biblical analysis.
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith, 2000, had already documented the failure of evangelicals to engage racial oppression responsibly, biblically. So here was a golden opportunity for an Afro American evangelical to chart the biblical way to stop oppression and do justice. Fields toyed with the concepts/issues, but he essentially failed his assignment. What an enormous tragedy!
If oppression and justice are central concerns of black theology, and if oppression and justice are central failures of the white evangelical church, then a bible-believing evangelical must engage in depth the Scriptures at these points. Strangely, Fields does not do so.
To my knowledge, no white or black evangelical has produced a definitive biblical analysis of ethnocentrism, oppression, justice and reconciliation, and the kingdom of God as justice that releases the oppressed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Any volunteers?
The dilemma of the black middle class: How does a person escape the clutches of poverty and racism but avoid being ensnared by individualism and materialism?
The author of Preaching to the Black Middle Class knows from bitter personal experience what it is like to be poor and oppressed, and what the intense seduction of materialism is like. So his writings show insightful understanding of the black middle class, but also a warning and a challenge not to settle for a materialistic mess of pottage. He exhorts the black middle class to aim higher than achieving the American Dream.
But before, I examine the contemporary scene through the teachings and preachings of McMickle, I want to look at the past history of Afro Americans and the black church through the informed eyes of Rev. Dwight Perry, D. Min and Ph.D, author of Breaking Down Barriers. First a quotation:
Africans brought with them a hope for liberation, a strong oral tradition, and a sense of connectedness between their spiritual and physical lives. When Blacks converted to Christianity, these characteristics contributed to a Christian community that was, and is, distinctly different than the White church.
Contrary to many Euro evangelicals who are conservative religiously, politically and economically, many Afro Christians are "staunchly conservative from a religious point of view, while liberal politically and socially." White evangelicals are conservative politically and economically because it helps to preserve the status quo which favors them, helps them preserve white privilege; black evangelicals are liberal because they desperately need revolutionary change to stop oppression and create justice.
Perry states:
The White church in this country developed in the absence of oppression; it could afford to dichotomize the gospel, allowing it to apply to spiritual issues but not to social ones.
True, but I would state this in a stronger fashion. The Euro church was often a part of the oppression of blacks and benefited from their oppression. Therefore, it was to their advantage to divorce the spiritual from the social, especially when other ethnic groups were involved. They could appear to be individually righteous while socially evil with no contradiction, or so they falsely believed; at judgment day, they will discover how wrong they were.
Regarding the Civil War and Reconstruction, Perry notes that there was over 150 years of slavery, then suddenly freedom. Freedom, but not much justice followed. For example, most of the work of the Freedmen's Bureau centered around "temporary relief" which was badly needed, but economic issues such as "property ownership and economic equity" were not addressed. Soon a new form of slavery was instituted and institutionalized---segregation, sharecropping, prison gangs and lynching.
Perry asserts that Euro evangelicals have the "right theology but wrong sociology." By this I assume that he means the evangelicals have a good theology of personal sin and personal salvation based on the cross and resurrection, but they do not practice social justice. I would say that white evangelicals have a partial or incomplete theology which leads to a terrible practice of sociology. Their theology not address ethnocentrism and oppression as the Bible does. Their theology does not understand the kingdom of God as justice that releases the oppressed poor.
Back to McMickle, the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio; he has a doctorate and teaches at Ashland Theological Seminary. The following quotation reflects the theme of his book:
There is a black middle class that is becoming more and more affluent. There is at the same time, a black underclass that is becoming increasingly impoverished. The question for this book is what the class disparity within the black community means for the ministry of black churches. More precisely, what are the ministry obligations and opportunities of black middle-class churches that are physically located within America's inner cities?
McMickle knows what it is like to be hungry and poor, also the desperate pursuit for something better---a middle class life style; here are some insights from his own personal journey:
The pursuit of prosperity and the American Dream is an especially delicate issue with the black middle class. Many of them are the first generation in their families to enjoy any measure of prosperity. . . . My family never owned its own home. When my father abandoned us, I was ten years old. From that time on, we never owned a car. I will never forget standing on the street corners in Chicago in subzero weather waiting for public transportation. . . . My memories of growing up helped me understand those persons who, like Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, have vowed to themselves "never to be hungry again."
As a teenager, McMickle visited a plush suburban home. But as he returned to his small, dingy apartment, he sobbed and sobbed "because the life I had lived for the past two days seemed out of my reach."
McMickle adds:
I fell into the money cycle immediately following my graduation from high school. . . . Not only was I making union scale as a regular wage, but I could earn double time if I worked Sundays. After having grownup as an active member of a church in Chicago, I worked Sundays without hesitation because in a choice between God and mammon, I chose the mammon. I was determined never again to face an empty closet or a bare pantry. Had my call to the ministry not occurred in the summer of 1966 while I was working in that print shop, I wonder if I would ever have broken out of that cycle.
The intense human desire to escape poverty is understandable, but potentially dangerous. A person, a community, even a church can become quite materialistic in the process. A person may escape poverty, gain the whole world, yet lose one's soul. We must remember to give highest priority to God's kingdom and his justice; then God will take care of the necessities of life.
Most of his book consists of wise advice regarding the ministry of the black church.
Next, Introducing Black Theology by Bruce Fields.
I am angry. What could and should have been a great book, a desperately needed book, a ground breaking book for American evangelicalism, turned out to be incomplete, too theological, not biblical enough. Many theologians were quoted, but there was not much original biblical analysis.
There were some tantalizing statements which led me to believe that this would be a great book:
* "As a symbol of oppression, the concept of blackness allows for fruitful theological reflection."
* "I will address the need for the church to adopt a more prophetic stance on the specific matters of racism and the potential tolerance of systemic sin."
* The church, however, is not totally unlike its societal surroundings. We are still in days of racial tension and division, and it is sheer naivete to believe that a follower of Jesus Christ living and ministering in this present setting is automatically and completely immune to such influences."
* "Racism is a faith. It is a form of idolatry."
These statements reveal the author's personal sensitivity to oppression/justice issues, but there are major omissions in his biblical analysis.
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith, 2000, had already documented the failure of evangelicals to engage racial oppression responsibly, biblically. So here was a golden opportunity for an Afro American evangelical to chart the biblical way to stop oppression and do justice. Fields toyed with the concepts/issues, but he essentially failed his assignment. What an enormous tragedy!
If oppression and justice are central concerns of black theology, and if oppression and justice are central failures of the white evangelical church, then a bible-believing evangelical must engage in depth the Scriptures at these points. Strangely, Fields does not do so.
To my knowledge, no white or black evangelical has produced a definitive biblical analysis of ethnocentrism, oppression, justice and reconciliation, and the kingdom of God as justice that releases the oppressed in the power of the Holy Spirit. Any volunteers?
Monday, December 21, 2015
Irreparably Damaged or Golden Opportunity?
A. W. Tozer, a spiritual giant of the last century, spent hours in prayer and worship before the majestic God of the universe. Yet he led his congregation out of the south side of Chicago to the spiritual suburbs because the poor blacks who were moving into the community were "irreparably damaged"---dysfunctional and dangerous.
Jonathan Edward, the Puritan spiritual giant of the 1700s, went down to Providence, Rhode Island and picked out his own slave. Many of our "Christian" founding fathers were either slave holders or slave traders.
The full biblical gospel was designed for the poor and oppressed---the "irreparably damaged." Jesus said he came to bring good news to the poor and to release the oppressed; Jesus said blessed are the poor and woe to the rich.
So why did Tozer (and hundreds of other white churches) choose to flee from the oppressed rather than stay and release the oppressed? Why did Tozer and his flock choose to neglect justice and to fail to demonstrate the love of God to the oppressed poor of south Chicago? Were Tozer and his church more American than Christian? Did Tozer have a faith that was without works? Did Tozer understand that the kingdom of God demanded the practice of Jubilee Justice?
John Perkins would have seen the damaged and dysfunctional black community of south Chicago as a golden opportunity to both preach the biblical gospel and practice love and justice. Stay and do rather than fear and flee.
But I guess to most whites, white flight to maintain white privilege is more important than implementing the just kingdom of God.
Jonathan Edward, the Puritan spiritual giant of the 1700s, went down to Providence, Rhode Island and picked out his own slave. Many of our "Christian" founding fathers were either slave holders or slave traders.
The full biblical gospel was designed for the poor and oppressed---the "irreparably damaged." Jesus said he came to bring good news to the poor and to release the oppressed; Jesus said blessed are the poor and woe to the rich.
So why did Tozer (and hundreds of other white churches) choose to flee from the oppressed rather than stay and release the oppressed? Why did Tozer and his flock choose to neglect justice and to fail to demonstrate the love of God to the oppressed poor of south Chicago? Were Tozer and his church more American than Christian? Did Tozer have a faith that was without works? Did Tozer understand that the kingdom of God demanded the practice of Jubilee Justice?
John Perkins would have seen the damaged and dysfunctional black community of south Chicago as a golden opportunity to both preach the biblical gospel and practice love and justice. Stay and do rather than fear and flee.
But I guess to most whites, white flight to maintain white privilege is more important than implementing the just kingdom of God.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Freedom is Not Enough
In 2010, James T. Patterson wrote the book entitled Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle over Black Family Life.
Yes, freedom is not enough; nodding at oppression is not enough; liberals such as President Johnson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan are not radical enough, biblical enough. A Jubilee type justice is required to end systems of oppression, release the oppressed, and repair the enormous damage done to black individuals, families and communities.
On June 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson gave a commencement address Howard University. "He outlined . . . the most far-reaching civil rights agenda in modern history." He asserted that "freedom is not enough." Blacks and especially the black family had been battered by "centuries of oppression." Johnson declared that the "family is the cornerstone of our society. . . . When the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a large massive scale the community itself is crippled." As a nation, we need to move beyond civil rights to equality.
Commenting on the speech, Martin Luther King observed, "Never before has a president articulated the depths and dimensions [of our problem] more eloquently and profoundly."
Daniel Patrick Moyniham, a liberal, had co-written the LBJ address. It was based on a 78 page in house memo titled The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. Much of what Moynihan wrote was accurate; he wanted to move beyond welfare to employment for black males. But he made a fatal mistake, the same mistake that most well-meaning white Americans, including theologians and pastors, make. He did not first write a 78 page report on The White Oppressor: The Case for National Action.
There was mention of white oppression as the cause of black family dysfunction, but no in depth analysis of the history of white oppression, the redesign of systems of oppression nor the type of justice required to release the oppressed. While unintended, in some ways, the Moynihan Report ended up blaming the victim, blaming the dysfunctional black family, not the white oppressor.
Historian James Patterson excels in a careful examination of all the relevant literature on the black family by both black and white scholars, and what has happened to the black family in the last 45 years. So I highly recommend that you read this good book. One important book that he missed is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. In the same year that Freedom is Not Enough (2010) was published, a blockbuster book, The New Jim Crow, hit the streets of America; Michelle Alexander examined the newest system of oppression that profoundly damaged the black family and community---mass incarceration.
The definitive book on white oppression has not yet been written; Michelle Alexander and Ta-nehisis Coates have come closest to doing so.
LBJ, apart from the Vietnam War, was a remarkable president in many ways. Important legislation was passed including civil rights, voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid. These were much needed reforms, but not revolutionary enough to stop long-standing and continuing American oppression. Later, LBJ refused to accept the Kerner Commission Report that bluntly stated that white oppression was the cause of the black riots. So, 50 years later, in 2015 two forms of oppression---economic inequality and mass incarceration are ravaging ethnic families and communities. Page 99 reveals that Moynihan didn't quite get it on white racism either though he went halfway on the issue.
At the same time that LBJ was pushing through significant reforms, MLK was also working hard on reforms in the South. Toward the end of his short life, King said that for years he labored "with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the South, a little change here, a little change there." After years of significant but slow progress, King concluded: "I think you've got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values." I think that if King were alive in 2015, he would still be talking about "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
The Sabbath Year/Jubilee Year principles were radical; a socioeconomic revolution every seven years---cancel debt, free slaves---is required to stop oppression. The American white church ignores the Jubilee. This allows white privilege, white systems of oppression, to continues, redesigned, for 355 years. Moynihan wanted jobs and socioeconomic equality for blacks; these are not possible apart from the Sabbath Year revolution.
In the gospel of Luke, the poor and near poor made up the majority of the population. Jesus spent most of his time among the poor ministering to their needs. The poor had many problems, but Jesus did not regard the poor as THE problem in society. For Jesus the rich were THE problem.
So also in modern America. The rich whites, the oppressors with power, are THE number one problem. But most Americans, including most scholars, regard poor blacks, the dysfunctional black family as THE problem. Between 1965 and 1980 "more than fifty books and five hundred journal articles addressed the effects of poverty and discrimination on black families." There was no similar torrent of scholarship devoted to an in depth analysis of white oppression, not even from the church who had the best book ever written on oppression in their hands---the Bible.
Now some quotations from Freedom is Not Enough: First the Moynihan thesis:
"The principal effect of exploitation, discrimination, poverty and unemployment on the Negro community has been a profound weakening of the Negro family structure."
"The primary challenge of the next phase of the Negro revolution is to make certain equality [especially socioeconomic] of results will now follow [after the civil rights revolution]."
Du Bois on Philadelphia (1899):
"The two greatest hindrances bedeviling black Philadelphia were economic: "the low wages of men and the high rents."
Du Bois, Frazier, Myrdal, Clark and Moynihan on the black family:
1. blacks suffered from economic exploitation.
2. slavery has disastrous long-range cultural effects.
An update from the December 17, 2015 Des Moines Register by lawyer James Benzoni titled "How state's demographics lead to its prison racial disparity."
"At any one time, about 25 percent of black males are involved in America's criminal justice system, whether prison, parole or probation or awaiting trial. Just as in the days of slavery, our society is systematically separating the black male population from their families and communities."
Yes, freedom is not enough; nodding at oppression is not enough; liberals such as President Johnson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan are not radical enough, biblical enough. A Jubilee type justice is required to end systems of oppression, release the oppressed, and repair the enormous damage done to black individuals, families and communities.
On June 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson gave a commencement address Howard University. "He outlined . . . the most far-reaching civil rights agenda in modern history." He asserted that "freedom is not enough." Blacks and especially the black family had been battered by "centuries of oppression." Johnson declared that the "family is the cornerstone of our society. . . . When the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a large massive scale the community itself is crippled." As a nation, we need to move beyond civil rights to equality.
Commenting on the speech, Martin Luther King observed, "Never before has a president articulated the depths and dimensions [of our problem] more eloquently and profoundly."
Daniel Patrick Moyniham, a liberal, had co-written the LBJ address. It was based on a 78 page in house memo titled The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. Much of what Moynihan wrote was accurate; he wanted to move beyond welfare to employment for black males. But he made a fatal mistake, the same mistake that most well-meaning white Americans, including theologians and pastors, make. He did not first write a 78 page report on The White Oppressor: The Case for National Action.
There was mention of white oppression as the cause of black family dysfunction, but no in depth analysis of the history of white oppression, the redesign of systems of oppression nor the type of justice required to release the oppressed. While unintended, in some ways, the Moynihan Report ended up blaming the victim, blaming the dysfunctional black family, not the white oppressor.
Historian James Patterson excels in a careful examination of all the relevant literature on the black family by both black and white scholars, and what has happened to the black family in the last 45 years. So I highly recommend that you read this good book. One important book that he missed is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. In the same year that Freedom is Not Enough (2010) was published, a blockbuster book, The New Jim Crow, hit the streets of America; Michelle Alexander examined the newest system of oppression that profoundly damaged the black family and community---mass incarceration.
The definitive book on white oppression has not yet been written; Michelle Alexander and Ta-nehisis Coates have come closest to doing so.
LBJ, apart from the Vietnam War, was a remarkable president in many ways. Important legislation was passed including civil rights, voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid. These were much needed reforms, but not revolutionary enough to stop long-standing and continuing American oppression. Later, LBJ refused to accept the Kerner Commission Report that bluntly stated that white oppression was the cause of the black riots. So, 50 years later, in 2015 two forms of oppression---economic inequality and mass incarceration are ravaging ethnic families and communities. Page 99 reveals that Moynihan didn't quite get it on white racism either though he went halfway on the issue.
At the same time that LBJ was pushing through significant reforms, MLK was also working hard on reforms in the South. Toward the end of his short life, King said that for years he labored "with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the South, a little change here, a little change there." After years of significant but slow progress, King concluded: "I think you've got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values." I think that if King were alive in 2015, he would still be talking about "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
The Sabbath Year/Jubilee Year principles were radical; a socioeconomic revolution every seven years---cancel debt, free slaves---is required to stop oppression. The American white church ignores the Jubilee. This allows white privilege, white systems of oppression, to continues, redesigned, for 355 years. Moynihan wanted jobs and socioeconomic equality for blacks; these are not possible apart from the Sabbath Year revolution.
In the gospel of Luke, the poor and near poor made up the majority of the population. Jesus spent most of his time among the poor ministering to their needs. The poor had many problems, but Jesus did not regard the poor as THE problem in society. For Jesus the rich were THE problem.
So also in modern America. The rich whites, the oppressors with power, are THE number one problem. But most Americans, including most scholars, regard poor blacks, the dysfunctional black family as THE problem. Between 1965 and 1980 "more than fifty books and five hundred journal articles addressed the effects of poverty and discrimination on black families." There was no similar torrent of scholarship devoted to an in depth analysis of white oppression, not even from the church who had the best book ever written on oppression in their hands---the Bible.
Now some quotations from Freedom is Not Enough: First the Moynihan thesis:
"The principal effect of exploitation, discrimination, poverty and unemployment on the Negro community has been a profound weakening of the Negro family structure."
"The primary challenge of the next phase of the Negro revolution is to make certain equality [especially socioeconomic] of results will now follow [after the civil rights revolution]."
Du Bois on Philadelphia (1899):
"The two greatest hindrances bedeviling black Philadelphia were economic: "the low wages of men and the high rents."
Du Bois, Frazier, Myrdal, Clark and Moynihan on the black family:
1. blacks suffered from economic exploitation.
2. slavery has disastrous long-range cultural effects.
An update from the December 17, 2015 Des Moines Register by lawyer James Benzoni titled "How state's demographics lead to its prison racial disparity."
"At any one time, about 25 percent of black males are involved in America's criminal justice system, whether prison, parole or probation or awaiting trial. Just as in the days of slavery, our society is systematically separating the black male population from their families and communities."
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
What can the American church learn from James 2?
I like to combine Luke 4:18-19 and James 1:27- chapter 2. James contrasts worthless and pure religion; I am afraid much of the American church falls under the worthless/deceptive religion category. Worthless religion:
* it honors the rich and dishonors the poor.
* it favors the rich, even in the church.
* it substitutes faith talk for love/justice action.
* it ignores the oppression of oppressed widows and orphans.
* it substitutes clever worldly ideology for biblical wisdom/truth.
A pure religion church is described as:
* honoring the poor and oppressed.
* making ministry among the poor and oppressed its top priority.
* exposing the oppression of the poor by the rich.
* combining love and justice in behalf of the poor.
* insisting on a combination of faith and works.
* cultivating a wisdom based on truth, not ideology.
* a community of equals that does favor anyone or group.
What about the modern American church? Lee Harper, a black woman born and raised in Mississippi, expressed the continuing American dilemma with the following one-liner:
"For injustice ran deep and cloaked itself well among those things that appear just."
Questions for the white American church:
* If a church is not practicing pure religion, it is a predatory social institution?
* Are poor communities the victims of not only predatory lending but also worthless churches?
* Are our churches full of people who are hearers, but not doers?
* Do they hear fine expositions of the Word but are seldom guided into disciplined and sustained involvement in poor and oppressed communities?
* Do we need a new language, phrases, to capture the biblical necessity for community involvement such as church/community, pure/poor or spirituality/justice, or faith/works?
* Are American churches full of religious corpses? See The Message.
* it honors the rich and dishonors the poor.
* it favors the rich, even in the church.
* it substitutes faith talk for love/justice action.
* it ignores the oppression of oppressed widows and orphans.
* it substitutes clever worldly ideology for biblical wisdom/truth.
A pure religion church is described as:
* honoring the poor and oppressed.
* making ministry among the poor and oppressed its top priority.
* exposing the oppression of the poor by the rich.
* combining love and justice in behalf of the poor.
* insisting on a combination of faith and works.
* cultivating a wisdom based on truth, not ideology.
* a community of equals that does favor anyone or group.
What about the modern American church? Lee Harper, a black woman born and raised in Mississippi, expressed the continuing American dilemma with the following one-liner:
"For injustice ran deep and cloaked itself well among those things that appear just."
Questions for the white American church:
* If a church is not practicing pure religion, it is a predatory social institution?
* Are poor communities the victims of not only predatory lending but also worthless churches?
* Are our churches full of people who are hearers, but not doers?
* Do they hear fine expositions of the Word but are seldom guided into disciplined and sustained involvement in poor and oppressed communities?
* Do we need a new language, phrases, to capture the biblical necessity for community involvement such as church/community, pure/poor or spirituality/justice, or faith/works?
* Are American churches full of religious corpses? See The Message.
Is America Arrogant, Self-righteous and Unrepentant?
Is American the New Israel or the New Assyria? Self-righteous nations see no need for national repentance; America is always right.
Christian rabbi, Jonathan Cahn, in his 2011 book, The Harbinger, describes with courage and precision how both 9-11 and the 2008 recession were judgments from God upon America for its endless greed and economic and military oppression. I agree; in broad strokes, I wrote much the same shortly after 9-11.
America did not repent after 9-11; instead Democrats and Republicans defiantly declared that we would rebuild bigger and better. I see no signs of any of our presidential candidates, Democrat or Republican, leading us to national repentance. We all need to pray the Daniel 9 prayer for our nation. Instead we are fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 9:10-11: "We will arrogantly rebuild." We have rebuilt the Freedom Tower.
Cahn correctly understands 9-11 and 2008 as judgments from God; he also sees the Civil War as a judgment from the hand of God because of the enormous evil of slavery. But strangely, he does not grasp the even GREATER social evil of our colonial founding fathers. Especially from 1700-1789, the slave trade, slavery and Indian genocide dominated the economics and politics of this country. But Cahn ignores these hard historical facts and declares that we were founded as a good and godly nation by our founding father, George Washington. Washington owned hundreds of slaves; he did not free them in direct violation of the Sabbath Year requirement that slaves were to be freed every seven years. Washington was one of the richest men in the colonies gaining much of his wealth from oppressing slaves. Jesus declared "Woe to the rich" to this type of evil rich.
Yet Cahn states without qualification that America was "a civilization also conceived and dedicated to the will of God from its conception." The Puritans, "as with ancient Israel, saw America as in covenant with God." "It would give refuge to the world's poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed." But America engaged in prolonged and massive oppression of Indians, Africans and Mexicans, to name a few.
The Afro American pastor, Bill McGill, gives a more accurate view of American history: "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 [Assyrian-type?] people would be responsible for Indian genocide and African enslavement."
Cahn writes about how God used the terrorist nation Assyria to judge rebellious Israel. The Assyrians, at the peak of their power, ruled much of the ancient Middle East. They combined a high tech war machine combined with terror. "The Assyrians made terror into a science. The systematized it, perfected it . . . masters of terror."
As Americans engaged in the slave trade, slavery, Indian genocide, theft of Mexican land, the oppressed of this land saw supposedly Christian America acting like the Assyrians---the epitome of brutality, ruthlessness, oppression, evil. The false idea of Manifest Destiny was used as a cover for this continuing massive evil. In recent years, the unjust wars in Vietnam and Iraq continued American evil on a large scale. For more on America's often unjust wars, read The Wars of America: Christian Views.
Cahn foresees another judgment falling on America, worse than 9-11 and 2008, if America fails to repent. Here is how Cahn describes modern America: "idols of greed, money, success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession." I would describe modern America as dominated by the American trinity of hypermaterialism, hyperindividualism, and hyperethnocentrism.
To summarize, Cahn wrote: "the nation responds without repentance. . . . American leaders vow We will rebuild." Trump asserted: "We should have the World Trade Center [rebuilt] bigger and better."
Cahn makes a big deal over President George Washington and other American leaders going to a small brick church in New York, St. Paul's Chapel located next to Ground Zero, and dedicating this new nation to God in 1789, also asking for divine blessing and protection. I am not sure God was listening to this unrepentant, deistic, Pharisee's prayers; Washington was a slaveholder who neglected justice and the love of God. There were no signs of repentance, no release of his oppressed slaves, no repair of oppression damage, no pledge to implement Jubilee justice, no pledge to end the slave trade, slavery and genocide.
Cahn is clear and blunt about America's need for national repentance today to stop the progression of divine judgment from 9-11 to 2008 to _______________. Cahn has a long list of national sins. America's list of sins was just as long and evil in 1789, but Cahn completely ignores these sins in his blind effort to portray America as a Christian nation.
Still I would recommend that all Americans read this book; you will learn much about how America's financial and economic system works and about our nation's ethnocentric arrogance which transcends party lines.
Christian rabbi, Jonathan Cahn, in his 2011 book, The Harbinger, describes with courage and precision how both 9-11 and the 2008 recession were judgments from God upon America for its endless greed and economic and military oppression. I agree; in broad strokes, I wrote much the same shortly after 9-11.
America did not repent after 9-11; instead Democrats and Republicans defiantly declared that we would rebuild bigger and better. I see no signs of any of our presidential candidates, Democrat or Republican, leading us to national repentance. We all need to pray the Daniel 9 prayer for our nation. Instead we are fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 9:10-11: "We will arrogantly rebuild." We have rebuilt the Freedom Tower.
Cahn correctly understands 9-11 and 2008 as judgments from God; he also sees the Civil War as a judgment from the hand of God because of the enormous evil of slavery. But strangely, he does not grasp the even GREATER social evil of our colonial founding fathers. Especially from 1700-1789, the slave trade, slavery and Indian genocide dominated the economics and politics of this country. But Cahn ignores these hard historical facts and declares that we were founded as a good and godly nation by our founding father, George Washington. Washington owned hundreds of slaves; he did not free them in direct violation of the Sabbath Year requirement that slaves were to be freed every seven years. Washington was one of the richest men in the colonies gaining much of his wealth from oppressing slaves. Jesus declared "Woe to the rich" to this type of evil rich.
Yet Cahn states without qualification that America was "a civilization also conceived and dedicated to the will of God from its conception." The Puritans, "as with ancient Israel, saw America as in covenant with God." "It would give refuge to the world's poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed." But America engaged in prolonged and massive oppression of Indians, Africans and Mexicans, to name a few.
The Afro American pastor, Bill McGill, gives a more accurate view of American history: "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 [Assyrian-type?] people would be responsible for Indian genocide and African enslavement."
Cahn writes about how God used the terrorist nation Assyria to judge rebellious Israel. The Assyrians, at the peak of their power, ruled much of the ancient Middle East. They combined a high tech war machine combined with terror. "The Assyrians made terror into a science. The systematized it, perfected it . . . masters of terror."
As Americans engaged in the slave trade, slavery, Indian genocide, theft of Mexican land, the oppressed of this land saw supposedly Christian America acting like the Assyrians---the epitome of brutality, ruthlessness, oppression, evil. The false idea of Manifest Destiny was used as a cover for this continuing massive evil. In recent years, the unjust wars in Vietnam and Iraq continued American evil on a large scale. For more on America's often unjust wars, read The Wars of America: Christian Views.
Cahn foresees another judgment falling on America, worse than 9-11 and 2008, if America fails to repent. Here is how Cahn describes modern America: "idols of greed, money, success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession." I would describe modern America as dominated by the American trinity of hypermaterialism, hyperindividualism, and hyperethnocentrism.
To summarize, Cahn wrote: "the nation responds without repentance. . . . American leaders vow We will rebuild." Trump asserted: "We should have the World Trade Center [rebuilt] bigger and better."
Cahn makes a big deal over President George Washington and other American leaders going to a small brick church in New York, St. Paul's Chapel located next to Ground Zero, and dedicating this new nation to God in 1789, also asking for divine blessing and protection. I am not sure God was listening to this unrepentant, deistic, Pharisee's prayers; Washington was a slaveholder who neglected justice and the love of God. There were no signs of repentance, no release of his oppressed slaves, no repair of oppression damage, no pledge to implement Jubilee justice, no pledge to end the slave trade, slavery and genocide.
Cahn is clear and blunt about America's need for national repentance today to stop the progression of divine judgment from 9-11 to 2008 to _______________. Cahn has a long list of national sins. America's list of sins was just as long and evil in 1789, but Cahn completely ignores these sins in his blind effort to portray America as a Christian nation.
Still I would recommend that all Americans read this book; you will learn much about how America's financial and economic system works and about our nation's ethnocentric arrogance which transcends party lines.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Wanted: An Index on white American Oppression
We desperately need an index, a measurement of white American oppression---who the oppressors are, what systems of oppression are currently being used, how systems of oppression are redesigned over time, the damage done to the oppressed.
First step: create a biblical theology, a theory, of oppression. Since such a theology of oppression doesn't currently exist, this will be a major undertaking. Both the OT and NT containe much untapped material on oppression; 555 references to oppression in the OT; when combined, the concepts of oppression, injustice and the rich plus the Temple as a system of oppression provide the basis for a NT theology of oppression.
Second, reanalyze American history based on the biblical theology of oppression. For example, this reanalysis would destroy many myths about the Civil War. In actuality, the North was as racist as the South; the North just did not own slaves. But the North engaged in most of the slave trade that brought slaves to the South; the North profited greatly from the cotton produced by slaves; the North did not want freed slaves to come North in large numbers; the North believed blacks were inferior. The Civil War was fought in vain because soon after Reconstruction, the new system of oppression---segregation---took the place of slavery.
Third, create a current index or measurement of white American oppression. Who are the oppressors? Who are the oppressed? What systems of oppression are being used? Arthur Simon, in his book Faces of Poverty, himself a Lutheran pastor, described how the Lutheran church became a part of the segregation that divided Detroit. Over a 40 year period, 40 out of 44 Lutheran churches left the city of Detroit for the suburbs. I suspect that most white congregations of many denominations followed a similar pattern. I know that A.W. Tozer's church in south Chicago left for the suburbs because the changing surrounding community was "irreparably damaged." Could we measure the church's contribution to oppression?
Creating the theology and index of oppression needs to be given the highest priority. We need to make it a Manhattan type project---a project of great urgency given every possible resource. Theologians need to take some time off from discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or discussing pre-trib and post-trib arguments and create a white oppression index.
Daily the NYSE reports on the financial health of the nation, and to some degree the economic health of the nation. And we have quite accurate disease stats. But nothing similar exists to describe the extent of, the nature of, white oppression and the immense damage it has caused.
The prophets rather precisely exposed oppression in their day as did Jesus---"Woe to the rich" and the Temple as "a den of robbers."
In the US, we have data on supposed black crime; in Iowa, the data says that Iowa blacks are 12 times as criminal as whites---the worst incarceration ratio in the nation. But if we dig a little deeper, the 12-1 stat may, in reality be a good measure of white oppression and how it operates. Are Iowa whites who run the unjust criminal justice system the oppressors? Are Iowa churches that are silent and neglect justice part of the system of oppression?
While we are at it, let's create a Justice, a Jubilee Justice Index as well.
First step: create a biblical theology, a theory, of oppression. Since such a theology of oppression doesn't currently exist, this will be a major undertaking. Both the OT and NT containe much untapped material on oppression; 555 references to oppression in the OT; when combined, the concepts of oppression, injustice and the rich plus the Temple as a system of oppression provide the basis for a NT theology of oppression.
Second, reanalyze American history based on the biblical theology of oppression. For example, this reanalysis would destroy many myths about the Civil War. In actuality, the North was as racist as the South; the North just did not own slaves. But the North engaged in most of the slave trade that brought slaves to the South; the North profited greatly from the cotton produced by slaves; the North did not want freed slaves to come North in large numbers; the North believed blacks were inferior. The Civil War was fought in vain because soon after Reconstruction, the new system of oppression---segregation---took the place of slavery.
Third, create a current index or measurement of white American oppression. Who are the oppressors? Who are the oppressed? What systems of oppression are being used? Arthur Simon, in his book Faces of Poverty, himself a Lutheran pastor, described how the Lutheran church became a part of the segregation that divided Detroit. Over a 40 year period, 40 out of 44 Lutheran churches left the city of Detroit for the suburbs. I suspect that most white congregations of many denominations followed a similar pattern. I know that A.W. Tozer's church in south Chicago left for the suburbs because the changing surrounding community was "irreparably damaged." Could we measure the church's contribution to oppression?
Creating the theology and index of oppression needs to be given the highest priority. We need to make it a Manhattan type project---a project of great urgency given every possible resource. Theologians need to take some time off from discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin or discussing pre-trib and post-trib arguments and create a white oppression index.
Daily the NYSE reports on the financial health of the nation, and to some degree the economic health of the nation. And we have quite accurate disease stats. But nothing similar exists to describe the extent of, the nature of, white oppression and the immense damage it has caused.
The prophets rather precisely exposed oppression in their day as did Jesus---"Woe to the rich" and the Temple as "a den of robbers."
In the US, we have data on supposed black crime; in Iowa, the data says that Iowa blacks are 12 times as criminal as whites---the worst incarceration ratio in the nation. But if we dig a little deeper, the 12-1 stat may, in reality be a good measure of white oppression and how it operates. Are Iowa whites who run the unjust criminal justice system the oppressors? Are Iowa churches that are silent and neglect justice part of the system of oppression?
While we are at it, let's create a Justice, a Jubilee Justice Index as well.
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