Two types of Indigenous Leadership Needed

We need two types of Christian indigenous leadership.  One kind of indigenous leadership should come from poor and oppressed communities and it would give leadership in the rebuilding of these poor communties.  John Perkins serves as a model for this type of indigenous leadership.

Another kind of indigenous leadership should come from the rich and oppressor communities, especially the evangelicals in these communities.  They should identify the existing systems of oppression and then lead in the dismantling of these systems of oppression.  Then they should create just alternatives to the systems of oppression.  William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson serve as models for this type of indigenous leadership.  They, and their British colleagues, abolished the slave trade and then slavery in the British empire.

Ideally, both types of indigenous leadership would exist at the same time and they would cooperate with each other.  It is not right to expect the indigenous leadership from poor communities to also provide the leadership to dismantle the systems of oppression.  The people who "made the mess," i.e., those who created, funded and operationalized the system should "clean up the mess," i.e., the evangelical leaders from within the oppressor communities should lead the dismantling of the system of oppression.

Every graduate of every Christian liberal arts college, university and seminary should be taught at least in rudimentary fashion, how to identify a system of oppression and how to dismantle such systems; also strategies for creating just alternatives.  For the most part, this has not happened.  So what has taken place in American history in the presence of millions of evangelicals?

As a nation, we have moved from slavery (roughly 1660-1865) to legal segregation
(roughly 1875-1965) to the massive incarceration of young Black and Hispanic males (1982-20??).  The abolitionist and civil rights movements accomplished much, for a while; they provided, historically, a short burst of freedom and a degree of justice, but tragically, rather quickly, each time the oppressors cleverly redesigned a new system of oppression, according to Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow (2010), the mass incarceration of young Black and Hispanic males has produced a new racial caste system, a redesigned system of oppression as damaging as were slavery and segregation.

Most of the evangelical church is not even aware that this new Jim Crow exists.  Evangelicals have not yet led an aggressive and sustained movement to abolish this current racial caste system.  Many evangelicals, possibly most, may even believe that this mass incarceration of Blacks is a good and necessary thing because Blacks are supposedly drug prone and unusually criminal.

Where is the white evangelical indigenous leadership on this issue?  Why are we so blind, ignorant, uninvolved or even endorsing the current system of oppression?  Is it because we do not understand nor practice the rather large biblical teaching on oppression and justice?  If we believe the Bible is inspired from cover to cover, why has this happened?

Because of our ignorance and uninvolvement, millions (31 million since 1982) of our fellow human beings created in the image of God are being crushed, humiliated, animalized, impoverished, imprisoned and even killed while we stand idly by.  Don't we know?  Don't we care?

Now through the eyes of Kristof and WuDunn (Half the Sky, 2009, pp. 234-6), I would like to examine the remarkable British effort led by Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, white evangelicals who led the effort to abolish both the slave trade and slavery in the British empire.

I could label this section of the essay, "The British; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly."  The major focus of this section will be upon the good, but first let's put the good in the context of some bad and very ugly.  This makes the good even more remarkable.

In the late 1500s, the British who had been nibbling away on Ireland for centuries, moved aggressively and brutally to invade, conquer and colonize Ireland.  Though of the same race, the British combined a vicious blend of religion ethnocentrism and oppression to dehumanize the Irish.

Shortly thereafter, the brutal British began invading, conquering and colonizing the eastern seaboard of America.  In addition to the Protestant religion, the colonizers brought with them lock-stock-and-barrel, the same combination of ethnocentrism (supposed Anglo-Saxon superiority) and acts of oppression.  This "God-sanctified" ethnocentrism and oppression dominated and legitimated the westward expansion of these United States.  My friend, Lee Harper, summarizes American history in one concise sentence:
"For injustice ran deep and cloaked itself well among those things that appeared just."

In the midst of all of this evil spewing forth from England, including heavy involvement in the slave trade and slavery in their colonies in the West Indies, something remarkable happened.  A surge of morality, inspired by the Holy Spirit and spawned in large part by the Methodist Revolution of the 1700s, overcame the considerable political and especially the economic vested interests in the slave trade.  Now Kristof and WuDunn speak:

"In the early 1780s, slavery was an unquestioned part of the global landscape--and then, astonishingly, within a decade, [the abolishment] of slavery was at the top of the British national agenda.  The tide turned, and the British banned the slave trade in 1807 and in 1833 became one of the first nations to emancipate its own slaves."

"For more than half a century, the British public bore tremendous costs for their moral leadership.  On the eve of the British abolition of slave-trading, British ships carried 52 percent of the slaves transported across the Atlantic, and British colonies produced 55 percent of the world's sugar.  Without new slaves, the British colonies in the New World were devastated, and Britain's great enemy, France, benefited enormously.  So did the United States.  Sugar production in the British West Indies fell 25 percent in the first thirty-five years after Britain's abolition of the slave trade, while production in competing slave economies rose by 210 percent."

For the British, the effort to abolish the slave trade and slavery was much more than a side issue.  Kristof and McDunn document the considerable cost to the British in both lives and treasure.

"The British navy led the way in trying to suppress the slave trade in the Atlantic and within Africa itself.  This led to the loss of some five thousand British, plus higher taxes for the British people.........for sixty years Britain sacrificed an annual average of 1.8 percentage points of its GNP because of its moral commitment to ending slavery.  That is an astonishing total, cumulatively amounting to more than an entire year's GNP for Great Britain (for the United States today, it would be the equivalent of sacrificing more than $14 trillion), a significant and sustained sacrifice in the British standard of living.  It was a heroic example of a nation placing its values above its interests."

Thomas Clarkson, who was was important as Wilberforce in the effort to abolish slavery and the slave trade, did a research paper on slavery as a college student.  What he discovered horrified him and he became an abolitionist for the rest of his life.  This experience was much more than a passing, one-day, reaction of horror, then back to his normal daily routine of life the next day.

Clarkson became a leader in an enormous grassroots campaign.  He, himself, traveled 35,000 miles on horseback all over Britain to organize the common person to take a stand against slavery.  An ex-slave, Olaudah Equino, lectured all over Britain on a five-year book tour.  300,000 person boycotted sugar.  Huge numbers signed a petition asking parliament to abolish the slave trade.

We need some white evangelical indigenous leaders to lead a similar effort in the US against the current system of injustice---the massive incarceration of young Black and Hispanic males.  Are there  any Clarksons or Wilberforces in our midst?

Occasionally, the American church has produced fragments of justice.  But, in the midst of oceans of oppression (a 25-1 Black-Whie incarceration ratio and a 20-1 racial wealth gap), fragments of justice are not enough.  What does God want?  God, speaking through his prophet Amos (The Message) thundered: "I WANT JUSTICE---OCEANS OF IT."

How the rich got richer

Two books and two articles, all essentially tell the same story.  How the rich in America got richer.
The two books are, the 1990 book by Kevin Phillips, The politics of the Rich and Poor, the story of the Reagan years.  The second book, the 2010 book by Hacker N. Pierson, titled Winner Take all Politics:
how Washington made the rich richer -- and turned its back on the middle class.

The first article is by Matthew Stewart published in The Atlantic magazine, June, 2018, in which Stewart writes about the top 10 percent in America, and how they created a predatory taxation system and a predatory government spending system which favored the rich.

And the last article by Derrick Jackson was published in the September 3rd, 2001 South King County Journal.

Anthony Robinson reviewed the book Winner take all politics in the March 8, 2011 Christian Century.  Robinson's review was titled, How the rich got richer.  So the following quotations are from  Winner Take all Politics:

The first quotation: "Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson tell a story that is at once familiar and unfamiliar.  The familiar part is that over the past 30 years inequality in both wealth and income has grown dramatically in the United States."

"Since the last 1970s the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation's population has pocketed more than
35 percent of the real national income growth, which is more than the bottom 90 percent of the population combined. . . . "

The second quotation:  "The less familiar part of the narrative is about how this inequality came about.  Hacker and Pierson trace the story of a 'thirty-year war' that began, unexpectedly, in the Carter years. . . .

The third quotation:  "Rather, it was the result of government policy. . . ."

The fourth quotation:  "Since the late 1970s business and corporate interest have fought successfully for lower tax rates, especially for the most affluent; deregulation of financial markets and executive pay; and erosion of the powers of countervailing groups--labor unions chief among them. . . ."

The fifth quotation:  "The balance of their readable book tells the story of the 30-year war: the tremendous growth in conservative PACs, think tanks and advocacy groups; the huge sums of money raised to support the agenda of tax cuts; the growing radicalization of the Republican Party; and the role of the Democratic Party, which pretty much went with the cash flow, sometimes actively, sometimes passively. . . ."

The sixth quotation:  "This decline of a stable and secure middle class, which once carried the freight for civil society, is the real story of the last 30 to 40 years of the U.S. . . . ."

The seventh quotation: "Does religion figure in the story?  Hacker and Pierson's only explicit discussion of religion relates to the growing role of the Christian right, which moved evangelical Christian voters into political activism for the Republicans.  This is a crucial bloc that has voted, at least sometime, more on the basis of cultural values than economical self-interest."

I would add that white evangelicals never have had a biblical social ethic or a biblical social--economic ethic.

So neither civic institutions, nor labor unions, nor the democratic party, nor the church could withstand the political, economic power of the rich.  This all happened prior to the rise of Trump; in fact, in prepared the way for Trump's improbable success.

This next article is about justice and wages, more specifically, minimum wage and the living wage, by Lowell Noble:

These United States have an economic system that generates enormous wealth --  a ten trillion dollar economy.  Yet we have millions of poor people including many working poor and working near poor. In a wealthy nation does not every working person deserve a living wage that will provide the necessities of life for her/his family?

First some economic facts reported by Derrick Jackson in the South King County Journal, Sept 3, 2001:

          1.  "If the minimum wage had risen at the same pace of American productivity since 1968, it would be $13.80 and hour," not the current $5.15 federal minimum wage."

          2.  "If the minimum wage had risen at the same pace as domestic profits since 1958, it would be $13.02."

          3.  "If the minimum wage had risen at the same pace as profits in the retail industry, it would be $20.46.  Nearly half of all workers in the retail industry make less than $8 an hour."

          4.  "If the minimum wage had risen at the same pace as executive pay since 1990, it would be $25.50 an hour."

          5.  "If the average pay for production workers had risen at the same level as CEO pay since 1990, the annual salary would be $120,491, not $24,668."

          6.  "The wealthiest 1 percent control about 38 percent of America's wealth."  "The bottom
80 percent control 17 percent of America's wealth."

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the average American family needs $33,551 to meet its basic needs -- a living wage.  The federal government says that a family of two adults and two children needs $17,500 a year to stay out of poverty.

60 US cities and counties have passed living wage laws to move low-wage workers out of poverty into sufficiency.  After Chicago passed its living wage law, Diane Cunningham, a home health aide, was able to purchase a house with her increased income.  Justice requires that every working person deserves a decent wage.

I urge you to only to support increases in the minimum wage, but also any effort in your city or county to require a living wage.  Workers deserve it and our economy can afford it.  In fact, providing all workers with a living wage would stimulate our economy which would be good for us all.

Jubilee Justice, Part 2: Restoring Economic Justice

The Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year had the same basic purpose:  to give person access to the resources required to provide the necessities of life.

Sabbatical

The following Scriptural quotations are highlights from Deut. 15 whose basic principle is that, "At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts."  [RSV "grant a release;" RSV uses the word release five times in this chapter.]  The ideal was that there "should be no poor among you."  There would not be if "you fully obey the Lord your God," because then "he will richly bless you."

However, because of the damage of sin, there will be some poor people.  "If there is a poor man among your brothers freely lend him whatever he needs. . . . Give generously. . . . Supply him liberally. . . . Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you."

The message is:  economic justice requires the periodic canceling of debts and generous giving to those in need.  Could an economic system really work if the principle of grace is applied?  Is grace key to justice?

Jubliee

The following Scriptural quotations are highlights from Lev. 25: "Count off seven sabbaths of years. . . . Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land. . . . It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property. . . . The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine. . . . But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee.  It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property."

Then there follows three sets of instructions regarding the different circumstances under which "one of your countrymen become poor:"  1) lend money without interest and sell food at cost,  2) hire him as a hired worker, not as a slave,  3) the poor Jew retains these same rights if hired out to a non-Jew.

Three times (25:43, 46 and 53) the people are warned not to take advantage of the powerless poor and oppress them--"rule over them ruthlessly. . . ."

Again, the economic principle of the Jubilee is grace.  Grace is one key to economic justice.

Perry Yoder, under the statement, "By seeking justice for the needy, biblical law is an instrument for shalom," wrote:

                         These laws were a type of economic reform legislation to redistribute the 

                         capital resources of the community so they would not become concentrated

                         in the hand of a few. . . . two resources are to be redistributed: land and money.

Donald Kraybill summarizes the purposes of the Sabbatical/Jubilee years as follows:

                        Their religious practices, however, turned social life upside-down. . . .

                         Land was given a vacation. . . . Slaves were release. . . . Debts were 

                         erased. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

                         As God's social blueprint for his people, the Jubilee dream put its finger on the three    

                         major factors which generate socioeconomic inequality.  Control of land represents                

                         access to natural resources.  Ownership of slaves symbolized the human labor 

                         necessary for production.  Borrowing and lending money points to the management

                         of capital and credit.  The use of these three factors -- natural resources, human

                         resources, and financial capital are the keys to determining the amount of inequity

                         in any society. . . . 

It is clear that the religion-economic principles of the Jubilee were not minor cosmetic adjustments to the economic system, but instead they were a major overhaul.  Jubilee type justice is crucial to dealing with rich-poor issues.

So Jesus was not speaking idle, casual words when he read from Isaiah 61 and said he had come to minister to the poor and oppressed and to proclaim a Jubilee type of justice for them.  This good news for the oppressed poor was also bad news for most of the rich of that time.  Throughout much of the rest of the gospel of Luke, Jesus scorches the rich as symbolized by this statement from Luke 6:24:

"Woe to the rich. . . ."  For Luke the poor had problems, but the rich were the social problem.  They had monopolistic control over the resources and wealth leaving the masses poor.  Much of this was legitimated by the religio-politico-economic elite in Jerusalem.  They were part and parcel of the massive system of oppression.  

To what extent is the American economic system similar to the Jewish economic system at the time of Christ?  Do our Christian leader legitimate a system of economic oppression as the Jewish leader did?  How does the American economic system measure up to Jubilee principles?

Kevin Phillips is a respected, veteran political analyst with a conservative Republican perspective; he worked for Ronald Reagan.  But in the 1990s, Phillips has become a vocal critic of a politics, a public policy, that favors the rich.  He wrote a book on the issue The Politics of Rich and Poor, and as a commentator on National Public Radio he has again and again sharply critiqued the growing gap between the rich and poor.

In The Politics of Rich and Poor, Phillips states:

           that the 1980s had been a decade of fabulous wealth accumulation by the richest Americans 

           while many others stagnated or declined; that the 1980s were, in fact, the third such capitalist

           and conservative heyday over the last century or so;

Philips argues that trickle-down economics was not working; during the Reagan era both billionaires and the homeless grew in number.  At times, the excessive growth in wealth was aided by public policy.  Since then, Phillips has argued that for the most part, the Clinton administration has continued policies that favor the rich; as a result, the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow.

Are biblical principles relevant to modern economic systems?  Can efficiency and profit mix with justice and grace?  Could Jubilee principles be applied in a non-Christian setting?  YES!!!  We have some 20th century historical examples to prove it:

As a part of the WWII Peace Treaty in the Pacific region, Russia, America, and other nations approved comprehensive land reform programs in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Previously in each of these countries a small number of landlords owned most of the agricultural land.  They were required by the treaty to divest themselves of almost all of their land.  Then the governments made this land available for purchase by the landless peasants.  These peasants, now owners of the land, soon increased production and this just economic base laid the foundation for future national economic growth in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

It was the Russians, the atheistic Communists who pushed hardest for land reform that was much like the OT Jubilee land reform.  The Americans grudgingly went along with the Russian demand.  The American preferred the capitalist landlord status quo over what they thought was a socialist idea.  So supposedly Christian America did not fully support the biblical land reform solution. 

Much the same happened in parts of India after India gained its independence in the late 1940s.  Comprehensive land reform became public policy making it possible for landless peasants to own their own land.  Government extension agents aided the farmers and again production soared and the previously dirt poor farmers began to prosper.

General MacArthur refused to push for comprehensive land reform in the Philippines after WWII because he was friends of the Filipino elite.  As a result of this failure, Filipino society has often been torn by civil war largely fueled by a poor peasantry wanting access to their own land.

Sabbatical/Jubilee principles of justice are good economic and public policy.  If properly implemented, not only the poor but also the total society can benefit and prosper and live in relative peace.

On Friday, October 13, 1989, the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy article on poverty in the Mississippi Delta.  A Congressional study certified the lower Mississippi Delta as the poorest region in America.  This Delta region not only includes part of the state of Mississippi but also parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois.

The Journal headline read: "River of Despair: Along the Rich Banks of the Mississippi Live Poorest of U.S. Poor."  A rich land filled with poor people:

          For here is a region that epitomizes the extremes of American wealth and poverty.

          It is almost unbelievably fertile, with topsoil 25 feet thick or more.  It has mansions and 

          big cars and a wealthy gentry that for decades has gathered round the fountain in the 

          orante lobby of the Memphis grand old Peabody Hotel.

The Delta "has county poverty rates that range from 20 percent to 50 percent plus."  It has medical problems and an infant mortality rate that approximates a Third World country.  In Tunica county approximately one-half of "the high school graduates, girls as well as boys, go into the military.  It's a way out, an escape."

Could the Jubilee be an answer to the poverty of the Delta?  A brief moment in the past history hints that this could be so.

After General Grant had conquered Mississippi, he initiated a bold experiment.  He gave the old Jefferson Davis plantation to freed blacks.  "Seventy able men were given 30 acres a piece."  The first year of farming was a success so the Army expanded the program in 1865.  "Five thousand acres were divided among more than 1,800 blacks organized into 181 associations or companies."  The government loaned them equipment and supplies.  The ex-slaves set up stores, schools, local government, etc.

          The system was an astounding success.  The year 1865 was a good one for cotton, and by its 

          end, the colonists had sold over $400,000 worth of cash crops.  After paying their loans, they 

          cleared nearly $180,000. . . . "

After the Civil War was over, the Davis brothers were pardoned and their plantation was returned to them.  The "grand experiment" abruptly stopped.  The lesson:  "If the David Bend experiment had been allowed to continue, it might have offered a real solution to the problem of securing political and economic rights for newly freed black Mississippians."

Emancipation, freedom was a large step in the right direction but because it was not followed by a comprehensive Jubilee type of justice, freed blacks were soon put back into the semi-slavey of segregation.

In an article in the May-June, 1998 Sojourners magazine, Marie Dennis writes about a worldwide movement for Third World debt relief.  She asserts that this movement for debt relief is rooted in the Jubilee.  Dennis claims that there is a link between debt and poverty and that this link "is one of the most pressing moral issues for people of faith as we approach the new millennium. . . .  Every person in the global South now owes about $300 (U.S.) to foreign creditors, more than an entire year's income for many of our world's peoples."

The debt is so large for many Third World countries that it takes one-half of their national budget to make the payment.  Because of the need to earn hard currency, such as US dollars, debt shapes the type of economy, for example, cash crops.  It also reduces the amount spent on health and education.

Many of the loans made by Western governments and banks were made to corrupt leaders; the people did not benefit much from these loans.  But now excessive payments to repay these loans drain the wealth of the poor countries and the poor people.  The creditor nations as well as the debtor nations should share the responsibilities and the risk.  Excessive debt equals bondage and poverty.

          This has sparked an international movement, named Jubilee 2000, of people who agree that it is      

          time for a definitive level of cancellation of the debt that prevents countries from providing a

dequately for the basic rights and needs of their people.

Jubilee 2000 does not call for a universal cancellation of all debts, but only "death-dealing debt in impoverished countries and at a level substantial enough for lasting benefit."  This debt relief must be coupled with efforts to reform unjust economic systems in Third World countries.

In an article in the March/April 1998 Prism magazine, Fred Clark argues that there are numerous businesses in the US that take advantage of the poor by charging them excessive interest.  Technically, usury is a felony in most states, but many businesses have found a way to get around these laws.  Michael Hudson in Merchants of Misery (1996) states:

          The poverty industry is made up of an array of businesses: pawnshops, check-cashing outlets,

          rent-to-own stores, finance companies, used-car dealers, high-interest mortgage lenders, trade

          schools for the poor and uneducated.  It's growing in size and raking in dollars at a dizzying 

          pace by targeting people on the bottom third of the economic ladder - perhaps 60 million 

          consumers who are virtually shut out by banks and other conventional merchants.  Many live 

         below the poverty line, but many more are solidly blue-collar folks squeezed by falling wages 

         and lousy credit records.  The poverty industry fills a niche for them - at a stiff price.  An    

         affluent credit-card holder can shop around and pay as little as 6 or 8 percent annual interest to 

         borrow money and make purchases on credit.  But a sheet-metal worker with a dubious credit 

         record may pay as much as 240 percent for a loan from a pawnbroker, 300 percent for a finance-

         company loan, 20 percent for a second mortgage, even 2,000 percent for a quick "payday" loan

         from a check-cashing outlet.

These businesses are often funded by our nations most prestigious banks.  Apart from tightening the laws, what can be done.  "We also need to promote more positive options, such as credit unions, community development loan funds or local banks that allow low-balance, no-fee checking accounts."

In the July-September 1990 issue of Together, there is a story of how World Vision broke the bondage of debt in a farming community in the Philippines (Barangay Escalante).

To put in a rice crop, a farmer must borrow money for fertilizer, etc., and pay a high rate of interest - 10 percent monthly. To pay off his loans, the farmer sells his rice at harvest time when the price is lowest.

          Marginal farmers like Mang Juan lived for years with the unscrupulous and unfair trading 

          practices of the usurers and middlemen, silently submitting as victims of exploitation. . . . 

          They are obliged to sell their produce to those who provide their capital. . . . Many Juan may

          inherited poverty or indebtedness from his parents, and he may pass on larger debts to his 

          children. . . . 

To help break the bondage of debt and oppression, World Vision started a community development program.  Working with the people a worker helped them develop a toilet construction project and a water system.  Then they started a credit union which loaned money to farmers for 3 percent a month.  They started a cooperative to buy and sell rice thus eliminating the middleman.  Slowly, but surely, this farming community is taking control of its economic destiny; economic oppression is being replaced by economic self-sufficiency.

Hudson, Michael. Merchants of Misery.  Common Courage Press, 1996.

Kraybill, Donald. The Upside-Down Kingdom.  Herald Press, 1976.

Loewen, James W. and Charles Sallis, editors.  Mississippi: Conflict and Change, Rev. ed., Pantheon 

     Books, 1980, pp. 136-7.

Phillips, Kevin.  The Politics of Rich and Poor, 1990.

Putzel, James.  A Captive Land:  The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines, Manila Univ  

      Press, 1992.

Wiser, Williams and Charlotte.  Behind Mud Walls: 1930-1960.

      Univ of Calif. Press, 1971.

Yoder, Perry.  Shalom.  Faith and Life Press, 1987.

The rich and poor, wealth and poverty, are prominent themes in the gospel of Luke.  In one setting, read all of the following verses:

   1:52-53

   3:4-14

   4:18

   6:20-24

   7:22-23

   8:14

   12:13-34

   14:12-14

   14:21-22

   16:1-15

   16:19-31

   18:18-30

   19:1-10

   20:45-47

   21:1-4

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."