War With North Korea???

Are we fast approaching war with North Korea?  I am afraid that we are.

Trump believes that North Korea will soon have both the nuclear weapon and the missile to deliver the bomb as far as our West Coast.  He believes that we cannot, must not, let this happen.  North Korea has the same mentality; they must have this nuclear capability to protect themselves so they cannot not, must not, denuclearize.  So we are at an impasse; neither country is apt to back down.

Both counties are highly militarized.   Both have millions of highly trained soldiers.  Neither country is afraid of violence, war.  Neither country has millions of citizens trained in love and justice.  The odds of war are high.

When we add ignorance, inexperience, arrogance, ethnocentrism, nationalism and the possibility of error/miscalculation, war is even more likely.

Perspective from Philip Yancey:

"Gandhi died three years after the United States dropped the atomic bomb in Japan. . . . Gandhi believed the West had forfeited its ability to lead the human race and represented a future of decadence, materialism, and armed conflict."

Gandhi was once asked this question:  "What do you think of Western civilization?"  Gandhi replied: "I think it would be a good idea."

Perspective from Jim Wallis "Hiroshima and 13th Street," The Plough, Summer 1995:

Jim Wallis lived in a Washington ghetto filled with violence;

"They have been to so many funerals, they have seen so many of their friends laid out, they wanted it to be known how they themselves should be laid out when they die.  These were 8-, 9-, 10-year-old children.  When young African-American men reach the age of 20 in my neighborhood, they have a party, a real celebration.  It's a milestone.  "I'm 20 years old and I'm still alive!"

"But I do believe that something happened to us in 1945.  Something happened to us that we have yet to really understand.  A threshold was crossed.  It wasn't only Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It was Dresden.  It was the fire bombings.  But it was not only weapons of mass destruction.  It was the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations."

"In World War II my father was in the naval force that was destined and scheduled to invade the Japanese islands. . . .He was certain that he would not have survived an invasion, and so I grew up most of my life being told that the bombing of Hiroshima made my family possible.  My father really believed that.  Later, however, he turned against nuclear weapons and believed that the bomb should never have been dropped."

"What has happened to us?  Violence has been accepted as normative, even enshrined.  Violence has saturated our culture.  Violence is now everywhere."

"Violence is in the White House, the Pentagon; it's all over television, in our streets, and in our homes. . . . We have had an almost complete cultural breakdown, a complete disintegration of values."

According to Wallis, the biblical prophetic vision not only protests against evil, but it also provides an alternative vision of love and justice, of the kingdom of God.

A last word from Gandhi:  "We are not ready for freedom."  So he took two years off to fast and pray. He said, "My greatest fight is with the demons inside me.  My next fight is with the demons inside my [Indian] people, and only after that comes my fight with the British."

Tom Skinner and the Kingdom of God

Tom Skinner:  "The church must become a model of the kingdom of God, so that when oppressed people ask, "Where can we find justice?" the church can say, 'Over here.'"

My wife and I are going through our stuff and we ran across an article written by Edward Gilbreath titled, "A Prophet out of Harlem," Christianity Today, September 16, 1996.  It refreshed my memory about how I learned about the significance of the kingdom of God.

In April 1968, at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, I experienced a second conversion---a keen awareness of the horror of American racism and the need for biblical justice.  At Urbana '70, as I heard the prophet-evangelist, Tom Skinner speak; for the first time I began to understand the crucial importance of the kingdom of God.  Some years later, I was mentored by John Perkins on how to incarnate the kingdom in poor oppressed communities by doing Christian Community Development.

Tom Skinner's speech at Urbana '70 "The Liberator has come!" is probably the single most important ever given at InterVarsity.  It called for a radical, even revolutionary, brand of Christianity.  John Perkins describes Tom Skinner's message in this way:

"Tom Skinner had the clearest understanding of the gospel that I've ever heard. . . .  He understood the importance of 'on earth as it is in heaven,'  That was the heart of his message---living out the kingdom.  He was a prophet without honor because he was hitting at themes of reconciliation that were too radical for blacks and whites alike."

Bill Pannell who partnered with Skinner said,"It was at the point when we put together the evangelistic and the prophetic traditions that we were led back to the motif of the kingdom of God."

"Skinner's central motif of the kingdom of God never shifted."  It called for the overthrow of a social order dominated by white superiority and white privilege.  But so far most American white Christians have rejected the kingdom of God; they have refused to repent and restitute.

I have been on a 45 year pursuit of the kingdom of God, its biblical meaning and how to apply it in America and Haiti.  Thanks Tom for getting me started on this pilgrimage.

It's Wrong to Tolerate Injustice

Proverbs 24 (The Message):

"It's wrong, very wrong,
 to go along with injustice.

Whoever whitewashes the wicked
gets a black mark in the history books.

But whoever exposes the wicked
will be thanked and rewarded.

American application:

White superiority [ethnocentrism] and white privilege [built on white economic oppression] have been whitewashed by the American church.  There has been no call for white repentance; therefore no restitution/justice.  Instead there has been 400 years of white ethnocentrism and oppression with even monuments celebrating ethnocentrism and oppression; Washington Monument [George and Martha owned 300 slaves] and the St. Louis Arch [westward expansion which destroyed not only the buffalo but also thousands of Indian peoples and much of their cultures].

Second Generation of Haiti Christian Development Fund Partners

Welcome to the second generation of Haiti Christian Development Fund supporters and partners.

Thirty plus years have gone by.  The first generation is retiring, passing away soon.  Hats off to the first generation of supporters/partners who carried HCDF through crisis after crisis, slowly but surely rebuilding Fond-des-Blancs.  Not many quitters among them.

Some advice to the second generation.  I want you to excel, to do better than the first generation.

1.  Be exceedingly humble regarding social problems.  They are much more complex than medical problems and medical problems can be very difficult.  Based on my study of sociology and living 90 years in America, I would estimate that 9 out of 10 Americans know only 10 percent of the truth about blacks, yet the readily pontificate about blacks as if they were experts.  This ignorance/arrogance is probably worse about Haiti.

So become a disciplined student, become wise.  Love not directed by truth, wisdom can be dangerous.

2.  Diligently work to improve your theology, especially on the present and social dimensions of the kingdom of God, the deep trauma prolonged oppression causes, the desperate need for Jubilee justice to release the oppressed.  We all need this biblical wisdom; both Haitians and Americans.  Remember that Jean Thomas' brother who knew the language and culture tried starting individual projects but apart from a community development umbrella,  over time they all failed.  HCDF in Fond-des-Blancs is going strong.

3.  In America, recently I have noticed so-called experts in urban education making stupid comments; this includes the Gates Foundation which has poured millions of dollars into improving education with little success.  Why?  For every dollar spent on education, they should invest five in community development.  Education and community development are closely related; you can't improve one without improving the other.

4.  Christian Community Development.  Have you had any experience doing community development; this field is not for amateurs?  Have you read any CCD literature?  If not, give the following your highest priority.

* Attend the week long April Immersion in Chicago sponsored by CCDA.
* Read At Home With The Poor by Jean Thomas.
* Read A Quiet Revolution by Mississippian John Perkins who invented CCD.
* Read Mountains Beyond Mountains which is about the Haitian ministry of Paul Farmer.  Farmer earned both a MD and a Ph.D in anthropology.  He combines physical medicine and social medicine/public health.

5.  If you want the wisdom of a person who has been studying these issues intensely for 50 years, who has lived in black communities in America for 35 years, read my blog.  Google "Lowell Noble's Writings".

The Very Good [Shalom] Gospel book review

Lisa Sharon Harper, a black evangelical, has written a masterful book on the biblical teaching regarding shalom in the context of God's creation and the Fall.  She emphasizes dominion as stewardship before the Fall and dominion as sin/oppression after the Fall.

"Shalom is when the image of God is recognized, protected and cultivated in every single human being. . . . the restoration God desires for every broken relationship" personal, family, community and nation.

Harper often interweaves and illustrates these biblical teachings with her own experiences as a black citizen in America and with the larger black experience in America.  Harper thinks like a sociologist, something few Americans do.  She emphasizes community and connections and relationships.

After reading the utter tragedy of continuing American oppression in The New Jim Crow, The Very Good Gospel provides the Biblical basis for a badly needed positive alternative.

Harper provides a fresh and deep interpretation of the Scriptures.  This is one of my top 10 books.

A suggestion for Harper or someone else:  Follow up with another book on justice titled Rejusticizing the NT.  Nicholas Wolterstorff declares that English translators and theologians have "dejusticized" the English NT.  Steven Voth, a professional bible translator, states that the KJV has zero references to justice; the NIV only 16.  Whereas Spanish, French and Latin translations have around 100 references to justice.  If a person rejusticizes the Sermon on the Mount, it takes on a much different meaning.

Language in Black and White

1.  Amy Frykholm has reviewed the documentary/commentary about James Baldwin in the Christian Century, April 26, 2017 titled "Language in black and white."  "The film moves back and forth between historical and contemporary, reminding the viewer continually that this is not a piece of documentary history but commentary on the present moment."

"The film explores white 'innocence'. Baldwin writes, "I am afraid that most of the white people I have ever known impressed me as being in the grip of a weird nostalgia, dreaming of a vanished state of security and order. . . .  He diagnoses what he calls 'the emotional poverty of whites'---their glaring inability to face reality . . .  to face the fact that they are 'moral monsters'."

"In Baldwin's understanding, white was created at the same moment as black.  Both are fallacies that script an unending cycle of despair."  "the value placed the color of the skin is always and everywhere and forever a delusion."

"Baldwin constantly questioned America's future in a way that suggested his deep identification with it. . . .  Baldwin was a human being first and an American second---all other distinctions were lies that gave false structure to the world.

2.  In the same issue of CC, historian Edward Blum reviews a new book by Michael Eric Dyson titled "Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America."  Blum is a Christian, white historian who specializes in the racial history of the U.S. with a focus on 1865-2000.  He is an expert on W.E.B. Du Bois; see his book W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet in which he argues that Du Bois is a biblical type prophet on race.

Blum compares Dyson's book with Du Bois book Darkwater.  "Dyson implores us [whites] to stop and listen.  He [like Bu Bois] identifies race, and especially the black-white divide, as the primary problem of American history, society, culture, and politics.  He maintains that black people and white people occupy different universes and that the cancer of white racism eats away at the moral body of civil society,"  I would add that most American whites have yet to repent and restitute about their white supremacy and white privilege so nothing fundamental changes from generation to generation.

Dyson writes about "the five stages of white grief"---"a debilitating disorder that he calls C.H.E.A.T.: chronic historical evasion and trickery."  "These stages of grief keep whites in a state of privileged denial where they can feign innocence while reaping the rewards of whiteness [white privilege]."

3.  Related high quality books I recommend:

* The New Jim Crow on unjust mass incarceration.
* Toxic Inequality on the enormous racial wealth gap.
* A 60 Minutes piece on the tragic failure and misuse of the public defender part of  America's criminal justice system.  Combine this documentary with The New Jim Crow.

PS

In 1970, sixteen white, third graders in Riceville, Iowa, in two days learned James Baldwin's insight that "the value placed on the color of the skin is always and everywhere and forever a delusion."

"For two days after Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed, Jane Elliott, a third-grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, gave her pupils a unique lesson in discrimination.  The first day, brown-eyed children were declared 'superior', given special privileges, and encouraged to discriminate against their suddenly 'inferior' blue-eyed classmates.  The next day, roles were reversed.  What happened astonished  The positive results both students and teacher.  On both days, children labeled 'inferior' took on the look and behavior of genuinely inferior students; they did inferior work.  'Superior' students excelled in their work and delighted in discriminating against their erstwhile friends."  This is recounted in the book A Class Divided.

"Do you think you know how feels to be discriminated against?   It feels awful."

Student Raymond Hansen:  "I felt like a king, like I ruled them brown-eyes.  Like I was better than them.  Happy." . . . . "I felt down, unhappy, like I couldn't do anything, like I was tied up and couldn't get loose."

The children's academic ability changed in an 24 period.  The positive academic results continued on longterm.

The Sacred but corrupt Jewish Temple, part 2

The sacred but corrupt Jewish Temple, part 2.

What are some of the lessons to be learned from the Temple confrontation initiated by Jesus?

1.  Social evil in social institutions is deeply ingrained, legitimated at times by religion, and therefore is highly resistant to change.

2.  In order to bring about change, social conflict must be initiated.  The social evil and the oppressive leaders must be aggressively and publicly exposed so the people will understand what is really going on.

3.  At the same time that a person exposes social evil, she must present a positive alternative, i.e., the just kingdom of God social order.

4.  Social change must be two-pronged: the negative exposure of social evil and the positive presentation of social justice.

5.  In this process, the common people must be central.  Remember as Jesus taught in the Temple "all the people hung on his words."  Prior to this the chief priests and the teachers of the Law were the leaders of the people using religion to manipulate the people (Luke 19:47).  The chief priests wanted to kill Jesus immediately, but they did not dare to act because of the power of the people.  Luke refers to "the people" a number of times.

6.  Great care must be identifying the key social evil in society.  What most people and especially the leaders identify as the main social evil may, in fact, be in error.  It may be a smokescreen to divert attention from the really important social evil.

Note that Jesus did not target the Roman headquarters in Palestine or take a trip to Rome to expose social evil.  Though Rome's was oppressive in its imperialistic domination of Palestine, Jesus never engaged in an anti-Roman campaign.  Many Jews did see Rome as the great social evil from which they desired deliverance.  Roman occupation was more than a minor convenience; it added to the already existing oppression by corrupt Jewish leaders.

But Jesus was shrewd enough to realize where the heart of the problems for the Jewish masses.  In Jerusalem.  At the Temple.

Politicians and others who benefit from a system of oppression will often focus on an outside system of oppression as the great social evil to fight against.  Unless Christians are biblically wise, they, too, can be mislead and manipulated and end up battling against the lesser of two social evils.  Beware of anti _________ campaigns which focus on "them" as the bad guys and "us" as the good guys as a cover for a greater social evil in our midst.

For example, Jesus identified Jewish economic oppression and religious ethnocentrism, not Roman oppression as the greater social evil.  Many in the U.S. regard Russia or China or terrorism as our greatest evil when internal wealth inequality or on going ethnocentrism or mass incarceration are likely greater evils.