In the last of what were my single years, I lived alone in a ground floor apartment across the street from Union College, where I had been a rather unenthusiastic student in the mid-90s. I had broken up with my boyfriend (who is now my husband), and my stepsister, who had shared this apartment, had moved far away and I found myself really alone for the first time in my life. And I didn’t like it very much.

I was lonely. I had cats that would sleep behind every curve of my body at night–ensuring a minimum of tossing and turning–and this helped. But cats couldn’t pay bills, or advise me on work. To quell the feelings of being alone, I began to control the only thing I could control–my stuff. Somehow, I had managed to collect not just every paper I had ever written in my failed college career and all the way back to kindergarten, but I had also collected the papers of others because I had a garage. Allow me to explain: Apparently, having a garage leads one’s friends to believe that they do not need to go through their things before they move- simply backing their vehicle up to my garage and unloading were all that was required. Surely Wendy could use this stuff, right? Yeah, well, no. I clearly remember the moment when I looked at my garage and found the meaning of life.

Simplify. Life is not “stuff”, it leans more towards freedom from stuff, and Wendy had work to do in that area. It is safe to say that I didn’t and don’t place pets in the category of “stuff”.

Now, about three years after this epiphany, I noticed the word ‘simplify’ becoming a rallying cry, albeit a ridiculously ironic one in the society we live. I grew up with grandparents who had grown up during the depression, and who fought in World War II–both abroad and on the home front. They knew how to bottle vegetables, how to darn their socks, and how to fix anything that happened to break down. Gone are those days. In fact, I clearly remember watching the smoke rise from the rubble that was the World Trade Center and hearing our leader tell us to keep shopping. So, simplification wasn’t going to catch on anytime soon–not in its truest sense. And since then, I fear it has been molded into a meaning having to do with organization of “stuff” rather than the un-need of it.

Today I have four children, and I find the struggle for simplification to be an ongoing one, although one that is deeply meaningful in every effect. In parenting land, I have watched my kids come home from school not to talk about what they’ve learned that day, but to describe with intricate detail the newest plastic toy made by their favorite company, and I ask myself; Is this what I wish for my children? To be made into mindless consumers? In fiscal responsibility land, I watch the money spent around Christmas time or birthdays, and I wonder how worth it any of it is, especially considering that two weeks later, many small pieces of toys end up sucked into my trusty, plastic vacuum cleaner. In environmental responsibility land I think of the ridiculousness of rubber ducks washing ashore in Alaska, and around the world, fifteen years after their shipping container fell overboard in the North Pacific Sub polar Gyre. I think of the overall harm that our addiction to plastic inflicts on this planet. In the land of my heart, I wonder about the Chinese workers making these toys for American consumers, and hope that they’ll someday be able to use the bathroom without being fined, and that they will be able to see their kids more often than only once a year.

We survived Christmas this year without buying quite as much stuff as we normally do. I bought books, made knitted gifts, supplied some new clothes- and yes, bought a few small mass-market toys, namely Thomas the Tank Engine, Lego and something called a Ninjago that I haven’t quite figured out the point of yet. It spins–this is all I know.

But the most memorable things about this Christmas weren’t the toys, but the evening we spent caroling with our neighbors, the friends we had over for dinner and those who had us over–and the day we took Leonard (my mother’s step-father who lives alone about thirty minutes away) dinner, cookies, and just ourselves. Oh, and the garage–the two days it took to clean out our garage and take two carloads of old clothing and toys to the Goodwill. Those are the things we talk about and remember.

Holidays aren’t supposed to be stressful, but they so often are–and not only for those of us celebrating, but for the people that make the stuff that supplies our holidays. I suppose it comes down to mindfulness and the part that compassion should play in life–and what we’ll do about that. If we uphold the importance of family, but harm other families in other lands by the way we celebrate a holiday (or even in the way we live day to day), we probably aren’t celebrating the birth of Christ in a worthy way. This isn’t easy–it was never supposed to be. We live in a time and place where things and stuff are emphasized, and so I ask- what would Jesus do? I doubt he would stampede into stores at midnight on black Friday, or fight over a waffle iron at Wal-Mart. I doubt he would buy any old toy or electronic device or pair of jeans without thought for how that item was made and the overall effect of our current drive to consume. It’s a matter of stepping out of our current mold, being a little choosey, and viewing stuff as stuff, rather than happiness. And maybe, just maybe, the Christmas miracle will begin to change the world.

• One in Christ – Petition
• Virginia Seventh-day Adventists Reach Across Globe to Help Kenya’s Children (Rebecca Jackson, Adv Review)
  
• College Remembers Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy (Giovanni Hashimoto, PUC, 13 Jan 2012)
• U.S. Supreme Court ruling is First Amendment defense, Adventist legal counselors say (ANN, 13 Jan, 2012)
• 10th Circuit Rules Oklahoma Amendment Barring Islamic Law was Unnecessary and Discriminatory (Michael Peabody, ReligiousLiberty.TV, 11 Jan 2012)
• Supreme Court Sides in Favor of Religious Organizations (NARLA, 11 Jan 2012)
• Human rights champion Amor was ‘great defender of religious freedom’ (ANN, 10 Jan 2012)
• Prospective Presidencies – II (Stephen Foster, Adv Today, 9 Jan 2012)
• Sabbath Sermon: From Protecting to Progressing—Jeff Gang and Julius Nam (Spectrum, 6 Jan 2012)
• Ordination Equality Gains Momentum (Jared Wright, Spectrum, 5 Jan 2012)
• ONE in Christ – Ordain Now Equally (Adv Women’s Blog, 3 Jan 2012)
• In Ecuador, ADRA assisting indigenous families living near volcano (ANN, 3 Jan 2012)
• Sabbath in the Burbs (Jeff Gang, The Suburban Pastor, 30 Dec 2011)
• Three Christmas Stories to Ponder (Jeff Gang, The Suburban Pastor, 23 Dec 2011)
• In Memoriam Of The Euro (Malgwyn, Things I Read, 23 Dec 2011)
• Creation Wonder (Nathan Brown, Adv Today, 24 Dec 2011)
• “…A Very Frightening Idea” (Stephen Foster, Adv Today, 21 Dec 2011)
• Constantinian, Colonial Adventism (Yi Shen Ma, Spectrum, 21 Dec 2011)
• In Philippines, ADRA distributing supplies to flood victims (ANN, 20 Dec 2011)
• In India, new orphanage on horizon for Adventist supporting ministry (ANN, 19 Dec 2011)
• Loma Linda Meets McDonald’s (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 19 Dec 2011)
• ADRA Norway Meets with 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 14 Dec 2011)
• Was Ellen White Green? (Cindy Tutsch, Adv Today, 14 Dec 2011)
• NAD President Addresses Recent Action on Ordained/Commissioned Policy (Alexander Carpenter, Spectrum, 8 Dec 2011)
• Moscow conference focuses on upswing in persecution of Christians worldwide (ANN, 8 Dec 2011)
• Half the Sky: Moving Forward (Felisa Meier, Adv Women’s Blog, 6 Dec 2012)
• Woman Pastor “Set Aside” in Australia (Jared Wright, Spectrum, 6 Dec 2011)
• Ordination—A Holy Spirit Mandate (Sednak Kojo Duffu Yankson, Spectrum, 5 Dec 2011)
• Half the Sky: Microfinance and Opportunities for Women (Jared Wright, Adv Women’s Blog, 30 Nov 2011)
• Speaking of Babylon and Love in the City by the Bay (Bonnie Dwyer, Spectrum, 30 Nov 2011)
• Cost of Leadership (Chris, Iunctum, 28 Nov 2011)
• The Futility of the Christmas War (Raintree’s Village, 26, Nov 2011)
• When Do I Experience Sacred? (Chris, Iunctum, 23 Nov 2011)
• Half the Sky – Religion, Oppression, and Education (Rochelle Webster, Adv Women’s Blog, 22 Nov 2011)
• When Have I Experienced Working for the Common Good? (Chris, Iunctum, 22 Nov 2011)
• What is My Unique Contribution to the Whole? (Chris, Iunctum, 22 Nov 2011)
• What is the Relationship I Want With the Earth? (Chris, Iunctum, 22 Nov 2011)
• Creations—Occupy (Leslie Foster, Spectrum, 21 Nov 2011)
• Liberty Lessons (for U.S.) from the Plains (Stephen Foster, Adv Today, 14 Nov 2011)
• GKI at Black Rock City (and some photos) (Notes from the Fault, 6 Nov 2011)

Imagine Adventist Equality from Robert Jacobson on Vimeo.

November 18-20, 2011

“It’s a beautiful day. Sky falls, you feel like it’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.” Our wake-up call was the sound of U2’s “Beautiful Day” pumping through the bus’s speakers. Despite being groggy from the over-night bus ride from Ann Arbor to Fort Benning, GA, our group of 30 peacemakers embraced the message—seize the day. In that spirit we stopped the bus for a quick breakfast and then headed directly to the morning’s plenary session to get oriented for the weekend’s international protest to close the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC). As an intern at the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ), I had been helping to plan this trip over the course of the semester, so I was excited to finally be at the main event.

Those of you who have attended the annual rally hosted by SOA Watch know that the agenda is over-flowing with concerts, speakers, workshops, and personal reunions, in addition to the final funeral procession that ends at the gates of Fort Benning, which houses the SOA. Before offering a description of this year’s event and the people I encountered, I’ll first provide a brief introduction to the school.

The School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)

Although most Adventists are likely aware of Archbishop Oscar Romero’s advocacy for the poor and oppressed in El Salvador and his subsequent assassination, fewer are probably aware that those responsible for his death were trained at the School of the Americas. Romero may be the most famous casualty of the school, but he is just one of thousands who have been tortured and killed at the hands of Latin American soldiers who have honed their skills in SOA classrooms.

The first iteration of the school was opened in Panama in 1946, and in 1985 it was moved to Ft. Benning as stipulated by the Panama Canal Treaty. Nicknamed the School of Assassins, the SOA was described by the President of Panama as “the biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.”[1]

SOA Watch summarizes the history of the school in this way:

Since 1946, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.[2]

In response to the growing movement in the U.S. to close the school which was fueled by the documentation of violence perpetrated by SOA graduates, in 1999 the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230 to 197 to cut the school’s funding. In response, “in 2000 the Pentagon came up with a plan to close the School of the Americas and change its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” passing Congress 214 to 204.[3] The Defense Department now keeps names of attendees secret because of “national security,” making it much more difficult for human rights groups to make connections between roots and fruit.[4]

People of Protest—Faces in the Crowd

This overview of the school is sufficient for our purposes, so I will now move to describing some of the people I encountered during the weekend’s events. I hope these participants will (a) help you see the human side of the rally and (b) demonstrate the wide variety of Latin American issues that are addressed during the event, which is better understood as a peace and justice conference rather than merely as a protest against one particular school.

Stefan (CPT). This is beautiful, I thought to myself as I walked toward the first plenary session, eaves-dropping on a conversation between an elderly couple. The wife was explaining the meaning of the Killer Coke signs to her husband who shuffled along with a walker.

As I stepped into the large conference room, I was welcomed with an unexpected greeting, “Jeff!” It was Stefan, who I’d first met last summer at a conflict transformation/mediation course at KIPCOR. Shortly after that class, he attended the Jesus Radicals conference and then headed to the Kurdish region of Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). After much thought and experimentation was brought to a critical point by Ron Sider’s call for action in 1984,[5] CPT was formed as a Christian approach to peace- and justice-making using nonviolent methods of engagement. “What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?” I had just arrived and already I felt like I was among family. This wasn’t just a protest; it was a reunion.

As I looked around the conference center and saw elderly people and teenagers, nuns and tattooed activists, those with short hair and dreadlocks, I felt right at home. This crazy mix of people must be like Jesus’ disciples who represented wildly different corners of society. I wish church looked more like this, I thought to myself. I’d love to see a church with more people wearing Toms than high-heels and wing-tips. Really, I think the weekend was sponsored by Toms.[6]

Brad* (Ft. Benning). I was first told about Brad during a Presbyterian Peace Fellowship workshop that we were both attending, but I wasn’t introduced to him until the next day at the outdoor procession. Brad’s story is unique. He was the only current resident of Ft. Benning that I met at the rally, and he has recently submitted his papers to become a conscientious objector.[7] When he is able to leave the service, Brad plans to become a community organizer helping to support events like this one. Brad’s military experience has convinced him that his life needs to be given to a different mission. He still has a long process ahead, so your prayers for “Brad” are welcomed. God will know whom you mean.

Mike (Veterans for Peace). Mike had traveled from Michigan with our group, but he didn’t answer during role-call on Sunday morning. This morning he wasn’t with us because he was marching with his new compadres in Veterans for Peace. On the bus ride home as participants shared their experiences over the loudspeaker, Mike stood wearing a VFP polo shirt and told how he had marched that morning to the vigil with an estimated 150 people, including veterans and their supporters. Here he had found peacemakers with common motivations and experiences, and he pledged to recruit more of his fellow veterans to the organization.

Later I learned that Mike had twice been prepared to go to Vietnam, but both times he was transferred to another battalion just before departure. The second time this happened, he had been training as a medic with his company for five months in preparation for deployment to Asia. The tight bond between the men in the company left Mike aching as he saw them departing without him. “It was the worst day of my life.” “I let those guys down. I let them down,” he laments, even though the change was not his intention. Within a week, some of these same men were returning to Ft. Hood as injured soldiers in need of serious care.

Because he could not be in Vietnam to serve his company in their toughest hour, Mike has given his life to serving others in a number of different areas. This ICPJ trip to Ft. Benning was consistent with his life-long ethic of caring for those who need it most.

Mike shared that carrying the U.S. flag during the march to Ft. Benning on Sunday morning was the highlight of his weekend. He was proud to carry the flag because the people he was marching with stood for the highest ideals and values of the country. While Mike does not appreciate politicians using the flag as a means of garnering patriotic support for their individual causes, Mike felt that in this march for freedom and human rights, the flag was the right symbol to hold high. “The best I felt the entire weekend was carrying that flag.”

Jaime* (CIW). I had previously read and blogged about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Florida, but listening to Jaime’s story of being a migrant worker was compelling. Some readers may have participated in the boycott of Taco Bell some years ago that successfully led Yum Brands to support reforms for the Immokalee workers.[8] Other restaurants and food suppliers have followed their lead, yet currently only one grocery chain has signed on—Whole Foods.

Jaime explained that under past pay structures, workers received two cents per pound of tomatoes picked in the fields. This meant that in order to make minimum wage, workers would have to fill the 32 to 36 pound buckets, carry them to the truck, and hoist them up to be emptied every four minutes. That is to say, they were not making close to minimum wage. Consequently, one element of the campaign is to increase the payment to workers by one cent per pound—from two cents to three. I am not ready to call this a fair wage or a living wage, but for Jaime and so many other workers, this 50% raise is significant.[9] Will you commit to buying your tomatoes from either a local farmer[10] or from Whole Foods, or at least campaign for your favorite grocer to sign the agreement?

You may be wondering what connects migrant workers, whether documented or undocumented, with the School of the Americas. One important connection is the role that the school plays in the greater foreign policy framework of the United States. For example, estimates range from one to two million Mexican farmers who could no longer afford to produce corn after NAFTA was passed because they could not compete with corn subsidized[11] by the U.S. government (i.e., you and me).[12] Increased northern migration correlated with this social disruption south of the border.

I originally favored NAFTA as well as the move from the Uruguay Round of GATT to the WTO in the early nineties when studying economics for the first time, but since then I have seen the serious negative effects of trade agreements that are anything but free and fair. The first time I began to consider other perspectives of trade was when watching the 1999 protests in Seattle from just down the road. As someone with an MBA, I now believe that the “golden straightjacket” of neoliberal trade agreements in Latin America is just as much a part of U.S. domination (western domination more broadly) as are the training of soldiers to control local residents.[13]

Issues relating to the Immokalee workers go well beyond immigration topics[14]; however, until we see that the flow of undocumented workers has a direct relationship with our trade practices and foreign intervention (both current and historic, economic and militaristic), we will continue to decry the foreign speck of dust in the other’s eye while ignoring our own oppressive plank.

Jess (Witness for Peace). I first met Jess at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary when he came to give a presentation on the War on Drugs in the Colombian context. He has lived in Southern Mexico and Colombia for more than eight years, advocating for humans rights with Witness for Peace. Earlier this fall we met again at an ICPJ event held at the University of Michigan. ICPJ had invited Jess to present his analysis of the pending Colombian Free Trade Agreement, which has subsequently passed. He opposed the agreement for reasons I mentioned above regarding trade, though he went into much more detail about how the agreement was actually written, determining who would most benefit. Witness for Peace is currently planning delegations to Central America. Sign up if you would like to gain first-hand experience with the farmers and laborers affected by decisions made in the global north.

Witness for Peace also engages in advocacy at the national level. This acknowledges the critical role of participating in a range of actions to bring about social change. Protests and demonstrations are important for a number of reasons. Participants experience support and solidarity. Local and national leaders see that their constituencies care deeply about a topic. Connections are made between activists and organizations enabling future collaboration. Yet, demonstrations alone are not enough. Solid social and economic research leading to rational advocacy is also necessary. Movements for peace and justice will never have the lobbying dollars that large corporations have, so we must compete with solid information, sound logic (promoting human rights really is in our own best interest[15]), and compassionate clarity. In this way, the movement defines what it is for, not simply what it is against.

While I have deep suspicions about those who hold or desire to hold power, speaking truth to power is important. It makes no sense for me to merely donate crumbs to Latin American relief agencies who then give it to campesinos while neglecting the work of advocacy—calling for an end to (a) massive U.S. farm subsidies that distort markets and hurt farmers in other countries, (b) trade agreements that favor multi-national corporations at the expense of nationals, and (c) the training of Latin American troops with the skills that keep their citizens compliant (SOA). Addressing roots and causes is at least as important as treating the resulting symptoms, even though it is much less popular. As Dom Helder Camara once said, “If I give food to the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

A recent advocacy push relates to the Latin America Military Training Review Act (HR 3368), which was reintroduced recently by Congressman James McGovern (MA) and was co-sponsored by 21 other representatives. Encourage your representatives to support this bill. If you are interested in advocacy, consider learning more and getting involved at the Ecumenical Advocacy Days in April 2012.

Luther (Honduran Garifuna community). Dr. Castillo participated in the build-up to the funeral procession that concluded the weekend’s events. While I did not actually meet him, I did meet another leader of the Honduran Garifuna community earlier in the month. ICPJ arranged for Miriam Miranda (OFRANEH) to speak at a local church about the experiences of the Garifuna. Issues discussed included land rights, environmental concerns, political repression, and oppressive economic development. For example, campesino leaders in the Lower Aguán area are being murdered in an effort to keep them from organizing and defending their land rights.  According to international human rights organizations, between January, 2010, and early October, 2011, 40 people linked to campesino organizations in the region were assassinated.

In the Question and Answer time after her talk, Miriam shared about the neocolonial brainchild of U.S. economist Paul Roemer—charter cities. These cities are designed to operate independently of the Honduran government, allowing foreign countries and investors to set the “rules” of the cities, which would be opened for international investment. The basic concept is that immigration problems can be stopped by providing pockets of the developed world in corners of the developing global South so residents will migrate to those cities instead of ones in the North. Why travel from Honduras to Los Angeles if there is a foreign-run city inside Honduras itself? While I affirm the power of rules and laws, this type of development raises serious concerns.[16]

Spencer (SDA). On a Christian Peace Witness conference call shortly before the SOA rally, three of us realized we would be at Ft. Benning, so we decided to meet. We represented Pax Christi (PCUSA), Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF), and Adventist Peace Fellowship (APF). When we came together at the PPF table, I was also introduced to Spencer Chiimbwe, a Seventh-day Adventist social activist living in the Community of Living Traditions at the Stony Point Retreat Center. I had read an interview with Spencer, so it was enjoyable to have the surprise introduction in Georgia.

Later that evening we both attended the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship workshop. I counted approximately 60 people in the room, five of us admitting to not being Presbyterian—two Adventists, two Mennonites and a Catholic. Among other topics, Rick Ufford-Chase described the six-year discernment process the denomination is undergoing to determine if they will become a peace church and affirm nonviolence rather than just war theory as the church’s approach to issues of war and justice. Rick shared how active engagement on peace issues for 15 years has positioned the church to have this conversation. As social scientists tell us, acting our way into new ways of thinking is as powerful a force as thinking our way into new ways of acting.

Often I have been frustrated in my conversations with Adventists about military issues. There seems to be a default position that whatever the military does is acceptable, and it is not the Adventist’s place to criticize it. This lack of space for analysis is not universal, but it comes up often enough to be a point of confusion for me. North American Adventists of all people should see military and economic oppression as consistent with our unique interpretations of Revelation 13:11-12—the U.S. appearing lamb-like but speaking and acting as a dragon. While others may be surprised by evidence that the U.S. is not an entirely benign or benevolent empire, Adventists should expect some degree of disconnect between appearances and reality.

To a significant degree, Seventh-day Adventists have lost the radical military critique of our heritage, people like Percy Magan, A.T. Jones and Uriah Smith. These leaders did not call for national pacifism or the abolition of the War/Defense Department; however, they did use strong language to critique U.S. imperialism[17] as well as Christians killing in the military.[18]

Given the Adventist reading of Revelation, I believe Adventists should be actively advocating for human rights in dimensions beyond just religious freedom. Simply because we believe there will continue to be increasing levels of violence in the world does not mean we can be defeatist and ignore the call to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9). As Mennonite theologian Willard Swartley says, “Jesus’ statement that there will be wars and rumors of wars does not justify war, nor does it mean that his followers should not work to prevent war, just as his saying that the poor will always be with us should not be used to counter efforts to alleviate poverty.”[19]

Lynn (ICPJ). Longtime peace activist Art Gish once said that it is easy to be a young radical; he called for old radicals. On the bus ride home, we heard from Lynn, one of the more elderly activists among us. While embodying Art’s wish, her sentiment was a bit different:

I don’t know how many more years I’m going to be able to come here. I’m gonna hang in there, but I’m so glad to see all of the young faces here because…I have some people behind me that are going to keep it going. And hopefully we aren’t going to have to do this many more years. We keep thinking every year: this is the last year. But once we close this one, I’m afraid there are more we’re going to have to work on. So we’ve got a lot of work to do folks, and I’m glad I’ve got all your help.

Lynn’s long-term commitment to peace and justice inspires me, and as we rolled down the interstate, I felt compelled to be faithful to her example. Calling all peacemakers, young and old alike!

While there were many other people I would like to tell you about—Father Roy Bourgeois, Martin Sheen, Brian Willson, Jimena Paz, lesser-known figures in our group, and so many others—I do hope that you are as inspired by these peacemakers as I have been. Together they created a rich and meaningful experience in Georgia. Maybe next year you can meet them at the gates as well. Or maybe the school will be closed and we can be about other business.

NOTE: More pictures from our group are available here.

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Most people know intuitively that large income gaps are very harmful to everyone. This is explicitly what the Bible’s Jubilee economic principles were designed to prevent.

Now we have conclusive evidence that proves it. If you haven’t watched any of my other links, watch this one.
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html
http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/
http://www.slideshare.net/equalitytrust

Then take this 30 day course on Biblical Jubilee economics here.

Christians following biblical economics in JUST the last 20 years have directly helped 1.3 billion people around the world to escape horrific poverty. This is the kind of result that happens when people take God’s principles seriously.

Note that in the above video, Dr. Wilkinson shows that large income gaps are even harmful to the rich, not just the poor and middle class.

I’ve long been interested in many economic issues…ranging from how the seminal work “Economic Demo…cracy” and how capitalism, socialism and communism all ignore basic human economic rights, to theories on GNH (Gross National Happiness) to campaigns for basic economic rights for all. Even though I did a major in religion, and I know many pastors, I had no idea about most of the Bible principles on economics until about 2004. I was quite surprised to find that God’s principles of economics can and are helping solve many problems of poverty in our modern times.

Recently, I found that in just the last 20 years, ~1.3 billion people have escaped poverty due to Bible principles. How? In Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 15, and other places the Bible lists at least 13 economic principles that God promises can reduce and even end poverty if followed:

1) Natural resources, the source of nearly all wealth in history, belong to society since God made them, not people are a natural right for all people. Those who profit from them owe society a large share of the profits since they didn’t make them.
2) Investment in win-win situations is admirable and wise. Charging interest in win-lose situations is evil.
3) Cancel debts every 7 years to get people out of that prison,
4) Trade must be fair.
5)Taxes should be limited to ~2%
and others can be found here:
http://eslmission.truth-is-life.org/resources.php?id=5 (open file #17 and click to the section on 13 Bible economics principles)

Professor Dent (a politics lecturer at the University of Keele in England) began talking about canceling debt for poor nations based on the Bible’s Jubilee principle of canceling debt for poor people after 7 years because he thought it would give relief to millions who were in unfair debt slavery for money they had never benefited from (http://cases.som.yale.edu/jubilee/). His students, pastors and churches quickly joined this Jubilee based campaign, forming its bedrock activist base and called it the Jubilee2000 campaign. NGOs and many others joined as well and eventually it inspired the ONE campaign with 400 NGOs and numerous politicians, businessmen, actors and singers promoting the cause and directly influenced the adoption of the Millenium Development Goals. (see “DEBT CANCELLATION AND CIVIL SOCIETY: A CASE STUDY OF JUBILEE 2000” by Nick Buxton. See file #26 here: http://eslmission.truth-is-life.org/resources.php?id=5)

This campaign has now achieved these results:
• 18 countries debt has been cancelled.
• ~$107 billion of debt has been cancelled in the last 10 years!
• Aid has been doubled to $50 billion!
• Millions of lives have been saved & 42 million more children are now in school!
• 1.3 billion (yes, with a B) have been lifted out of poverty (TEDxChange: Melinda French Gates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEPjEimKrJs…also at http://www.ted.com/talks/melinda_french_gates_what_nonprofits_can_learn_from_coca_cola.html)

Melinda Gates says, “We’ve made more progress in the last 10 years than in any other period in history combined.” She unfortunately didn’t say anything about the fact that it all started with Bible principles, a Christian professor and churches taking a couple biblical economic principles seriously (and there are others that could be far more beneficial than even these).
See more at http://www.jubileeusa.org/, www.makepovertyhistory.org, www.one.org, www.oxfam.org/

I have involved my students in this campaign and given presentations on how to integrate it into TEFL classes. Doing things like this is critical since it makes studying much more interesting and connected to real life and also because students are actively involved in making a BIG difference in real life. How big? In this case my students who joined this movement were part of the movement that helped 1.3 billion people escape poverty in the last 20 years.

They learned English skills, presentation skills AND helped changed the world AND learned that God’s principles can also work to change the world THESE days. What could possibly be better than that???

There is still much to do and a new campaign is happening here, with churches again leading the way:
http://www.live58.org/thefilm/

[H]ere’s a book that’s at a scholarly level and finished, one of the best I know of on why capitalism now is so abusive.
http://www.ied.info/books/economic-democracy-world-peace

Thanks for asking the question, because it made me recheck one website and found several new really nicely designed pages on this that are shorter and easier to understand than the scholarly book above:
http://www.answersanswers.com/landrent.html
http://www.answersanswers.com/land_rent_proof.html#history http://www.answersanswers.com/land_rent_proof.html#proof

Throughout history, great leaders have observed that taxing land is a much better idea than taxing other things. And great thinkers have said that the natural bounty of the land belongs to all. And throughout history, great land owners have opposed this simple human right and economic justice that would eliminate massive numbers of problems and has demonstrably done that in history. It has almost nothing to do with what happened in Zimbabwe. For details, see also these sites (they are somewhat similar to the above ones, but just have a few more cases/quotes)
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/Earth.html
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/Numbers.html

But, even the simple for EFL students versions ALL had solutions that have worked in RECENT times, ALL. They are precisely the solutions that were part of the effective solutions in bringing 1.3 billion people out of poverty in the last 23 years. To be specific:
1) Cancel debt of poor nations
2) Double aid to poor countries and
3) Make trade fair (this one is still being worked on, but some progress has been made.).

There are 13+ Bible principles, some that are even more effective than the ones above, esp. the sharing natural resources one and many intellectuals who agree with them.

Open file #17 here:
http://eslmission.truth-is-life.org/resources.php?id=5
and click or ctrl-click on the section “13 BIBLICAL ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES & INTELLECTUALS WHO AGREE WITH THEM”

Land Rent and Jubilee work on the same principles. At the present time, I don’t see how the Jubilee land separation can be implemented without quite a bit of violence. Land Rent however is very simple and based on the same philosophy. Maybe one way to do it would be go to land rent as a transition to Jubilee. I don’t know if you’re an SDA or not, but Ellen White said this:
” If men would give more heed to the teaching of God’s Word, they would find a solution of these problems that perplex them. Much might be learned from the Old Testament in regard to the labor question and the relief of the poor. In God’s plan for Israel every family had a home on the land, with sufficient ground for tilling. Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. And no devising of men has ever improved upon that plan. To the world’s departure from it is owing, to a large degree, the poverty and wretchedness that exist today. . . . {WM 195.3}

Also see these links:
Land Rent Explained: http://www.henrygeorge.org/rem1.htm

100s of quotes from great thinker on why sharing nature is essential. http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/georgism_01.html

Summary of some aspects of the biblical Jubilee System. http://www.landreform.org/reading0.htm

• German Adventist youth win ‘Gold Hope Prize’ for community outreach (ANN, 29 Nov 2011)
• ADRA joins commemoration of World AIDS Day (ANN, 29 Nov 2011)
• 25 years of medical outreach for Sydney Adventist Hospital volunteer team (ANN, 29 Nov 2011)
• Lessons to be Learned from Penn State Scandal (Downing, Adv Today, 27 Nov 2011)
• Hope in Adventist Societies (Scriven, Spectrum, 27 Nov 2011)
• Occupy Till I Come (Yeagley, Spectrum, 24 Nov 2011)
• Slavery, Circumcision, and the Ordination of Women (Kubo, Spectrum, 21 Nov 2011)
• Live on the Border (Watson, Adv Today, 21 Nov 2011)
• Pacific Union College students seek to form Democrats club (Dills, Napa Valley Register, 28 Nov 2011)
• The Case Against Secularism – And For Prophecy (Foster, Adv Today, 20 Nov 2011)
• Sermon by Cosmin Ritivoiu — information and compassion.

*NOTE: for more on translating justice/righteousness, see:

• http://concordances.org/greek/1343.htm
• http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/kjv/tsedeq.html
• http://www.basden.demon.co.uk/xn/tsedeq.html
• http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TBv2i5_Fosterjustice.pdf (PDF)

Now back to the main question: How do we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness/justice?

Clergy gather in New Orleans to craft a populist message to aim at politicians (Bruce Nolan, Times-Picayune, 17 Nov 2011)

More than 500 clergy from dozens of denominations are in New Orleans this week, laying plans they hope will force next year’s presidential candidates to talk about populist economic reforms. Their issues are raising the minimum wage, preserving and perfecting health care reform, and “holding Wall Street and the nation’s largest banks accountable for nearly crashing the national economy” in 2008, said Gordon Whitman, the group’s policy director.

PICO pursues its agenda by teaching more than 1,000 congregations how to organize, train their own leaders and make demands of local, state and federal officials.

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