Book Reflection - With Justice for All

After a month of class each day, numerous papers, a midterm and two final exams, I have completed two of my classes this summer and now have taken some time for vacation in Portland with family and friends. I am back in the swing of things with another reflection here on a wonderful book. After this reflection, I will have another handful of books to read and reflections to write to complete the final class I am working on. I hope you enjoy them!

The latest book I have read is written by John Perkins, an amazing man with an incredible story of growing up in Mississippi in poverty until he left to California for school. After college he found a great job in the LA area, but God called him back to Mississippi to work among the poor black people in the area where he grew up. He has been a champion of community development and definitely someone I look up to greatly. He started the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) that works with Christian community organizers and local churches to improve their communities through his models of the "Three R's."

The "Three R's" are Relocation, Reconciliation, and Redistribution. I will speak about each of these and give some of my personal convictions/ beliefs about each of them. I have spoken at great length about relocation, where Christians are challenged to move into impoverished communities in order to live amongst the poor as they minister to them in sharing the Good News. The goal is to promote the breaking of the cycle of poverty in the community's life. Perkins describes this as choosing to "become a 'have not' in order to take my people the gospel" (60). Perkins sees that this is the model of Jesus which Paul describes in 2 Cor. 8:9, saying, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" (NASB). For more information on this model, please read John Hayes' book, Sub-Merge.

The second "R" is reconciliation. I feel that this is a very trendy action right now to speak about, but not necessarily taken into action. The same feeling comes to me when I speak about social justice, specifically systemic social justice. But back to the point I am making here, Perkins is right on with his analysis of the necessity of reconciliation and forgiveness. Personally, Perkins has experienced one of the toughest paths to come out preaching reconciliation and forgiveness. In early 1970, Perkins was almost beaten to death by white police officers in Mississippi yet he came out of that saying that he wants to "preach a gospel that will heal these people, too" (108). He recognized that all people, whether black, white or any other are hurt and in need of reconciliation with each other. He sees that black people come with their blame and feelings of inferiority, while white people come with their guilt and sense of superiority (147).

John senses the antidote is reconciliation through shared community with those of all different colors. He states,

Reconciliation is God's way of bringing people to Himself and to each other. Reconciliation is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Sharing in life together is us trusting each other. When we trust each other, we see the value in each other. When we see value in each other, we will partnership together. If we as a nation don't value reconciliation, then we as a viable, profitable economic entity are damaged, because we are hobbling along with an inferior system that produces less value than it could if we were all united (155).

Finally, Perkins addresses the third "R," which is redistribution. I think this is most likely the most controversial of the three, because is starts to challenge the basic tenants of the economic system this country is founded upon. Though, in our current global financial state, more and more people might be open to change. The biggest problem Perkins finds with a free-market system (and I completely agree) is personal greed corrupts the system. Originally the hope was for greed to be tempered by honesty. Perkins calls for a system of justice and love to be promoted by those who claim to follow Jesus. Perkins agrees with the vast majority of Christians who say that the free-market system is the most just, but he also qualifies this statement with saying that "[those of us living in this system] lack the moral will to distribute the fruits of our production in a more equitable way" (160).

I will conclude with a rather long quote where Perkins describes this concept in greater length. He states,

Achieving justice in America will require something more than "playing fair from now on." Economic opportunity in capitalism depends on ownership of capital. The free-enterprise system assumes that anyone can have access to capital through [their] labor and that banks and lending institutions will make investment capital available to anyone who has the will and the know-how to produce goods and services for the marketplace. There is only one problem with that assumption - it's not true.

The oppressed among us know all too well that the oppressive forces that created their poverty in the first place keep them trapped in it. The young black electrician, having never had an opportunity to establish a credit rating, finds it almost impossible to raise the capital to buy the tools and equipment to go into business for himself. The general rule is, "To get capital, you must have capital," and so the system perpetuates and widens the gap between rich and poor (181).

Finally, Perkins gives ideas for specifically addressing this need for redistribution. He suggests starting cooperatives, simplifying our personal and church's economic lifestyles, and organizing our communities to address the felt needs of the community. All of these are done in order to present the whole gospel to whole people.