Sw - Session 7
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The World as it Is Systems Gone Awry
Session 7
scripture study: the prophets speak e Downward Spiral insert picture of the snail shell? Study the following Scripture verses assigned to your group, reflect on the questions below, and come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: • What themes are these verses addressing? What’s their concern? • In what ways have Israel and its leaders not fulfilled God’s vision of Shalom? • How have the systems, the prophets and the people been affected? Group 1: Spiritual Downfall Read Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah 58:1-14; Hosea 4:6-14. Group 2: Political Downfall Read Isaiah 1:15-17; 10:1-2; Amos 5:15; Micah 3: 1-4 & 9-12. Group 3: Economic Downfall Read Ezekiel 16:49; Amos 5:11-12; Amos 8:4-7. Group 4: Prophetic Downfall Read Micah 3:5-7; Ezekiel 13:1-12. Group 5: Downfall of the People Read Jeremiah 7:1-15.
scripture study: ezekiel 22 A Biblical-Social Analysis of Our Cities and Nations Ezekiel tells us what has made the nation of Judah abandon the social vision of Shalom. In the 22nd chapter he gives us a most profound social analysis with many parallels to our own communities and cities. In verses 23-27 he talks about five types of people: ey are the princes; the priests; the officials; the prophets; the people. The Integral Mission of the Church
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Study the following Scripture verses assigned to your group, reflect on the questions below as a group, and only then read the paragraph corresponding to the type of person you studied in the article below. After that come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: Group 1: Read Ezekiel 22:25 • Who do the princes represent? Who are they likened to? What have they or haven’t they done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? • Have you ever seen a nature film of how lions hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the political leaders to roaring lions? What kinds of politics to the political leaders practice? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 2: Read Ezekiel 22:27 • Who do the officials (the leaders) represent? Who are they likened to? What have they or haven’t they done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? • Have you ever seen a nature film of how wolves hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the economic leaders to wolves? What kinds of economics to the economic leaders practice? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 3: Read Ezekiel 22:26 • What have or haven’t the priests – the religious leaders – done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? To get at these questions ask first ‘How did Israelites at the time of Ezekiel believe they could come into right relationship with God?’ • Why would the religious leaders do that? Why would they do violence to the law, teach wrongly and withhold crucial information? Group 4: Read Ezekiel 22:28; 13:4-5 • What have or haven’t the prophets done? Who are they likened to? How has their behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community?
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• Have you ever seen a nature film of how jackals hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the prophets to jackals? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 5: Read Ezekiel 22:29 • What have or haven’t the people done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do?
article: understanding ezekiel’s typology e Princes – Likened to Roaring Lions ey Represent the Political System e princes are the backbone of the political system. ey conspired together to devour people, abuse their power and their military policies have lead to many deaths of young men, leaving behind multitudes of widows.1 ey are likened to a roaring lion, tearing its prey. Why this image? Well, imagine there is a gazelle that is happily ‘gazzeling’ along. e lioness sneaks up on its prey and tries to come as close as possible to it without being noticed. Because she is a sprinter but not a long-distance runner she has to sneak up to get close enough to attack. Once she sprints up to the gazelle she jumps on this 30 kg Gazelle. What happens? e Gazelle collapses under the 125 kg weight of the lioness. e sheer weight of the lioness brings her down. She has no chance to withstand the lionesses’ oppressive weight. Once the gazelle is down, the lioness kills her swiftly by severing her spinal chords.2 e parallel: Political systems kill clean and decisively with a strong show of force – whether military power or police force. With this force to back them, the political leaders abuse their power and practice a politics of injustice and oppression instead of a politics of justice. In Ezekiel’s time, politicians used their authority to treat Israelites with contempt, to enrich their own coffers, and to oppress the alien and mistreat the fatherless and the widow. ey used their power to take from those who were weaker – to devour their lives, take their loved ones, plunder their treasures and precious possessions.3 us, the political authorities of Jerusalem refused to fulfill their God-given, primary responsibility to uphold justice and
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order for the city’s people. Instead, they committed themselves to the oppression of the poor and powerless in order to increase their own power, wealth and military might.4 is is precisely the great temptation of every political system since time immemorial – to serve its own ends and to join with economic and religious systems to accrue power at the expense of the people, even if that means the oppression and control of that people.5 e Officials – Likened to Wolves ey Represent the Economic System e officials of that time were the business or economic leaders representing the economic system, though they also had political functions. Given by God the responsibility of maintaining the ‘common wealth’ for the good of all, they used their position to exploit the people. ough God’s goal for the economic system was to create wealth by encouraging his people to be wise stewards of his resources – “so that there would be no poor among you” – t he economic leaders had stolen the people’s possessions. ey had changed from perceiving themselves as stewards of a "common wealth" to owners of a “private wealth”. e result of that shift was a profound change in the way Israel’s economic leaders used the nation’s wealth, for they used it for their own purposes and profit, intentionally exploiting the poor, marginalized and powerless of that society to increase their own wealth. Bribery, usury, cheating, excessive compound interests, and extortion all had become acceptable activities for the rich.6 Hence, Ezekiel likens them to the wolf.7 Why this image? Wolves must hunt differently than lions, since a wolf is only about 30-60 kg while a moose or bison – their favorite game – is about 300-500 kg or 400-900 kg respectively. Well, imagine there is a herd of moose, ‘moosing’ along. Suddenly you see a pack of wolves approaching – since wolves only hunt in packs. What is the first thing they do? ey start running towards the herd of moose and get them to flee and run for their lives. Wolves have the ability to run long-distance – so what will happen? e weakest moose (either a young, old or wounded one) will fall back of the herd and the wolves will select this most vulnerable one and separate it out. en with their sharp teeth they will start nipping at that moose’s Achilles heel/tendon until the moose can no longer run and falls down. And then the cruel end of the moose begins. e wolves don’t kill the moose but start eating it alive.8 Instead of forgiving debts, then, instead of being generous to the poor, instead of establishing an equitable economic system, instead of
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maintaining the common wealth, Israel’s business leaders exploited them. Since they could not appear overtly violent – in contrast to the political leaders they didn’t have the power of the law, police or military at their fingertip – they had to ‘kill’ in a different way. So they sought to gain economic dominance over the people by setting the economic standards of society (‘herding’ the people), pressuring the society to vigorously pursue those standards (‘running’ the herd) and then selecting the most marginalized, poorest, vulnerable, weakest people in society; those without economic power, capacity or position to stay up with the rest of the herd: dominated ethnic groups or minorities, women, those without invested wealth and those whose social standards differed from the norm.9 At that point they separated them out, preyed on them, and then started eating them alive, bleeding them to death, without causing much publicity. is is how the dark side of any economic system tends to work. It isolates the weaker individuals from those who might be able to bring counteracting power to bear on the victim’s behalf.10 It thus becomes an economics of greed and exploitation, instead of an economics of stewardship and equity11 And thus a class of the impoverished is created who have neither access to wealth nor the knowledge of how to create or use wealth. e Priests – ey Represent the Religious System e purpose of the religious system was to introduce people into a true relationship with God, instruct them about God’s vision of Shalom, and teach them to be obedient to the law of Moses. If Israel was to have a vital faith experience with God, that would only come through the faithful conduct of the prayer, practice, proclamation and presence of the religious community as it would lead the people into relationship with God and teach them the precepts of the Law.12 However, Ezekiel points out that, first of all, the priests have broken their own personal relationship with God, ‘violating my Law and desecrating my sanctuaries’. Second, they have withheld from the people the instructions the people needed to practice their faith rightly and keep the Law obediently before God.13 ey haven’t taught the people the difference between clean and unclean, between holy and common, between right and wrong. Hence the priests have muddied the water. ey did not encourage the people to keep the Sabbath – the day that God instituted so that people could cherish relationships with one another and with God. So the priests were violating God’s command to them by refusing to share with the people what they needed to know to be right with God. e priests were
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withholding crucial information from the people, thereby effectively hindering them to be in right and life-giving relationships with God and with each other.14 Finally, they did not use their influence to stand up for the poor and weak victims of injustice. Rather, they conspired with the oppressors, “whitewashing” their evil works, even dressing them up with false ‘church talk’ about “God” this and “the Lord” that.15 ink of it this way: If I know the truth or some very important life or death information – but I don’t share it with you, who’s in control? I am! So the priests only shared information with the people, if they did as told. In essence, instead of fostering a religion of relationships – they fostered a religion of control and manipulation to build their own power and wealth. Whereas the economic powers of a nation can exploit the people to gain control of a city’s wealth, and the political powers can coerce the people into submission through laws and a police apparatus designed to protect that wealth, it is the religious system which can truly exercise control over the people. It exercises that control by shaping the belief system and values by which the people interpret and understand their life. erefore, if the religious system endorses the political and economic establishment as good, the people will tend to accept that endorsement. No wonder, they were amply rewarded for doing so by the king and the controllers of the public purse.16 is is the essential sin of religious institutions: using their theological knowledge to manipulate and control others. Isn’t this what we often see in churches or mosques or other religious temples around us? Isn’t it also the case sometimes that the very people entrusted by God to advance his vision of Shalom, instead endorse political and economic leaders who oppose this vision, for the security and wealth they might receive?17 e Prophets – Likened to Jackals It seems that the systems have also corrupted and seduced the prophets with power, money or prestige, thus effectively silencing them. Formerly the symbol of Jerusalem’s integrity, the prophets allowed themselves to be captured by the systems rather than hold those systems accountable.18 ey are likened to jackals. Why this image? Unlike lions and wolves, Jackals don’t hunt live animals. Instead they travel in packs and feed on the flesh of dead animals, left over by lions and wolves. While not attacking the vulnerable and weak directly, the prophets had been ‘bought off’ and blinded by the wealth and control of the powers that be. Since the systems didn’t want to be held accountable, their leaders
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did whatever they could to seduce the prophets – to buy them off with praise, attention, prestige, money or position. In return, the prophets no longer exposed the lies of these very powers in order to repair the breaches in the societal wall, but instead whitewashed the horrendous deeds of the religious, political and economic leaders by keeping the truth from being known. Worse, they fooled people into thinking that they were doing the will of God. ey spoke words of peace and assurance to the economic, political, and religious leaders, and consequently justified their actions before the people.19 ey happily sold out in order to eat the dead leftovers of the powers that be. In fact, they even misused God’s name to add legitimacy to what they were saying. Consider the prophet Hananiah ( Jeremiah 28:1-17). He was the preferred prophet in Israel during Ezekiel’s time, who prophesied that God would soon destroy Babylon and return its Jewish captives to Jerusalem. Jeremiah took him to task, declaring that his prophecy was wrong and, in fact, a deceit. Hananiah refused to accept Jeremiah’s rebuke and used his power and influence to undermine Jeremiah’s credibility.20 e true prophets, thus, those who still chose to speak the truth, were imprisoned or killed – either physically or via character assassination. e People – Following the Example of their Leaders e people were effectively following the example of their leaders, internalizing their values and committing the same kinds of acts on a micro-scale by turning on one another and their neighbors. Seeing the systems “grabbing for all they could get”, the people began imitating the systems. Even though those values of greed, power and domination were unarticulated, the people heard those values expressed in the actions of the systems and their representatives. e people consequently began to embrace those values as their own. Exploited and oppressed by the systems, the people became exploiters and oppressors of each other and especially of the most vulnerable in their midst.21 In today’s terms, it seems like the economic system is saying to the people: e only way you will find joy in life is to consume! e political system says: Don’t rock the boat, because our system has brought you many benefits! e religious system says: is is what you need to believe, because it supports the political and economic systems. Don’t ever ask questions about the systems. God or natural laws or whatever other force has put them in control – and we are to submit to them.22 As a result, the politically oppressed turn on each other, rather than seeking to transform the systems. ose exploited by business interests seek to make as much money as they can off each other – legitimately or not. ose controlled by religion or a
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certain framing story turn on each other too, demanding an obedience to the minutiae details of law and liturgy that not even the religious leaders can uphold.23 ose oppressed by political corruption, implicitly or explicitly continue to support corruption as a way of life. In short, the people have been seduced into acting out the same kind of downward spiral.24 And with this, the last hope for redemption of the city and nation dies. Conclusion Tellingly Ezekiel ends his chapter with the following words: “I looked for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my indignation on them and consume them with my fiery anger, returning upon their heads their own conduct, all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD." Unfortunately, God didn’t find enough people to stand in the gap, and so he let Israel and Judah reap the fruits of their own self-destructive actions and innocent people needlessly had to suffer the consequences of the action of their respective nations. Historically, the northern kingdom (Samaria) was captured in 721 BC by Shalmaneser, the monarch of the expanding empire of Assyria centered in modern-day Iraq. Shortly thereafter most survivors were deported to Upper Mesopotamia and through assimilation lost forever their identity as Israelites. ose who remained in the land intermingled with immigrants from Babylon and elsewhere and in time emerged as the racially mixed Samaritans (2. Kings 17). Insert picture of map here? e southern kingdom Judah avoided a similar fate but paid a high price for its subservience to Assyria—huge tributes, loss of complete independence, and corruption of its traditions by the incorporation of religious practices of the dominant foreign power. e wealth needed to buy off Assyria had to come from someone, and the poor surely paid more than their share. e economic situation of the poor was further aggravated by programs of armament and fortification in efforts to hold off the threat from other foreign empires. During the next 150 years Judah experienced brief periods of relative independence and spiritual renewal, but its final years were again characterized by glaring departure from Yahweh and his vision for them. Its few godly kings were unable to reverse the downward trend of the nation. e final collapse came after a regime-change in Iraq, when the new empire Babylon invaded Judah in two successive waves: 598 BC and 586 BC. e Jewish army was slaughtered and many civilians lost their lives in the hopeless struggle. Jerusalem’s walls were torn down and the temple destroyed; salt was spread on the site of the temple so nothing would ever grow again. And then
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Babylon took the High Priest, religious leaders, the king, the nobility and their families and the entire economic leadership, clamped them into chains and marched them 900 miles east to Babylon where they were settled on the Chebar river, possibly a canal of the Euphrates on the eastern side of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar held the assumption that if you take the entire religious, political and economic leadership out of a nation, nobody would be left who would be capable of planning a leading a revolution against Babylon.25 Israel’s self-destructive actions had fallen on its own head!
individual reflection: passivity vs. direct engagement Take some time to reflect on the following questions. If need be, write down some of your answers. At the end, come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: Do you suffer from the consequences of bad things in your community? How have you reaped the consequences of wrong actions?
How have you contributed to the general state of life in your community? Have you stood up to change the downward spiral in your community? Have you tried to stand in the gap to change the course of where your community is heading?26
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Even though you may not actively contribute to oppression, exploitation and abuse in your community, not doing anything amounts to passive agreement with the wrongs. Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights leader in the United Status, once said: “We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in evil. [us], we should repent in this generation, not so much for the actions of the perverse and unjust, but for the amazing silence of the good.”27
Do you know of any people that are standing in the gap? What do you think of their actions?
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endnotes 1
“e reference to ‘made many widows’ is a reference to the Josian wars in which King Josiah took advantage of the collapse of the Assyrian empire boundaries of Israel’s greatest king, David. e price paid was death of an entire generation of young men in a fruitless war, and such a weakening of the nation’s military strength that Babylonia, once recuperated from its defeat of Assyria, could easily conquer Israel’s army, take Jerusalem and destroy Judah within twenty-three years.” (Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 45) 2 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 3 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 87 4 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 5 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 45 6 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 7 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 8 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 9 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 47-48 10 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 154 11 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power “e credit card is a simple example of this. It is an efficient means by which a used borrows money from a bank or financial institution to make purchases. In reality, the credit card’s purpose is to increase debt while encouraging a growing economy by increasing the spending capacity of the people. e ‘religious’, values-creating systems of advertising, the media, entertainment and sorts encourage the purchase of goods as the primary means by which we can both improve our lifestyle and bring fulfillment and joy to life. e political system cooperates by making an exception to the nation’s laws of usury so that credit card providers can chare compound interest on unpaid credit card debts that exceed what the law allows financial institutions to charge for any other medium of loan. us every system wins. e retail business community makes a greater profit by radically increasing sales. e production community makes a profit through increased production of goods. e financial community makes excessive profit by charging compound interest on unpaid credit card debts. e political system radically increases its tax base on the goods sold. e values-formation communities (advertising, communications, sports, and so on) make residual profits through the generation of more advertising, sports endorsements, and so on. And who loses? e poor and marginalized. ey are encouraged to ‘shop till you drop’ as are the rich and the middle class. But it is the poor and marginalized who have the most to lose in participating in this vehicle of purchase. e rich and some in the middle class can afford and choose to pay off all their purchases each month, thus avoiding high interest rates. But the poor and many overextended middle-class people cannot afford such monthly payoffs and soon find themselves both in inextricable debt and owing exorbitant interest.” (Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 48-49) 12 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 13 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 14 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 15 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 87 16 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 17 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power
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In Mexico as in many other countries, many of the major parties have tried to co-opt the church. e Catholic Church is often in bed with the PAN party. e PRI effectively has tried to co-opt the evangelical church in numerous states. For example, when candidate Enrique Peña-Nieto ran for governor in the State of Mexico in 2005, he gave away thousands of Bibles and ‘food baskets’ to evangelical church leaders, in return for allowing him to register voters. As church we need to be very careful when political and economic leaders start courting us. 18 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 62 19 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 17 20 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 51 21 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 53 22 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 23 is was plainly visible in Communist Russia, where average citizens spied on each other in order to assure the ongoing outworking of the communist system, all the while the political elites sipped on the most expensive wines while importing Western luxury goods. It is likewise visible among Western preachers of neoliberal market practices. While exhorting nations in the Two-thirds world to cut trade barriers and liberalize their markets, they would never dare to introduce similar radical economic policies in their own countries. 24 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 62 25 Based in part on class notes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 26 Although the world and my community may be heading down – on principle I should not contribute to it. I.e.: If there is a lot of trash in my community, I still shouldn’t throw out trash myself. If corruption reigns, I still shouldn’t contribute to it myself. If exploitative practices are common in the work space, I still shouldn’t encourage them. 27 Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 18 “Tendremos que arrepentirnos en esta generación, no tanto de las acciones de la gente perversa, sino de los pasmosos silencios de la gente buena”.
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The World as it Is Systems Gone Awry
Session 7
scripture study: the prophets speak e Downward Spiral insert picture of the snail shell? Study the following Scripture verses assigned to your group, reflect on the questions below, and come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: • What themes are these verses addressing? What’s their concern? • In what ways have Israel and its leaders not fulfilled God’s vision of Shalom? • How have the systems, the prophets and the people been affected? Group 1: Spiritual Downfall Read Isaiah 1:3; Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah 58:1-14; Hosea 4:6-14. Group 2: Political Downfall Read Isaiah 1:15-17; 10:1-2; Amos 5:15; Micah 3: 1-4 & 9-12. Group 3: Economic Downfall Read Ezekiel 16:49; Amos 5:11-12; Amos 8:4-7. Group 4: Prophetic Downfall Read Micah 3:5-7; Ezekiel 13:1-12. Group 5: Downfall of the People Read Jeremiah 7:1-15.
scripture study: ezekiel 22 A Biblical-Social Analysis of Our Cities and Nations Ezekiel tells us what has made the nation of Judah abandon the social vision of Shalom. In the 22nd chapter he gives us a most profound social analysis with many parallels to our own communities and cities. In verses 23-27 he talks about five types of people: ey are the princes; the priests; the officials; the prophets; the people. The Integral Mission of the Church
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Study the following Scripture verses assigned to your group, reflect on the questions below as a group, and only then read the paragraph corresponding to the type of person you studied in the article below. After that come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: Group 1: Read Ezekiel 22:25 • Who do the princes represent? Who are they likened to? What have they or haven’t they done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? • Have you ever seen a nature film of how lions hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the political leaders to roaring lions? What kinds of politics to the political leaders practice? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 2: Read Ezekiel 22:27 • Who do the officials (the leaders) represent? Who are they likened to? What have they or haven’t they done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? • Have you ever seen a nature film of how wolves hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the economic leaders to wolves? What kinds of economics to the economic leaders practice? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 3: Read Ezekiel 22:26 • What have or haven’t the priests – the religious leaders – done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? To get at these questions ask first ‘How did Israelites at the time of Ezekiel believe they could come into right relationship with God?’ • Why would the religious leaders do that? Why would they do violence to the law, teach wrongly and withhold crucial information? Group 4: Read Ezekiel 22:28; 13:4-5 • What have or haven’t the prophets done? Who are they likened to? How has their behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community?
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• Have you ever seen a nature film of how jackals hunt? • Why would Ezekiel liken the prophets to jackals? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do? Group 5: Read Ezekiel 22:29 • What have or haven’t the people done? How has that behavior contributed to the destruction of the Shalom community? How have they acted contradictorily to what God commanded them to do?
article: understanding ezekiel’s typology e Princes – Likened to Roaring Lions ey Represent the Political System e princes are the backbone of the political system. ey conspired together to devour people, abuse their power and their military policies have lead to many deaths of young men, leaving behind multitudes of widows.1 ey are likened to a roaring lion, tearing its prey. Why this image? Well, imagine there is a gazelle that is happily ‘gazzeling’ along. e lioness sneaks up on its prey and tries to come as close as possible to it without being noticed. Because she is a sprinter but not a long-distance runner she has to sneak up to get close enough to attack. Once she sprints up to the gazelle she jumps on this 30 kg Gazelle. What happens? e Gazelle collapses under the 125 kg weight of the lioness. e sheer weight of the lioness brings her down. She has no chance to withstand the lionesses’ oppressive weight. Once the gazelle is down, the lioness kills her swiftly by severing her spinal chords.2 e parallel: Political systems kill clean and decisively with a strong show of force – whether military power or police force. With this force to back them, the political leaders abuse their power and practice a politics of injustice and oppression instead of a politics of justice. In Ezekiel’s time, politicians used their authority to treat Israelites with contempt, to enrich their own coffers, and to oppress the alien and mistreat the fatherless and the widow. ey used their power to take from those who were weaker – to devour their lives, take their loved ones, plunder their treasures and precious possessions.3 us, the political authorities of Jerusalem refused to fulfill their God-given, primary responsibility to uphold justice and
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order for the city’s people. Instead, they committed themselves to the oppression of the poor and powerless in order to increase their own power, wealth and military might.4 is is precisely the great temptation of every political system since time immemorial – to serve its own ends and to join with economic and religious systems to accrue power at the expense of the people, even if that means the oppression and control of that people.5 e Officials – Likened to Wolves ey Represent the Economic System e officials of that time were the business or economic leaders representing the economic system, though they also had political functions. Given by God the responsibility of maintaining the ‘common wealth’ for the good of all, they used their position to exploit the people. ough God’s goal for the economic system was to create wealth by encouraging his people to be wise stewards of his resources – “so that there would be no poor among you” – t he economic leaders had stolen the people’s possessions. ey had changed from perceiving themselves as stewards of a "common wealth" to owners of a “private wealth”. e result of that shift was a profound change in the way Israel’s economic leaders used the nation’s wealth, for they used it for their own purposes and profit, intentionally exploiting the poor, marginalized and powerless of that society to increase their own wealth. Bribery, usury, cheating, excessive compound interests, and extortion all had become acceptable activities for the rich.6 Hence, Ezekiel likens them to the wolf.7 Why this image? Wolves must hunt differently than lions, since a wolf is only about 30-60 kg while a moose or bison – their favorite game – is about 300-500 kg or 400-900 kg respectively. Well, imagine there is a herd of moose, ‘moosing’ along. Suddenly you see a pack of wolves approaching – since wolves only hunt in packs. What is the first thing they do? ey start running towards the herd of moose and get them to flee and run for their lives. Wolves have the ability to run long-distance – so what will happen? e weakest moose (either a young, old or wounded one) will fall back of the herd and the wolves will select this most vulnerable one and separate it out. en with their sharp teeth they will start nipping at that moose’s Achilles heel/tendon until the moose can no longer run and falls down. And then the cruel end of the moose begins. e wolves don’t kill the moose but start eating it alive.8 Instead of forgiving debts, then, instead of being generous to the poor, instead of establishing an equitable economic system, instead of
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maintaining the common wealth, Israel’s business leaders exploited them. Since they could not appear overtly violent – in contrast to the political leaders they didn’t have the power of the law, police or military at their fingertip – they had to ‘kill’ in a different way. So they sought to gain economic dominance over the people by setting the economic standards of society (‘herding’ the people), pressuring the society to vigorously pursue those standards (‘running’ the herd) and then selecting the most marginalized, poorest, vulnerable, weakest people in society; those without economic power, capacity or position to stay up with the rest of the herd: dominated ethnic groups or minorities, women, those without invested wealth and those whose social standards differed from the norm.9 At that point they separated them out, preyed on them, and then started eating them alive, bleeding them to death, without causing much publicity. is is how the dark side of any economic system tends to work. It isolates the weaker individuals from those who might be able to bring counteracting power to bear on the victim’s behalf.10 It thus becomes an economics of greed and exploitation, instead of an economics of stewardship and equity11 And thus a class of the impoverished is created who have neither access to wealth nor the knowledge of how to create or use wealth. e Priests – ey Represent the Religious System e purpose of the religious system was to introduce people into a true relationship with God, instruct them about God’s vision of Shalom, and teach them to be obedient to the law of Moses. If Israel was to have a vital faith experience with God, that would only come through the faithful conduct of the prayer, practice, proclamation and presence of the religious community as it would lead the people into relationship with God and teach them the precepts of the Law.12 However, Ezekiel points out that, first of all, the priests have broken their own personal relationship with God, ‘violating my Law and desecrating my sanctuaries’. Second, they have withheld from the people the instructions the people needed to practice their faith rightly and keep the Law obediently before God.13 ey haven’t taught the people the difference between clean and unclean, between holy and common, between right and wrong. Hence the priests have muddied the water. ey did not encourage the people to keep the Sabbath – the day that God instituted so that people could cherish relationships with one another and with God. So the priests were violating God’s command to them by refusing to share with the people what they needed to know to be right with God. e priests were
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withholding crucial information from the people, thereby effectively hindering them to be in right and life-giving relationships with God and with each other.14 Finally, they did not use their influence to stand up for the poor and weak victims of injustice. Rather, they conspired with the oppressors, “whitewashing” their evil works, even dressing them up with false ‘church talk’ about “God” this and “the Lord” that.15 ink of it this way: If I know the truth or some very important life or death information – but I don’t share it with you, who’s in control? I am! So the priests only shared information with the people, if they did as told. In essence, instead of fostering a religion of relationships – they fostered a religion of control and manipulation to build their own power and wealth. Whereas the economic powers of a nation can exploit the people to gain control of a city’s wealth, and the political powers can coerce the people into submission through laws and a police apparatus designed to protect that wealth, it is the religious system which can truly exercise control over the people. It exercises that control by shaping the belief system and values by which the people interpret and understand their life. erefore, if the religious system endorses the political and economic establishment as good, the people will tend to accept that endorsement. No wonder, they were amply rewarded for doing so by the king and the controllers of the public purse.16 is is the essential sin of religious institutions: using their theological knowledge to manipulate and control others. Isn’t this what we often see in churches or mosques or other religious temples around us? Isn’t it also the case sometimes that the very people entrusted by God to advance his vision of Shalom, instead endorse political and economic leaders who oppose this vision, for the security and wealth they might receive?17 e Prophets – Likened to Jackals It seems that the systems have also corrupted and seduced the prophets with power, money or prestige, thus effectively silencing them. Formerly the symbol of Jerusalem’s integrity, the prophets allowed themselves to be captured by the systems rather than hold those systems accountable.18 ey are likened to jackals. Why this image? Unlike lions and wolves, Jackals don’t hunt live animals. Instead they travel in packs and feed on the flesh of dead animals, left over by lions and wolves. While not attacking the vulnerable and weak directly, the prophets had been ‘bought off’ and blinded by the wealth and control of the powers that be. Since the systems didn’t want to be held accountable, their leaders
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did whatever they could to seduce the prophets – to buy them off with praise, attention, prestige, money or position. In return, the prophets no longer exposed the lies of these very powers in order to repair the breaches in the societal wall, but instead whitewashed the horrendous deeds of the religious, political and economic leaders by keeping the truth from being known. Worse, they fooled people into thinking that they were doing the will of God. ey spoke words of peace and assurance to the economic, political, and religious leaders, and consequently justified their actions before the people.19 ey happily sold out in order to eat the dead leftovers of the powers that be. In fact, they even misused God’s name to add legitimacy to what they were saying. Consider the prophet Hananiah ( Jeremiah 28:1-17). He was the preferred prophet in Israel during Ezekiel’s time, who prophesied that God would soon destroy Babylon and return its Jewish captives to Jerusalem. Jeremiah took him to task, declaring that his prophecy was wrong and, in fact, a deceit. Hananiah refused to accept Jeremiah’s rebuke and used his power and influence to undermine Jeremiah’s credibility.20 e true prophets, thus, those who still chose to speak the truth, were imprisoned or killed – either physically or via character assassination. e People – Following the Example of their Leaders e people were effectively following the example of their leaders, internalizing their values and committing the same kinds of acts on a micro-scale by turning on one another and their neighbors. Seeing the systems “grabbing for all they could get”, the people began imitating the systems. Even though those values of greed, power and domination were unarticulated, the people heard those values expressed in the actions of the systems and their representatives. e people consequently began to embrace those values as their own. Exploited and oppressed by the systems, the people became exploiters and oppressors of each other and especially of the most vulnerable in their midst.21 In today’s terms, it seems like the economic system is saying to the people: e only way you will find joy in life is to consume! e political system says: Don’t rock the boat, because our system has brought you many benefits! e religious system says: is is what you need to believe, because it supports the political and economic systems. Don’t ever ask questions about the systems. God or natural laws or whatever other force has put them in control – and we are to submit to them.22 As a result, the politically oppressed turn on each other, rather than seeking to transform the systems. ose exploited by business interests seek to make as much money as they can off each other – legitimately or not. ose controlled by religion or a
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certain framing story turn on each other too, demanding an obedience to the minutiae details of law and liturgy that not even the religious leaders can uphold.23 ose oppressed by political corruption, implicitly or explicitly continue to support corruption as a way of life. In short, the people have been seduced into acting out the same kind of downward spiral.24 And with this, the last hope for redemption of the city and nation dies. Conclusion Tellingly Ezekiel ends his chapter with the following words: “I looked for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my indignation on them and consume them with my fiery anger, returning upon their heads their own conduct, all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD." Unfortunately, God didn’t find enough people to stand in the gap, and so he let Israel and Judah reap the fruits of their own self-destructive actions and innocent people needlessly had to suffer the consequences of the action of their respective nations. Historically, the northern kingdom (Samaria) was captured in 721 BC by Shalmaneser, the monarch of the expanding empire of Assyria centered in modern-day Iraq. Shortly thereafter most survivors were deported to Upper Mesopotamia and through assimilation lost forever their identity as Israelites. ose who remained in the land intermingled with immigrants from Babylon and elsewhere and in time emerged as the racially mixed Samaritans (2. Kings 17). Insert picture of map here? e southern kingdom Judah avoided a similar fate but paid a high price for its subservience to Assyria—huge tributes, loss of complete independence, and corruption of its traditions by the incorporation of religious practices of the dominant foreign power. e wealth needed to buy off Assyria had to come from someone, and the poor surely paid more than their share. e economic situation of the poor was further aggravated by programs of armament and fortification in efforts to hold off the threat from other foreign empires. During the next 150 years Judah experienced brief periods of relative independence and spiritual renewal, but its final years were again characterized by glaring departure from Yahweh and his vision for them. Its few godly kings were unable to reverse the downward trend of the nation. e final collapse came after a regime-change in Iraq, when the new empire Babylon invaded Judah in two successive waves: 598 BC and 586 BC. e Jewish army was slaughtered and many civilians lost their lives in the hopeless struggle. Jerusalem’s walls were torn down and the temple destroyed; salt was spread on the site of the temple so nothing would ever grow again. And then
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Babylon took the High Priest, religious leaders, the king, the nobility and their families and the entire economic leadership, clamped them into chains and marched them 900 miles east to Babylon where they were settled on the Chebar river, possibly a canal of the Euphrates on the eastern side of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar held the assumption that if you take the entire religious, political and economic leadership out of a nation, nobody would be left who would be capable of planning a leading a revolution against Babylon.25 Israel’s self-destructive actions had fallen on its own head!
individual reflection: passivity vs. direct engagement Take some time to reflect on the following questions. If need be, write down some of your answers. At the end, come prepared to share your answers with the entire class: Do you suffer from the consequences of bad things in your community? How have you reaped the consequences of wrong actions?
How have you contributed to the general state of life in your community? Have you stood up to change the downward spiral in your community? Have you tried to stand in the gap to change the course of where your community is heading?26
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Even though you may not actively contribute to oppression, exploitation and abuse in your community, not doing anything amounts to passive agreement with the wrongs. Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights leader in the United Status, once said: “We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in evil. [us], we should repent in this generation, not so much for the actions of the perverse and unjust, but for the amazing silence of the good.”27
Do you know of any people that are standing in the gap? What do you think of their actions?
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endnotes 1
“e reference to ‘made many widows’ is a reference to the Josian wars in which King Josiah took advantage of the collapse of the Assyrian empire boundaries of Israel’s greatest king, David. e price paid was death of an entire generation of young men in a fruitless war, and such a weakening of the nation’s military strength that Babylonia, once recuperated from its defeat of Assyria, could easily conquer Israel’s army, take Jerusalem and destroy Judah within twenty-three years.” (Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 45) 2 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 3 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 87 4 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 5 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 45 6 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 7 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 61 8 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 9 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 47-48 10 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 154 11 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power “e credit card is a simple example of this. It is an efficient means by which a used borrows money from a bank or financial institution to make purchases. In reality, the credit card’s purpose is to increase debt while encouraging a growing economy by increasing the spending capacity of the people. e ‘religious’, values-creating systems of advertising, the media, entertainment and sorts encourage the purchase of goods as the primary means by which we can both improve our lifestyle and bring fulfillment and joy to life. e political system cooperates by making an exception to the nation’s laws of usury so that credit card providers can chare compound interest on unpaid credit card debts that exceed what the law allows financial institutions to charge for any other medium of loan. us every system wins. e retail business community makes a greater profit by radically increasing sales. e production community makes a profit through increased production of goods. e financial community makes excessive profit by charging compound interest on unpaid credit card debts. e political system radically increases its tax base on the goods sold. e values-formation communities (advertising, communications, sports, and so on) make residual profits through the generation of more advertising, sports endorsements, and so on. And who loses? e poor and marginalized. ey are encouraged to ‘shop till you drop’ as are the rich and the middle class. But it is the poor and marginalized who have the most to lose in participating in this vehicle of purchase. e rich and some in the middle class can afford and choose to pay off all their purchases each month, thus avoiding high interest rates. But the poor and many overextended middle-class people cannot afford such monthly payoffs and soon find themselves both in inextricable debt and owing exorbitant interest.” (Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 48-49) 12 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 13 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 14 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 15 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 87 16 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 16 17 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power
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In Mexico as in many other countries, many of the major parties have tried to co-opt the church. e Catholic Church is often in bed with the PAN party. e PRI effectively has tried to co-opt the evangelical church in numerous states. For example, when candidate Enrique Peña-Nieto ran for governor in the State of Mexico in 2005, he gave away thousands of Bibles and ‘food baskets’ to evangelical church leaders, in return for allowing him to register voters. As church we need to be very careful when political and economic leaders start courting us. 18 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 62 19 Robert Linthicum, Empowering the Poor, 17 20 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 51 21 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 53 22 Based in parts on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 23 is was plainly visible in Communist Russia, where average citizens spied on each other in order to assure the ongoing outworking of the communist system, all the while the political elites sipped on the most expensive wines while importing Western luxury goods. It is likewise visible among Western preachers of neoliberal market practices. While exhorting nations in the Two-thirds world to cut trade barriers and liberalize their markets, they would never dare to introduce similar radical economic policies in their own countries. 24 Robert Linthicum, City of God, City of Satan, 62 25 Based in part on class notes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power 26 Although the world and my community may be heading down – on principle I should not contribute to it. I.e.: If there is a lot of trash in my community, I still shouldn’t throw out trash myself. If corruption reigns, I still shouldn’t contribute to it myself. If exploitative practices are common in the work space, I still shouldn’t encourage them. 27 Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 18 “Tendremos que arrepentirnos en esta generación, no tanto de las acciones de la gente perversa, sino de los pasmosos silencios de la gente buena”.
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