Economic Justice at a Personal Level: Part 1 of Reflections on Lazarus at the Gate

Jo Hunter Adams

If you’re like me, you are trying to work out how to live your ideals in the context of the constraints on your time and money. For me, a rift developed soon after I finished United World College. As a Christian, there didn’t seem to be a way to combine my faith with all that I had learned at United World College.

What did I learn at UWC? It’s hard to summarize, but it was a kind of awakening—I discovered Christians weren’t the only ones working for justice, in fact, historically there seemed to be evidence of the opposite—Christians as perpetrators of injustice. I was young enough for this to result in fairly deep confusion, and I held the two ideas in tension without really resolving them. In Wales (and beyond) I had the opportunity to serve in different ways—usually with people who had genuinely different beliefs. Looking back, this began an inconsistency. Apart from with a few close friends, in justice settings I kept my faith fairly a little removed, and in faith settings I kept my feelings about injustice—and what I felt was the correct response—private.

There’s nothing wrong with this, except that I believe God is justice. Justice (and mercy) are God’s agenda, not only the domain of a bunch of people. And so justice and faith should interact. That doesn’t mean that people who have a heart for justice need me preaching to them. Nor does it mean that I take this agenda to all faith interactions. I think it means that there’s no contradiction within myself, and the rest will work itself in time.

Over the next few days and weeks, I'll be thinking about a course I recently took part in, and the types of things it's made me think about. Up to now a lot of my thoughts on economic justice have been at a structural level (how do we change the system) whereas recently my thoughts have been more focused on starting small-- economic justice as acted out as an individual. Please join me on this journey!

P.S. And I hope to keep updates on the plants going, as well as a few other things...

Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes by Robert McAfee Brown (1984)

Jo Hunter Adams

If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of the mouse, and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality (Desmond Tutu)

A summary in one sentence: developing a perspective on economic justice from the Bible. For those of you who are coming from different place spiritually, please feel free to let me know what you think. I'm just learning how to express my faith as it relates to economic justice, so if it is alienating, please bear with me. I'll get better at it!

This book was written during the Cold War by a North American, and that comes through in the book. It is also clear that it was written during the eighties, when certain terms (including "Third World") were used but have since been replaced by new words.

Leaving Egypt (Exodus 1:8-14; 2:23-25; 3:7-10)
The beginning of the book described the Israelites oppressed as slaves in Egypt. It is clearly a story about justice, struggle, and where God stands in situations like this. McAfee Brown makes four really clear points, extrapolated from this text:
1. A class struggle is going on.
2. God is aware of the struggle.
3. God takes sides in the struggle.
4. God calls people to join in the struggle.

Important and powerful stuff, right? From here it's definitely important to think about what "taking sides" and "joining in" means in our lives and in our family and community's lives. Even if it's not clear what to do next, it's very powerful to remember this reason for changing our lives or behavior, even before we know exactly how to change. That is, justice is God's agenda before I knew what justice was.

Personally, in our lives this June/July, this means deciding where to give money and how much to give away each month. I'll speak more about this later this week.

There were two points in this book that I thought would be great to repeat:

Nathan and David
The story of Nathan is a powerful one in the context of how we respond to things that are clearly wrong. I'll summarize the story as told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12:
David sees Bethsheba on a roof, and he wants to sleep with her. There aren't a lot of details about how it happens, but basically, he gets what he wants. Her husband is away fighting in David's army when Bethsheba becomes pregnant. Rather than face up to what he's done, he decides to bring Uriah home for a visit, so that it won't be clear that the baby is not Uriah's. However, Uriah doesn't feel write enjoying time with his wife when his army is in battle. So he doesn't sleep with her during his time at home. David, fearful and threatened, orders Uriah to the frontlines of battle, where he is killed. Then David brings Bethsheba into his home.

Nathan, a prophet at the time, knows all of this. He has incredible wisdom to know how to bring David's wrongdoing to David by telling a story. Through the story, he confronts David and puts his life at risk. He does it in such a way that it is clear the wrongs that have been done. David realizes fully what he has done, and changes completely.

The message here is that when there is a clear case of wrong, God uses people to take this message to those who have done wrong, so that they can once again be in relationship with God. They use those without power to tell those with power that they have done something wrong.

Blessed are the poor... in Spirit?
Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release of the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

In today's church, we tend to look to the sermon on the mount and think of the phrase "blessed are the poor in spirit" rather than "blessed are the poor". For those who aren't poor and want blessing, the former is an easier promise. However, with the concept of jubilee, it's clear that Jesus is also saying the latter, very pointedly.

I sometimes wonder in response to this promise of blessing-- why are the poor still suffering? I'm not totally sure, but I think Jesus is acknowledging the dignity and humanity of each individual, with special reference to those who have/are suffered/ing. I think we're also seeing a promise for the future. And, perhaps, the blessing that is on each of us if we are part of that vision to bring the acceptable year of the Lord (jubilee) a little bit closer.

Progress Report: Our Garden

Pictured below: Lemon balm, tomatoes, bell peppers, spring mix, strawberries, mint, eggplant

Making the Most of being a Two-income Family

Jo Hunter Adams

I recently began a new job, and it's been busy adjusting to a new day and new schedule. It's the first time we're a real two-income family, and the first time I've been working regular hours indefinitely. There are a couple of amazing opportunities in my new job.

I am able to drive through a variety of different areas of the state, most of which have a completely different feel to Boston. A few times a week I meet people who are committed to the health of potentially vulnerable populations, and to better serving these populations. There are people all over the state who are working on individual and collective health of whole populations in a superbly down-to-earth way.

There are also new decisions to be made. On the one hand, we still have my student loan to pay off, but on the other, we have relatively more wiggle room because the rate at which we pay off the loan is up to us (although we would obviously pay a different amount of interest). We are committed to living simply, but what does that actually mean?

During the past few months we've had the opportunity to talk about our resources regularly in a group setting, through our church. What has been striking is that money is usually something that we're not used to talking about-- whether we have a lot or a little. I think part of the reason is you don't want people to feel pressured to change their behavior around us (or perhaps, we don't want to shift our behavior to suit other people's financial positions). Although choices about money are extremely personal, I think one way of keeping money from having too powerful a hold is by being really transparent on how it is being spent, and what we have or do not have. In the context of openness, even if someone disagrees with your decisions they know you better through understanding your priorities, and you can hear their perspective on priorities, rather than on one specific financial decision. I reserve the right to find out I'm wrong in the future.

Three resources have been really helpful in this financial transition to two incomes:

1) Boldergiving.org
This website offers insights on how to step out bravely financially. What I like about the website are stories that describe people with different resources, giving for a whole variety of reasons. In those stories I was able to better articulate my own motivations, priorities and desires right now.


2) Inspired Philanthropy: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan
(By Tracy Gary and Melissa Kohner)
This book offers very practical advice on how to be deliberate in your giving. In a way, it assumes you are deliberate in your spending generally and from there you can be decisive and make incredible choices about where to give, how to give, and when to give based on your priorities.

The most illuminating section of this book was the pyramid of giving. It explained that most people give most of their money towards obligations, or socially (forming the base of the pyramid) and far less on transformational giving. Inspired giving turns this pyramid upside down, where far less money is spent on obligations (helping in family settings, etc, or treating people to dinner) and far more is spent to empower or be part of specific organizations. That is not to say that you care less about your family or other obligations. Rather, you are deliberate in how much you allocate for expressing your support for the people in your life. I believe this may mean you are able to make that money go further and be more creative in the ways you express support and love.

3) Related to finding creative ways to show your support for those you love, we discovered Ten Thousand Villages here in Boston. It is a wonderful organization, with two shops in Boston and great quality, unique fairly trade gifts.

More to come! Hopefully more quickly. Our plants are doing really well, and we're starting to enjoy salad for lunch and dinner.