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Scrabble, Injustice and Me
Presented by Ruth Padilla DeBorst in Wheaton College Chapel, November, 2003
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Let us pray: "Bendice. Señor nuestro pan. Y da pan a los que tienen hambre. Y hambre de justicia a los que tienen pan. Bendice Señor nuestro pan".
Our Lord, bless our bread. Grant bread to those that are hungry. And hunger for justice to those that have bread. Our Lord, bless our bread.
I have nothing at all against Scrabble. Many happy memories of family Sunday afternoons rush over me at the sole mention of the game. And words are such close friends of mine that I devoured books, studied linguistics and literature, love simultaneous translation, and have been an editor for many years. I firmly believe every family should play Scrabble regularly. So the Sky Mall add on the plane here drew me in…. It invites purchasers to "enjoy the worlds' most famous word game "millionaire style"! Millionaire style? "All 100 letter tiles are minted into ingots and accented with 24 karat gold". Wow! Price tag? $600. Now that, I believe, verges on obscenity. There is a justice issue at stake. Let me explain what I mean… El Salvador papers are full of it: news about gangs and violence, murders and disappearances. And, right alongside, with colorful and glorifying photographs, portrayals of the army and the police 'cleaning up' the cities. Kids five and ten years younger than you --by the hundreds-- are being rounded up like cattle and shoved into already inhumanly crowded jails. You needn't DO anything to be subjected to this treatment. You need only LOOK like a gang member and you're sunk. This is the scene created by the Plan Mano Dura, the Tough Arm plan put in place by the government. And sure, who wouldn't want crime to decrease in their neighborhood, to feel free to walk the streets without being mugged?
What must be noted, however, is that El Salvador is approaching elections. The race is on and the party today in power is getting plenty of votes for their imposition of 'justice' and their 'war on gangs'. Their self-portrayal as saviors of the country is working. Do poor Salvadorans -over 50% of the population-have more food, employment or opportunity because of the "Tough Arm Plan"? Are less families being broken up by forced immigration born out of poverty? Are more young people being granted opportunities for education and fruitful employment? Are more farmers breaking out of their constraining illiteracy? Not by any means! But the government has declared its violent war on violence.
Does this sound familiar? Violent wars on violence in order to eradicate violence. Billions and billions of dollars are being burned up to rid the world of any threat to its security, to ensure that 'justice' is being administered to all whose actions jeopardize the status quo.
But violence has many faces. Right now, today, over one billion people are suffering the violence of absolute poverty. This violence shortens and degrades their lives. Children form the majority of this group and are particularly vulnerable. Some 30,000 die every day from hunger and preventable disease, an outrageous fact that receives much less media and political attention than terrorism. Imagine that-fill this chapel 12 times a day with children and kill them all. And do the same tomorrow. And the next day. Week after week. Month after month. 30,000 children die every day from hunger and preventable diseases! But, you may ask, what does any of that have to do with me? I'm not a gang member in the streets of El Salvador. I'm not a hungry child in a refugee camp. And all these disturbing stats, I've heard enough of them. Don't try to send me on a guilt trip. Don't distract me from my studies and my professional advancement. Just let me be!
Why should I worry, anyway, about injustice and its multiple expressions in our world?
Let's allow God's word to explain why. Zephaniah 3.1 and following read: Woe to the city of oppressors, says the prophet, rebellious and defiled!
She obeys no one; she accepts no correction.
She does not trust the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
Her officials are roaring lions;
her rulers are evening wolves,
who leave nothing for the morning.
Her prophets are arrogant;
they are treacherous men.
Her priests profane the sanctuary
and do violence to the law.
The Lord within her is righteous.
Morning by morning he dispenses his justice,
and every new day he does not fail.
Yet the unjust know no shame. What, in the first place, does this passage tell us about God?
The Lord is righteous, just. His actions are ones of justice. He does not fail in dispensing justice. He is consistently just.
Justice is our concern, in the first place, because of who God is and because of what he does in the world
Because of who God is. Theologians through the centuries have developed explanations about God. He is omnipotent-all-powerful, omnipresent-ever present, omniscient-all knowing. He is a God of power, totally other, who stands far removed from our human condition. But let's hear how God explains himself (Jeremiah 9.23-24): Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
Or the strong man boast of his strength
Or the rich man boast of his riches,
But let him who boasts boast about this:
That he understands and knows me,
That I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
Justice and righteousness on earth,
For in these I delight,
Declares the Lord --to the people of Judah God reveals himself. He makes himself known. He allows men and women to understand him. And he reveals himself as a God of kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. God is love. He also is justice. He delights in justice. Justice is an expression of who God is. Doing justice, then, is not a human program but a passion that grows out of the heart of God. In God's dictionary, justice is defined as redemptive restoration of all things that are wrong. Justice sets things right; it vindicates the victims; it gives them another chance. This definition stands in stark contrast with the usage our world gives to the term. Here 'justice' equals systems to keep the 'bad' guys out of the way. 'Justice' brings on punishment, repression and death in any of its many forms. Instead, justice, according to God's revelation, is life giving. It is an expression of His love. Justice, as the visible face of love, brings wholeness of life because it sets things right between people and God, people and other people, people and creation-as it was in the beginning. The fruit of justice is shalom, peace, the flourishing of life and the realization of God's good purposes. Yet to whom, according to Scripture, does God reveal himself and his purposes? Who may enter his presence to grow in intimacy with him? Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord and fully declare his praise?
(Ps 15)
He who does justice, loves mercy and walks humbly with him.
(Micah 6.8)
They who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.
(Ps 106.2-3) Those who love, live and die for what God loves and Jesus lived and died for. So Zephaniah calls the wayward people of Judah back to the purpose of their existence: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
You who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness -justice-seek humility
Perhaps you will be sheltered
On the day of the Lord's anger (2.3). Justice then must be an integral part of our agenda if we are Christians because it is an integral part of who God is and of his action in the world. And justice is our concern because of who God has made us to be and because of what he calls us to do in his world Jesus, as a person whose identity is rooted in his relationship to the Father and whose calling grows out of God's purposes for the world, Jesus alone shows us what it means to be fully human -fully the men and women God intended us to be. Fullness of life, in God's design, means wholeness and integration into community.
Wholeness --integrity, being of one heart, living in peace with oneself-- is only possible when men and women are reconciled with God, their Designer, Creator and only source of full life through the redeeming action of Jesus Christ. That is how God made us: to be in a steady, unbroken relationship with him.
But that's not all. Abundant life intrinsically necessitates reconciliation with fellow human beings. Wholeness is only possible when men and women are reconciled with one another. This too depends on and is possible thanks to the cross. (Eph 1). God made us to thrive in constant, unbroken relations within others.
Do you know how 'sicarios' in Colombia and gang members in El Salvador are induced into savage irreverence towards life? They are forced to kill a family member or a child. If they can pass the test of effacing God's image in a weaker and especially a loved person, then they will most probably never return to the world of the living. That action robs them of their soul. It makes them incapable of wholeness and hence indifferent to any needs but their own. So does, I'm afraid, the life of unrestrained consumption so typical of prosperous nations: stuff and more stuff anesthetize people's souls to anything beyond their own desires.
This selfish life style stands in absolute contrast with the life of self-giving that Jesus led: he gave himself away in his life and death. He was "the man for others" in order that others might know full life. He described his ministry as one of service and also as the full expression of God's good purposes:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
that is, the year in which all wrongs are set right. Land returns to its original owner. Slaves are set free. In Christ, people are able to enjoy wholeness again: reconciled with God, with one another and with creation. In summary, full life --whose utmost expression is Christ-entails giving oneself away for the sake of restoration and reconciliation. Giving ones life away so that others may live full lives.
Through God's Spirit, we are Christ's face on Earth. And we are sent as Christ was into the world: as evidence and agents of God's Kingdom. As ministers of love and justice. As avid promoters of life -abundant life for all people -as it was in the beginning, when all things were good for all the created order.
God's mission throws us headlong into all arenas of life. None of them is out of bounds. Our mission in the world is not restricted to the religious, spiritual or private side of our lives but includes all we are and do. It has to do with how we deal with power, sex and money, how we relate to people around us, all our attitudes, values, choices and actions in the world --in the real world, where 30,000 children die every day because of poverty while others play with $600 Scrabble games. Why, we asked, need each of us, Wheaton students, staff, faculty and visitors grapple with issues such as injustice, poverty and hunger? Because God does. Acts of justice spring out of his heart of love. And so it must be with anyone who calls himself his child. Acts of justice are expressions of true worship. And they delight God. Nicholas Wolterstorff puts it this way in his insightful book Until Justice and Peace embrace, "we are called to struggle for justice in full knowledge that the social order SHOULD be altered, for it is a fallen structure in need of reform; it is the result of human decision. Instead of providing authentic fulfillment to us who live within them, the socio-political systems spread misery and injustice, squelching the realization of what human life is meant to be". And, as Wolterstorff continues, "In response to this we are not to avert ourselves from our social condition, seeking closer union with God by means of undisturbed contemplation, for God himself is disturbed by our human condition; rather we are to struggle to alter those structures and dynamics behind them, so that the alienation is diminished and the realization advanced". 23I
The root cause of injustice is idolatry
Let's return to our text: (v.3.3) Officials are described as roaring lions: instead of caring for their people, they cause fear. They prey on them.
Rulers are evening wolves who leave nothing for morning. They use their power for their own self-interests, hoarding, trading, trampling on people, worshipping idols rather than the true God. Psalm 106 paints a similar picture. Since the people of Israel "soon forgot what God had done" (v 13), they grew envious (16), they despised the land (24), they grumbled and disobeyed, and, v 36-39, they "worshiped their idols which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canna, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did, by their deeds they prostituted themselves". Once they had replaced the subject of their worship, i.e. God, for elements of the created order, they became incapable of acting with justice. And they began sacrificing the weaker members of their society. Idols demand blood. And they are insatiable. Idolatry necessarily breeds injustice: the strong and able, the powerful and wealthy sacrifice the young, the sick, the weak, the poor, in a ceaseless attempt to keep their idol happy. The accumulation of material possessions becomes the sole purpose of life for many. Money becomes the unquestioned ruler of the world. Everything and everyone is susceptible of being placed on its altar. Does any of this sound familiar?
More than ten million children die every year in the world in spite of the fact that 2/3 of them -some seven million-could survive if they simply had enough food and inexpensive medication against simple things like diarrhea, malaria and pulmonary illnesses. They die because of polluted water and lack of maternal milk that would keep them nourished and boost their immunity.
7.5 billion dollars would be enough to cover annual costs of vaccines, treatment and prevention. That is roughly one twelve of what the invading armies have spent until now in their war on Iraq. "The rulers leave nothing for morning. They leave nothing for others".
Power in our world today is so concentrated it is affecting the very means of life. Look for example at grain production and consumption. Powerful nations are manipulating grain and creating genetically modified seeds that they can patent and sell to the very nations where the initial components originated! A local farmer will soon be unable to produce seed for on-going farming. He will need to buy it from the multinational company which holds the patent and sells entire packets that include fertilizers and insecticides that will guarantee success. "They leave nothing for morning…"
In 1975, the foreign debt of the LA and Caribbean countries totaled 69 billion dollars.
Between 1975 and 1998 interests were paid for a total of U$S 795 billion.
By the end of 1998 the debt totaled U$S 660 billion.
So the more we pay, the more we owe, and the less we have while others receive more and simply get wealthier.
"They leave nothing for morning…" But it gets worse! The portrayal of Zephaniah continues (v.4),
"her prophets are arrogant; they are treacherous men
her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law" Sadly it's not only the people of Israel nor the 'heathen nations' of the world today that disregard God's nature and will. Through history, the church herself has often been enamored by the trappings of power and wealth; she has sold her soul in vain attempts to hold them forever and to secure her stance in the world. All too often she has stooped to acting as a rubber stamp for official decisions and mandates that are far from God's life giving will. She has often forgotten God himself and hence become idolatrous, losing her mission as the agent of his Kingdom that is marked by the Cross-, by self-giving.
Poverty is the most visible face of injustice
Although injustice is bred in the depths of the idolatrous heart, it takes on a visible face: unequal distribution of wealth, with the ensuing poverty and deprivation. Latin America is a naturally rich region, with minerals, oil and agriculture. And on the surface many of our cities boast slick highways, financial centers, shopping malls that rival those of the rich nations.
However,
- Over 50% of our population lives in extreme poverty. Half the Latin Americans that die are children under the age of 5.
- Two million people in Latin America and the Caribbean live with HIV or AIDS. - - 50 thousand minors are trafficked for prostitution in Central America and Mexico alone at any given time.
- In El Salvador today, the wealth of the nation of 7 million is in the hands of 5 families! They own the land, the banks, the building companies, the import-export companies: they own the country.
And the sad truth is that the same could be said about many, many countries. Wolterstorff qualifies the situation as follows: "The scandal of poverty in a world of abundance is crying out. Development decade after development decade passes by, but the poor are still dying. They die from starvation, from deprivation, from oppression. But it is their life and labor which create wealth for the few. In a world of scarcity in which everyone is in want, poverty would be a common challenge to everybody. But in a world of abundance in which many people are poor in order that a few others may stay rich, poverty-or better, wealth-is an infamy." 75 "Poverty amidst plenty with the gap becoming greater: this is the scandal" 74 "It is against God's will that there be a society in which some are poor… It is even more against his will that there be a society in which some are poor while others are rich". 78 Now, the decisions which produce extreme poverty are not made simply by corrupt and ambitious local governments. They spring from an external web of interests controlled by the economic powers of our idolatrous world. In Worterstorff's words, "It is now clear that mass poverty is not the normal situation of mankind, nor is it the consequence of actions of a few aberrant individuals. It is in good measure the effect of our world-wide economic system and of the political structures that support it -of the unregulated and unqualified pursuit of profit by enterprises from the (powerful) core, of systems of land ownership in the Third World that deprive workers of all incentive, of repressive governments in the Third World supported by those of the core, of aid programs designed not to help the poor but to win skirmishes in the contest of the superpowers. It has become clear that the First World does not want to change these institutions and practices". 97 Zephaniah cries "Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!"
He describes the whole city, intertwined interests that oppress and squelch life. Speak to people from the Majority world and you'll hear testimony after testimony of the wake of unemployment, devaluation and dire poverty the supposedly 'free' trade agreements are leaving. They are only free for those who impose the conditions: those submitted to them simply end up more enslaved than before. Economic rights of big business are more valuable than human rights. And economic dominance is backed by military power.
"it was guns that induced South American Indians to mine cheap gold for the Spaniards. It was guns that induce Indians to produce cheap textiles for the British. It is guns that induce Salvadorans to produce cheap coffee and South African blacks to produce cheap gold for the rest of the world. Behind the concentration of capital in Europe and the United States is the use of much gunpowder, elaborate torture and many prisons". 32 "The city obeys no one, she accepts no correction". Globalization is the replacement of regional systems -political, cultural, commercial-by a universal one. Regions of our world have undergone globalizing processes throughout history. What is new these days is that that power is concentrated in one nation that is very intentionally making its domination felt around the whole World. "The city obeys no one…"
On February 15, 2003, millions and millions of people formed the biggest protest in favor of peace in the history of the world. Men and women, young and old, prayed, wrote letters, marched candles in hand. But our voices were not heard; bombs blasted and lives continue to be destroyed in the name of freedom.
"The city obeys no one". In light of this complex web of injustice, which is both personal and systemic, how are we, as Wheaton students, faculty, staff and alumni called to walk in God's presence? How are we to be found worthy of proclaiming Christ and his Kingdom in our world? How are we to be faithful agents of God's reconciling mission?
Walking pathways of justice
Zephaniah urges: 2.1
1. Gather together!
Don't walk your separate ways. Come together. In gatherings like this chapel. On campuses like Wheaton college's. But beyond the physical encounter, gather together in unity of purpose, in shared awareness, concern and action. "I am persuaded that the deepest reason for the perpetuation of our predicament is that too few people in our Western society are persuaded that things ought to be different and that they are called to work towards a new order", Wolterstorff affirms.
Our hearts --anesthetized as they are by media, advertising and propaganda-- will not resist the idolatry of our environment unless we link them to other similar hearts. We all need a community in which we can mutually fan the flames of faithfulness that our consumerist world will blow out. God does not call for lone rangers. He builds a mutually sustaining body. ¿Do you belong to one such body? …. 2. Seek the Lord.
Only God is able to cut through all the layers of our sinful motivations. Only he can cleanse and renew. Only he can actually GIVE life. So seeking him and allowing his Word and his Spirit to remind us who he is keeps our efforts in perspective. It keeps us humble. We are not the saviors, the avengers, the dispensers of justice. We all need to remain on our knees before the Lord recognizing our limited perspective. We must believe that He will carry out his good purposes. 3. Seek justice - (Comment on righteousness).
How? What can I do in the light of such huge issues?! How can we seek justice, right here and now? -I'm not a magistrate or a lawyer! a. We can start where we are and beware of injustice in our immediate circle. All groups -even on Wheaton's campus-- can easily become spaces of exclusion. We need to ask ourselves: who are the marginalized in our context -right here at Wheaton, or in the town, and beyond? What borders does God's reconciling mission demand us to cross? What homogeneous units need to be broken so God's love is made obvious to a fragmented world because of the unity of his church? What prideful nationalisms or denominationalisms, or social cliques or ethnic prejudices or class categories need to be destroyed? For example, in El Salvador, social classes are so marked that people in service roles are looked down on and treated as lesser beings. When my children and I walked up to the guard of our neighborhood to let him know we will be gone for three months and to give him a small Christmas gift, he broke down crying, "You treat me like a real person!, he said. You don't make differences between people!" Let's seek justice in our relationships… b. We must look under the surface. Yes, we must care in practical ways for the victims of the system, comforting them and struggling along with them for their social, economic and cultural rights. But we must dig deeper to find not only the symptoms but also the causes underlying them, be they values or systems, national and international, social, political or economic. In order to see what is really happening we cannot be satisfied with broadcast news and local newspapers. We must dig for, research and study alternative sources of information and perspective. There is a wealth of websites and magazines that do dare to uncover and portray reality. Go to sites like IJM, Move On, The Micah Network. c. We must expose ourselves to pain and suffering. Far from fleeing from pain and avoiding it even if doing so causes pain to others, we must be willing to step out, as God does, beyond the bounds of security and to step down to the places where things are not so pretty, tailored, manicured and sterilized. We must expose ourselves to real life -the life of people who do not have the means to insulate themselves from the reality and the consequences of personal and societal sin. d. We must expect judgment and rejection. God's love leads us to assume a critical attitude in the face of everything that conspires against the fulfillment of His intention of creating a new humanity. We run the inevitable risk of being unpopular. Daring to ask hard questions and face the powers-at-be is not the formula for gaining friends. In Wolterstorff words,
"The elimination of starvation and the alleviation of the tyranny that supports it, has priority over say, relieving the boredom of the well-to-do in a society devoted to growth. This 'taking sides' will of course produce conflict. And in taking the side of the exploited, Christian will find themselves in opposition to some of those who confess the same Lord. That, for them, is yet another of the great sorrows of our world". 68 e. We must take action. Justice is not merely an abstract concept: it becomes visible in fullness of life and human relations or it is not justice. Action is needed at many levels, from the interpersonal to the structural, in issues of family life style and choices as well as in public incidence. God has gifted his people in a variety of ways, all for the affirmation and promotion of full life for all people: that makes him happy.
Brothers and sisters of ours met recently at the Micah Network conference in México and they issued a declaration and a call that we would do well in studying and supporting. Among other calls they say, "We remind the world's leaders, particularly those of powerful countries, that without justice there is no peace. Security cannot be won with weapons. Poverty is a breeding ground for violence. Justice demands that the poor of the world enjoy genuine freedom and economic security."
Without justice there is no peace… Our war on violence would bring lasting results if we waged it by declaring an all out war on poverty. I encourage you to look into what is being called the Micah challenge, en effort to rally support for the Goals of the Millennium, established by the United Nations as an effort to reduce poverty in the world by 2015. We must take action for the sake of God's kingdom and his glory.
Back to Scrabble. Why do I believe the mere existence of a $600 Scrabble game is obscene? Millions of people in our world live -and die-on less than that for a whole year of work. I do not believe God looks at that and says, "This is good"!
And I dare ask, in light of this discussion, what are you studying for? Why are you here at Wheaton? What do you intend to apply your increased knowledge and expertise to? For self-realization, self-employment, self-enjoyment and self-propagation? If so, I do not believe God looks at that and says, "This is good"!
Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
Or the strong man boast of his strength
Or the rich man boast of his riches,
But let him who boasts boast about this:
That he understands and knows me,
That I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
Justice and righteousness on earth,
For in these I delight,
Declares the Lord --to the people of Wheaton.
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