Money, Power and Oppression
James 2:1-13
Nobody likes to be called a racist. Last Spring there was a controversy regarding the Viroqua High School musical called Little Mary Sunshine. A local American Indian group protested at school board meetings and at the Temple Theater. Were the students and teachers who participated in the musical racists? At the same time the Little Mary Sunshine controversy was brewing, the issue of Diversity Days at the school erupted. While this was not a racial issue, were those who were opposed to a homosexual speaker at Diversity Days bigoted and prejudiced?
Our text in James this morning jumps right into the topic of favoritism. Racism, prejudice, oppression---whatever you call it—throughout human history there has always been problems with favoritism. Let’s define our terms. Favoritism is any act of one group of a people, who are usually a stronger and wealthier people, oppressing another weaker and poorer group of people. Money and power have always ruled the over the weak and poor. Regardless of the form it takes favoritism always has money and power at the basis of its oppression. We are divided by race, religion, gender, social and economic standing. We are divided by politics and ideologies. Governments have power and money and are often oppressive. Politicians show favoritism to rich constituents. Church leaders, if not careful, can be guilty of showing favoritism.
But no is willing to admit this sin, are they? People are willing to confess all manner of sins—anger, pride, rebellion, but how many times have you heard someone confess the sin of favoritism? We do not like to think of ourselves as racist, prejudice and tending toward favoritism. Despite our desire to run from these labels, all of us are guilty of favoritism at times. If you doubt my assertion, then I direct your attention to verse eight where James quotes from his brother Jesus—love your neighbor as yourself. The opposite of favoritism is love, therefore a lack of love is a form of favoritism. I would like us to do two things this morning. First I want us to gently look inside our hearts for seeds of or even potential patterns of favoritism. Second I want us to imagine becoming a church that takes the lead in love and actively works against oppression, racism, classism and many other forms of favoritism. Do we do it because it is the politically correct thing to do? NO—we do it, as James declares, because we are saved by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus gives us both this standard of love the power to reach this standard of love.
James anchors this discussion of favoritism from the first sentence: My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Remember that James presents faith and good works as two sides of the same coin. If you have genuine saving faith, then you will have works that match your faith. Clearly favoritism does not match up with saving faith. Does this mean that anyone who is guilty of favoritism is not saved? It means it is possible, but for most of us it is a matter of injecting our faith into all areas of our life—including our potential for showing favoritism.
For the sake of clarity James offers a concrete example.
2
Suppose a
man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man
in shabby clothes also comes in. 3
If you show
special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat
for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my
feet,” 4
have you not
discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
When
we read this example our first thought is one of repulsion—“I would never do
such a thing!” We immediately move toward self-justification before we even let
the verse sink into our hearts. Before we dismiss any possibility of favoritism,
let 
me
give you a few illustrations.
Here are several charts describing the difficulties faced by the black community in the U.S. The first one shows average GPA’s. On average, blacks score lower than whites. I threw in the Asian test scores to show that whites are not at the top of this list. The second chart shows that twice as many black families live below the poverty line as white families. The third chart shows the record number of out-of-wedlock births in the U.S.—28% of white children are born out-of-wedlock and 68% of black children are born out-of-wedlock. Finally this last chart shows that the incarceration rate for blacks is about six times that of whites.
Why is there such a large discrepancy between blacks and whites in education, crime and socio-economic indicators? I certainly don’t have the complete answer, but I want to show you how explanations are varied. This chart is from a book called Divided by Faith. The subtitle is Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. The authors have conducted detailed research specifically directed at the association between racism and evangelicals. That’s you and I by the way!
This chart gives explanations given by white evangelicals and black evangelicals. Before I show you the numbers, look at the four choices that were given in this survey. Which of these would you choose as the leading explanations for the racial divide? Do you think the reason is innate ability? Are blacks not as capable and intelligent as other races? As you can see, only 10% of whites and 7% of blacks thought this was the reason. How about motivation—do blacks lack the motivation to work harder and lift themselves out of poverty and crime? Here is the first big discrepancy—62% of white evangelicals think that blacks lack motivation but only 31% of black evangelicals think so. The next category is education—again there is a large discrepancy, but not as large as with motivation. Finally, do you think discrimination is to blame for these statistics I showed you? Only 27% of whites believe discrimination is the problem, but 72% of blacks think that discrimination holds them back.
Interestingly, the more contact that whites have with blacks the more these two sets of numbers move closer together. In other words, if I have a lot of contact with blacks, then I am less likely to believe motivation is the problem and more likely to believe discrimination is the problem. We may never know the complete truth, but doesn’t it bother you that the gap in understanding discrimination is so large? Doesn’t it at least imply that discrimination is still alive and well in today’s culture? Our problem is that we tend to think that racism is basically a dead issue. After all the Jim Crow laws are gone; slavery is 150 years behind us; blacks count as a full human being instead of three-fifths of a person like they used to. We know that individual acts of racism still continue, but why should we speak of racism as a national problem?
If you question this, let’s go back to the statistics. Why do blacks have lower test scores, higher poverty, more out-of-wedlock births and a huge incarceration rate? These statistics have to be explained in some way. If you think that they have a lower innate ability then you are holding to classic racist ideas that believe that blacks or other races are merely inferior to our own. This is dangerous ground on which to tread. If you are like the average white evangelical then you believe that blacks are just not motivated to do better. They are lazy—they don’t care—they have lower moral standards. No doubt there are lazy blacks, just as there are lazy whites and lazy Hispanics and lazy Asians, but laziness cannot possibly account for the majority of the racial disparity.
So we must agree that discrimination is a key factor in this disparity. It may not be 72%, but it is more than 27%.The authors of Divided by Faith are helpful here. “Rather than incorrectly examine race in the United States using an old standard, we must adapt our understanding and analysis to the new, post-Civil Rights era. Because racialization is embedded within the normal, everyday operation of institutions, this framework understands that people need not intend their actions to contribute to racial division and inequality for their actions to do so.” (p. 9) Let me offer my translation of his thoughts. Racism is more than just slavery and separate drinking fountains and although we may not knowingly be racist, we are still part of the problem.
We could draw out some of the same statistics by looking at our own area. As you may know, Vernon County is the third poorest county in the state. Seventy-four counties are more wealthy than we are. We have lower incomes and higher poverty rates than most of the state. Two counties outside of Milwaukee have household incomes which are almost twice that of Vernon County. Why is there such a large discrepancy? Are most Vernon County residents lazy and lack motivation? Do you think that favoritism is an issue? Is it possible that even poor white folks experience discrimination?
The same thing was happening in the first century as James said in v. 5. 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
When James wrote this letter, who were some of the poorest people? Christians were some of the poorest people in the first century. The early church was not made up of Roman officials, city leaders and wealthy merchants. The poor and oppressed Jews and poor and oppressed Greeks were drawn to Jesus and his message. The good news of salvation through Christ was the life-giving and hope-sustaining message for the poor and the oppressed. James reminded his readers that they were poor—though vastly wealthy in faith—and the rich and the powerful were dragging the poor and oppressed into the courtroom. If anyone knew what discrimination and favoritism felt like it was first century Christians.
12
Speak and
act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,
13
because
judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy
triumphs over judgment! Why no favoritism? God does not play
favorites. He has not given us what we deserved, but has instead given us
complete mercy. What if God had shown judgment without mercy to us? We would
still be lost in our sin. The mercy of God at the cross is the foundation for
any and all acts of mercy that follow after. As you know the Nominating
Committee recently finished their job and have presented you with two new elder
candidates. One of the standards we use for all elders—new and old—is to develop
a healthy combination of judgment and mercy. To have good judgment and
discernment you must be hard-minded. But to be increasingly full of mercy one
must also be soft-hearted. Church leaders and Christians in general tend to be
more of one or the other, but we need a balance of both.
Applications
1. Three weeks ago I introduced the idea of a community outreach ministry. The challenge in this kind of ministry to needy families is to not treat them like a project or look down on them with favoritism. I know this can be difficult. This past year the same woman was given three food vouchers by our church to buy groceries. We gave her a gas card so she could drive out of state to visit her sick father. We offered basic computer skills to her and helped her put together a resume so she could find a job. She took advantage of the things we could give to her, but she did not seem willing to work at learning computer skills—even though she seemed very interested at first. I would be lying if I said I did not look down on her. This is a form of favoritism called classism. An extreme form of classism would be the awful caste system in India that places people called untouchables on the bottom of the list. We need to be aware of these tendencies and root them out when they surface.
2. Reclaim Diversity Day. The program called Diversity Day at the High School was never intended to represent true diversity of color, gender and nationality. God loves and cherishes diversity. God is the perfect Creator of true diversity and we need to reclaim diversity day by celebrating genuine diversity. Maybe you don’t feel like you personally struggle with racism, but how did you respond to the statistical differences between blacks and whites? Again, we may not knowingly be racist, but we can contribute to the problem without even realizing it. How can we promote and pursue genuine diversity? A few years ago a production plant that would have attracted Hispanic families was considering moving into the Viroqua area. If that were to happen again in the future, what if our church led the way in promoting racial diversity? What if we prayed that our community could slowly move beyond light skinned Europeans. Would you be willing to pray for an increase in racial diversity? Race is a social construct…
3. Consider Jesus. If I asked you to color a picture of Jesus, what color of crayon would you choose?
4. Search our hearts for seeds of favoritism. Though racism is alive and well today, favoritism extends well beyond conflicts over skin color. Our children, cranky neighbor, another person at church. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Rich Maurer
August 1, 2004