In Jeremiah 21 and 22 there is a stern warning of judgment to the reigning kings at that time. This is pre-70 year captivity in Babylon. The prophet literally rails against these kings calling them evil, cunning and heartless. Seriously harsh and seriously politically incorrect. The fascinating aspect of Jeremiah’s declaration was where God’s displeasure flowed from. He states in Jeremiah 22 that the reason forsuch rile is because of how these kings dealt with the poor and disenfranchised. He uses language of justice like “…do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place…” This is intense, to say the least. If a leader is unjust and treats others with disdain, or with inequality (for me that would mean un-Jesus like) then grave consequences certainly follow. He cries out, “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.” (Jeremiah 22:13) In other words, if you are “making it” on the backs of the oppressed, then watch out! Or in Bible language, “Woe to him!!!”

Most of us in the U.S. hear this and think immediately of other parts of the world – out there is where the real injustice lies. We look down our noses at oppressive regimes taking advantage of the unfortunate and weak, the broken woman and the frail child…while at the same time our addiction to consumption literally fuels the oppression. I was reading this last week about how our need for “competitive prices” actually promulgates slave like conditions in Asia (Economic Processing Zones)… about how our addiction to the consumption of goods actually create the environment in which oppressive “sweatshop” conditions exist. Here is a line from the book I was reading: “Every time we step into a Wal-Mart or Niketown or Gap or Winners and exclaim over the great deal we can get on an article of clothing, or how trendy we look, we’ve made sweatshop workers our slaves. Every time we buy coffee that isn’t shade grown and fairly traded, we’ve made those coffee producers and their children into our slaves.” (Emily Polk, The Other Side of the Coffee Trade) The question is: do we really need as much as we consume – new clothes each season (or when we’re bored), a new car each time we retire our loan contract, a new whatever, whenever we feel like it? I want to honestly grapple with this stuff. Where does the story and ethos of the Kingdom of God incite a personal cultural revolt? I don’t want to be complicit in the injustices of the world either near or far.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27