Why It Works the Way It Does

From American history - and today ...

In our earliest years, survival was the primary task for everyone.  Getting established as productive communities, working out trade arrangements and skilled artisanry, such things occupied more than a century.  Everybody was focused on making it from year to year.  There were a few wealthy and privileged, but most were working hard, building their homes and barns, tending crops and herds, and watching out for each other.

Then came taxation from a distant sovereign.  It began in 1733 with a tax on sugar, and things went downhill from there. Across the colonial communities, the accumulating taxes and trade restrictions were viewed as unjust oppression.

Majority/Minority

It perhaps made perfect sense to the British ruling class to balance the empire's budget by extracting wealth from the colonies, but it was a crippling burden.  As the colonial population increased from a few hundred thousand to 2.5 million, their ability to resist came to the front, and revolution followed.

With a similar story, there were slaves in the colonies; by 1800, slaves were one-fifth of the population, and revolution followed.  The slave revolution in Haiti (1791-1804) succeeded.  The slave uprising in New Orleans, 1811, failed, and the rebels were hanged.  The slave revolt in Jamaica, 1831, resulted in a thousand deaths and the eventual abolition of slavery in the British Empire, 1833.  ... and there was our own civil war.

There were 20+ slave rebellions and insurrections in North America during the 16th-19th centuries.  A pattern, perhaps.  Today, while only 13% of Americans are black, they are 40% of our prison population.  While the issue is complex, we do know that inequality and oppression are effective provocation for antisocial actions.

Why it works - the majority shrugs off problems faced by the minority.

If most folks feel that they're doing well enough, they'll be unwilling to rock the boat or let anyone else do it.  They don't want to risk any loss.  The fact that the bottom 20% on the economic ladder are unwillingly trapped in poverty and oppression is not enough reason to tip the balance.

No one wants to lose what they've got.  It seems reasonable to hold on to the status quo, and those down there at the bottom of the ladder are almost invisible anyway.  Besides, any disruption can be a long-term disaster.  The American revolution disrupted culture and economics for decades.  France and Europe followed suit, and recovery took most of a century.

Class discrimination and oppression - personal or institutional - we know why it works.  Selfishness, greed, and fear of loss are the motivations that can override principles of justice and equality.  Everyone fights that battle in their heart.

Some countries do better than others with issues
of inequality, poverty, opportunity and mobility.

Preferential opportunity remains the norm today, and the gap widens.  Some countries do better than others.  The helpful discussion, rather than 'why it works' would be 'how to end it'.

See it.
For the privileged,
- they never go hungry.
- they never go without healthcare.
- they never worry about kids finishing school.
- there will always be enough for them and their children.
- there will always be a way forward.

For the unprivileged, none of those apply.
- obstacles appear on every path.
- it takes more guts to be a black businesswoman than a white businessman.
- it takes more strength to be an inner-city teen with character than to be a suburban teen who just cruises through.
- finishing school is a huge uphill climb.
- healthy parenting is almost impossible.

End it: 

• It takes a magnificent family to raise thoughtful children these days when most are swept along by materialism and commercialization, entertainment, and conformity, all the public norm.
• Be deliberate, proactive, spell it out, discuss it face to face.
• It takes a skilled team to assist a community in developing school programs, agricultural practices, and effective health skills.
• Find those with good programs and transparency, and join in, all the way in.
• It takes personal effort and inquiry to understand the reality of discrimination and injustice.  
• Do the work.  Get a legitimate worldview.  Become a critical thinker and immune to the media rhetoric.  Speak clearly.
• It takes a gathering of sincere, good-hearted folks to form a common understanding of what's just, what's true, and to serve well.  
• Find them and join them; be a contributor to the work and the vision for change.

Can the church be a centerpiece in changing things?  Of course it can, and it should be.  You are the church; make it so.

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Update from a friend:  "You gave your LIFE to God, and that includes everything you care about: your position in society, the food on your table, and the flag you love. Trust Him to defend it, and go back to the ministry of reconciliation you were called to, showing yourself humble, and quick to listen/slow to speak (James 1). Reach out in love to those trying to represent the oppressed (YOUR JOB Prov 31).
Or else renounce God and get on with all the ugly name-calling and rejection I am seeing across Facebook today. Pick ONE."