Category: Jubilee
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Theology and Economics: Distributive Justice
Distributive Justice – How capital and goods are distributed throughout society. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…" and only God is eternal. Therefore, everything ultimately belongs to God. Yet God created us to be "stewards" of his creation. "Steward" is not widely used today. I love its Old English origins. Hundreds…
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Toward an Evangelcial Public Policy: Chapter 8
Toward an Evangelical Public Policy Part II – Toward an Evangelical Methodology Chapter 8 – Justice, Human Rights, and Government: Toward an Evangelical Perspective. By Ronald J. Sider, professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary; director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy; and president of Evangelicals for…
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Theology and Economics: The New (Jeru)shalom
When Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jews were looking for a messiah to gather all the Jews to Israel, overthrow the oppressors, and restore shalom. Exactly how this would happen and when was a much-contested issue. Still, these three elements were prominent within most Jewish eschatology. The gospel of Luke takes the story of…
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Jubilee Index
Jubilee (Part 1) Jubilee (Part 2) Jubilee (Part 3) Jubilee Ethic Jubilee and Debt Cancellation Disillusion [Index]
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Jubilee and Debt Cancellation
Ask most people about "Jubilee," and they will say they have never heard of it. If they have heard of it, it is often because of the Jubilee 2000 organization, now known as Jubilee Research. This organization has lobbied for debt cancellation for the poorest of the lesser developed countries (LDCs). They have had the…
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Jubilee Ethic
Jubilee sounds like an idea with great potential. However, as Yogi Berra once observed, “To say a player has potential means he hasn’t done it yet.” (Of course, he also said, “I didn’t really say a lot of the things I said.”) There is no evidence that Israel ever observed the Jubilee. In fact, they…
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Jubilee (Part 3)
Leviticus 25:35-46 NRSV 35 If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. 36 Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. 37 You…
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To Give or Forgive
I came across this article in The Economist from about six weeks ago. It articulates well some of my concerns about the debt cancellation movement. To Give or Forgive An article written about six years ago in Forbes also made some good points, but the tone is a little more strident. Debtor's Jubilee
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Jubilee (Part 2)
Leviticus 25:13-17 NRSV 13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. 14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. 15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years…
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Jubilee (Part 1)
The nation of Israel was formally established at Sinai by God, with God as king. At that time, God instructed the people as to righteous behavior. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy contain many laws addressing how the people were to relate to God and how the people were to relate to each…