Forgive us our debt: Jubilee USA finally gets its daily bread

By Alexander Carpenter

While the Frost family dominated many conservative minds and Ann Coulter's sans-Jew perfectionism offended everyone else, the folks at Jubilee USA drew a 40-day focus on debt relief to a close. Incredibly Rev. David Duncombe participated for the entire Cancel Debt Fast. That's right, he fasted for 40 day and 40 nights.

Here's video of Rev. Duncombe talking about the experience about sixteen days along. 

Yesterday, due to Jubilee USA's six week lobby efforts, Representatives Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO), also did a one day fast in support of debt canceling legislation. During the 40-day fast campaign the Jubilee Act for Expanded Debt Cancellation and Responsible Lending got 20 additional congressional sponsors to:

* Cancel the debts of up to 26 additional nations not currently eligible for debt cancellation, provided that they demonstrate plans to spend the money wisely on poverty reduction;

* Cut harmful requirements that are delaying access to life-saving debt relief for countries like Haiti and Liberia;

* Call on the Treasury Secretary to address the challenges presented by so-called vulture funds, one of which recently extracted $15 million from impoverished Zambia; and

* Establish policies for responsible lending to avoid odious and unjust debt accumulation in the future, beginning with an audit of past odious debts by the Government Accountability Office.

 An Adventist, Brian Swarts, played a significant role in this campaign as the national organizer for Jubilee USA.

Comments

[arlyn]

On that one point-Ann is only saying exactly what Adventists and most christians believe--that Jews who convert to christianity are "perfected", made whole, made complete, have found the Messiah they are waiting for.

She just says it brusquely, we adventists pray for the exact same thing with yearning. Same goal. Same hope. Different style.

[arlyn]

The proponents of the SCHIP bring up the Frost family and are surprised by the arduous scutiny of what they started? It's downright cruel and sloppy to bring up examples(especially of sensitive, vulnerable families) without doing the research firsthand and checking their preparedness to be transparent in their financial eligibility data and their ability to have thick skin if set up as a national poster family.

This is inhumane abuse of an private family served raw on a platter by those who say they care for such- all for a political end. wow.

[Alexander]

Well, the SCHIP veto override fell by 13 votes.

True, there is latent antisemitism in our ideas of remnant. But I do object to the broadness of the "we" implication in your first comment. Are you excusing her overt antisemitism by pointing at the unthinking views that lie around the church. Remember: worse doesn't make bad better.

And Arlyn, in your second comment, read your logic carefully. You are in effect saying: it is the Democrats' fault for the right wing blogs attacking the Frosts and spinning incorrect information about them.

There is no condemnation for what you imply in your comment is in fact bad behavior and then you blame the Democrats for not assuming better of the Right.

As Ezra Klein writes:

They say they’ve spent the past week smearing a child and his family because that child was fair game — he and his family spoke of their experience receiving health care through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. For this, right wingers travel to their home, insinuate that the family is engaged in large-scale fraud, make threatening phone calls to the family, interrogate the neighbors as to the family’s character and financial state.

Want evidence?
From Redstate:

If federal funds were required [they] could die for all I care. Let the parents get second jobs, let their state foot the bill or let them seek help from private charities. […]

I would hire a team of PIs and find out exactly how much their parents made and where they spent every nickel. Then I’d do everything possible to destroy their lives with that info.

Will you or will you not condemn that?

In fact, repeated inquiry has supported the facts of the Frost family story. Here they are talking about it.

[arlyn]

A.Funny to call Jewish conversion to christianity anti-semitism (hatred?).
Is that what you are really saying? I can't believe I'm hearing you right.

B.I will gladly condemn the unreasoning anger behind that one poster. You got my vote on that one. But it doesn't characterize all the right. Just like wackos don't characterize all enviromentalists, even if they do exist in that camp.

C. Line for line clarification of logic.

Alex: "You are in effect saying: it is the Democrats' fault for the right wing blogs attacking the Frosts and spinning incorrect information about them."

Arlyn:Yes, if the left wing set them up on the pedestal as financially deserving WITHOUT providing any hard number proof like income taxes, budgets, factual reasons why this family could not afford health insurance IN CONTRAST TO
them choosing freely to not value their children's precious health enough to make health emergency coverage a major priority on an income of 45,000/yr.

Alex: "There is no condemnation for what you imply in your comment is in fact bad behavior.

Arlyn: Sorry, I condemn physically invading private property, stalking for malicious intent, however, it is not rude to do investigative research on witnesses to get facts about the situation that they freely chose to become celebrities of.

Alex:"and then you blame the Democrats for not assuming better of the Right."

Arlyn:No, no, no, you got it all wrong. I blame the Democrats for FULLY KNOWING that any poster family would come under intense scrutiny by their opposition- and still throwing that family out into the spotlight, unprepared, and without making sure all the financial facts were available and transparent- so that they wouldn't come under suspicion of taking advantage of the government. Horrible to set them up so poorly for what THEY KNEW AND EVEN INVITED BY CLAIMING FINANCIAL NEED for this situation.

[arlyn]

Like the Jubilee's goals and philosphy.

Why can't it be used against our own 372.4 billion deficit? It's our debt to ourselves- it would free up money- would pay for universal healthcare. (no sarcasm, true ignorance, macroeconomics is not my forte. help.)

[Alexander]

A. The idea that Jews need to convert to Christianity because it is a more perfect religion is old supersessionism. This has been a part of Christian reasoning in the competition for saints since the first century.

Due to the academic need to distinguish between racist hatred and religious bigotry (fueled by ignorance) I probably should distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Judaism -- which means that I (and the ADL!) accuse Coulter and supersessionists of being more ignorantly racist than downright hateful. Unfortunately the overtly hateful take comfort from the flippantly racist.

Kinda like Ahmadinejad.

C. Interestingly the Times and Baltimore Sun were able to obtain the supporting facts without harassing the family. . .something tells me that "gettin' the facts" became a cloak in which to intimidate an average American 12-year-old who advocated SOCIALIZED health care.

P.S. I'd be happy to differentiate if those on the right would publicly condemn the tactics of their fellow travelers in this case.

[arlyn]

1. I am supposing that your very precise, intellectual labels of supersessionism (which I had to learn about)means you also understand there are many varieties of this. And while some are anti-judaism oriented, others are inclusive of Judaism and feel Christianity is an extension or an addition to it. Aren't you referring to only one variant (the worst one) and sloppily assuming Ann was of that camp? Or do you really know her stance Judaism better than I? Are you as sloppy as I am sensing? With my newly acquired little education on that word, her use of the phrase "perfected" points to christianity being an addition to foundations of Judaism- without replacing it. If I am right, that's not anti-Judaism.(by the way, thanks for backing away from your labeling of her as an anti-semitist.)

C. Not good (or worthwhile) to harrass any 12 year old who advocates socialized health care. Who would take a 12 year old seriously on such complex issues anyway?
Now that this fiasco of a PR campaign for SCHIP has shown the worst of human exploitation and resulting skepticism, I just hope liberals stop offering up specific 12 year old sacrifices to the media as poster children for their health initiatives. Stop using/abusing kids.

[arlyn]

as to the p.s. Alex,
I just did in comment B previously. please differentiate.

your loyal friend,

[Alexander]

But the abuse came from the other side. . .

Apparently the average Joe or Frost should not talk about their views, because the right will attack them personally.

Because the right doesn't use children. . .

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/29/boehners-kids/

[Daneen Akers]

Arlyn: I'm gathering from these posts that you enjoy stirring the pot and playing the role of the libertarian-among-the-liberals, but please do draw the line at Ann Coulter (who appears to be using Ahmadinejad as a role model) ! At the least, please, please don't try to speak for all of us in your broad, sweeping "we" of Adventism.

[arlyn]

1. Fact: Ann hates Ahmadinejad.

2. And I thought I just made some very cogent arguments above why both the labels of anti-semitism and anti-judaism do not stick to Ann's comment. Is there no retraction of the second label too? (and you want the rightwingers to apologize so much!)

3. Point accepted about the "we". I'll try again- I and many in Adventism who have a burden for the Jews- pray that all Jews may find Jesus as their Messiah too. perhaps you don't. At least I have good company in Paul the apostle. (I promise to not use a holier-than-thou stance and count God on my side.)

4.I'm not playing a role. It's real. I'm honest, though playful at times.

5. Alex, first you say if someone on the right would publicly condemn the tactics of their fellow travelers on this case you would differentiate. I did.
Then you sidestepped and brought up more comparative slams. Should I take you at your word in the future or not?

[arlyn]

Back to Jubilee and interest rates. I just re-read a great passage in Nehemiah where the rich were holding a vice grip through lending interest on the poor. And the victims plea to Nehemiah was coached on two points of reference:1. we are the same as the rich in value, our children as theirs. 2. this corrupt system (even though we voluntarily entered these agreements because of real scarcity of food) objectifies our children as commodities.

Many here probably already know this story by heart. It was less known to me, but I was moved and loved the eloquently argued points by the down-trodden. And it seemed fitting to share it here.

[Alexander]

I guess I need this parsed:

With my newly acquired little education on that word, her use of the phrase "perfected" points to christianity being an addition to foundations of Judaism- without replacing it. If I am right, that's not anti-Judaism.(by the way, thanks for backing away from your labeling of her as an anti-semitist.)

I didn't back off. I just wanted to separate the common idea that antisemites are overtly hateful, while in fact to equate the Jewish people/faith as less valuable (perfect) to God is antisemitic. Her comment exposed her antisemitism, not overt hatred, but rather her flippant racism.

Let me share a wise rabbi's words:

Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that Coulter's "remarks that Jews needed to be perfected and America would be better off if everyone was Christian are deeply offensive and have been the classic language of anti-Semites throughout the millennia.

While I appreciate your condemnation of the attacks on the Frost family, I differentiate between you (goodhearted) and the right-wing of Fox and Limbaugh -- most of whom have not been as forthcoming as you. Am I wrong in that?

Thanks for sharing the Nehemiah reading. Those are powerful words of justice.

[PTravis]

Since the conversation is in this area...Was Jesus, a Jew, "anti-Semetic" when He said this in John 8:24? “I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.”

I suggest we need to separate "secular inclusivism"- which is good and allows all beliefs and peoples to function in "this world" from... "religious/ spiritual inclusivism and pluralism."
The later implies that no religion or view is superior to another...and, that is problematic to the Christian faith(spiritual Israel) and I suggest being bold, is NT apostasy.
That view is not religious Jihad because we Christians are never told to kill those whose "faith" is different from ours.That's for God to decide in the final judgment.

pt

[arlyn]

Ah, you have defined the word "perfect" now to mean valuable. so less perfect now means less valuable.

That's very narrow of you. - a very utilitarian definition-valuable for what purpose? (we are not perfect, God is perfect (for whom?))I believe God values all people the same- but will not accept that all belief systems are equal. Ann was talking about belief systems and conversion.

You are not wrong in differentiating between myself and fox and Rush. So you will not differentiate (which is good for yourself intellectually,regardless)unless one of the giants of the other side bends. Well, that tells me you are not wanting to differentiate much. I could say I will do the same only if Moveon.org retracts their ad on Gen Petraus. I will be then safe in mine. baloney.

[arlyn]

just dawned on me- that we are using the word "differentiate" differently.

You mean it as distinguish. I mean it as differentiate: the psychological distancing from an issue to avoid the dual trap of emmeshment or overreactivity. (i.e. to differentiate from church is -to not confuse churchgoing with one's salvation, or the opposite trap of hating church as the prison of the soul.) So, since I can elucidate both the strengths and weaknesses of the right in dealing with the Foster case, I expected a differentiated leftist to be able to admit some misteps of the debacle from their side too. Hence, the mutual misreading of our last few blog interactions on this word.

I obviously used the word perfect to mean complete. and you used it to mean less valuable.

I thought Anti-semitic means hating the race of Jews and Anti-Judaism means hating their religion. But if anti-judaism also includes thinking of their religion as inferior, incomplete...then I and I guess everyone else who isn't in that religion are by definition anti-judaics.

words are tricky. sorry for going down that road so long without stopping to ask for your definitions first. Next time you sound "strange" I will.

[arlyn]

oops, "you used it (the word perfect) to mean valuable."

[PTravis]

Arlyn.
Don't mean to impose but did you see my post above. Had Coulter said that Christianity was to "perfect" Jews and Gentiles that would have been constructive and biblically balanced and I suggest accurate.

pt

[Daneen Akers]

And I'd like to posit that maybe you can be of one religion without thinking that other religions are "inferior" or even "incomplete." I can choose to be a Christian because, having grown up one and in a culture with deep Christian roots, it's clearly my religion. God knows the heart far deeper than religious trappings.

One of the most beautiful stories I've ever read is one often told about the Dalai Lama. A Christian seeker had been listening to him and really connected with his message. When he asked the Dalai Lama if he should become a Buddhist, the Dalai Lama said, "No, become more deeply Christian."

[PTravis]

We often try to make application of OT economic law in our present environment but to what extent can we?

1) The laws were by mutual covenant(agreed Beforehand by all parties) God presented HIS theocratic "Constitution" and Israel said all that the Lord has said we will do.

2) Jubilee was every 50 years and it retuned the Land to the original family owner but not the "produced wealth" from it.

3) The 7 yr. release applied only to the debts (not land) of fellow Israelites...not to the "foreign nations/ foreigner."

4)Property lost in the walled cities never returned to the owners if not redeemed by one year.(It's intrinsic value may have gone up)

5) coinage was not to be "coin clipped" and devalued or become "dross" by an "improper scale/balance."

6) The poor were to be able to glean the edges of the field routinely and all the field in sabbatical years.

7)We live in the "Times or rulership of the Gentiles" today. If "nations/gentiles" try to peicemeal some of the "principles" including the right to private property,fine. It may in part glorify and recognize the Righteous laws that God gave Israel.
However, by not taking the whole of the plan (and mutually agreed covenant principles)legislation may often create injustices itself and unassumed collateral damage.

8)The best I feel the church can say today is that God is concerned for justice for the poor and rich. While God promoted "free enterprise" in His system, it was not absolute "free enterprise." He had the self regulating principles in law to prevent the continual abilty of the "richer accumulating land owner classes" from having the the "accumulation of wealth producing assets...the land" from staying in their possession forever. The land was returned not the "wealth that had been produced from the land."

Mercy was always in order and expected in that just system. We should remember to have mercy today in our country and personal lives to extend the prosperity of our nation.

That's my application perspective on Jubilee.

pt

[Wondering]

1.This funny flap?

Ann Coulter was talking pure supercessionism, which despite hyperbole, is not antisemitism.
As a matter of fact, it is ethnocentrism on the part of many Jewish voices.

They are about the only religion that is not necessarily wild about converts, having an official "mine is for me and yours is for you" theology.

But not that doesn't mean that everybody else must think like that.

This is clearly not Christianity, which holds that Jesus Christ is the only way to the father (salvation).

That has been so for about 2000 years. What on earth are you talking about?

2. This is all over the place...
SCHIP?
Don't care much except to say that some people seem to have bought political gimmicks hook, line and sinker.

The funny thing is that it is...Ann Coulter (!) herself who warned about the tactic of the "victim as untouchable". In other words she wrote a book in which she complained that Democrats/leftists have set up a social regime of the "victim as unassailable" and thus use them as their spokesmen in hopes of silencing debate by intimidating people who wish to criticize their message.

After all, look at the poor so and so... How could you "attack them"?!!

Remember her flap with the "Jersey Girls"?

It is after she pointed this out, the doors were open for this cowardly debate tactic to be shelved. This was the first major test of it since then.

3. My parents live in a developing country where the power wielded by a World Bank loan (derided as neocolonialism), helped break a telephone monopoly which say the price of an hour-long phone call drop from about US$20 (a lot) to less than US$1 in the space of about two years!

Disciples of Adam Smith would understand the implications of that immediately. I don't know about others; but take it from me--that is huge, and has large ramifications for further development (and probably was a greater impediment than all the "debt" one could whine about).

I want debt cancellation myself, if only to expose the ludicrousness of the idea that that is some sort of magic pill.

In other news, Brazil and others seem to be wanting to set up a World Bank alternative for developing countries.
We'll see how different it will be.

[arlyn]

A reliably enforced Jubilee doesn't work well(stupid lenders go bankrupt, smart ones only loan short of the next scheduled one). Only an uncertain, unreliably enforced one does (because of the uncertainty, loans are extended past that date, and so some are always eligible for forgiveness). paradox.

[Pat Travis]

Arlyn:
Again, God's system was covenant oriented. "Constitution" if you will.All knew the terms from the start.(Lev.25:35-40;Deut.15:1-3; Deut.23:19,20.)

Loans were to be made with the 7 yr. release in mind.Loans were an act of mercy by not receiving interest from the "poor."
Indentured service could be required.

In the OT interest could be charged to the non Israelite. The foreign nation/individual was charged interest and the debt was not to be cancelled by law in the 7th year.Israel could lend but not borrow from other nations.(Deut.15:6)

Those who try to interpolate "the essence" of those laws to today should note that today the US is the world's biggest borrower nation...and a nation was not required to cancel anothers debt.

There is no evidence that Israel followed the various Sabbath Jubilee laws and I suggest this is part of the reason for the 70 yr.captivity (10x7)and perhaps also the term "seventy sevens" in Dan.9:24...and that Christ came to free the captives.

I again suggest that no system follows God's plan today or can in a pluralistic society. We should speak of these systems as "economic systems" non of which perfectly reflect God's system of justice and mercy. That principle is a "two edge sword" for the "absolute capitalistic free enterpriser" , facist and socialist as well to remember if claiming to represent God's will in this age of the gentiles.

Perhaps God's longsuffering is saying, "Ok folks, you feel I am unjust. Show me how lasting justice, mercy and peace is accomplished."

Thus the history of nations...until the Righteous King comes to rule.

pt