Concrete Theology

The following article is excerpted from a presentation given by Perk Perkins, a pastor of Sojourners Fellowship and tenant organizer in our neighborhood, at the Second Congress on Urban Ministry in Chicago in April, 1980. The congress, which was sponsored by the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE), brought together church and lay leaders from urban settings to raise issues, discuss theology, and envision ministry for the cities.--The Editors

The theology of the Bible is the response of faithful people to events and issues. My theology is being shaped and molded by my neighborhood and my city. But theology is more than a response to events. It is action arising from the foundation of biblical witness, church tradition, and a community of faith.

My growing understanding of the church is the foundation for my theology. Jesus' call to repent and to turn away from the destructive forces that dominated and permeated his society was followed by an invitation to be a part of a new society. When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God being at hand, he was speaking of a new social reality that was manifesting itself in the world.

The new society of the kingdom of God attempts to incarnate the life of Christ in the world. The biblical metaphor of the body of Christ must be taken literally; the church actually becomes the presence of Christ in the world. This simply means that the incarnation of God in Christ continues in and through the life of the church.

The church has the task of being a new order of life, liberation, healing, and salvation in the world. It cannot be just another social institution; it must be a new social reality presenting an alternative way of life which will be in conflict with the prevailing culture.

The new society of the presence of Christ must be the foundation for our personal lives and decisions. The church community must be our family, our home, the place where we rest and know our security to be rooted in God. It is in this environment that we will become free to respond to the destructive forces of our day.

The recent history of our northwest Washington,. D.C., neighborhood--Columbia Heights--is a prime example of the effect our society's destructive forces have on the lives of a people. During the 1950s and '60s, large numbers of Southern blacks migrated from their farm homes to the cities of the North and East in search of jobs and better lives for their families. White, middle-class neighborhoods like Columbia Heights began shifting in economic and racial makeup. The white flight from Columbia Heights to the suburbs marked the beginning of the gradual process of disinvestment. Disinvestment meant that land owners collected rents and made profits from their properties, but reinvested little money back into them. Needed maintenance and improvements were ignored, and deterioration set in. Disinvestment was also part of the public policy of the city government. With decreasing tax rolls, the government of the District of Columbia cut back on needed city services and programs.

The neighborhood's anger over its plight reached a fever pitch in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The riots that followed destroyed the 14th Street business district, the center of the economic and social life of the neighborhood. With the destruction of 14th Street, the hopes and dreams of most of Columbia Heights were also destroyed. The spirit and heart were torn out of the neighborhood.

After the riots, the process of disinvestment by the private sector escalated. Deterioration, decay, and abandonment of the neighborhood's rental housing stock left many people homeless. The neighborhood became a place of desolation and despair known as the "14th Street riot corridor."

Most neighborhood people and their leaders thought that the city and the financial community had forgotten the riot corridor; however, the government and the banking community had not forgotten Columbia Heights. The city fathers had plans for reinvestment in Columbia Heights and the neighborhoods surrounding it.

By 1975 many of the neighborhoods adjacent to Columbia Heights were undergoing dramatic changes. Much of the abandoned and deteriorated housing stock was being bought, resold, and renovated. The new owners and inhabitants were mostly white, upper-income couples and singles. These were the first wave, the "urban pioneers," the first settlers of the back-to-the-city movement. Buildings that had held several apartments were being made into single-family dwellings again.

Many low-income people found themselves facing eviction as their buildings were sold. Rental housing was disappearing while owner-occupied, posh renovations dotted the landscape.

Real estate prices began to rise. Houses bought in 1970 for $3,000 were being sold for $30,000 to $50,000. Real estate speculation and flipping, the constant buying and selling of property, were pervasive. Planning and spending for new public works, like the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the metropolitan Washington subway, made the city more attractive for the middle and upper classes. Reinvestment was the result of a partnership between the public and private sector.

The people of Columbia Heights watched as displacees from nearby neighborhoods moved into the 14th Street area, thus increasing the pressures on an already overcrowded and decreasing rental housing stock. They watched as their rents were raised, taxes escalated, and their friends displaced to make way for the newcomers. The greed of the rich and powerful threatens to drive a fourth of Washington's population from their homes, thus creating a whole new class of urban refugees.

How do we do theology in light of such adverse circumstances? Strict doctrine, speculative theory, and political ideology cannot be the basis for our action. As the church, we must root ourselves again in the values and assumptions of the kingdom. We must become people who corporately live a theology of response.

The first assumption of the kingdom that we must apply to the displacement issue is a theology of creation based on the witness of the Old Testament. Scripture tells us that God created the earth and that the whole of creation is God's. The people of Israel had been given the use of God's land and its resources, but it was not their outright possession: "No land shall be sold outright, because the land is mine, and you are coming into it as aliens and settlers" (Leviticus 25:23).

Stewardship of God's creation thus became a very crucial aspect of early Hebrew theology. The Torah taught that the right to property was subordinate to the obligation to care for the weaker members of society. Caring for the poor, the homeless, and the stranger was an obligation of Jewish law: "When your brother-Israelite is reduced to poverty and cannot support himself in the community you shall assist him as you would an alien or stranger and he shall live with you" (Leviticus 25:35).

In the 15th chapter of Deuteronomy, the ordinance of the year of release, which takes place every seventh year, orders a universal release of debts and the freeing of all who were enslaved for debt. In the 50th year, after seven years of release, or sabbath years, had passed, the year of the jubilee was celebrated. In this year all land that had been sold in the intervening years was to be returned to its original owner or his heirs.

In the jubilee year, we find three basic demands for justice met: remission of debt, the freeing of slaves, and the redistribution of land. This early tradition of the jubilee was designed to legally protect the poor and weak, but soon the Hebrew nation strayed from this system of justice; the nations of Israel and Judah began to oppress and exploit the poor. In light of this oppression, the God of creation and justice stood strongly with the poor through the words and actions of the prophets. In Jeremiah 35, God proclaimed judgment on the nations because they had reneged on their promise to observe the jubilee year and the sabbath years. They had even freed slaves, but then enslaved them again.

God's prophets were frequently pronouncing judgment on the nations because the poor had been oppressed, exploited, and denied justice:

You that turn justice upside down and bring righteousness to the ground, you that hate a man who brings the wrongdoer to the court and loathe him who speaks the whole truth: for all this, because you levy taxes on the poor and extort a tribute of grain from them, though you shall have built houses of hewn stone, you shall not live in them, though you have planted pleasant vineyards, you shall not drink wine from them. For I know how many your crimes are and how countless your sins, you who persecute the guiltless, hold men to ransom and thrust the destitute out of court. At that time, therefore, a prudent man will stay quiet, for it will be an evil time.
(Amos 5:7-13)

The message of the prophets was that God was especially aligned with the poor.

Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom; and the message of the kingdom was the ethic of the jubilee, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and good news to the poor. In the beginning of his ministry Jesus read the words of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
(Luke 4:18-19)

At the end of the reading Jesus said that in the people's hearing these words had come true. In Jesus the reality of the jubilee was present. In Jesus there was good news to the poor.

It is in the church that the good news to the poor is now active. As the presence of Christ in the world, the church is to become the embodiment of the jubilee. For the church, the only important question in the urban housing crisis is, what are the needs of the poor? The persuasive social arguments for diversity and reinvestment articulated by the pioneers, realtors, bankers, and others cannot take precedence over our task of bearing good news. The government arguments of an increased tax base bringing new revenues and increased city services does not and should not supersede the needs of the homeless poor.

The church of North American cities must learn the lesson of the Third World churches in liberation movements. That lesson is one of listening. Sadly, the reality of the urban church is often that it is siding with the landowners; the church does not hear the cries of the poor. If the church is good news, it cannot own investments that are used against the poor. Church members who are a part of the institutions that displace cannot proclaim the good news of Jesus; their church's message, ministry, and witness are negated by their actions.

Private property should not be sacred to the church, for the church understands God's creation differently. It does not recognize the developer's or landlord's right to displace simply because he or she holds title to a particular property. The church must see the resources of housing as a part of God's creation to be used in meeting the needs of all.

The church must learn an important lesson from recent urban history and come to understand the disenfranchisement, isolation, marginalization, and powerless state of the poor. The forces that have planned the disinvestment/reinvestment cycle have been outside the areas they affect. The transactions of public officials and private executives have left the poor without a voice. The church must enable the voice of the poor to be heard. The message of good news for the people facing displacement must mean empowerment.

To address the question of empowerment for low-income people, the church must understand the source of its power. All too often, the church models itself after secular institutions and attempts to imitate their use of power. The church forgets to look to the incarnation for the source of its power.

Jesus rejected the world's understandings of power. He did not attempt to match strength for strength; he found power in becoming weak. His identification with the suffering of the world on the cross should give us a clue about our power. The church that is attempting to follow Jesus will be learning the difficult lessons of the cross.

To empower the poor, the church must reject the privilege of safety. Our society has developed systems that isolate us from the poor. We fear the unknown. The violence, the frustration, the anger, and the seeming chaos of low-income, urban neighborhoods are sources of fear. The church, like most of America, has sought to remove itself to a place of safety and avoid contact with the environment of the poor.

The church must reject this notion of safety and place itself in proximity to the poor physically, politically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Stokeley Carmichael once said, "The difference between a radical and a liberal is what they see when they wake up in the morning." Carmichael's words can apply to the church, for what the church sees in the morning will affect its witness and ministry. If the poor see the church rejecting the safety of class, maybe they can see the good news of Jesus.

To empower the poor, rejection of economic privilege is essential. The Old Testament concepts of stewardship and care for the poor should become realities of our corporate economic life. Disinvestment of the enormous wealth of the church would be a faithful response in the light of the crisis of the cities. The personal wealth of church members cannot be seen as theirs to do with as they please. Token gifts to the ministry of the church cannot replace the Pentecostal economics of the early church.

The accounts of total corporate sharing of economics that we find in Acts 2 and 4 are not models for a new economic form; rather they establish the biblical principles of economics and congregational life. For the church that is experiencing the Spirit, the economic life of the church will change to meet the needs of the people:

They met constantly to hear the apostles teach, and to share the common life, to break bread, and to pray. A sense of awe was everywhere and many marvels and signs were brought about through the apostles. All whose faith had drawn them together held everything in common; they would sell their property and possessions and make a general distribution as the need of each required. With one mind they kept up their daily attendance at the temple, and breaking bread in private houses, shared their meals with unaffected joy, as they praised God and enjoyed the favor of the whole people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those whom he was saving.
(Acts 2:42-47)

The whole body of believers was united in heart and soul. Not one of them claimed any possessions as their own, but everything was held in common, while the apostles bore witness with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. They were all held in high esteem; for they had never a needy person among them, because all who had property in land or houses sold it, brought the proceeds of the sale, and laid the money at the feet of the apostles; it was distributed to any who stood in need.
(Acts 4:32-35)

The principles of the jubilee found their way into human form in the early church. No longer were the economics of the jubilee a legalized requirement or ordinance, but the jubilee had become an everyday result of the early church's faith.

The presumed safety of economic lifestyle has become an idol that dominates our daily decisions. We cannot live the good news to the poor if our lifestyle continues to reflect the values of the present economic order. The credibility of the church's witness and ministry is negated by its economic captivity. Our acceptance of the spoils of oppression denies the message of the gospel.

In following the power assumptions of Jesus, the church must reject the familiar political attitudes of our system. All too often the church that is sincerely attempting to care for the poor still accepts the validity of a political order that has systematically marginalized and disenfranchised the poor. Much of the political system of this country is based on keeping the poor powerless by throwing them the crumbs of political power.

The church is too willing to work from the top, attempting to tinker with or influence the political system. The urban church can often be seen putting wholehearted effort into the legislative, administrative, and planning process of the city. Church representatives are often lobbying city councils and testifying at various council or administrative hearings on behalf of the poor, and the poor are not consulted. The world believes that power comes from the top and works its way down; but if the church is to empower, it must enable the poor to operate from their own power base. Grassroots change efforts are the only hope of political empowerment of poor communities.

We must speak with the poor, not for them. We must align ourselves with the poor and enable indigenous leadership to emerge. Often we must move away from our positions of leadership and allow the poor to move in. This process is often painful because too many of us are dominated by well-meaning paternalism. Paternalism is a sin that must be removed from our lives and healed. We have to believe that the good news for the poor means that they can act for themselves. They must be given the chance to fail, to succeed, and even to disagree with us.

One of the major bondages captivating most poor communities is the lack of self-confidence. This lack of faith is a major weapon in the hands of those who displace. For the poor to believe in themselves, we must believe in them. But we cannot believe in people we do not know. The task of the church is to establish personal relationships with the poor and be willing to spend the long, hard hours of helping them believe and trust themselves.

Nothing helps people believe in themselves more than a victory. The work of organizing tenants to confront landlords and hold them responsible for providing safe and adequate housing is slow and arduous work. For tenants who face monumental rent increases and possible eviction, small demands like front doors that lock may seem insignificant. But small victories are the building blocks for growth in confidence.

Another important factor in the confidence-building process for the poor is the creation of unity in the neighborhood. The poor often divert their distrust and hostility to each other, and their real enemies escape the brunt of their anger. The church must become a force of reconciliation in the lives of low-income people, building up corporate trust and confidence.

The land-use system and the profit motive of the housing industry must be challenged by this alliance of the poor and the church. Although the abuses of the market might be tightly monitored by eviction and rent controls, the profit system has not provided housing for the poor. Washington, D.C., has one of the strongest pieces of tenants' rights legislation in the country, but still most of Washington's poor face displacement. As long as housing is a commodity to be bought and sold, the poor will be exploited and left homeless. From the demands of justice and the foundation of our theology, we must challenge the capitalist system of land ownership and finance.

One of the cornerstones of a capitalist economic order that must be challenged is its interest system. Current interest rates prevent low- or moderate-income people from purchasing housing. The biblical witness clearly prohibits usury. Passages like Leviticus 25:35ff give us a clear understanding of the immorality of interest. The church must take the Bible seriously and even make no-interest loans available to the poor through a revolving loan fund. Our practical economic life must reflect our biblical fidelity and our commitment to stop displacement.

As we work for change we must be uncompromising in our commitment to the poor, but we must also learn to make our beliefs practical by taking steps toward our ultimate goals. A union of the church and poor must learn to reject the capitalist economic order; but at the same time this alliance must learn to work within it. We must be willing to do the hard work of explaining options and knowing the housing system. We must understand government programs, both federal and local.

But the steps we take cannot be simply a series of short-term solutions that perpetuate the profit-motivated housing industry. We must seek answers that attack the root causes of displacement. Corporate ownership mechanisms such as land trusts and tenant-owned cooperatives are solutions that give neighborhood control.

Even while learning the politics of reform and change, we must not lose sight of our spiritual heritage. Our work with the poor must be rooted in the gospel. As people of the kingdom, our prayer and worship must reflect our daily activity; and our daily activity must flow from our prayer and worship. To be bearers of good news in the midst of the housing crisis in this country, we must have a faith that sustains us. Our lives must be radically changed in order to bring the revolutionary message of Jesus to the poor.