Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, and Capitalism
This book addresses the disinherited peoples of the earth in the chapters Jesus-An Interpretation, Fear, Deception, Hate, and Love.
Thurman says,
“The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed.” (Thurman, 3)
In Jesus-An Interpretation, Thurman examines how the masses are controlled and by what forces.
“The opposition to those who work for social change does not come only from those who are the guarantors of the status quo. Again and again it has been demonstrated that the lines are held by those whose hold on security is sure only as long as the status quo remains intact. The reasons for this are not far to seek. If a man is convinced that he is safe only as long as he uses his power to give others a sense of insecurity, then the measure of their security is in his hands. If security or insecurity is at the mercy of a single individual or group, then control of behavior becomes routine. All imperialism functions in this way. Subject peoples are held under control by this device.” (Thurman, 15)
We can think of a system where moneylenders lend money to the poor or to the masses at interest in a situation where the masses have no other choice but to accept these loans on the moneylenders’ terms. Eventually, in this system, the moneylenders will usurp the wealth of the masses around them, possibly even making the masses homeless in their own land.
Parables in the Bible reveal the prohibition on and evils of usury and illustrate how this leads to slavery of the masses by the aristocrats of the same nationality in the same land. In the next story, the Bible shows how families were forced to mortgage land and homes to get grain in order to survive during periods of famine and borrow money with high-interest loans in order to pay taxes on the land. Although they were land owners, under this system, eventually, they lost their land through the trick of interest and nothing in fact belonged to them anymore and they had by default turned themselves and their next generation into slaves of the moneylenders. In Nehemiah 5:2-5,7,10,11 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” 3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” 4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them. 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them–the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.”
This is why In the Bible, Jesus enters the Temple of God and smashes the moneylenders stalls.
St. Matthew 21: 12-13
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all the that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Thurman says,
“The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish teacher and thinker appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed…In him was life; and the life was the light of men. Wherever his spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage; for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.” (Thurman, 19)
In the chapter Fear, Thurman brings to light the fear surrounding the disinherited.
“The ever-present fear that besets the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is a fear of still a different breed. It is a climate closing in; it is like the fog in San Francisco or in London. It is nowhere in particular yet everywhere. It is a mood which one carries around with himself, distilled from the acrid conflict with which his days are surrounded. It has its roots deep in the heart of the relations between the weak and the strong, between the controllers of the environment and those who are controlled by it.” (Thurman, 27)
Make no mistake, the masses are being controlled in a top-down economy where the the top 1% make money through unproductive means such as lending money at interest. We are all caught in this web whether or not one would like to acknowledge this. The system lives off of fear-mongering through war, the fear of war, the fear of others, immigrants, the fear of economic instability, the fear of losing a house, an income, a job, etc.
Thus, anxiety is born.
Furthermore, “the threat of violence within a framework of a well-nigh limitless power is a weapon by which the weak are held in check.” (Thurman, 31) “Artificial limitations are placed upon them, restricting freedom of movement, of employment, and of participation in common life.” (Thurman, 31) Thurman points out that, “In the absence of all hope ambition dies, and the very self is weakened, corroded. There remains only the elemental will to live and to accept life on the terms that are available.” (Thurman, 36)
This system traps men into lives of despair, hopelessness, and into a mere acquiescence to live on the terms, which life has given them.
My message through Holy Book Banking is that there is a chance for change, for hope, for coming home to God through his messages in the Bible about banking and finance. It’s time to join forces with your brothers and sisters of the Holy Book, Muslims and Jewish, to work together to formulate a new system of finance and banking, where in which the masses can prosper.
In Deception, Thurman states, “Above all else the disinherited must not have any stake in the social order; they must be made to feel that they are alien, that it is a great boon to be allowed to remain alive, not to be exterminated.” (Thurman, 59)
In Hate, Thurman says, “As they look out upon their world, they recognize at once that they (the disinherited) are the victims of a systematic denial of the rights and privileges that are theirs, by virtue both of their being human and of their citizenship. Their acute problem is to deal with the estimate that their environment places upon them; for the environment, through its power-controlling and prestige bearing representatives, has announced to them that they do not rate anything other than that which is being visited upon them.” (Thurman, 71). This system leads the disinherited either to hate themselves or to hate others as they are hated upon by the controllers.
According to Thurman, Jesus rejected hatred. It was not because he lacked the vitality or the strength. It was not because he lacked the incentive. Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, dear to the communion with his Father.” (Thurman, 78)
Jesus was love.
In Love, Thurman says that Jesus said, “A man must love his neighbor directly, clearly, permitting no barriers between them.” (Thurman, 79)
Thurman says, “The first step toward love is a common sharing of a sense of mutual worth and value.” (Thurman, 88)
“The experience of the common worship of God is such a moment.” (Thurman, 88)
Yes, if Muslims, Christians, and Jewish united in the common worship of God – extracting principles of finance and banking from the Bible, Qu’ran, and Torah in a collective effort of sharing a sense of mutual worth and value in each other, then we are generating love and peace.
Let’s unite in an effort for Holy Book Banking…
References
The Bible.
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949)