Freedom is pathway to real Jubilee
The Presbyterian Layman May/June 2000 Volume 33, Number 3, May 22, 2000
It doesn’t take a lot of mental or spiritual energy to work up teary-eyed advocacy for canceling the debts of poor countries. Read Leviticus 25, proclaim Jubilee 2000 and grab a hanky. Talk about poor, starving children and people losing their jobs. Say the poor get poorer. Repeat that for the press.
Now justify that Biblically. That’s the tough part. According to Leviticus, Jubilee was to be observed every 50 years. The debts now at issue are short-term. Jubilee was a law for a theocratic Israel. It was not a concept to be imposed on other nations. The closest to a Biblical mandate may be the prayer Jesus taught his disciples: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive others their debts.” But asking God to forgive our debts is a far cry from prohibiting governments and investors from collecting what is owed to them.
It also takes a stretch to believe that nations will spend more money on health care and for children if their debts are forgiven. Unfortunately, many of the indebted nations are governed by people who are corrupt. Their leaders are not committed to education and health care and the kinds of programs that might encourage their citizens to challenge that corruption. Many of the world’s despots are skimming most of the loans going to struggling nations. They buy guns to secure their rule, not food for starving children.
Besides, the debts of poor countries would not actually be forgiven. A large amount of the debt would be transferred to the American taxpayer.
And what happens when Jubilee 2000 is the rule? Do the industrial nations cease lending money to poor countries because they simply create hardship? Do we just give away more money to make the despots richer? Or do we encourage those economic strategies – freedom of religion, free markets, open elections – that have proved effective?
The better way is freedom, because it is the pathway that the Church needs to take the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Unquestionably, many poor nations need better health care, better education, more reliable sources of food. The free world should share its prosperity with nations that will liberate their own people.
The people in those nations also need what’s more precious than gold or silver, or debt forgiveness. That’s the opportunity to hear that their debt to God has been paid by Jesus Christ. That’s what a real Jubilee is all about.