An Easter Meditation

In his …and forgive them their debts, my favourite economist and Jubilee advocate Michael Hudson states that Jesus driving the money-changers from the Temple was “the act that inspired the city leaders to plot his death.”

Hudson is a polymath, a lifetime opponent of usury, a tireless exponent of the perils of compound interest and the financialised economy that is the United States. His website is here. Another book well worth a read is his The Destiny of Civilization: Finance capitalism, industrial capitalism, or socialism. All very relevant today, with the current unsteady state of the US and European banking system and the desperate attempts by central banks to combat runaway inflation.

…and forgive them their debts links Jesus’ first sermon “where he unrolled the scroll of Isaiah and announced his mission to ‘restore the year of Our Lord'” to the Jubilee Year, the economic ideal central to Mosaic Law, the widespread annulment of personal debts.” Hudson writes:

This ideal remains so alien to our modern way of thinking that his sermons are usually interpreted in a broad compassionate sense of urging personal charity toward one’s own debtors and the poor in general. There is a reluctance to focus on the creditor oligarchy that Jesus (and many of his contemporary Romans) blamed for the epoch’s deepening poverty.

There have been some recent successes in debt cancellation, most notably the Jubilee 2000 campaign led by the UK’s Ann Pettifor, then of Advocacy International, which led to the cancellation of $100 billion worth of debt owed by the world’s most indebted countries. Speaking of Jubilee 2000 campaign, Ann Pettifor said in 2011:

Jubilee 2000 was a campaign that mobilized many millions of people in more than 60 countries behind an effort to “break the chains of debt” that effectively enslaved poor debtor countries to rich creditor countries. Like the British 19th century anti-slavery campaign, Jubilee 2000 arose as a response to a movement – people in poor debtor countries demonstrating against and resisting decades of foreign debt repayments, and the associated International Monetary Fund “structural adjustment” programs.

The IMF was, and is, the agent of the finance sector, all global creditors, official and private. Riots and resistance in debtor nations were triggered by policies imposed by the IMF on behalf of bankers, and included hikes in food and gasoline prices, increases in unemployment, cuts in government programs – all designed to generate resources for the repayment of foreign debts. Jubilee 2000 set out to place pressure on creditors, one of which was our own government, to cancel these debts, and thereby render the IMF and its policies redundant.

Jubilee 2000 succeeded in one of its goals: getting about $100 billion of debt written off for 35 poor countries — a huge achievement. But we failed to achieve structural legislative change. We failed to alter the balance of power between international creditors and sovereign debtors. Instead, under pressure from millions of campaigners, creditors caved in. If we had achieved structural change, the debt write-offs would have been much bigger, Greece would not be in turmoil, and the eurozone would not be in crisis.

The most important is this: both sovereign debt – the debts of whole nations – and individual, household and corporate debt in the U.S. rose dramatically after the deregulation of the private finance sector in the 1970s. Associated with this rise in debt, were policies that impoverished those without financial assets, and wildly enriched those who had gained financial assets – by fair means or foul.

These levels of debt did not exist in the immediate postwar period. There was not a single international financial crisis between 1945 and 1971 according to the great historian of the financial system, Barry Eichengreen. And similarly, Americans were not burdened by rising debts and falling incomes during that period. The unregulated, liberalized expansion of credit and debt began quietly after President Nixon unilaterally dismantled the Bretton Woods system in 1971.

Millions of Americans are today enslaved by what in biblical times was called “usury,” the exploitation of those without money by those with money. Bankers and financiers whose place it is to act as “servant” to the real economy in which Americans work and live, have instead become “stupid masters” of a world crafted, designed, worked and built, not by financiers, but by ordinary hardworking Americans.

Ann Pettifor is also credited as being one of the first to predict the 2008 crash. Michael Hudson too has returned to the idea of the Jubilee in an op-ed article in the Washington Post written in 2020 in the midst of the Covid crisis. Hudson writes:

America’s 2008 bank crash offered a great opportunity to write down the often fraudulent junk mortgages that burdened many lower-income families, especially minorities. But this was not done, and millions of American families were evicted. The way to restore normalcy today is a debt write-down. The debts in deepest arrears and most likely to default are student debts, medical debts, general consumer debts and purely speculative debts. They block spending on goods and services, shrinking the “real” economy. A write-down would be pragmatic, not merely moral sympathy with the less affluent.

In fact, it could create what the Germans called an “Economic Miracle” — their own modern debt jubilee in 1948, the currency reform administered by the Allied Powers. When the Deutsche Mark was introduced, replacing the Reichsmark, 90 percent of government and private debt was wiped out. Germany emerged as an almost debt-free country, with low costs of production that jump-started its modern economy.

Critics warn of a creditor collapse and ruinous costs to government. But if the U.S. government can finance $4.5 trillion in quantitative easing, it can absorb the cost of forgoing student and other debt. And for private lenders, only bad loans need be wiped out. Much of what would be written off are accruals, late charges and penalties on loans gone bad. It actually subsidizes bad lending to leave them in place.

In the past, the politically powerful financial sector has blocked a write-down. Until now, the basic ethic of most of us has been that debts must be repaid. But it is time to recognize that most debts now cannot be paid — through no real fault of the debtors in the face of today’s economic disaster.

The coronavirus outbreak is serving as a mind-expansion exercise, making hitherto unthinkable solutions thinkable. Debts that can’t be paid won’t be. A debt jubilee may be the best way out.

We could be looking now at a worse crash and crisis than in 2008. Student debt is the most pernicious social policy imaginable, combining as it does massive debt burden with having to make a start in life.

Hudson describes Jesus as revolutionary in threatening Jewish creditors and behind them the Pharisees who had rationalised their rights against debtors.The Pharisees followed the teachings of Hillel, in an age when creditor power was gaining dominance throughout the ancient word. Hillel sponsored the prosbul clause in which “creditors obliged their clients to waive their rights to have their debts canceled in the Jubilee year.”

Jesus was a prophet and a revolutionary. What is remarkable about Jesus’ story is that even though he has been deified and the Lord’s Prayer has been sacralised, his advocacy for the poor and for peace even to his own death continues to inspire so many, as is evident in the Jubilee 2000 campaign and many other places.

And just imagine if every time the Lord’s prayer was recited around the world, the words were changed back to ‘give us this day our daily bread, and let our debts be forgiven as we forgive debts owing to us..”

Michael Hudson’s wish might be granted.

16 comments on “An Easter Meditation ”

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roblogic 1

7 April 2023 at 11:42 pm

A wonderful meditation, thanks Mike.

The mission of Jesus was redemption, restoration and healing, not just of souls but the entirety of Creation, which groans under oppression and yearns for freedom. That includes economic and political systems.

Jesus famously said that his Kingdom is not of this world, and declined the devil's temptation to rulership of earthly kingdoms. His way is not a top-down dictatorship, but a grassroots movement, seeded in the hearts of His followers, and all people of good will.

A recently published book "Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict" examines the much neglected and politically inconvenient economic aspects of Jesus' ministry.

it shatters a number of lazy liberal assumptions about Jesus which strive anachronistically to restrict him to the role of a soixante-huitard hippy…

At a time when Marxists and people of faith continue to treat each other’s core texts with contempt or suspicion, Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict is a timely and welcome study

The Biblical texts against usury, greed, wealth, poverty and injustice are impossible to ignore. (Unless you are an Evangelical American seminary where these themes, once common 100 years ago, have carefully been excised lest the school lose its funding).

MLK was part of a lost tradition of clergy holding the powerful to account. Perhaps many churches have lost their mana. But the Way of Christ is still the peaceful way to a better future, a vision of the City of God.

https://twitter.com/skepticsproject/status/1644038792771170319?s=20

Ad 2

8 April 2023 at 7:48 am

He’s perfect on the threat to power that the temple money exchange system presented; also how useful to have one Roman coin to translate the value of all other coins before buying the required level of sacrifice.

One of my favourite early church scholars Dominic Crossan situated Jesus within Roman rule, and has done so for a couple of decades.

The trouble for the Jews however in taking Jesus' execution as a key to starting an all out war against their oppressor is that by 66AD their entire national centre was smashed and burnt to the ground and tens of thousands of them were killed.

Amplifying Jesus' small angry symbolic action out into full throated monetary revolution isn't something to necessarily wish for.

SPC 2.1

8 April 2023 at 11:41 am

Sure it was about the issue of taking a share of the offering as currency trade profit.

Then there issue was conflating the desire of a perfect animal specimen to sacrifice (earlier the Levites of the tribes wanted only the best animals in their tithe collection) with only the able bodied and healthy being ritually pure.

The Court of the Gentiles probably was where Jesus drove out the buyers and sellers and overturned the tables of the moneychangers (Mark 11:15–17), shouting, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17 NET; Barbieri, “Matthew,” 68; Evans, Mark, 171). Caiaphas, the high priest, had authorized the sale of items necessary for the sacrifices in the temple (Grassmick,“Mark,” 157). Money was changed because the temple tax had to be paid in Tyrian shekels—the so-called shekel of the sanctuary—and half-shekels. The underlying reason for this was that other coinages had an uneven value and weight and because these coins had idolatrous images (Hiers,“Purification,” 87; Goldhill, Temple, 67). Just as other temples in the ancient world, the temple in Jerusalem functioned as a bank. Explicit reference to banking activities in the temple is found in 2 Maccabees 3:10–11 (Hamilton, “Temple,” 366).

It was against this avarice that Jesus reacted and took action—and when He did, He challenged the entire banking system of Jerusalem. Hamilton makes the case that this interference with the operations of the temple bank—and so with the bedrock of Judaea’s economy—was directly a claim for kingship (Hamilton, “Temple Cleansing,” 370–71)

https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/57820558/Court_of_the_Gentiles_m_fr.pdf

Jerusalem did not fall to the legions of Titus until 70CE. And there is no known connection between his disciples and the early church and the rebellion against Rome.

Jews rebelled whenever there was an imperial threat to their national Temple cult (Hasmoneans vs Damascus Greeks a few centuries earlier).
- Ad 2.1.1
  
  8 April 2023 at 12:02 pm
  
  Leviticus chapter 1 sets out the kinds of sacrifice required for each kind of temple offering. Each have their own prices. We know Jesus' family was poor because Mary offered two doves as sacrifice, rather than a lamb:
  
  Luke 2: 22 When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
  
  Your quote simply supports my claim of the need for a single denomination for all other coins proffered.
  
  Jews started their revolt against the Romans in 66AD. By 69AD all of Judea Jerusalem excepted was subdued again. Then in 70AD the Romans razed Jerusalem in particular the entire massive temple to the ground.
  
  There's plenty of evidence that Jesus was a failed apocalyptic prophet – though plenty still debate it. To me it's not the most useful form of Christianity now.
Derry Gordon 2.2

8 April 2023 at 1:26 pm

But it wasn't the Christians that Rome sacked, it was the Jewish nation of the time. The nascent Christian church was also antagonistic to the Jewish church then, which was about the time the Gospels were written.
- Ad 2.2.1
  
  9 April 2023 at 3:22 pm
  
  I know right the Romans just left those Nazarean reformists alone.
  
  Jesus just did a joyous Barbara Thiering and got married and had kids, Easter never happened, and James, Simon, Jude, Paul, and the entire set of Apostles were just left alone by the Romans to have families and get on to be an otherwise obscure reformist movement of Second Temple Judaism.
  
  OMG.
Belladonna 2.3

9 April 2023 at 2:47 pm

Thank you for reminding me of Dominic Crossan – I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed his lectures (informative, interesting, and challenging pre-conceptions). Truly enjoyable.

Ad 3

8 April 2023 at 8:06 am

Almost forgot to mention since I'm in the middle of the Easter service cycle that yesterday was the first time our Catholic church has done a really big mass gathering for Easter since 2019: 4 years. Same across the country.

ANZAC morning will I expect be similar.

One might have thought the ardour had cooled: instead we had standing room only inside of 800 and easily the same again flowing out down the stairs and into the carpark.

Patricia Bremner 3.1

8 April 2023 at 11:24 am

Fellowship is a human need, which bolsters the spirit.
Belladonna 3.2

8 April 2023 at 12:20 pm

Agree. Our Good Friday service (the longest one in the liturgical year – 2.5 hours long) – had the church packed (about 900 people) and about 200 outside the doors.

Notably, the attendance was predominantly middle-aged and young (a notably big turn out of teens – who are often missing from church services) – with relatively few older people. [I suspect self-selection due to health concerns] And, about half-and-half (my eyeball estimation) between 'classic Kiwi' faces, and immigrant ones. [I know it's fashionable to ascribe the influx into churches as being entirely immigrant driven]
- hetzer 3.2.1
  
  8 April 2023 at 12:33 pm
  
  I had the same experience Belladonna.
  
  Im not a Catholic but my wife is, and I only attend Christmas and Easter services so she is not alone and to share the experience with her on those dates.
  
  I too noted the full church and the crowds standing outside, also the cross section of ages, races. It was uplifting to be a part of it as a community even if I am a pagan!
  - Mac1 3.2.1.1
    
    9 April 2023 at 1:32 pm
    
    Hetzer, thank you for your comment which sparked me into accompanying my wife to a vigil which I did enjoy even though the theology displayed was to me doubtful or wrong. Still, not many people there but the kids got marshmallows and I met a couple of new people and experienced some of my wife's spiritual life.
    - Belladonna 3.2.1.1.1
      
      9 April 2023 at 2:43 pm
      
      I sat next to an acquaintance in mass today – she was accompanying her elderly mum to the Easter Sunday service – but otherwise hadn't been to mass in years.
      
      And, she said to me, entirely unprompted – that she'd forgotten how peaceful it was. Just taking time out of your day to sit and think.
      
      Of course, you can do this through meditation, or in nature, in in a thousand other ways – but church is a really easy one for people to access.
RedLogix 3.3

9 April 2023 at 1:51 pm

That is heartening to read Ad.

Unlike many I have a great deal of faith in the native intelligence of ordinary people. They do not necessarily express it eloquently or with big words. And like everyone they frequently fall short of their ideals – but emphatically they are not stupid.

And they know deep in their souls that the materialism, the power seeking ideologies and lamentably defective political order of the world can only have a cure in the transformation of hearts.

I wish your congregation the best in building on this momentum.

SPC 4

8 April 2023 at 12:00 pm

I'd go with

1. issuing debt free finance to government

2. a windfall profits tax on banks to finance loans to business

Mike the Lefty 5

10 April 2023 at 6:09 pm

Although I don't believe Jesus was the son of God because I don't believe in God I still have a lot of respect and admiration for Jesus the man and social reformer. Him driving the traders from the temple is my favourite bit.

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