I love books. I love the feel of them, the smell of them, the way they look crammed in a bookshelf. But more than anything I love the way they can tell us things. The way things were, the way things are and the way things are going to be, maybe. They also show us the way we are, as humans and what we can achieve. The power of the story is very powerful indeed. As someone who recently wrote in Sojourners said, `Reading may not change the world, but it changes the reader, and that`s a start.` And this does not just apply to novels, but to non fiction as well. How can we place ourselves in others` shoes when we don`t hear their stories? How can we know what is going on in the world unless we educate ourselves about it? Great works of non fiction inform us and help us to grow as just and compassionate persons.

So I was excited to read a book called the The Spirit Level, Why Equality is better for everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett when I was away*. It takes research that has been accumulating in public health and science over a long period of time to make a convincing case for our need to share our resources with one another. It asserts that while we are biologically and socially drawn to each other we have allowed economic inequality to grow to such an extent that both our wellbeing and that of our planet is threatened. Sounds very biblical and it is.

But what are the symptoms of a society that is unequal? The writers present evidence in the book on how almost everything we lament in this church on a Sunday is affected not by how wealthy a society is but how equal it is.

It has been known for some years that poor health and violence are more common in more unequal societies. However it also seems that almost all problems which are more common at the bottom of the social ladder are also more common. It is not just ill health and violence but a host of other social problems. As the authors state, `almost all of them contribute to the widespread concern that modern societies are, despite their affluence, social failures.` These problems include

• Lower levels of trust between people, giving rise to fear and insecurity
• Higher rates of mental illness particularly anxiety, depression
• Higher rates of drug and alcohol addiction
• Lower life expectancy
• Higher obesity levels
• Wider range of children`s educational performance and a lower overall level.
• More teenage births
• Greater violence and homicides
• Higher imprisonment rates
• Less social mobility and unequal opportunities.
• Greater social exclusion
• Greater environmental degradation

Some of these are the product of being too wealthy within a society and some are from being too poor, and some affect both. It appears it`s not healthy to be either.

Here in Australia, as the gap between the rich and the poor gets larger, many of these problems are clearly recognizable. For as the authors suggest we live in a paradox, where we are at the pinnacle of human material and technical achievement, but are anxiety ridden, prone to depression, worried about how others see us, unsure of our friendships, driven to consume and with little or no community life. Yet the real problem is that we don`t think we have a problem. Economic growth is still the buzz word, and many continue to believe that all we need is more economic growth to get us out of our troubles.

This is not the view of Wilkinson and Pickett. (Page10)

It is clear from this very well researched book and from the evidence presented in it that the best way to improve our quality of life, to have fullness of life, both as individuals and as a society does not lie in more possessions or wealth, not more and more growth, but in sharing what we have. To spread the love as they say, supporting those with less and not being seduced by the idea that wealth and possessions mark one as special and therefore privileged. This applies in developing countries just as much as developed countries. While developing countries need to raise living standards and provide basic necessities of food, water, and shelter, there is still a need to share those resources amongst all the people, not just a few. Equality is still very important as countries gain wealth lest they fall into the same trap as developed countries. It is the same basic message no matter where you are.

What I am constantly amazed at is how often people in the so called secular world speak out on things that we, in the church, should be calling for. Why does it take graphs and tables and numbers to show what we have known for a long time? That the search for a just society and a just world involves everyone getting a fair and equitable share of the things needed for life. Maybe it is because this aspect of our faith heritage has been lost amongst the clamour for personal salvation rather than the call for individual or societal transformation. We need to reclaim our heritage of justice and join those in the wider world who are currently doing it for us.

To do this we need to see that the common thread throughout both Old and New Testaments and from Jesus is a message of justice and equality. In the Hebrew Bible we find it in the law and in the wisdom literature, including the psalms and the proverbs. However it is in the prophetic literature that it is especially seen.

The prophets of the Old Testament include Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the books of the 12 Minor Prophets from the 8th century BCE. These prophets were concerned about the political, ethical and social justice issues of their time. Justice for them was about how human systems impacted on human lives. And the lives they were most concerned about were the widows, orphans and aliens. We hear Isaiah saying in 1:17 `Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow`. For them the just society was a society in which the weak and voiceless ones had been brought into community.

The prophetic books of Amos and Hosea were part of a group of 12 books, called the Minor Prophets, which were meant to be read together. Each had a specific focus. For example Amos was writing at a time of great wealth and prosperity for Israel, when the poor were forgotten and justice was a forgotten discipline. Hosea lived in a period and a place where the priests of the temple themselves had become bloated on the spoils of the system. The temple had gone political, and it was the word of the king and the practice of religion that mattered most rather than the welfare of the whole community. While Amos called on the rulers and wealthy elites to share their wealth, Hosea was more concerned that the people of Israel and Judah had turned their back on God. He was concerned about the infidelity of the people, the way they also followed other gods, the way they made alliances with foreign powers and relied on military force and their ethical improprieties. He felt they had abandoned God.

With this background, let us look at today`s reading from Hosea. It is an example of a reading which can be misunderstood if taken out of context. We have in the reading God directing Hosea to find a woman of harlotry, called Gomer, marry her and then have children. He does this obediently in the reading but it is not a real wedding. We need to remember that he was concerned that the people of Israel had gone astray. The wedding is instead a metaphor for the relationship between Israel and their God, an image that Hosea was one of the first to use in biblical language. The children and their names are used as vehicles in the announcement of judgement and the promise of reconciliation, each name having a special meaning. The whole scene is set up to represent Gomer as the unfaithful wife who is the embodiment of the unfaithful people of Israel. Hosea was calling Israel back into a covenant relationship with God, which also calls for a just and equitable society. It does not say anything about human relationships and particularly not marriage in the 21st century. And while this passage focuses on the divine human relationship, the prophets of the 8th century BCE were by and large chastising Israel and Judah for their greed and injustice to the poor. The message from them is clear even if this reading isn`t.

In the New Testament Jesus links us to the words of the prophets, which he would have read and understood, with his words and actions. When he was baptised Jesus took his commissioning from the book of Isaiah, which is found in Luke 4:18 `The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free`. If we listen to the gospel we hear Jesus bless those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who are persecuted for the sake of justice, and accuse the religious people of his day, the Pharisees of focussing on religious practice and neglecting justice. When Jesus called people to practise and struggle for justice he was standing in continuity with this great prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible. This too is our heritage which we seek to live out.

But it is a heritage that is costly, as Jesus found out. As Borg says `Like the Hebrew social prophets before him, Jesus passion for justice set him against the domination system of his world and time. It set him against a politically oppressive and economically exploitative system that had been designed by wealthy and powerful elites, legitimated by religion and designed by them in their own narrow self interests.` And it led to his death on a cross.

Seeking justice therefore involves so much more than sharing our resources. It becomes political and dangerous because we are questioning not only ourselves and what we do but also those with power, privilege and often a great deal of money. As William Sloane Coffin has said, `That God is against the status quo is one of the hardest things to believe if you are a Christian who happens to profit by the status quo.` Yet we know from the work presented by Wilkinson and Pickett that economic inequality is not all that profitable in the end. Fullness of life is not achievable when some have too little and some and too much. No one benefits. Research is telling us this, but it is what our faith has been telling us for centuries, if we were to only look.

But what do we do? Power in the hands of a few is still a great stumbling block, as is extreme wealth in the hands of a few. It will take a transformation, a building of the future not only by individuals, but also politicians and societies.

But as Wilkinson and Pickett suggest

`The initial task is to gain a widespread public understanding of what is at stake.`

So here are two examples of getting public understanding, one by the authors of the book and one from our church. Wilkinson and Pickett have set up an Equality Trust, to inform, encourage and educate people on the benefits of a more equal society. They have a website you can visit. The second example is from the Uniting Church of Australia which has put out a publication called `The Economy of Life` outlining the gospel message of justice as it applies to our society. It points out our lack of equality, reasons for it and ways both we and the church can address it. This is about engaging with our world right now, and I was very encouraged and heartened by it.

Yet, regardless of this, the fight for justice will not be easy or short and even these small steps will be met with resistance. As people of faith, however, we are called to serve others, and this means proclaiming and promoting justice wherever we can. As the prophet Micah tells us,

`And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.`

A prophet from yesterday, perhaps there are still prophets around today, as long as we are open to hearing them.



*Wilkinson R and Pickett K, `The Spirit Level. Why Equality is Better for Everyone`. Penguin Books, UK, 2009.