Milton H. Robinson - "Third - World Lib: A Crazy Case" (February 13, 1972)
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Transcript
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(uplifting instrumental music) | 0:03 | |
- | Beloved let us turn to number 571 | 4:29 |
in the psalter section of our hymnal | 4:33 | |
for our responsive prayer of confession. | 4:37 | |
We do this because we are sinners | 4:43 | |
and because we need to confess our sins | 4:48 | |
before God and in the presence of one another | 4:51 | |
in order that we may be cleansed of our sin | 4:56 | |
and given a new start and a refreshed acceptance | 5:01 | |
by a holy and righteous and loving God. | 5:07 | |
Let us therefore pray responsibly. | 5:14 | |
Have mercy upon me oh God | 5:18 | |
according to thy steadfast love. | 5:21 | |
According to thy abundant mercy, | 5:24 | |
blot out my transgressions, | 5:27 | |
wash me thoroughly from my iniquity | 5:30 | |
and cleanse me from my sin | 5:34 | |
for I know my transgressions and my sin | 5:37 | |
is ever before me. | 5:40 | |
Against thee the only have I sinned | 5:43 | |
and done that which is evil in dicey | 5:47 | |
so that thou are justified in thy sentence | 5:50 | |
and blameless indict judgment. | 5:54 | |
Behold thou desirous truth in the inward being | 5:57 | |
therefore teach me wisdom in my sacred heart. | 6:01 | |
Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. | 6:05 | |
Create in me a clean heart O God, | 6:12 | |
and renew a right spirit within me. | 6:15 | |
Cast me not away from thy presence | 6:19 | |
and take not thy holy spirit from me. | 6:23 | |
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation | 6:26 | |
and uphold me with a willing spirit. | 6:30 | |
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways | 6:33 | |
and sinners will return to thee. | 6:37 | |
Deliver me from blood guiltiness oh God, | 6:40 | |
thou God of my salvation | 6:43 | |
and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. | 6:46 | |
Oh Lord, open down my lips | 6:50 | |
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. | 6:54 | |
For thou hast no delight in sacrifice | 6:57 | |
for I to give a burned offering | 7:01 | |
that would not be pleased. | 7:03 | |
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, | 7:06 | |
a broken and contrite heart oh God, I will not despise. | 7:11 | |
To those who are sincere in their hatred of sin | 7:20 | |
and are earnest in their desire for righteousness | 7:27 | |
and what to be in the presence of God, | 7:32 | |
the scriptures are full of assurance. | 7:35 | |
Mary on one occasion said my soul to magnify the Lord | 7:41 | |
and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior. | 7:45 | |
The Psalmist said it is a good thing | 7:51 | |
to give thanks unto the Lord | 7:54 | |
and to sing praises under thy name, oh most high. | 7:56 | |
These are words of thanksgiving, | 8:02 | |
and they are based upon the words of assurance of pardon. | 8:05 | |
In 1st Timothy in chapter one, | 8:11 | |
we read the saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance | 8:13 | |
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. | 8:18 | |
Even in the old Testament, Micah chapter seven, | 8:24 | |
we read who is like unto God who pardons | 8:29 | |
iniquity and passes over transgression, | 8:33 | |
he does not retain his anger forever | 8:36 | |
because he delights in steadfast love. | 8:40 | |
He will again have compassion upon us. | 8:44 | |
He will tread our iniquities underfoot. | 8:48 | |
He will cast all our sins into the depths of the see. | 8:51 | |
Therefore is understandable | 8:57 | |
why we have words of thanksgiving in the scriptures, | 8:59 | |
and have words of thanksgiving on our own lips. | 9:04 | |
May it be so. | 9:09 | |
(instruments drowning out singers voice) | 9:14 | |
Our scripture lesson for the day is found | 14:47 | |
in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, | 14:49 | |
the 12th through the 17th versus, | 14:52 | |
and again, later in the chapter, | 14:55 | |
the 28th through the 31st verses. | 14:57 | |
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand | 15:01 | |
"and marked off the heavens with a span, | 15:05 | |
"and closed the dust of the earth in a measure, | 15:09 | |
"and weighed the mountains in scales, | 15:12 | |
"and the hills in a balance. | 15:15 | |
"Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, | 15:18 | |
"or as his counselor has instructed him. | 15:22 | |
"Whom did he consult for his enlightenment? | 15:26 | |
"And who taught him the path of justice, | 15:29 | |
"and taught him knowledge, | 15:33 | |
"and showed him the way of understanding. | 15:35 | |
"Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket | 15:39 | |
"and are accounted as the dust on the scales. | 15:42 | |
"Behold, he takes up the aisles like fine dust. | 15:46 | |
"Lebanon would not suffice for fuel | 15:51 | |
"nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. | 15:54 | |
"All the nations are as nothing before him. | 15:59 | |
"They are accounted by him | 16:03 | |
"as less than nothing and emptiness. | 16:05 | |
"Have you not known? | 16:09 | |
"Have you not heard? | 16:11 | |
"The Lord is the everlasting God, | 16:13 | |
"the creator of the ends of the earth. | 16:15 | |
"He does not think or grow weary. | 16:18 | |
"His understanding is unsearchable. | 16:21 | |
"He gives power to the faint, | 16:25 | |
"and to him who has no mind he increases strength. | 16:27 | |
"Even youths shall think and be weary. | 16:32 | |
"And young men shall fall exhausted, | 16:35 | |
"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. | 16:39 | |
"They shall mount up with wings like Eagles. | 16:43 | |
"They shall run and not be weary. | 16:46 | |
"They shall walk and not faint." | 16:50 | |
May the Lord blessed our understanding | 16:53 | |
these words from his holy scripture. | 16:55 | |
(instruments drowning out singers voice) | 16:59 | |
The Lord be with you. | 17:45 | |
(audience murmuring) | 17:46 | |
Let us pray. | 17:49 | |
Almighty God our heavenly father, | 18:00 | |
we offer the prayers of our hearts to you | 18:03 | |
because of the need which we have | 18:07 | |
and which our fellows have for your blessing. | 18:10 | |
We're very mindful this morning and very concerned | 18:16 | |
about the upcoming trip of our president Richard Nixon, | 18:22 | |
to the people and the government of China. | 18:26 | |
And we earnestly pray that this visit by our leader | 18:31 | |
may result in better understanding | 18:37 | |
between the groups of people | 18:41 | |
that we call the Chinese and the Americans, | 18:43 | |
all of whom and every one of whom are objects | 18:48 | |
of your love and your affection and your care. | 18:51 | |
And we know that it is not according to your will | 18:57 | |
that we should fight each other and kill each other off, | 19:00 | |
but that we should be brothers and understand each other, | 19:05 | |
and seek to know your will and to do it on earth. | 19:09 | |
So we pray that this effort | 19:15 | |
which our leader is making may result | 19:18 | |
in great, good and in your glory. | 19:22 | |
We pray for the graduates of our own university | 19:28 | |
and all others who now serve | 19:32 | |
in the peace Corps around the world, | 19:34 | |
or in mission stations. | 19:37 | |
For men and women everywhere | 19:40 | |
who are seeking to bring peace to a troubled world. | 19:42 | |
And we pray for those apostles of peace and of justice | 19:47 | |
who are lovingly and persistently | 19:51 | |
seeking even today to bring equality and dignity | 19:53 | |
to all of whom you have created, | 20:00 | |
to those who are close at home, | 20:03 | |
those in our own homes and communities, | 20:06 | |
in our countryside, in our cities, in our ghettos. | 20:11 | |
To those in Ireland, to those in Palestine, those in India, | 20:19 | |
Bangladesh, and South America, and indeed, | 20:26 | |
and in all places of the earth. | 20:31 | |
Just because we do not know some of these people, | 20:35 | |
there's no reason why you do not know them. | 20:39 | |
We know that you love them | 20:43 | |
and that the very hairs of our heads | 20:45 | |
are numbered in your sight. | 20:47 | |
God we would pray for the kind of concern ourselves, | 20:53 | |
which you have for this world. | 20:56 | |
Not simply that some kind of | 20:59 | |
political arrangement may prevail, | 21:01 | |
but that a condition in the hearts of people | 21:04 | |
and in their relationships | 21:08 | |
may be consistent with your will | 21:10 | |
and reflect your love and your righteousness. | 21:12 | |
We intercede oh God for the student | 21:20 | |
who by now is thoroughly confused, | 21:23 | |
who has had many of the supports emotionally | 21:28 | |
and intellectually of his life kicked out from under him, | 21:32 | |
and who is not yet rebuilt other supports, | 21:36 | |
may things begin to make sense to him, | 21:40 | |
may reality fall into place, | 21:45 | |
and may he find Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior | 21:48 | |
as his friend and as the meaning of life. | 21:55 | |
We pray oh God for the person who once | 22:01 | |
believed in a personal God, | 22:04 | |
but who now finds you unreal | 22:08 | |
and wonder is if there's really anybody there to pray to. | 22:11 | |
We pray for the person who has lost a sense of the reality | 22:17 | |
of the human person and who wonders if there is anyone | 22:21 | |
living in his body, or if he's just a collection of atoms. | 22:25 | |
Restore, oh God, a sense of the reality of the personal, | 22:32 | |
both within man and in his consciousness of you. | 22:35 | |
And may he be able to speak with you in prayer | 22:44 | |
and to receive your intelligence | 22:47 | |
and to experience your power in his life. | 22:50 | |
We pray for those oh God who are now planning, | 22:55 | |
or just beginning their marriage for those who are tempted | 22:58 | |
by unusual temptations, either of despair or of selfishness, | 23:03 | |
for those who are attempted to confuse new freedoms | 23:10 | |
with the abandonment of responsibility. | 23:12 | |
For those who in the heat of anger have rejected | 23:16 | |
proper authority and sound wisdom. | 23:20 | |
And for those who in places of authority | 23:23 | |
have distorted the concept of authority. | 23:26 | |
Those whom power has corrupted. | 23:29 | |
We pray for all of us, oh God, | 23:33 | |
because we stand in the need of prayer. | 23:35 | |
We need your presence. | 23:39 | |
We need your sense of perspective. | 23:41 | |
We need you and may we find you. | 23:44 | |
May this service of worship today | 23:48 | |
be very powerful and wonderful in your sight | 23:52 | |
as a means of helping us to become a part of the solution | 23:57 | |
of the problems of our world. | 24:02 | |
And to that end may we understandingly | 24:05 | |
realize the meaning of the prayer | 24:10 | |
which Christ has taught us to pray as we make it | 24:12 | |
our own prayer saying, | 24:16 | |
our father who art in heaven, | 24:18 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 24:21 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 24:25 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 24:29 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 24:32 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 24:34 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 24:38 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 24:40 | |
and the power and the glory forever. | 24:44 | |
Amen. | 24:48 | |
Liberation is a banner or a word in our time. | 25:15 | |
Older words, such as Liberty and freedom | 25:27 | |
seem now somewhat shopworn. | 25:31 | |
A coinage devalued in recent times | 25:36 | |
by the inflationary processes | 25:41 | |
of self-deception and hypocrisy. | 25:44 | |
Liberation is a newer and brighter coin | 25:52 | |
minted in the crucible of various people's movements | 25:57 | |
that seek group rights within structures, | 26:02 | |
long established and long committed to individual rights. | 26:07 | |
The longest and one of the best told histories | 26:14 | |
of the struggle for liberation and all of Western culture | 26:17 | |
is to be found in the pages of the old Testament. | 26:22 | |
There are the references are in terms of deliverance | 26:26 | |
or sometimes even salvation. | 26:32 | |
Deliverance of salvation of a people from their enemies | 26:36 | |
and depressors beginning | 26:39 | |
with the bondage in Egypt of Israelites. | 26:41 | |
So the exile in Babylon and through other periods | 26:45 | |
of subjugation. | 26:48 | |
Now a phrase of even more recent coinage | 26:53 | |
than liberation is that of third world. | 26:55 | |
Here we speak of the lands of Southeast Asia, India, | 27:03 | |
Africa, Latin America, and the islands of the Pacific. | 27:07 | |
The massive economic political and social realities | 27:13 | |
of these underdeveloped countries | 27:19 | |
is now conveniently do not precisely | 27:22 | |
refer to in terms of the third world. | 27:27 | |
I recall from five years ago in this same pulpit, | 27:31 | |
resorting to an expedient to express the same meaning | 27:35 | |
in terms of the words beyond the tropic of cancer. | 27:40 | |
Now, for all who have lived | 27:47 | |
only within the boundaries of the United States | 27:49 | |
or the first two worlds, | 27:53 | |
it requires a strenuous effort of the imagination | 27:57 | |
to comprehend the realities of the third world. | 28:00 | |
In this country where islands of poverty | 28:05 | |
are to be found surrounded by seas of affluence. | 28:11 | |
It's painfully difficult to conceive of lands | 28:16 | |
where small islands of affluence | 28:21 | |
are surrounded by vast seas of poverty. | 28:25 | |
To assist you in catching a glimpse | 28:33 | |
of this massive reality on our planet, | 28:34 | |
let me sketch briefly some common characteristics | 28:38 | |
of these lands. | 28:41 | |
The populations are predominantly rural and agricultural | 28:44 | |
where kerosine may be replacing animal manure | 28:49 | |
as the most universal fuel, | 28:52 | |
where charcoal irons are commonly used for | 28:55 | |
pressing cloths, farming is on a subsistence level, | 28:57 | |
meaning that millions live one crop away from starvation. | 29:02 | |
Society is like this live at a pre technological stage | 29:07 | |
with the communal or tribal structures prevailing. | 29:13 | |
And the new countries are frequently divided | 29:17 | |
into numerous language groups | 29:19 | |
each with a distinctive culture. | 29:21 | |
Technology is not entirely lacking | 29:25 | |
as often within a stone's throw of a landing field | 29:28 | |
or radio tower, the farmer plows the soil with oxen | 29:31 | |
drawing a wooden plow. | 29:35 | |
Hence the popular tourist phrase, | 29:38 | |
a land of contrasts. | 29:40 | |
In these lands the city is exerted | 29:45 | |
a powerful attraction on the rural population, | 29:47 | |
creating movements of internal migration | 29:51 | |
to the urban centers, assuring overcrowding | 29:53 | |
and misery in these centers. | 29:56 | |
At the same time the cities radiate | 29:59 | |
powerful waves of influence of Western culture | 30:01 | |
toward the more traditional rural areas. | 30:05 | |
In both material goods, | 30:09 | |
such as the transistor radio and the motorcycle. | 30:10 | |
And in cultural merchandise | 30:15 | |
such as nationalistic goals and in particular | 30:17 | |
and predominant language. | 30:21 | |
In these lands at the present time | 30:25 | |
there's a further common factor, | 30:26 | |
the factor of disillusionment. | 30:29 | |
There's a disenchantment and the realization | 30:33 | |
that the glowing hopes of political independence | 30:36 | |
have not been translated into the | 30:39 | |
expected realities of economic prosperity. | 30:42 | |
Now to come to the area of Latin America, | 30:50 | |
this disillusionment is of long standing, | 30:53 | |
for here political independence has already along history. | 30:57 | |
We should note briefly, | 31:01 | |
I think in passing certain characteristics of this area, | 31:02 | |
we have 21 nations with a common history of European culture | 31:10 | |
from the Iberian peninsula, 21 nations bound together | 31:14 | |
by geography in the Western hemisphere, | 31:18 | |
and to this country 21 nations | 31:23 | |
with a common history of dependence. | 31:29 | |
First to the mother country | 31:34 | |
next to the British empire. | 31:37 | |
And lastly and presently | 31:40 | |
to the United States of North America, | 31:42 | |
with the conspicuous exception of Cuba. | 31:47 | |
Now let us zero in on one of the strangest situations | 31:52 | |
to be found in the third world and in Latin America. | 31:54 | |
The case of Bolivia, | 31:59 | |
here is a country which was producing fabulous treasures | 32:03 | |
for the Kings of Spain one century before | 32:08 | |
the first European colonists reached our shores. | 32:12 | |
Treasures which eventually helped finance | 32:17 | |
the industrial revolution of Europe. | 32:18 | |
And in modern times, | 32:22 | |
the source of some of the great private fortunes | 32:27 | |
of modern times, yet this country now must be considered | 32:29 | |
the most impoverished in all of South America, | 32:35 | |
where the per capita income has now improved to $150 a year. | 32:40 | |
This is a country, the size of Texas and California, | 32:49 | |
put together with an evident potential for supporting | 32:51 | |
a population of perhaps 50 million. | 32:54 | |
Yet today it must import great quantities | 32:58 | |
of foodstuffs to maintain a population | 33:01 | |
of less than 4 million. | 33:04 | |
This is a country with fantastic extremes of geography, | 33:08 | |
where from the highest capital city in the world | 33:12 | |
at 12,500 feet elevation, | 33:15 | |
one can drive in four hours to the tropical lowlands | 33:17 | |
where coffee plants and banana trees grow. | 33:22 | |
This is a country that has engaged | 33:28 | |
with in the last generation | 33:29 | |
and a war with the next poorest country on the continent | 33:30 | |
to lose an eighth of the national territory. | 33:34 | |
This is a country that has no Seacoast | 33:41 | |
yet maintains a Navy. | 33:45 | |
A country that has only two paved highways, | 33:50 | |
one narrow gauge rail road | 33:53 | |
and where most of the country can only be reached by plane. | 33:56 | |
A country where a university flourished decade | 34:02 | |
before Harvard college, yet for now | 34:05 | |
illiteracy is at 70% of the population. | 34:09 | |
This is a country that boast of two capitals, | 34:17 | |
two capital cities, | 34:22 | |
one that has no government and the other that has no courts. | 34:23 | |
This is a country that has a history | 34:32 | |
of 146 years of independence, | 34:34 | |
and in that time has seen 200 revolutions, | 34:38 | |
150 of which have affected | 34:44 | |
the governing process in some way. | 34:46 | |
My witnesses to these staggering features in contrasts | 34:50 | |
are students from Duke, | 34:54 | |
because we received two groups there for summer experiences | 34:57 | |
in recent years under the leadership of Elma Hall, | 35:01 | |
assistant chaplain to the university. | 35:04 | |
Now a fair question at this point | 35:10 | |
is what do people there think about their situation? | 35:12 | |
The Spanish speaking society | 35:17 | |
which is centered largely in the city, | 35:19 | |
is the custodian of the presumed national identity. | 35:21 | |
And this group deeply and sincerely desires genuine | 35:28 | |
self-determination economic as well as political, | 35:31 | |
the desire above of all things to write their own history, | 35:36 | |
to achieve a place of dignity | 35:40 | |
in the councils of the nations. | 35:42 | |
Great question, therefore is | 35:45 | |
how to take off from the state of | 35:47 | |
under-development and dependence. | 35:51 | |
Now, analyzing this a bit further | 35:56 | |
about what is said and thought there, | 35:59 | |
we should listen to a word from the leftist. | 36:02 | |
They're pretty vocal | 36:07 | |
and drum away constantly at the following message. | 36:08 | |
Latin America has an enemy and oppressor | 36:13 | |
whose best label is Yankee imperialism. | 36:20 | |
This villain is so powerful that he can operate through any | 36:24 | |
and all international organizations | 36:29 | |
to control the markets, direct investments, | 36:31 | |
place loans, and set aid programs. | 36:34 | |
Every structure of international finance | 36:39 | |
is slanted against Latin America in general, | 36:41 | |
and Bolivia in particular. | 36:45 | |
Basic raw materials must be sold at a low pay scale of labor | 36:48 | |
of some 10 cents an hour. | 36:54 | |
And manufactured goods must be bought | 36:57 | |
at a labor rate 10, 20 or 30 times as high. | 36:59 | |
Aid programs end up benefiting the U S more than Bolivia. | 37:05 | |
The increasing affluence of the United States is gained | 37:11 | |
at the expense of such countries as Bolivia. | 37:16 | |
Yankee imperialism is a 20th century version | 37:21 | |
of the 19th century doctrine of manifest destiny. | 37:25 | |
Employing means of intervention both overt and hidden. | 37:29 | |
And my friends there is a degree of justification | 37:35 | |
in this position. | 37:42 | |
Now for a bit of equal time for the rightists. | 37:45 | |
They say Bolivia needs technology and modernization | 37:50 | |
in order to progress, stability and the guarantees | 37:53 | |
of private property are necessary for growth and prosperity. | 37:56 | |
Local industry must be developed to extend employment, | 38:01 | |
foreign investments which have assisted | 38:03 | |
such countries has Venezuela, Mexico, | 38:06 | |
and Brazil can do the same for Bolivia. | 38:08 | |
Commercial farming, manufacturer, importation, | 38:12 | |
mining furnished the necessary national income | 38:14 | |
and the tax base for the government budget | 38:17 | |
and important nation building projects. | 38:20 | |
The historic flight of capital and the professional classes | 38:24 | |
from Bolivia impoverished the economy | 38:28 | |
and the prospects for the future. | 38:32 | |
And again, my friends, | 38:35 | |
there's a great degree of justification in this position. | 38:38 | |
Now, a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote | 38:46 | |
recently about Bolivia, saying the following, | 38:49 | |
here nothing tried on a large scale ever seems to work. | 38:54 | |
The system is neither capitalistic nor socialistic, | 39:01 | |
it's destitution holistic. | 39:05 | |
It is mostly any economic, | 39:09 | |
no awareness in which men, attitudes, | 39:13 | |
efforts and hopes appear snorted, end of the quotation. | 39:18 | |
It's true long range planning programs | 39:26 | |
seem to be exercises in frustration. | 39:30 | |
Reforms come, reforms go. | 39:33 | |
Each government is considered, | 39:36 | |
and I'm afraid must consider itself | 39:39 | |
an interim regime. | 39:41 | |
And as much time and energy are expended | 39:44 | |
in rhetoric and ceremonial, | 39:47 | |
to set an imposing window dressing | 39:51 | |
for what is a really unsubstantial | 39:53 | |
sense of identity and nationhood. | 39:56 | |
Now I should like to pose the question, | 40:03 | |
is there to be found in this puzzling panorama | 40:08 | |
some factor or some key to the frustration | 40:12 | |
of national life and hope? | 40:15 | |
Is there perhaps some human factor present here | 40:20 | |
and not common to other countries of Latin America? | 40:24 | |
I propose to submit that there is | 40:28 | |
a key to the anomalies in this strange land | 40:30 | |
which I love and where I've served now some 15 years. | 40:34 | |
There is indeed a human presence here | 40:41 | |
of a pervasive and peculiar nature. | 40:44 | |
So pervasive in fact, is this presence | 40:47 | |
that many regarded simply as part of a landscape | 40:49 | |
like the somber and peaks or the wide high frigid plains, | 40:53 | |
or the productive valleys that lead down to the lush | 41:01 | |
tropical lowlands, watered by emersed rivers | 41:03 | |
that wind their way slowly to the vast Amazon basin. | 41:07 | |
Now is this human presence per chance | 41:14 | |
some ratio of minority that has suffered curtailment of | 41:15 | |
their rights and exploitation of their energies and whose | 41:19 | |
presence is therefore burdensome | 41:23 | |
and dehumanizing to the order of the country? | 41:26 | |
There does exist such a presence, a people, | 41:30 | |
and a race who can not be considered an oppressed minority | 41:34 | |
for they are an oppressed majority | 41:40 | |
of some 65% of the population. | 41:46 | |
By some criteria, | 41:52 | |
this figure could be calculated at 85% of the population. | 41:53 | |
These are the Indian peoples, (indistinct) | 42:02 | |
and casual races, whose presence in that area | 42:07 | |
of India and South America reaches back | 42:11 | |
to the very dawn of history. | 42:14 | |
Nothing in the fantastic extremes of geography and climate | 42:18 | |
really prepares us for the most fantastic extreme of all. | 42:22 | |
A land where the vast majority of the people | 42:28 | |
that exist as an exploited | 42:30 | |
and oppressed minority on the soil | 42:32 | |
which they have inhabited | 42:35 | |
and tilled since time immemorial. | 42:36 | |
Here indeed my friends is grist for the meals of liberation. | 42:40 | |
I submit that the world presents few cases | 42:47 | |
of such an imbalance of human forces. | 42:51 | |
Now, to answer my own question as to the key | 42:55 | |
to the amygdala of this fascinating and picturesque land, | 42:57 | |
I say that there must be some connection | 43:04 | |
between the major characteristics of this country | 43:08 | |
and its major human component. | 43:11 | |
I do not consider myself qualified | 43:16 | |
really to analyze this relationship with much precision, | 43:18 | |
but the presence of such a magnitude | 43:23 | |
cannot but affect the life of the country | 43:25 | |
constantly and profoundly. | 43:28 | |
Though not necessarily in very obvious ways. | 43:32 | |
We recall that Lincoln in the second inaugural | 43:35 | |
stated that somehow the peculiar | 43:39 | |
institution of slavery was related to the civil war. | 43:42 | |
Somehow the presence of the Indian people to Bolivia | 43:47 | |
is related to the strange features that puzzle the outsider. | 43:50 | |
Somehow the presence of an overwhelming majority | 43:55 | |
for whom virtually no account is taken, | 44:00 | |
must necessarily confuse the stuart | 44:02 | |
and frustrate national life there. | 44:08 | |
Now to return to our leftist friend for a moment. | 44:13 | |
They say about the Indian very little, | 44:16 | |
it's regarded as a labor force to be organized | 44:21 | |
especially in the cities where he works in factories or | 44:24 | |
perhaps in the mines that's for the rural Indian, | 44:26 | |
the rural Indian there's no program or expectation, | 44:31 | |
for what can you do with the people | 44:35 | |
who love the soil as life itself? | 44:37 | |
The rightists also regard the Indian as a labor force, | 44:42 | |
as a source of cheap labor, 10 to 15 cents an hour. | 44:48 | |
And in addition, he's begrudged the lands | 44:52 | |
that have recently been returned to him | 44:54 | |
through agrarian reform. | 44:55 | |
But he's seen as lacking in possibilities and incentives | 44:58 | |
for real commercial farming. | 45:02 | |
In truth the Indian is given very little consideration | 45:06 | |
by the political groups in the country. | 45:09 | |
And we may as well ask now, | 45:10 | |
well, what does he himself think about his situation? | 45:12 | |
After some 400 years of captivity in his ancestor lands, | 45:21 | |
the Indian has ratio and memory | 45:29 | |
is full of bitter recollections of abuses, | 45:30 | |
conflicts, uprisings, dispossession, | 45:34 | |
tortures, and defeats. | 45:37 | |
In his society there's a common fund | 45:41 | |
of resentment, suspicion and fear, | 45:42 | |
which color all relationships | 45:45 | |
with the Spanish speaking fellow countrymen. | 45:47 | |
Today, as new opportunities open up to him | 45:50 | |
particularly in education as public schools | 45:53 | |
now reach out into the rural areas | 45:58 | |
he's faced with the dilemma. | 46:00 | |
The little one room school teaches the Spanish language | 46:04 | |
and the basic concepts of national identity and citizenship, | 46:07 | |
and the Indian approves this | 46:12 | |
and purposefully accept it as beneficial. | 46:15 | |
This is not because he desires his children | 46:21 | |
to learn Spanish so much | 46:24 | |
or to achieve a new identity, | 46:26 | |
or a new sense of citizenship, | 46:28 | |
but rather because he sees here a way of learning more | 46:30 | |
effectively to deal with an alien culture | 46:34 | |
which has dominated him. | 46:38 | |
In order to protect the goals | 46:40 | |
and interests of his own subjugated society. | 46:43 | |
There's no interest in abandoning his own culture, | 46:49 | |
but rather of using the other for his own purposes, | 46:51 | |
which are to fulfill the Indian values | 46:57 | |
of personal prestige and distinction | 47:01 | |
within his own local society. | 47:02 | |
He sees this in the traditional Fiesta system | 47:06 | |
and then as worship. | 47:09 | |
Now what is to be said of the future | 47:14 | |
of this conflict of traditional | 47:20 | |
and folk values with modern western culture, | 47:21 | |
with its resources of technology and communication? | 47:24 | |
Our church there and its labors | 47:28 | |
among the peoples of the earth | 47:30 | |
here and in other places has not always been exactly | 47:33 | |
foresighted or culturally sophisticated, | 47:36 | |
but we have nevertheless taken up the cause of liberation | 47:41 | |
of peoples, whether black or brown, whether red or yellow. | 47:44 | |
And in Bolivia, our church | 47:50 | |
is very small in numbers and resources, | 47:53 | |
but he does set certain signs | 47:56 | |
along the roadway for the future of Bolivia. | 47:59 | |
Now, these are some of the signs | 48:02 | |
that we have set for that country. | 48:05 | |
First of all, it is futile to think | 48:09 | |
that public education or any other means | 48:14 | |
of cultural regression or cultural imperialism | 48:18 | |
will ever, or eventually de-culturize the Indian. | 48:21 | |
This is an illusion that is dearly held | 48:29 | |
and very expensively maintained | 48:33 | |
by successive governments of the country. | 48:35 | |
The experience of our own country here | 48:39 | |
is that Indian culture is tenaciously, | 48:40 | |
tenaciously, persistent, even in tiny, tiny minorities, | 48:42 | |
what will it be in an overwhelming majority? | 48:47 | |
Secondly, it naturally follows that a human presence | 48:53 | |
of such magnitude in the life of that country | 48:58 | |
requires recognition and dignity socially, | 49:00 | |
economically, and politically, | 49:03 | |
which at the present time is withheld. | 49:06 | |
Thirdly, the seeds of revolution | 49:10 | |
or better said revolutionary | 49:13 | |
expectation have been sown already, | 49:15 | |
even in the little country school houses | 49:20 | |
and they're growing. | 49:24 | |
And when someday bear their fruit in powerful movements | 49:26 | |
for dignity and recognition. | 49:29 | |
Fourthly, the future Indian nationalist movement | 49:32 | |
will make itself felt within 10, 15 years | 49:38 | |
and we'll have a great, | 49:44 | |
and there's yet unsuspected | 49:48 | |
and unpredictable consequences in the life of that country. | 49:49 | |
Fifth, this movement is the wave of the future | 49:54 | |
for Bolivia though it has virtually no recognition | 49:58 | |
at the present time. | 50:02 | |
It is inevitable and irresistible. | 50:04 | |
The only question is how will it happen? | 50:07 | |
Will it take the road a bloody revenge for past wrongs | 50:11 | |
and the ancient tradition of uprisings, | 50:17 | |
and civil wars or on the other hand, | 50:19 | |
can it be non-violent in nonviolent peaceful emergence | 50:25 | |
of a peoples to new levels of consciousness | 50:30 | |
and human values. | 50:33 | |
If it's the first alternative, | 50:37 | |
we may expect to see a terrible blood bath | 50:39 | |
of massive dimensions reaching | 50:42 | |
into all sectors of life in Bolivia. | 50:43 | |
If it is the second alternative, | 50:48 | |
Bolivia may yet set such an example | 50:51 | |
of human liberation as the world has never seen. | 50:56 | |
God grant that this last may be the case. | 51:02 | |
And the words of the Prophet Isaiah, | 51:09 | |
have you not known, have you not heard, | 51:13 | |
the Lord is the everlasting God | 51:18 | |
creator of the ends of the earth. | 51:21 | |
He gives power to the faint, | 51:24 | |
and to him who has no might he increases strength. | 51:27 | |
They shall run and not be weary. | 51:34 | |
They shall walk and not faint. | 51:38 | |
Amen. | 51:44 | |
(instruments drowns out singers voice) | 52:04 | |
Almighty God, we present this money and ourselves | 1:02:11 | |
before your altar, the symbol of your presence, | 1:02:15 | |
praying that these offerings of money and of our lives, | 1:02:19 | |
maybe very useful in bringing about the fulfillment | 1:02:24 | |
of the good news of Jesus Christ | 1:02:29 | |
in our world that needs it so desperate. | 1:02:32 | |
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ | 1:02:43 | |
be with us all. | 1:02:46 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:53 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:59 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:04 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:11 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:21 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:32 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:48 |
Item Info
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