I found this article on Urbana.org and thought it worth sharing.

Love,

Rachel

Social Justice (1964)

Fourth of five panel talks on the topic
by Ruben Lores

Warren Webster: Racial Justice a white perspective

Ruth Lewis: Racial Justice a black perspective
Clyde Taylor: Togetherness
Ruben Lores: Social Justice
Vernon Grounds: Religious Climate

If you are conscious of the social needs and implications of the revolutionary message of the gospel and you are willing to go at the pace that this hour demands, if you are willing to be emotionally involved in the whole situation, and if you are willing to be creative and brave, you can make a tremendous contribution in this most important hour for Latin America.

At this conference you will be treated not only to a great variety of accents in the English language, but at least a good treat to a bad expression of your language! Theodoro Moscoso, when he was the coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, had a sign on his desk which read, "Please be brief - we are 25 years behind time." I don't know what his point of reference was, but he could have put another hundred years on that sign because in many aspects we are that far behind. But we are conscious of that lag in Latin America, and we are committed to a rapid change.

I would like to speak to you, not especially about the social conditions, the illiteracy which in some cases can come up even to 68%, or the poverty which means that many people have only a $300 yearly income - and this is a misleading high - or the sanitary conditions which make the lifespan considerably low, even today. I would like to call your attention especially to certain patterns which rule the whole social atmosphere in the Latin American republics and which are really responsible for revolution. And every socially conscious person in Latin America is committed to change these patterns.

First, the political structures. As you already, know, most of our republics are called democracies. But actually most of them are only pseudo-democracies, so we should speak only of democracy as a project. This morning I would ay that probably only Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, and Uruguay have working democracies. Venezuela and Colombia have in the last few years come out of a military regime. But the other republics are under military men, and not only under military men but under a military pattern of control which makes any change very difficult. In Latin America about a billion dollars is spent annually for military purposes. This saps our strength very considerably. Here in the United States the expenditure for defense, as you call it, is very fantastic, but there is plenty of money left for other things, as we all know. But in Latin America when we spend a billion dollars
annually for defense there is very little left for anything else.

There is also the pattern of land ownership. It is amazing and almost unbelievable that in Latin America taken as a whole, only three percent of the land is farming land, usable land. Out of that three percent only half (1.5%) is actually being cultivated. As you know, the population in Latin America is growing more rapidly than in any other section of the whole world. And when you realize that there is so little land and so little cultivated, you can see why people who are conscious of this problem and of this pattern are committed to a rapid social change.

In Latin America the land is owned mostly by large absentee landowners and large ranch owners who employ peons and a few people who own small farms which are insufficient to provide enough for their families so they must seek outside employment. I don't know if you realize that, for instance in Chile, 2% of the population owns 52% of the land. In Argentina 2,000 families own one fifth of all land. And in Mexico before the revolution in 1916, 1% of the population owned 85%.

Because of the Mexican revolution, which is a pattern not only for Latin America but for many other parts of the world, millions of acres of land have been distributed and the whole picture is quite different today. In Brazil; 2,000 people own a territory larger than Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Denmark put together. And in Venezuela 85% of the land is distributed in very large ranches. In Central America it is just about the same picture, although on a lesser scale.

Today there is turmoil all over Latin America for a change not only of the conditions but of the patterns. And there are some social imperatives. We must have either accelerated political evolution or a chaotic revolution. We must have either rapid social reforms or growing discontent of the masses. We must either have increased industrial development or suffer unrest because of repressed aspirations of the people. We must have fair international trade agreements on the part of the United States and the European nations, or else frustration under a stagnant economy.

These are the currents in Latin America today. And we as Christians, we as members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, are concerned and responsible for these conditions. The Church of Jesus Christ is right in the midst of this situation. The Church is part of the problem - and also part of the answer. So we as individuals, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, are part of the problem but also part of the answer. To implement the answer, each of us must incorporate his own temperament, his training, his local situation, his type of ministry, the policy of his mission board. And don't forget that the policy of the State Department may determine your involvement in this if you are concerned about Latin America. But we as Christians are part of this situation and we must incorporate all we have in the solution. We must first learn and then teach and act upon the full implication of the gospel in its social aspects. And we must understand that in this situation of rapid change, of the patterns, all missionary social work, including schools, radio stations, hospitals, orphanages should be oriented or re-oriented so as to be conceived, carried out, supported, and managed within the framework of a national church.

Now, I would like to say this. If we are concerned about Latin America either as members of a church of Jesus Christ here in the United States, or if we go to Latin America as missionaries or in some other capacity in which we are identified as Christians, we must also be identified with the Church of Jesus Christ in Latin America. And though it may surprise you, we the Christians in Latin America are concerned that everyone who comes to work with us in this great task at this present moment of rapid change in Latin America knows the full implication of being a Christian in this condition - being a Christian in this important moment for the development of our countries.

Among the hundreds of characteristics of missionaries and people who are Christians in this age, I want to think in terms of the world responsibility, and to mention briefly three things.

In the first place, we must get into the revolutionary pace. You will be surprised, but many people in Latin America think missionaries are lazy. They are wrong. I don't think missionaries are lazy, but I do think very few missionaries understand that we are committed to a rapid change, It amazes me that many missionaries can act so rapidly in many other things, but for the Church of Jesus Christ they think that things must go very slow, things must take their time. But no one is waiting in Latin America, even if we are in the Christian Church.

In the second place, we must be involved emotionally in the work we are doing. Don't be mistaken about this. People say that Latin American people are emotional, but we all as human beings are emotional. God built emotion within our beings. You can be emotional about your family, about cars, about sports, about so many other things. And when you go to the mission field in Latin America, the people expect that you will be so crazy about getting this job done, you will be so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be so committed to your task, that you will see the five-day week that you keep in America is not the best pattern in Latin America.

And in the third place, you must be creative and brave to work in this situation. Many people say that the missionary's day is past in Latin America because there is a national church now. Missionaries are very fine leaders; but friends, many people don't have the courage or the creativeness to work in a situation with a national church. It's all right to go to the backward people where you stand out without any effort on your part, where you are the leader in everything and everyone looks up to you. But in Latin America it is different. And yet it is a great thrill to work with a national church.

When I was a teenager in Cuba, I used to belong to a youth organization. It was at the time of the civil war in Spain, and I was very thrilled that I was having a part in the Spanish Civil. War by going up and down the streets of my home town collecting food and clothing to send to Spain for the civil war. But fifteen years later I walked the streets of Madrid and went up and down in Spain as a missionary of Jesus Christ. I can tell you that the thrills that I had as a teenager working for a social change to defend democratic priciples and government in Spain was nothing in comparison to the thrill and the joy of being a messenger for Jesus Christ.

I believe that if you are conscious of the social needs and implications of the revolutionary message of the gospel and you are willing to go at the pace that this hour demands, if you are willing to be emotionally involved in the whole situation, and if you are willing to be creative and brave, you can make a tremendous contribution in this most important hour for Latin America.