I really want to be on God’s side of this battle for Justice. For me personally, I have a particular burden that occupies my heart, one that I think defines the motivation and heart of the Band of Brothers. It is my desire and the desire of my brothers to fight on behalf of the “oppressed poor.”

It is not that I do not have compassion on all the poor because I most certainly do.  For me though something rises up in my heart when I see powerful forces taking advantage of the weak and desperate situations of the poor in order to fulfill their own agenda.  Honestly, it makes me angry as I see it as a great injustice. I find myself wanting to be an active participant in seeing that Justice is established on behalf of those people too weak to fight for themselves.

So that there is no misunderstanding, I define the “oppressed poor” or as the Bible sometimes refers to them; “the downtrodden”, as those whose plight is not a choice of their own making. Nor is it a consequence of their actions or attitudes, but the result of being up against forces much too powerful for them to overcome on their own.

I have a great deal of admiration for those who work with the poor who are often homeless, due to battling mental illness or drug addiction.  I believe that God smiles on them as they serve these people with a great deal of compassion.  However, I believe the mission of the Band of Brothers is to focus their energies on a different battlefield.  Our battle is to go to war on behalf of a different group of people – the Oppressed Poor.

In my mind the strong forces that oppress the poor could be summarized in the following five groups;

In these situations, governments, political dissidents, rebels or warlords are in conflict with each other for control of a country or region. This often results in innocent people who are uninterested in the politics of it all (but are just trying to survive) getting caught in the crossfire. The outcome is that they end up losing not only their homes but their livelihood and in some case their lives.

I have personally witnessed situations in Guatemala in the 1980’s where hundreds of women were left widowed after their husbands were killed by political dissidents coming over the border from southern Mexico.  Africa too has seen its share of political struggles in Rwanda, Liberia and today in Darfur. I lost sixteen dear friends in 1987 to a massacure in Zimabawe.

These are situations where people are living under economies where the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed by incompetent or greedy leaders so they cannot make a living or put food on the table. Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe would be a case in point. He destroyed one of Africa’s most prosperous countries within a decade.

Economic turmoil often results in women being forced into prostitution to survive. Currently the sex slave trade of Eastern Europe and Asia is imprisoning and shipping overseas young women who rarely reach the age of 30 before dying of disease, drug overdose or are murdered. Women are often the worst victims of economic oppression.

Historically, this has been the most common source of war and oppression and continues today in many countries. More people have died in the “Name of God” than any of us can imagine. Sadly, the Church has historically more often been a “prophet of oppression” than a liberator of the poor. It has sided with political leaders and ideologies that have enslaved people. One needs to go no further than Apartheid.

We continue to see the age old battles in the Middle East. We’ve witnessed the brutality of the Taliban in Afghanistan as they attempt to enslave whole people groups to their religion. It was just a few years ago that we saw the mass graves from the Genocide going on in Eastern Europe that was called “Ethnic Cleansing” which was really a cover up for “Religious Cleansing.”

The historical cultural prejudices of the cast system I have witnessed in India even though it is outlawed. I have seen the rejection of widows wanting to work or single mothers trying to find a job in the marketplace simply because of their gender. This has lead to wide spread poverty with women  and their surviving children living in the most deplorable places including garbage dumps. Children are often casualties in these situations at an early age.

In Guatemala, I was proud to be a part of a team that balanced the Scales of Justice by building homes for widowed families living in caves and sewer pipes because the women were not allowed to work.

The force of natural disasters such as Earthquakes, Floods, Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Droughts that have destroyed everything in their path leaving people homeless and starving are a huge problem.

In the United States we have recently witnessed the devastation that a storm like Katrina can do. In the case of Indonesia one earthquake in the ocean released a Tsunami that killed nearly 300,000 people within a few hours. In Africa, drought and the lack of water lead to widespread starvation and disease. Often the water is just under their feet but they cannot reach it or they can’t afford to build the dams to catch it and store it in the rainy season.

I believe that God has invited us to the battle; it is now simply a matter of responding.