Can We Benefit from Oppression?

For my weekly quiet time yesterday, I read I Samuel 2. In it, Eli's priestly sons take the best part of the sacrifices for themselves, when they should be leaving it for God. They also force people to hand over their animals.

When Eli learns that his sons are sleeping with the tabernacle-women, he excoriates them, warning them that sinning against God does not bring good results. God later sends a man to rebuke Eli and to prophesy doom for Eli's priestly line. v 29 is intriguing. The man says to Eli:

"Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?" (NRSV).

John Gill takes this to mean that Eli ate the food that his sons stole from God and the Israelites. That's why he was so fat, Gill reasons (I Samuel 4:18)! And it is interesting that Eli doesn't criticize his sons for stealing food; rather, he seems to focus on sex.

This brings up the whole issue of whether or not it's right to benefit from oppression. At Harvard, an African-American friend was trying to paint me as an oppressor because I was white. He said that I benefit from the years of free labor that African-Americans performed as slaves. His contention was that profiting from oppression is just as bad as committing it.

I have a problem with such a mind-set, since how exactly would I avoid profiting from oppression? Should I move to another country? Maybe I should take a vow of poverty. I'd have to remove myself from the world in order not to profit from America's prosperity!

But the issue crops up in other areas. Should I not eat fruit that was picked by migrant workers, who get paid a small amount to do a lot of work? Should I not buy products manufactured in Chinese sweatshops? I wouldn't be surprised if most things are connected to oppression in some way, shape, or form.

Some people actually do try to avoid oppression-tainted products. When I was at Jewish Theological Seminary, one woman said she bought things that did not involve a middle-man. I know Christians and non-Christians who buy fair-trade coffee. I'm not entirely sure what that is, but I think it sells coffee that's been purchased directly from small-time growers, not from big corporations that put those growers out of business.

I can sympathize with people who try to promote justice in their day-to-day lives. In the case of Eli, however, his problem was closer to him: he could have limited himself to the meat that was the priest's due, but he chose to eat the stolen parts as well. He didn't have to take himself out of the world to make a statement against oppression!