It's been a rough week. Ireland got sold back into serfdom, unemployment benefits expired, and in a bid to bring the spirit of peace and generosity back to Christmas, Republicans threatened to filibuster the START treaty until tax cuts for the upper 2% of wealthy Americans were made permanent. Oh, and like a maraschino cherry high atop a lollapalooza of suck, we find out from Wikileaks that the Obama administration—with GOP help—basically has quashed the investigation into torture by slow-marching it to death.
....
And where, might you ask, was the religious left (such as it is) during all of this? Begging for scraps, I'm afraid. They were "urging" Congress to pass the DREAM Act and "urging" them to ratify START and "asking"(!) the House to pass the Child Nutrition Act. These are all fine and worthy causes, to be sure. Yet somehow I don't think they're going to be effective. Put it to you this way, it's one thing to go up against a giant with a slingshot. It's quite another to take your rock out and replace it with a crumpled-up piece of paper.
....
Yet, as I seldom tire of pointing out, the God of the Bible is quite partisan and quite divisive. You can't read about camels and the eye of the needle, let alone the Magnificat, without understanding that God is on the side of the poor.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! A thousand times yes, Pastor Dan. Read the rest of Dan's column.
To you who scream loud and long that the US is a Christian nation, I ask what about Jesus' teachings about the poor? I ask you people of faith who, even as you claim the Judeo-Christian heritage as the foundation of our nation, why you ignore the golden thread of God's justice that begins in the Hebrew Bible and runs right through the New Testament? How do you forget passages like this:
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
(Jeremiah 22:3)
And the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus:
The Magnificat
And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
(Luke 1:46-53)
And the words of Jesus to the rich ruler:
Jesus looked at him [the rich ruler] and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’
(Luke 18:24-25)
But somehow, some way, the most vocal of those who want to take back our country for Jesus always seem to remember Paul's words to differentiate between the worthy and unworthy poor:
For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.
(2 Thessalonians 3:10-11)
Now, I'm all for getting the idle, sound-of-mind-and-body "busybodies" to work, every last one of them, if they can find a job! I'm sure that a good many of the "idle busybodies" would like to be back at work this very moment. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate rose from 9.6% to 9.8% since last month.
As Pastor Dan sums it up:
My God is the God of the poor. You can be for the poor or you can go to hell.
There's nothing nice about that. But then there's nothing nice about the absurd, reactionary, vicious and apparently successful class war the rich and powerful are waging on the rest of the nation, either.
Daniel Schultz, a.k.a. pastordan, is a minister in the United Church of Christ. He serves a small and very patient church in rural Wisconsin. He is the author of Changing the Script: An Authentically Faithful and Authentically Progressive Political Theology for the 21st Century, forthcoming from Ig Press.
Thanks to Cathy for the link.
This is off the top of my head, but I think St. Paul, in Thessalonians, is referring to people in the church who were expecting Jesus's return at any moment and who were using that as an excuse to do nothing while being supported by others.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Pastor Dan.
ReplyDeleteYes, Bex, that matches my memory too. But people quote it out of context to indulge in self-righteous condemnation of other folks they deem "lazy."
What about those of us who diagree with "Dream" AND who have no religion and want nothing to do with claims that the US is a xtian nation?
ReplyDeleteHow do you KNOW that your friend in the sky wants all this? The same way your fundiegelical opponents KNOW that "he" doesn't; you make it up or you "just feel that's what he would want" or some other non-rational method which the rest of us have to pay for.
Seriously: the sooner you and the fundiegelicals and other religious crazies exhaust each other and leave rational people alone, the better.
Bex and Paul, you are correct. The quote from the other Paul is taken out of context, but you will hear it from the fundies every time you begin to speak of justice for the least amongst us.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, if you return here to make another comment, please sign a name, any name; make one up.
ReplyDeleteHow do you KNOW that your friend in the sky wants all this?
I don't know in the sense of absolute certainty that my friend in the sky even exists. I believe in God, and I believe God shows us who call ourselves people of faith a way to live our lives. Apparently certain non-believers have difficulty in grasping the difference between the two.
If you disagree with DREAM, then it's your right to oppose the policy. If you want no part of religion or calling the US a Christian nation, then take no part.
You should know that I agree with you, in that I want no part in calling the US a Christian nation, either. I don't want to live in a theocracy.
Seriously: the sooner you and the fundiegelicals and other religious crazies exhaust each other and leave rational people alone, the better.
Seriously, Anonymous, I didn't knock on your door to evangelize you. You came to my blog. If you don't like what you read here, you don't have to visit. However, you are welcome to speak your piece here, if you will make up a name.
One of my favorite passages about the whole subject is to point out that the mind set of self first is, in fact, the true sin of sodomy.
ReplyDeleteEzekiel 16:49-50 (NRSV)--49.“‘The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. 50. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them.”
This oftentimes shocks many of my more fundamental friends.
BooCat, the passage you quote is another of the many in the Bible that have to do with God's justice that a good many of the fundies ignore. The passage also sheds light on the true lesson of the story of Sodom, which is not about the wickedness of same-sex activity.
ReplyDeleteIt was a year or two ago, that the leader of the NAE (post-Ted Haggard!) tried to go in another direction: pushing environmental justice, and helping the poor.
ReplyDeleteThe "No Gays/No Abortion" crowd promptly threw him out.
:-(
[And then, let's not even get started about the most recent meeting of the Nat Conf of (Roman) Catholic Bishops...]
Don't you often get the feeling that, if Jesus were a Poor (and "Strangely Unmarried") Carpenter today, that it would be CHRISTIAN leaders lining up to be the FIRST to crucify him?
Preach it Grandmere!!!
ReplyDeleteand JCF --yes. It would be Christian leaders lining up to condemn and crucify him.
Amen, Pastor Dan from me too.
ReplyDeleteHe's right - appeasement and making nice in most political circumstances just does not work.
Jesus would have a tough time of it today. The people in power went after Jesus then. I'd guess that the powerful would go after him now. I wonder about myself. Would I run away, or go with Jesus to the cross, or today's equivalent?
ReplyDeleteNot terribly "rational" if you think only of self and think you can prosper despite everyone else!
ReplyDeleteI still am just blown away by the supposition that those who have a religion are somehow dumber or out-of-touch than the hit-and-run atheist anonymi.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. "Your friend in the sky?!" Are you so stupid you think that's what we believe in? Do all atheists believe the same things? Are all atheists well-educated or deeply happy? Do you all believe in nothing but anger and emptiness, like you?
Why don't you and the fundamentalists go off and play cops and robbers and the adults, including people like IT, Dr. Hawking, and progressive Christians go off and do the grown-up work?
Well said, Mark.
ReplyDeleteI love the opening line about Ireland sold back into serfdom.
ReplyDeleteThe same may be coming here.
Amazing how the early 21st century is starting to look more and more like the late 19th century.
They'd lock Jesus up in Gitmo if He came back today.
Amen Pastor Dan from me too ;-)
ReplyDeleteNot terribly "rational" if you think only of self and think you can prosper despite everyone else!
ReplyDeleteEven from a selfish viewpoint, to think that one can prosper in the midst of those around you living in squalor is not at all rational.
Counterlight, a good many of the European countries who adopted the euro seem to be rather bad off. The euro works well in times of prosperity but not so well in lean times. And Ireland sold out to the banks.
The US is slouching toward third world status as the middle class disappears, and the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
They'd lock Jesus up in Gitmo if He came back today.
My thought, exactly, but I didn't say it. Great minds...and all that.
Mimi, I don't think it's a euro-related problem - most of the countries in the eurozone are doing OK, comparatively. Germany and France both came out of recession quicker than the UK, which stuck to the pound, as you know. Greece had huge debts over the eurozone limits, which it had fiddled so that this was not obvious, and Ireland's problems revolve around banks indulging in reckless lending and a property bubble, which when it collapsed took the banks with it (a familiar story). Their problems affect the stability of the euro, but the currency is not the root cause of their problems. Just me own opinion.
ReplyDeleteCathy, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and possibly even Spain have suffered more and may recover from the recession more slowly than if they had their own currency. Or so I read in a post by an economist which I cannot find now. The British were right not to adopt the euro, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteEconomists seem as confused as everyone else to me :-)
ReplyDeleteI do disagree with him, for what my opinion is worth. The global recession began in the US and affected the UK as badly as anywhere in Europe to begin with. The degree to which countries have recovered has depended largely on how overextended and under-capitalised their banks were and are, it seems to me. I have edited a lot of newspaper copy on this subject and nowhere seen it argued that the euro was the problem, even from the doughtiest of eurosceptics.
Needless to say though all the most traditionalist Tories have objected to helping bail out Ireland, which is a bit harsh, it seems to me.
Cathy, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm looking for the post. It seems pretty clear from what I've read as I search around that being a member of the EU is not always an unalloyed plus. One size doesn't fit all.
ReplyDeleteI remember one point the economist made is that Ireland cannot devalue its currency to help its economy back to health.
Cathy, here's a link to several opinions on the difficulties Ireland faces. I'm not sure it's the original piece I read, but Barry Eichengreen says:
ReplyDeleteIreland is told to reduce wages and costs. It must engage in “internal devaluation” because the traditional option of external devaluation is not available to a country that lacks its own national currency. But the more successful it is at reducing wages and costs, the heavier its inherited debt load becomes. Public spending then has to be cut even deeper. Taxes have to rise even higher to service the debt of the government and of wards of the state like the banks.
PS: Barry Eichengreen teaches economics and politics at the University of California at Berkeley.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think you had forgotten about me! Thank you for the link. I will read it with interest, but if the shared currency was the source of the problem, the other countries in the eurozone would also be in a state of collapse, and most of them aren't, and are weathering the global crisis with (so far) reasonable success. Ireland has been screwed by its banks and that's its main problem.
ReplyDeleteBeing a member of the eurozone is of course not always an unalloyed plus but it has advantages as well as disadvantages (just as England's decision not to join has advantages as well as disadvantages). I also wonder if critics of the eurozone tend to be those who might be inclined to be suspicious of what they see as "big government" (in which basket they also tend to put the UN)? But I'm only guessing there.
Anyway, that's me take on it and I am sticking to it. I am of course no economist but then it is rather rare for economists to agree with each other on issues like this.
I'm working on the business section of the paper tomorrow and will put this one to them to see what they say. Not that financial journalists are necessarily experts either, but I am sure they will have opinions. If they agree with you I promise I will faithfully report the same.
Mimi, when you say "one size does not fit all", are you sure you're not linking the idea of the eurozone in your mind with the dreaded covenant? ...
Cathy, I'm not saying the euro was the only problem in the devastation of the Irish economy. The Irish government, which has fallen, acted in a grossly incompetent manner, and many other factors played into putting Ireland where it is now.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm saying is that the recovery of Ireland may be more painful and longer in coming because of being tied to the euro than if they had their own currency. And I am by no means an expert in the field of economics.
I'll be happy to hear the views of the financial journalists in England.
And I had the dreaded Anglican Covenant very much in mind, as well as the EU, when I said, "one size does not fit all". :-)
I thought you had the covenant in mind, simply because the quote from Eichengreen you have chosen says: "Ireland is told to reduce wages and costs. It must engage in ..." etc.
ReplyDeleteNot all forms of collectivism are the same (if indeed the proposed covenant is a form of collectivism in any sense.) There genuinely can be power in a union :-) I don't see membership of the EU as primarily being about being dictated to from on high. Agreeing to abide by rules is not the same as being forced to. Those who see the EU as a top-down, insensitive, bureaucratic authority, in this country at least, tend to be right-wing and rigidly traditionalist.
In other words, ask Mad Priest to argue with you - I bet you anything you'll find an ally there :-)
wv - sifies! Oh noes, the dreaded sifies, to the realm of economics wot the xerfies are to dentistry!! :-C
So. The people of Ireland, who are already suffering, should suffer more for the sake of the banks? I know that Ireland made a choice to join the EU. No one dragged them in, but it seems to me that the EU has the people of Ireland in a corner with no way out, except what seems to me draconian policies that will hurt the least powerful the most.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I am truly not an idealogue, and I find myself in bed with strange people, from time to time. I am always for the underdog, the ones who are least powerful and will be hurt the most. From what I know, which is admittedly not much, I am for the people of Ireland, who seem to be getting screwed at the moment.
... see, I think the irony of this petite brouille is that we are both coming at it from passionately left-wing liberal convictions :-)
ReplyDelete... I would say the people of Ireland have been done over by the banks - like we all have. Not by their membership of the single currency. I really don't think the eurozone is what's stopping their recovery. Far from it - the bailout package is pretty much coming from eurozone countries. The people of Ireland are currently suffering the consequences of their own willingness to accept inflated property prices and easy credit, just as we all are. The UK is no different. I really think there is no resemblance between the covenant and the EU.
ReplyDeleteProlly so, Cathy. And don't you love the occasional petite brouille?
ReplyDeleteCathy, you open up a whole other can of worms which I could rant about, but I can't at the moment, because I've got to go. Those who will lose money should be the banks and mortgage companies who offered easy credit to people who couldn't afford the properties and the bondholders who bought what they should have known were trash bonds and what should be now be worthless bonds, since they were so stupid to have purchased them.
ReplyDeleteNowt wrong with an occasional petite brouille, especially when it involves young ladies of sharp instincts and intellect, such as you, Mimi :-) But you do raise interesting questions. Who is responsible for the financial crisis? Is it the banks? Yes, they lie all the time. But who lets them do that? Is it us, are we to blame really? Well, I don't know. I suspect we are their victims and they have done us wrong. But this only raises fresh questions. How do we recover, what systems should we be putting in place to stop them doing it again, and are we doing that, or are we setting ourselves up for another horrible crisis, somewhere down the line? Is it possible to do otherwise, as things stand? ... Very, very theological subject, money. It could not possibly be more theological.
ReplyDeleteCathy, as I see it, the governments are in bed with the banks, and I don't see the kind of regulation that we need coming soon. Governments no longer run countries. The corporations run the countries and the world. If that sounds a tad paranoid, then so be it.
ReplyDeletePS I loves you, Mimi. In case it is not obvious.
ReplyDeletePPS you're not paranoid. Corporations run countries and the world. I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteI guess you raise the question: if corporations (over which we have very little control) and governments (over which we also have very little control, and which ought to be controlling the corporations, but aren't, and can't) run the world: what do we do? What would God have us do? ...
ReplyDeleteWhat would God have us do? ...
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, God would have each of us do the bit we can to bring about his kingdom, in which, as Mary says, the lowly are lifted up and the hungry are filled with good things. Our little bit may seem like such a small thing, but we must do what we can do.
There we agree. FWIW.
ReplyDeletexx
Cathy, I loves you back, in case it is not obvious.
ReplyDeletexoxo
xoxo :-)
ReplyDeleteI would counsel getting a room, you two, but you've already been there and done that. This is only going to revive hot rumours of the Scotland trip.
ReplyDeletePaul, too much PDA? Have you forgotten our time together on the St. Charles street car?
ReplyDeleteWell, I was on the business section today as I said and did indeed take a straw poll of what people thought of the Ireland/euro issue, FWIW. The concensus was that Ireland had got itself into its difficulties basically by "living beyond its means" and that this was the overriding factor. They did say it was quite possible that the eurozone membership was depriving it of the kind of flexibility that might prove useful in its effort to cope with its current predicament. However, it had enjoyed advantages from joining the euro in the first place (easier trade, economic aid from other EU countries like Germany and France etc etc) that had helped it to grow rapidly from a dirt-poor, depressed nation, one of the poorest in Europe, to hugely well-off in only a short space of time. Even though it is now in crisis it has been able to turn to the EU for help, so its membership still has good as well as bad points. So, swings and roundabouts.
ReplyDeleteGoing by that it seems we were both partly right, Mimi, which I suppose counts as a happy ending? These are only the opinions of financial journalists tho and I have never known any financial journo who was not totally broke, so that tells you something about how much they know :-)
Cathy, thanks for the report on your poll of financial journalists on Ireland's mess. What I know for sure is that Ireland is in trouble, and it may be quite a while before things get better.
ReplyDeleteA number of the descendants of the Irish who left for the US during the potato famine returned to the homeland during the boom times. Now they may consider crossing the pond in the other direction, although the US is not the Promised Land.
Even with the technology available today, economic predictions seem to include a good many guestimates.
Yes, it is in a mess and no mistake, and there is quite likely to be a big exodus of young people particularly, which is pretty sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to piss you off by arguing, Mimi.
Cathy, you are not pissing me off. Not at all.
ReplyDeleteI do tend to wind down after a while and cede the territory or change the subject, as I seem to have done in my previous comment. I don't have quite your stamina, but I have a few years on you. :-)
I am glad you're not annoyed :-)
ReplyDelete