Gaurding Our Wealth

Part 3 in the Critiquing of American Christianity

As the Robertson fiasco has already alluded too, it often seems that many Christians in the US have a very deep interest in protecting their wealth. This may be America's biggest downfall. We give millions every year to charity, sharing our wealth, and that is good. But when a report on the News mentions that President Bush gave ten percent of his earnings to charity I get concerned. A man as wealthy as Mr. Bush can still live a balanced an comfortable life giving 30% of his income (if not more) to charities. He gave what he had to, but really.

Our notion of wealth really needs to be checked. Because capitalism is such an Individualistic endeavor it seduces us into believing wealth is not a public matter. We do not talk about wealth at church, how much we make, or what we do with our money because that is private, it is ours. But a more biblical perspective argues that wealth is a community issue. If my brother beside me is poor than how can I be wealthy without my conscience tearing me up inside?

The OT prophets constantly yelled at Israel for disregarding the poor among them. Isaiah 11 talks about Jesus who will be the one to bring justice to the poor and the needy. Isaiah 58:3 is specific about the religious who fast and still exploit their workers are not of God. The fight in Chicago to not allow Walmart into city limits is because of the exploitation factor and many Christians would believe it to be a Christian company. Is it? Can anyone justify making billions of dollars and yet refusing benefits or full time status to employees who barely make enough to survive?

Most notably we find the education system in America is a deck of cards stacked in favor of the wealthy. Inner-city Chicago does not get the same support as say, Naperville because education funding is based on property taxes. In the very system of educating children for meaningful employment, we fail to support all schools equally thereby keeping the poor in their place.

But I have heard little form Christians who say they are striving to do God's will. Politicians who claim to be Christian give less and less to education every year and the people who suffer from this the most are the very people Jesus has told those politicians (through his word) to treat fairly and justly. But hey, they protect their jobs by protecting their constituency and in return protect their wealth so their kids can attend the good schools.

It is time we re-evaluated our wealth. Is it a blessing? Or will it be our curse?

Robertson: You're Too Eager

When Pat Robertson, the Religious Right leader who sometimes makes me
wince when he speaks for so many Christians, said on TV the other day
that Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, should be assassinated
because of his anti-American ideology, I winced to such an extent my
face got stuck that way.

He basically justifies the assassination by saying it would be cheaper
to assassinate him now before he becomes a US threat (and obviously he
would be because he criticizes President Bush, in which case I am a
potential threat to national security because I have also criticized the
President) than to wait until Venezuela becomes a launching pad of
communism and Muslim extremists and costing us another $200 billion in
war costs.

There is the breaking point of the preemptive strike that led us into
Iraq. According to the pre-emptive clause we could assassinate somebody
else before they even come into power and we would feel ourselves
justified. The idea is not only morally corrupt, but it is not freedom,
merely paranoid schitzophrenia.

When Bonhoeffer was trying to figure out if God would endorse the
assassination of Hitler, he had his own personal war within his heart.
He always believed that violence would not be the answer, but the
consequences of Hitler dying before his height of power are far from
negative. Millions would be saved. But even then the decision was not
obvious for Bonhoeffer. It really was personal distress to come to the
realities of war.

I do not see the same struggle in Mr. Robertson. In fact, he is willing
to take one life because of the financial burden it would become to do
it later. What kind of unbiblical, un-Christlike comments are those?
Please Mr. Robertson, What Would Jesus Do?

I still have to believe in transformation. Not only for the sake of this
planet, but for my wincing face as well.

Guarding the Status Quo

(As continued from Critiquing American Christianity)

One of Martin Luther King Jr.'s primary frustration during the civil rights era was the lack of courage that many white clergy displayed by asking him to wait and be patient. This frustration was the reason for his book Why We Can't Wait and why he explains, "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment...We are gathered here to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children (Free At Last)."

But the white clergy tried desperately to keep the peace (though his movement was nonviolent it is amazing to think the amount of pressure Dr. King could generate) and not upset the current status quo until white people were ready for it to be upset. Forty years later and I am still not sure we're ready for that. But American Christianity has a long history of not wishing to upset the status quo.

Even today mainstream Christianity is the keeper of the status quo. Consider the way we use our wealth, educate our children and fail to promote environmental stewardship. Pres. Bush will not sign the Kyoto agreement because it would cost Americans too much money. Meanwhile America is the biggest environmental hazard in the world today. He saved his vote by not upsetting the status quo and the Christian right love him for it.

Look at the two biggest issues American Christians have fought over the last decade: abortion and homosexuality. The majority of Christians have taken moral stances opposed to these two issues. But in taking our stand we have not been challenged to change ourselves. Because in these two issues, Christians view it as a moral problem with "the other." We believe it is their sin and we will stand against their sin. It is a moral fight that is outside ourselves and one we believe must be won for the salvation of the nation.

But what about systemic racism, classism, and other various forms of injustice that also plague our nation today. As a simple example, the way we fund education (through property taxes) is one of the greatest causes of the poor staying poor and we have merely congratulated our own children for succeeding in a system designed for them to succeed while blaming the poor for failing to succeed in a system designed for their failure.

Why don't we fight these issues? Because they would require us to change. It may ask us to sacrifice some funding in our schools so other schools can be more adequately funded. By that time it may force us even to lobby government for more money for our schools because it is so low on the nation's priority list. These fights, however, are much more work and address the sin in our own lives, of not being faithful stewards with the resources God has given us.

When the sin lives within our own hearts and it is downright terrifying to be confronted with sin that comes from within us. In fact, our ability to protect the status quo is a direct result of the sin within us that we dare not confront. Like with the white clergy who knew it would be painful for white people to realize the racism within themselves.

The great thing about MLK is that he knew it would be painful, but he counted on the grace of God through the triumph of Christ over death and injustice. As a follower of Christ there is always a cross before the crown. But, my friend, there is always a crown.

Critiquing American Christianity

What disturbs me about America and we who are Christians within its borders is the way we swallow capitalism without ever having questioned it from a biblical perspective. In not questioning capitalism and critiquing it according to a biblical standard, both capitalism and the American economic system has become an idol of our time.

Time Magazine recently had a whole section of its magazine concerning how “faith” and religion are selling in the market place. Reader’s Digest had a similar discussion last month. Featuring entrepreneurs who are using their religious conviction and placing them in neat catchy phrases on t-shirts, pencils and a host of other items, both Time and Reader’s Digest describe how they have become so successful. But by whose standards?

How many of the items sold in Christian book stores are made in distant lands with an underpaid work force who have succumb to a form of slave labor that would shame us if we weren’t so happy with their products and our profits?

Or how about the names of certain products? There is a jewelry line called The Shield of Faith. The biblical metaphor is lost on the equivalent to Mickey Mouse Jewelry making faith something you can purchase for $10 and place around your neck. There are even Christian Dog Tags (like those in the army) that help associate military might with Christian belief. However, the military and Christianity, though wedded in the US, in the bible are enemies to their very core (see my blog At Arms Length).

It is in the relationship between Christianity and America’s Military that I find the real source of our failure to question America and American Christianity. Our President has used fear to justify a preemptive strike on another country. We are to fear terrorists. We are to fear nuclear bombs. Not to the extent where we change our every day lives but to the extent we allow our government to disregard the rights of human beings for the sake of national security. We hold them without trial. We abuse them. We even allow torture (to a point, though that point is quite blurred as recent reports show) in order to get information that may keep us “safe.”

In essence, by allowing these things to happen, Christians have failed to live lives according to the gospel. God is in control and we live without fear for that simple reason. But we have failed because American Christianity has become the guardian of the status quo, protector of our wealth (a supposed blessing from God) and a new economic ideology gaining power in the public sphere.

These three, guardian of the status quo, protector of our wealth, and a new economic ideology gaining power in the public sphere, will be discussed in the next three posts.

Heaven Has No Class

I ended up back at Camp Tall Turf counseling for the last session. I have not counseled since 1996. Life has really come full circle for me here. But because of my isolation in a camp setting I have little access to the news for these 10 days and other media that pique my interest to write something about.

Tonight, however, I was discussing the New Heavens and the New Earth found in Revelation 21 with the campers in my cabin and came across the verse where God on his throne offers the everlasting drink and specifically mentions it will be without cost.

I have heard that this may be alluding to a "heaven" without a class system. No rich. No poor. Just God's people taking only that which they need and none of what they don't need. There is no greed and no need for an economic system to distribute the food and resources. My third grade teacher once asked if the world could live without money and I remember being the one who impulsively raise my hand and said yes. She said said that greed and laziness would get in the way and I guess I was not thinking about the fallen world but the perfect world.

In a book I am reading concerning nonviolent social action as Jesus third way of dealing with conflict (as opposed to flight or fight), Walter Wink mentions that the nonviolent lifestyle is one that needs to live as if the person is already free from the oppressor. That is, they already live the goal they are trying to achieve. We know we are going to live with God and be like Jesus and so we do our best to live that here and now. Maybe we should start by simply taking what we need and nothing that we don't need.