Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The New Deal Revisited
Last night we reviewed the story of false prophet Hananiah. Jeremiah
had warned that Judah/Israel would be destroyed and remain in exile for
70 years because of their idolatry and economic exploitation of fellow
Hebrews. Hananiah, seeing that the king and people did not like
Jeremiah’s message, prophesied something different. They would only
be captive for two years; and then God would deliver them from
oppression (Jeremiah 28:1-29:32). Because of this false prophecy,
Jeremiah had been silent, but now he said to Hananiah, “The Lord has not
sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies (28:15).”
Our nation is in crisis, unless you believe the prophets of prosperity,
peace, harmony and security. No one likes bad news, unpopular
messages, negative analyses, and yet we must believe there is a problem
and if we are to act to address it. Too often our own personal comfort
and positions as beneficiaries of the present system cause us to “change
the truth” to fit our privileged place in society. Many people are
benefiting while most are not. We who have relative financial security
will too often look for a Hananiah to suit our false consciousness. We
must remember that the false prophet’s message of comfort does nothing
more than make us totally unprepared, rendering us useless in the face
of reality.
John Edgerton in his study, Speak Against the Day:
The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South. The
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1995, writes, “Franklin
Roosevelt . . . called for a massive economic reformation to bring a
higher living standards to all; far-reaching new programs in support of
labor, education, health, housing, and the general welfare; . . . and an
opening of the democratic process to virtually all adults as an
alternative to both the oligarchic status quo and to the threat of state
control under socialism or communism.” He concludes however that by
November of 1938 the rich, using racial hatred in the south and “red
baiting” in the country as a whole, slowly regained ground in their
domination of politics and the economy against working Americans. Most
of us are too young to know of how bad it was, but according to
Edgerton, we are approaching those conditions again and need to act
quickly. An unpopular message. It is a message that those who are
comfortable and in the mainstream, will be reluctant to fully embrace.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Frederick Douglass on Obama
The
following was emailed to me by my former lay leader (Washington Heights
United Methodist Church, Chicago, now member of St Mark UMC and
resident of Belize (former British Honduras).
114 years ago, Frederick Douglass provided the explanation for why people are so hard on President Obama.
“Though the coloured man is no longer subject to barter and sale, he is
surrounded by an adverse settlement which fetters all his movements. In
his downward course he meets with no resistance, but his course upward
is resented and resisted at every step of his progress."
"If he
comes in ignorance, rags and wretchedness he conforms to the popular
belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome; but if he
shall come as a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, he is hailed as a
contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming
is resented as impudence. In one case he may provoke contempt and
derision, but in the other he is an affront to pride and provokes
malice.”
Frederick Douglass
September 25, 1883
Friday, October 14, 2011
What the Lord requires . . .
One
Year Bible, 10/14-"This is what the Lord says: 'Do what is just and
right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been
robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the
widow, and do not shed innocent blood. . . . But if you do not, your
palace will become a ruin. . . Because you have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord and served other gods (Jeremiah 22:3-9)'."
Please note that God equates injustice against the poor, the needy, the
marginalized of society as "forsaking the covenant of YHWH/Adonai/the
Lord" and "serving other gods." Feeding the poor, housing the homeless,
throwing charity crumbs at and to those marginalized by our public and
private policies and practices is not sufficient. Such behavior is a
continuation of the idolatry, the abandonment of any meaningful
relationship with Love and Life that true spirituality demands. Only by
changing/repenting/turning away from the policies, practices and
behaviors that perpetuate poverty and suffering for those in the
margins, those we exploit to do our dirty work, and those we keep
unemployed to drive down wages and make mass profits. Only by working
to erase the margins entirely, can the worship of our idols be
abandoned, and our relationship with Life restored.
"We know
what the Lord requires: To do justice, love mercy, and to walk in
humility (Not as little gods ourselves but as gracious collaborators
with the Almighty One in whom we live, move and have our being) (Micah
6:8)."
Peace,
Don
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Enemy Within
One
Year Bible for October 12th-"If my people would listen to me, if Israel
would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn
my hand against their foes (Psalm 81:13-14)."
We usually
think of "foes" or "enemies" as external. In my limited experience of
life, I have discovered that more often than not "they" are "internal."
All of us have--from families of origin, or childhood
trauma, or teenage displacement, isolation and rejection, or loss of
loved ones, or of love, or treasures, or livelihood, that which creates
and feeds the enemies within. Yet God is also in our "temple," offering
us ancient spiritual impulses, sounds, thoughts, words, that will free
us to live joyful, love-filled, satisfying lives.
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