"However there should
be no poor among you. For in the land the Lord your God is giving you
to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you
fully obey the Lord your God . . . (Deuteronomy 15:4-5)."
Amazingly I shared this with a church leader last week and she responded, "you must be a socialist." We were
discussing the greed and exploitation that the oil companies (with the
assistance of Congress and the Supreme Court) continue to inflict on the
American consumers. One of the things I have learned these past six
years is that when you attempt to be faithful to the One who is
unconditional love apart from faithfulness to His Word, you will come
under the influence of deceptive spirits. These spirits have captured
the minds of many American Christians causing us to live with a false
consciousness and many delusions.
The Word of God is very clear
on the subject of poverty. Jesus said that those who followed him must
not only adhere to this Word (the Hebrew Bible) but to the "spirit of
the law" as well. So verse one of this chapter begins, "At the end of
seven years you must cancel all debts." Verse seven reads, "If there is
a poor man among you. . . do not be hardhearted or tightfisted. . . ."
Verse eight continues, "Rather be openhanded and freely lend him
whatever he needs." Verse ten concludes the matter, "Give generously to
him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord
your God will bless you in all your work and in everything that you put
your hand to."
This is not good capitalism--neither is it
necessarily socialism. It is faithful discipleship. Those who follow
God are not only held accountable for these commandments, but are
promised a blessing in everything that you put your hand to." Those who
have paid off Congress to keep student loan rates high, who think a
free college and graduate school education for all who qualify is
unthinkable, to bristle at paying any tax dollars to support free
national health care--and claim to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth,
the incarnation of God's unconditional love--are deluding themselves,
and robbing the community of faith of its real power and blessing. God
is watching and will hold us accountable for our spiritual captivity to
the god of greed.
As I write, Chevron (formerly Standard Oil) is trying to get a refund
of approximately $50 - $60 million on its Richmond refinery property tax
payments for 2004-2006. If this effort is successful, it could set a
precedent for a potential refund of over $150 million for 2004-2009.
Having done business here since 1904, Chevron contributed $3.7 million
to local organizations. Not enough to have any real impact, but enough
to fuel its PR engine and to get the myriad of competing small and
ineffective social service providers in the Greater Richmond communities
fighting over crumbs and caution silence to would-be critics of
Chevron's calumny.
Oh, I forgot to mention this. Chevron
posted record profits in each of the last five years, and its profits
for the third quarter of 2011 were $7,830,000,000 (seven billion, eight
hundred thousand), (while the rest of us are combating
recession-depression. This quarterly profit means that its “charitable
contribution" to the surrounding community is 0.047% of the profit it
made in just three months (July-September, 2011).
Because of
lobbying efforts to keep much of Greater Richmond unincorporated and
available for questionable and low tax land use, Richmond, California is
a series of pockets, many steeped in poverty and others, islands of
affluence. This lack of geographic unity and stability also translates
into demographic chaos, which has created the objective social
conditions where the middle class is shrinking and moving away, While
this occurs, companies like Pixar (under the then leadership of the much
heralded late Steve Jobs) grew strong off Richmond’s low taxes and and
favorable land use, and then when rich enough, moved its operations to
Emeryville for a sweeter deal.
As with Chevron, their
employees (none of which were from the community) did not like having to
work around “those people.” That’s why I don’t take my grandchildren
to see Pixar movies. We need to start selectively boycotting those who
boycott us, and that includes Chevron, Pixar and Wal-Mart. We can’t get
all the culprits all at once, but we can selectively put pressure on
these obvious corporate raiders and destroyers of middle class America
to repent or face dwindling profits (hello Bank of America). Anyway
ARCO premium seems to last longer in my car than Chevron.
Chevron is so cynical and disrespectful of the community that it had the
temerity this fall to offer 14 jobs to anyone in Richmond who applied
for them. Of course these were low paying and menial. Black and brown
college graduates who live in the community never seem to get a first
interview with Chevron. A glimpse of the skeletal workforce that
remains after Chevron moved many of their research and development jobs
to San Ramon (again because their engineers and technicians were “not
comfortable” working around so many poor "overly-melanized" people and
“immigrants” living in “blighted areas).”
The tax breaks that
Chevron with a large army of lawyers is seeking, will mean the most
vulnerable and disadvantaged, but also the most “colorful” part of
Contra Costa County will experience more cuts in public safety,
education, and basic services. It will have a severe impact on an
already struggling West Contra Costa Unified School District. These tax
breaks will also result in the layoffs of city, country, school
district, water, and etc. workers at a time when we are already
experiencing record unemployment and a recession that is in reality
worse than the 1930s Depression.
But I believe Chevron wants
the community to disintegrate, because its deterioration is the basis
for its claim that it is overtaxed. The city of Richmond has tried,
mostly in vain, to stem the pollution that is so toxic in the air where I
and other Richmondites seek to live quietly and peacefully. It is
angry that we have stopped it from expanding its ugly operations over
the entire waterfront and into more at-risk residential communities.
Meanwhile it seeks to take back $60 million after having cynically
contributed less than $4 million to the community's dire needs. Its
like wanting to terminate an employee for missing work due to illness,
while having her or him work in such a toxic environment that they can
never recover their health. As we sit through this Christmas watching
“Scrooged,” I would challenge the occupiers who have settled before the
cameras in San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley to just turn your
heads a little toward the peninsula that separates the San Francisco and
San Pablo Bays (apparently we are invisible to some). Richmond is a
wonderful community, notwithstanding the high unemployment rate and
poverty. On any given warm sunny day, you can to to the parks and
beaches and see numerous families (fathers, mothers, grandparents) with
their children, enjoying the California life as best they can on very
limited resources. While many small companies and both national and
international corporations enjoy our generous tax breaks and land use
policies, they don’t seem to want to pay any taxes for operating at here
all, and tend to abandon us once they have gotten all they can get from
us.
Again-Ebenezer Scrooge move over! Chevron demands recognition for First Place Christmas Scrooge Award.
