I personally do not understand America's reverence for material wealth, and I find this reverence especially surprising among American Christians of every stripe. Jesus had only contempt for material wealth, and little respect for those who possessed it. In fact, I can find only one passage in the New Testament where Jesus speaks well of a rich man; Luke 19:8-9 (KJV): "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, for so much as he also is a son of Abraham."
I do not believe in some absolute leveling of our material possessions; hard work should be rewarded, but not fraud or coercion. I do believe in a minimum level of support so that Americans work to live; they do not live to work. The latter is the philosophy of slavery, not a free society. It is the reason we need not just a minimum wage, but a living wage. It is the reason we need Medicare for everyone, and Medicaid for our poorest citizens. We also need free public education up to the graduate level of college, or at least a reduction in state college tuition to a point where it is actually affordable for the poor and middle-class. Our current student loan system is nothing more than a racket to force college graduates to stay in their jobs without complaint, so they can continue to afford to repay their loans. No one needs to come out of college $40,000 or more in debt. We must level the playing field so that we can once again start from a point of no great advantage due to being born wealthy, so that it is our abilities, not our material possessions, which determine our futures.
America's misbegotten form of materialism has led to a society best described by British author John Berger: "The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied"but written off as trash. The Twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing." ("The Soul and the Operator," in Expressen, Stockholm; March 19, 1990; reprinted in Keeping a Rendezvous, 1992.)
The prophets in the Old Testament were there to remind the Jewish people, especially their kings, when they were straying from the path of righteousness. I am here to remind you when you are straying from the course of justice and charity with regard to how you treat the rest of humankind. I unfortunately have no ability to call down the power of "I AM THAT I AM," when you are unjust or lack charity. I have only the power of my knowledge and my words.
I hope that is enough.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
