The Tea Party's America

A few months ago I stopped into a local fast food restaurant for lunch. It was after the lunch rush and there was only one woman working the counter and one cook in the back. The woman waiting on me appeared to be in her late fifties or sixties, and looked very tired. As I was placing my order, an older gentleman who had been in the dinning area began heading toward the exit. The woman behind the counter shouted at him and ran around the counter, grabbed him and ushered him back to his seat. She returned to the counter, apologized and began taking my order again. Once again she had to stop before I was finished and lead the older man back to his seat.

When she returned, she explained with tears in her eyes that the man was her father and he had advanced Alzheimer’s. I told her I understood what she was going through because my mother had died with the disease three years earlier. The woman told me, "Back when I had a full-time job I took him to an Alzheimer’s day care Monday through Friday, but they aren’t open on weekends.” She went on to say that her manager was not working that day, but she was pretty sure when her boss found out she was bringing her dad to work with her, she would lose this job too.

Our local congresswoman, Marsha Blackburn (TN), is a Tea Party Republican who voted against healthcare reform and was opposed to extending unemployment benefits. If anyone in her family is stricken with a catastrophic disease, she will certainly be able to adequately provide for their needs…with the nice salary, health benefits and perks provided to her through the taxes on low wage earners like the people in her district working multiple minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet. 

Captain, Captain- The Everly Brothers

Qualifications for Being a Servant

"You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

The Truly Righteous Always Promote Justice

Any way you read it...

Proverbs 29:7 NIV -- The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

Proverbs 29:7 NASB -- The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor, The wicked does not understand such concern.

Proverbs 29:7 CEV -- The wicked don't care about the rights of the poor, but good people do.

Proverbs 29:7 KJV -- The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.

Proverbs 29:7 ESV -- A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.

False Doctrine

Matthew 4:23: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

John 14:12:  “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

History proves that Jesus was not saying in John 14:12 that each believer would perform greater miracles than He did. Rather, the gathered disciples, the church, in the power of the Holy Spirit would do “greater” works than Jesus in both number and geographic territory. So if Jesus both preached the Gospel and healed the sick, then it follows that those who call themselves his disciples should be doing likewise.

I find it quite ironic then that the Christian Right who are so self-assured in their belief that they are the “true” followers of Christ today, are determined to deny adequate health care to those who cannot afford it.  In the guise of “protecting” them from the so-called inadequacies of “socialized medicine” Tea Party and conservative Republican Christians want to deny to the unemployed, under-employed, and low wage workers any access at all to the healthcare they and their families need. Thus the working poor and the unemployed are left without the opportunity for the healing Jesus provided for free to those who needed it by the very people who claim to be His followers.

Too many of those who have been called by Christ to do what “I have been doing” for the poor and disfranchised among us are instead putting most of their time and energy into protecting their tax shelters; leaving the least of Christ’s brothers (Matt. 25:40) to fend for themselves. 

St. Jerome

"All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor." -- St. Jerome

St. Jerome is recognized as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. I am neither, but being an orthodox Christian (small “o”) and a pro-labor, pro-civil rights, pro-immigrant Democrat, his teaching certainly resonates with me. I can’t help but wonder how right-wing Republican and Tea Party activists in the Catholic and Orthodox faiths reconcile their beliefs with the words of this early church father.

Love vs Doctrine

It amazes me that so many people who profess to be followers of the One whose birth we celebrate today believe that intellectual assent to the “right” doctrine somehow trumps Jesus’ own claims that His true followers are those who demonstrate love towards others, especially toward “the least of these brothers of mine” (Matthew 25:40).

"I will make you a great nation..."

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." (Gen 12:2 NIV)

As a pastor and Sunday School teacher I have always taught that verse means God's Covenanted People (first the genetic offspring of Abraham, the Jews, then his spiritual offspring, the Church) were "blessed to be a blessing."  I have taught that the passage could be correctly translated, "...I will bless you...so that (or in order that) you will be a blessing to others."

But I recently discovered that in both the Hebrew and the LXX, the phrase "you will be a blessing" in verse 2 is in the imperative.  It is not a statement, it is a command.  In other words, God is saying, "I'm going to make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and because I will do this for you, I command you to bless others."  The Hebrew people forfeited their blessing in part because they refused to obey the command to be a blessing to other nations.

In the Bible, the words “nation” and “nations” refer more to people groups (ethnic, cultural, etc.) than to geographic boundaries.  So I can’t help but wonder what God thinks of Tea Party type Christians who promote cultural isolation and building walls to keep the “nations” out rather than building bridges of blessings.

In my own personal struggle between balancing time spent in personal piety (prayer, Bible study, etc.) and service to others (chaplaincy, S.S. teaching, advocating for "the least of these" (Matt 25:40), visiting/helping those who are hurting in some way, etc.), it does seem to indicate that being a blessing is at least as important as being blessed.

Workingclass Nostalgia

I found this poem by Marge Piercy on the web:

I remember Detroit when it hummed
with factories like an army of bees
all day, all night. I remember downtown
when it felt too fancy for us, Hudsons
with window displays of clothes
we might find secondhand 
in a year or two or three.

I remember Detroit when Grand River
was bright with stores arguing
for your paycheck. The bars
thrummed with our music.
You might have to lie to get a job
if you were Jewish, or be turned
down if you were Black, but jobs

filled the papers we marked with
crayon circles. Who sucked
the money out? Who sent the jobs
overseas to gut the unions?
They live out in the more distant
suburbs where we never went
except as maids, way past

the end of the bus lines.
Invisible unless we appear
where we don’t belong among
decision makers who view us
as beasts of burden. They are
persons; we are only numbers.

Getting Richer

In 1915 the richest 1 percent of Americans possessed about 18 percent of the nation's income.  Today, the richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's income.  Most of the increase came during the last 30 years.  Is it any coincidence that the rich were getting richer at the same time so many middle class and working class jobs were being “outsourced” overseas? I think not.

I cannot help but wonder how many, if any, of those 1 percent who purport to be Christians have ever meditated on (or even read) any of the following verses:

  

Acts 2:44-45 NIV -- All the believers were together and had everything in common.   Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Acts 4:32-35 NIV -- All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.   With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales  and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Luke 18:25 NIV -- Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

James 5:1-6 NIV -- Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.  Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.  Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.  You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.  You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.