TV Has Made Us All Monsters

 

This picture shows a religious family (drawn in Norman Rockwell Style) praying at the table, ignoring the starving African child. While one of the points of the drawing is about how we in our comfortable settings can easily ignore poverty, even in prayer, yet the commentary is deeper still.

The title of this picture is: TV has Made Us All Monsters. It isn't just that we can ignore poverty, but that because poverty, war and famine have been displayed in the same context as our most trite entertainment, that we have found it easy to ignore. When everything is presented in 15 second sound bites, we cannot become compassionate about anything. We ignore the face of poverty because the medium is commanding us to look at the very next thing.

For more sad commentary on how television has influenced our society, go to my blog "Radical Teachings for the 21st Century" and look up the posts labeled "Entertainment Revolution"

Capitalism As an Idol

My friend, Craig Morton, has challenged me to make a comment on the Wall Street crisis and the bail out. I don't usually comment directly on newspaper headlines, prefering the news that isn't so obvious and sticking to the Bible, but since he wants to hear my opinion, I'll give it.

Frankly, the whole thing is stupid.

Republicans are supposed to be all about capitalism. I just listened to a debate about national health care and how much "better" a free market system is for health care than socialized medicine. But this debate focuses on an ideal of capitalism, not how it really works.

The ideal of capitalism is this: That a businessman wants to make money. He or she will only make money if he provides what the consumer needs or wants. If the consumer obtains what he or she needs or wants at a price that seems equitable, then the businessman, in the end, will make money. Then both the consumer and the businessman have benefited.

This is the ideal situation as described by the moral and economic philosopher, Adam Smith. What most people don't realize, however, is that Adam Smith was operating on the assumption of a common misperception in the eighteenth century: the noble noble. That the person with money feels a moral obligation to assist those under him and act in their benefit. Smith, before he wrote his book on the Wealth of the Nation, wrote a moral philosophy about empathy, and how it is the foundation of moral action. Smith assumed that the wealthy who had power would have empathy with those under them, and so act for them. It is a basic underlying principle of Smith's capitalism. (Jefferson and other framers of the Constitution had the same false assumption. It is from this assumption that the electoral college was created, causing much consternation in modern American politics.)

But the reality of capitalism is different: The businessman wants to make money. If the businessman can trick the consumer into wanting what he or she doesn't really need or to lie to them to say that they are providing what isn't really there, then the businessman can make money and the consumer is defrauded.

The fact is, in modern capitalism, the bottom line is the bottom line. It is all about profit, no matter who gets harmed.

What does the Bible say? When talking about economics it has much to say to the rich who take advantage of those under them. For example, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be a testimony against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you hve stored up your treasure!" (James 5:1-3)

Jesus said, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven... for where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also."

If Bush and McCain and the rest of Congress were really as "Christian" as they say they are, they wouldn't be interested in "bailing out" corporations who acted on greed, trying to get something for nothing, when they knew there was no real capital behind it. They wouldn't be trying to support the corporations, who in their greed, undermined the economy and caused people to lose their homes.

Rather, they would assist the poor and needy who are suffering the most. The enormous amount of money could be given to corporations who didn't break the law or who recognized the obvious fact that giving loans to people without capital is idiotic and damaging to the consumer.

But no. As much as the pro-capitalists talk about a "free market" and "letting the market balance itself out", in reality, all they want is to use government money to support the people they see as the "good guys"-- the wealthy who are interested in making more money for themselves.

So for all you prayers of the Lord's prayer-- I just want to let you know that each time you pray "Your kingdom come" you are asking God to destroy this system of capitalism in which everyone is the slave of the wealthy corporation and to replace it with a system in which the poor who seeks the benefit of others who are poor will receive the greatest "bail out" of all-- all the wealth of the nations.

Relationships With The Poor

This article is adapted by Amigos MCUSA from a book review by IsaacV
on the Young Anabaptist Radicals blog, available at:
http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/07/08/book-review-simple-spirituality-by-christopher-heuertz/#comments

Relationships that open us to God

Christopher L. Heuertz doesn't claim to offer any secrets to spiritual
success. Instead, he shares what God is teaching him through his
friends, who happen to be the poorest of the poor.

In Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World (InterVarsity
Press, 2008), Heuertz's spirituality isn't a call to close your eyes
and think about God; instead, friendships with the poor make
friendship with God possible.

Our parents were right: we are who we hang out with. Our friends shape
who we are. That's not something to run from. Humans are relational
animals. There's no such thing as autonomy; it's a delusion. The
fibers of our being, Heuertz notes, "are made for relationships" (54).
But we can choose with whom we form these friendships. Our hope is
that the church may be a place where those friendships can happen. But
what does it mean when our churches don't welcome the poor?

Are we on the side of the poor?

Or, to put it more strongly, what does it mean when we aren't begging
the beggars to worship with us? Heuertz doesn't mince words: "If our
community makes no room for those who are poor, our community loses
all credibility" (58). While Jim Wallis is trying to fight for justice
on the national scale, Heuertz offers a much more intimate vision, one
that transforms our daily lives: "We work not for justice for everyone
but instead to ensure that we're on the 'right' side of the poverty
line" (58). Are we on the side of the poor?

That's his question. This isn't a political platform for a lobby
group. Rather, it's about what side of town we live on. Who are our
neighbors, who are our friends, who sits next to us when we worship,
who eats at our table? These questions mess with our lives. They haunt
our everyday decisions. But these questions also send us to the poor,
who offer us intimacy with God. And typically God shakes up our lives
so God can offer us an unimaginably better one.

Overflowing abundance gets messy

Jesus: "I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly."
But overflowing abundance gets really messy. "We want to let God in,"
writes Heuertz, "but usually on our terms. We want to make room for
Christ to reign on the thrones of our hearts, but only a clean Christ
who doesn't make a mess of our lives" (63).

Heuertz writes, "Jesus' ministry was not to the upper class, the
educated, the elite or the most influential social figures. Jesus came
and ministered among those who were poor, with the poor and as a poor
man. His ministry was to the children, those who were begging, victims
of leprosy, the woman at the well, the woman caught in the act of
adultery, the tax collectors, the fishermen communities and those on
the margins.

Following Jesus alongside common people

"Jesus came to the common people and lived alongside them. As a
church, we must learn new ways to celebrate our faith inclusively so
that those on the margins of society will feel welcome – and so that
our love and acceptance of the other will aid in our paths to
holiness. Jesus' ministry was marked with a distinctive compassion for
the oppressed poor" (69).

I am grateful to Heuertz and his friends for showing me that such an
abundant life is possible. I can't begin to do justice to Heuertz's
storytelling; that's what makes the book a must read. Read it for the
stories of real life, of real friendship, of people we can never meet
because they are dead now. And also read it for the joy of abundant
life, the joy of Christ's resurrected life, a life broken open for
us..

The American Dream

Ultimately, all of the great American heroes were after one thing: The American Dream. George Washington sought freedom. Benjamin Franklin sought independence. Thomas Jefferson sought security. Alexander Hamilton sought financial freedom. Abraham Lincoln sought unity. Martin Luther King, Jr. sought equality. They all had a vision that together we can call the American Dream. The American dream was broad in its vision, and they all saw the United States as being a beacon for the whole world, an ideal for all the oppressed to hold to.
However, over time, the American dream evolved. It has been taken up by advertisers, real estate agents, television shows, and cigarette manufacturers. Rather than being a quality of life, it has taken on the characteristics of a particular kind of life—a life of a certain economic level, a certain kind of work, a certain level of materialism.

Freedom
The freedom of the enlightenment idealists was originally an opportunity for everyone to reach to their highest moral and spiritual self. But our society has taken this freedom to be to partake in the lowest common denominator of pornography, greed, violence, covetousness and gluttony, while causing only a limited amount of harm to others.

Equality
The ideal of the American dream is that of equality, so that all are treated with fairness and justice, no matter what society or culture or race they are in. Now equality is meant to limit one’s choices to hundreds of channels on television, but if someone wants to live a different lifestyle, they are punished by having their children taken away from them.

Financial security
The financial security envisioned is that of living according to one’s own means, at whatever level that means. But this has been transformed to greed, with even the poor wondering what they have done wrong to fail to obtain the riches promised them. The wealthy, meanwhile, must keep a serving class of minimum-wage workers (or below minimum wage) in order to maintain their wealth. The greed of the ruling culture is based on the poverty of the lower class.

Luxury
The comfort of the idealists was equally realized in Thomas Jefferson, the inventor and (writer of Walden), the creator of the simple life. There was a variety of lifestyles which kept one at peace with one’s environment and society. But our society has taken comfort to be that of material comfort, with a minimum of physical effort for that life. This has turned into a culture of entitlement, where we don’t just hope for a materialist lifestyle, but expect it and think that we all deserve it.

Freedom of employment
To have work is to be able to be self-sustaining, to pay for one’s own life and family, whatever lifestyle that might be. But now, in order to obtain the lifestyle of greed, we must go the avenue of seeking the patronage and goals of one whose purpose in life is to make money, which he promises to share some sparse percentage of with the one whom he employs. We are trapped in a job ethic that we hate, but we cannot escape.

Democratic ideal
The democratic ideal that was originally held is rule by the people for the sake of the people. But somehow this has been translated to a plutocratic republic—where the only “people” who rule are the wealthy, for the sake of the wealthy. Then this ideal of government is imported to other nations when the “people” there don’t want this form of democracy, but a religious republic.

Security
The Constitution says that the United States must “provide for the common defense”. Yet this “defense” has become a military complex and society that shapes the rest of the country in support of it’s world-wide mission to promote American welfare. The result of this is a constant fear of those who want to limit American influence to its own country, even if they have no violent intent.

Happiness
Ideally, Thomas Jefferson wrote, the American dream is the freedom to pursue happiness. But the American dream today is not the pursuit of happiness, but the direct injection of it. All we want for our children is that they be “happy”. But happiness is found so much easier in an injection, mental health meds, alcohol, television or escapist novels. The harder to obtain, but more content-producing happiness of service, charity, peacemaking and working for God isn’t sought first or even primarily. They are small parts of our life that we gladly surrender when more direct happiness appears or is offered by our cable companies, drug dealers or health care specialists.

Our salvation is limited to what our society can give us. Our opportunities are limited to what we think we should have. Our choices are limited by what everyone thinks is best for us.

Yet there is another option, we are not limited to what our society offers us. Because Jesus offers us a different lifestyle.

Freedom in Jesus
Jesus offers us freedom from our own limitations. He offers us freedom from our own limited morality. He offers us freedom from a pointless existence of self-pleasuring, self-serving, self-pandering. Jesus offers us the power of God and the lifestyle that He himself lived in order to make a powerful change for good in this country, in the world. Jesus calls us to be more than human, to live according to the Spirit instead of the flesh.

Security in Jesus
Jesus offers us all the resources of God, without typical employment, without serving a society of greed. Rather, we can trust in God’s provision, trust in unseen defenses, trust in God’s ways to make a road of security for us and our family in the midst of that which the world fears.

Peace in Jesus
Jesus offers us a peace that is borne by the Spirit, not by a false security of missiles, diplomacy and economic sanctions. He offers us a peace that comes from within, a peace that we can transfer to others and help others live in.

Community in Jesus
Jesus offers us a people who is in the midst of creating a society based on the revolutionary ideals of Jesus, instead of the lowest common denominator. Jesus offers us people to live with, to share with, to work with, to pray with, to rejoice with and to support and minister to. Jesus offers us a full life, instead of the half-life of the American Dream.

Joy in Jesus
Jesus offers us joy—not just entertainment. Yes, this is joy in persecution, happiness amidst suffering. But this is the life of richness, the life of fullness, the life of God.

Why is the American Dream what the church seek, when Jesus says the kingdom of God is found through the loss of the American Dream?
Why is the American Dream the primary option offered to our children, when it fails us in so many ways?
Why is the American Dream the only real option offered to the poor, as if that is the true salvation offered by Jesus?
Where are the saints who sacrificed themselves for the poor?
Where are the godly who knew that one could either have God’s kingdom or the world’s?

Ultimately, it is because our church has accepted the American Dream as the true salvation.

Let’s not go the way of the standard church. Let’s not be content with half-lives any more.

Seek the community of Jesus