A reporter recently asked me, "As a Christian leader, does your faith have anything to say about Wall Street?" I said, "How much time do you have?" My faith has a lot to say about Wall Street.
Theologian Karl Barth said, "We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other." For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.
In his parables, Jesus wasn't offering pie-in-the-sky theology... he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song "Jesus Christ". The song ends with Woody singing, "This song was written in New York City... If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again."
The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: "God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly... God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty..." You can't help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this - over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.
What would Jesus say about Wall Street?
It doesn't get much better than Luke chapter 12. Jesus begins by saying, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." And then, as per usual, he tells a story. The story is about a "rich man" whose business makes it big. He has so much stuff he doesn't know where to put it all. So he decides, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones... and I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'" But Jesus says God looks down and is not happy. God says to the rich man, "You fool! This very night you will die -- and what will happen to all your stuff?" And Jesus ends the teaching by saying this is how things will be for folks who store up stuff for themselves.
It does make you wonder what to do about 401k's and pensions. But it seems pretty clear that Jesus isn't a big fan of stockpiling stuff in barns and banks, especially when folks are dying of starvation and preventable diseases.
One of the constant threads of Scripture is "Give us this day our daily bread." Nothing more, nothing less. Underneath this admonition is the assumption that the more we store up for tomorrow the less people will have for today. And in a world where 1% of the world owns half the world's stuff, we are beginning to realize that there is enough for everyone's need, but there is not enough for everyone's greed. Lots of folks are beginning to say, "Maybe God has a different dream for the world than the Wall Street dream."
Maybe God's dream is for us to live simply so that others may simply live. Maybe God's dream is for the bankers to empty their banks and barns so folks have enough food for today.
Woody Guthrie may be right. If Jesus came to Wall Street preaching the same message that he preached in Galilee... he might land himself on a cross again.
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: What Does Wall Street Really Want?
Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson: Helping Each Other Find The Way at Occupy Wall Street
The Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D.: God's Economy
I humbly and respectfully submit that the Bible appears to suggest that the only reliable way to discern that balance point is through intimate relationship with and leadership by God. Otherwise, as the Bible appears to suggest, human fallibility appears to render humanity incapable of accurately discerning current conditions, optimal conditions and the best path forward. Worse, human fallibility appears to also render humanity somewhat incapable of caring sufficiently about others to make the right personal economic consumption and contribution decisions.
We ran up the credit cards, we spent more than we made, we bought houses with nothing down that were too much for us to afford. We have to look at our own lives and motivations and address them and get the log from our own eyes before we start in on the bigger fish. I recently posted an interesting perspective on all of this on my blog entitled "Dear Occupy Wall Street- A Letter By Dave Ramsey" that speaks to these things. You can find it here http://www.cfinancialfreedom.com/CFFwordpress/?p=625
It should also be noted that plenty of people who have a lot of money are very decent human beings.
I am using "religion" to cover what people might call anti-religion. Anti-religion stems from the same basis of faith in unseen truths and supposed moral teachings as religion. Why not call it a religion. The same way Communism functioned as a religion. This particular (anti-)religion isn't Capitalism (which is a secular idea). It's GREED.
Passing laws against greed would be religious persecution (and that's how the Republicans seem to view it). But we can and should pass laws that make it ineffectual.
The greed you talk about, do you think that is a Republican thing? How many times has the current Democratic President went pandering to Wall Street in the past twelve months alone? For two years Democrats had control of all three brances of government, and did nothing (or at least nothing that seemed to help the economy at all).
I want to stress the point that the present day Republicans are horrible, horrible leaders who show little signs of representing the wishes of their constituents. Unfortunately, I feel the exact same way about the Democrats.
The fact that so many people get caught up in the R vs D game, is a contributing factor to how the powers that be continue to get away with the things that they do. It's as simple as divide and conquer for them.
I suggest the pope, the cardinals, the bishops, priests and nuns from around the world gather in Vatican city. I further suggest they all remove their so called religious garments and vacate Vatican city.
Jesus was not a stupid or thoughtless person. He would show concern for wall street but he would be standing outside the gates of Vatican city demanding its surrender.
Until enough civil minded people focus on the root problem of deception layered over many centuries by this organization nothing will change for the better.
Instead of twisting the spear head in Jesus side day after day, clasp your hands behind your backs and offer one of them to Jesus spirit. He might like the feel of flesh once again.
Also, while I have no doubt the Son of Man would NOT care for many excesses that many/most of us strive for, there is another side of this coin that the article seems to ignore.
What would our Lord say about healthy, able-bodied people that choose not to take care of themselves? What would He say about people that simply do not work, knowing that The State will provide for them (shifting the burden to other people who may already be struggling to make ends meet)?
Regarding money (the actual dollars and cents), the main thing I think of was when asked about taxes, He said (paraphrase) "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"
Do you have some reason to believe that most unemployed or underemployed are anything but unlucky, sick, or old? Do you assume that all people can work and just choose not to? In what way are struggling people made to pay for others? Struggling people tend to have relatively little income. They would not be taxed highly to pay for others if their income is low.
Your description of giving to Caesar that which is Caesar's was Jesus' way of not starting on a negative note. He wanted to discuss the poor, the sick, and religious issues. He did not want to start a row by not paying taxes to the Romans.
I am struggling, and I pay taxes.
As for giving to Caesar Caesar's and God God's, this is significant not because of Caesar but because of God. WE belong to God, and so we should give our entire "heart, soul, strength and mind" to Him and His will (partaking in the Sacraments, giving to the poor, etc.). The rest (needing a hot new car, etc.), the passage stresses, is insignificant.
I think you hit it on the nail about able people not working. Christ helped both the "marginalised" and the "sick". Your hypothetical "lazy" man is not marginalised, and therefore needs not charity but someone to help him from the capital sin (spiritual sickness) of sloth via better work ethics haha.
P.S. I really like your previous comment about Reps and Dems. Very insightful, thanks!
You have given me an often needed reminder that as far as my own personal study of religion goes, it is still more about asking better questions than finding definitive answers.
And the churches would be calling Him anti-Christ.