I see one of our nation’s greatest attributes diminishing - kindness.
We’re known around the world for kindness, but I see this quality of character taking quite a beating under the onslaught of t-party values and right-wing crabbiness, with far too many Christians either ignoring the progressive loss of kindness or, worse, cheering it on in some kind of an upside-down misconstrual of the gospel.
And this worries me.
As it did Jeremiah, as he watched his beloved nation slide further and further into a very dark hole, wherein the wealthy were privileged and living in pleasure and three representative categories of people were slipping deeper into distress.
Jeremiah identifies three groups who are the victims of his nation’s greed - aliens, widows and orphans. People who ordinarily have no social voice or economic clout. Only a nation with compassion and kindness will address their needs. But as Judah slipped further away from God, all the while claiming to be righteous (“The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” - Jeremiah 7), compassion died on the vine before a harvest.
Jesus quotes Jeremiah in the context of his condemnation of the temple, and his instructive warning to beware of the scribes, or legal experts, who devour widows’ homes and then say long prayers. When Jesus sits by the treasury to watch people depositing their money, nothing how easily the wealthy drop in large sums, while noting a widow who puts in her last two copper coins, he notes her situation, not as an example of giving, nor does he lift up her virtue as a giver, but she’s a victim of a heartless system that would willingly take “all she has on which to live,” and put into a treasury that can only benefit the already-wealthy. Indeed, she’s a singular example of those widows whose homes are being devoured by the legal experts for the sake of the wealthy.
All of this dressed up in religion: the use of religion to bless business, and the transformation of business into religion.
We have taken the very people Jeremiah identifies as vulnerable, and the victimized widow of Mark, and turned them into “bad people” who are parasites on the system, lazy and irresponsible, depriving the upper-crust of their self-proclaimed share of the pie.
That some should feel this way is a contradiction of our better angels, so to speak, a denial of something vital to America’s identity. But what truly disappoints me is the failure of Christians to identify this decline and lament it’s loss in the American character.
Sadly, a lot of Christians have bought the story of the t-party as if it were the gospel, and it makes no sense whatsoever, for nothing could be further from the gospel than the bitterness and crabbiness of the t-party and right-wing ranters. Their childish complaints about government and their idolization of the wealthy as “job-providers” doesn’t square at all with history, nor does it reflect anything of the Gospel.
Furthermore, it’s a message being proclaimed in many pulpit, but then, many a pulpit has become nothing more than a message-chair to ease the pains of the life and give us a good night’s sleep. Preachers go on and on about marriage, children, success and self-esteem, while Jesus slips further into the shadows of our forgetfulness.
Yes, this disturbs me deeply.
But my greatest distress is the failure of so many Christians to do anything about it.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI think that your comparison of the nation of Israel in Jeremiah's day and the people of the USA today is valid. It is something I pray about often. Kindness is so difficult to distribute by government! It seems a personal thing. I struggle with the concept. I am often convicted: How can I tell him to look for a job if I don't offer him one cutting my grass or pulling my weeds. Of course, I have done that, and found the job wasn't really wanted...
It isn't black and white.
I have a question about your interpretation of the story of the widow. I re-read both the Mark and Luke accounts, and the context of them. (Couldn't find the Jeremiah quote...) I feel like Jesus does use the widow as an example of giving: She willingly gave all that she had -- to God. She didn't think she was filling the coffers of the fat-cat Pharisees, but was giving her all to God. Jesus commends her for THAT. It seems to me Jesus is saying (Judy's expanded version) "You disciples are admiring the large amounts put in the treasury by the rich, but compared to all they have, it means nothing. You should admire what this widow has put it -- It is everything she has. That is what God wants from you." Jesus doesn't present this widow as a victim, but as a true believer.
But yes! The pharisees are deeply criticized by Jesus for their hypocrisy. They used their power and wealth to line their own pockets. That is wrong.
And, I am sorry to say that I see this happening by Democrats just as much as by Republicans More and more I distrust everything the media says. The Tea Party doesn't have it all right, either, but I think you don't really understand who they are, or what they are saying. ( I am married to a man who thinks a lot of their stuff makes sense.) And living in the middle of an agricultural district, where people are close to the "real things of life," where our unemployment is in the high 20's because of government interventions, perhaps it is understandable when I shake my head at some of the stuff you say. It is the opposite of what seems to be needed here in the San Joaquin Valley.
You seem also to lump all Christians in the same basket. (Excepting yourself, of course.) I have not heard any sermons as you describe in my church. I see people giving, sharing, spreading the Gospel: Jesus loves you so much that he "made himself nothing...and became obedient to death." We do this in kindness and love. Because He loves us.
But the MANNER of doing is not the same for all. God has made us with great diversity. If you treat anyone who differs in opinion as somehow less intelligent than you are, you are being arrogant. Anyway, that is how I often react when I read your posts.
In Christ.
Judy