Confession seldom heard. . .

"Saint Francis Xavier, the noble Jesuit missionary, said that in the confessional men had confessed to him all sins that he knew and some that he had never imagined, but none had ever of his own accord confessed that he was covetous."

 

Christianity and the Social Crisis

Walter Rauschenbusch



When evil marries profit. . .

"Ordinary sin is an act of weakness and side-stepping, followed by shame the next day. But when it is the source of prolific income, it is no longer a shame-faced vagabond slinking through the dark, but an army with banners, entrenched and defiant. The bigger the dividends, the stiffer the resistance against anything that would cut them down. When fed with money, sin grows wings and claws."

Walter Rauschenbusch
from A Theology of the Social Gospel, 1917

Greed or Enterprise

Ran across this interesting essay written by Charles Kadlec and published in the on-line jouranl, Business Insider, last week.  The column appears in a section tagged  "the Daily Reckoning." 

It's worth reading.  Let me know what you think after you've read it.  What do you make of his distinctions?

Enterprise, Not Greed, Creates A Better World
The Daily Reckoning
Mar. 16, 2011, 3:58 PM

Greed: The word itself has become central to the political debate over the budget, taxes, union benefits, what constitutes ethical behavior, and the shape of our society.

The problem is the indiscriminate use of the word has blurred its meaning.

Those on the left use the word as an epitaph against the successful as epitomized by Sen. Bernie Sanders “When is enough enough?” he asked in his impassioned plea for raising tax rates “on the rich.”

But at the same time, those on the right embrace “greed” as vital to the functioning of our economy. Economist Walter Williams, for example, wrote in his essay “The Virtue of Greed,” “It’s greed and not compassion that gets things done.”

This lack of moral clarity threatens our liberty. It destroys our ability to distinguish between theft and the pursuit of happiness; between vice and virtue, and undermines our ability to be a self-governing people based on the norms of ethical behavior.

To read the entire article click here.

The Big Short

Seeking a better understanding of the Wall Street collapse?

Wondering what was behind the almost complete financial failure of the nation's economy?

Then, you need to take a look at Randy Mayeux's very helpful synopsis of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis.

Just click here to find Randy's very helpful work.

Randy Mayeux presents extremely valuable book synopses on the first Thursday of each month (noon Highland Park United Methodist Church--on campus at SMU) and on the third Thursday of each month (noon First United Methodist Church Downtown at Harwood and Ross).  Join us for a noon-time refresher.  We're always out before 1:15 p.m.

"The Gospel of Getting Rich"

A few days ago over in Fort Worth, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland hosted a conference for "prosperity gospel" devotees.

The New York Times reported on the event and the mindset back of it. Here's a taste of the article (photo from same source):

Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich
by LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: August 15, 2009

FORT WORTH — Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of “prosperity gospel” preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.

Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds.

“God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,” preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.’s.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times.

The preachers barely acknowledged the recession, though they did say it was no excuse to curtail giving. “Fear will make you stingy,” Mr. Copeland said.

But the offering buckets came up emptier than in some previous years, said those who have attended before.

Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement’s current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry.

“If God did it for them, he will do it for us,” said Edwige Ndoudi, who traveled with her husband and three children from Canada for the Southwest Believers’ Convention this month, where the Copelands and three of their friends took turns preaching for five days, 10 hours a day at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

You can read the entire report here, if you like.

Frankly, it was a hard read for me.

So, Jesus once told his followers that he had no where to lay his head.

He owned nothing.

He lived as a very, very poor man.

He counseled his followers and would-be followers to sell all that they owned and give the income to the poor.

He invited people to follow him in a radical life of self-denial for the sake of the marginalized, the hungry, the rejected and the untouchable.

He spoke often of "laying up treasure in heaven," one of his favorite phrases. Whenever he used that intriguing phrase, he always connected the earthly "deposit branch" to some clear benefit for the poor in the here and now.

He blasted greedy preachers and self-serving religious leaders as oppressors, not a category to which one should seek inclusion by God's standards!

No wonder we have problems today with poverty.

Is anyone listening to this weird guy named Jesus?

Religious expression like that which the Copelands hawk serves only to turn completely upside down all of the values by which people of faith should be formed and challenged.

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Misplaced love

A Sunday meditation:

"We brought nothing into the world; for that matter we cannot take anything with us when we leave, but if we have food and covering we may rest content. Those who want to be rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and perdition. The love of money is the root of all evil things, and there are some who in reaching for it have wandered from the faith and spiked themselves on many thorny griefs."

Saint Paul
1 Timothy 6:7-10
The New English Bible

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Considering the enemies of justice and fairness

It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

J. R. R. Tolkien

Breaking News from the Buckle of the Bible Belt: Bob Dylan, Gerald Britt and poverty, greed and materialism in Good Old Dallas, Texas

Mark Perrin, a friend, a darned good attorney and a man who cares about justice and poverty in Dallas and the nation, sent me the following note after our annual prayer breakfast and Mayoral Forum yesterday:

Doug and I were touched by our time at the breakfast this morning. Thank you.

Please tell Reverend Britt that, in our opinion, "soulless materialism laced with random acts of charity" is the best and most significant line since Bob Dylan wrote "people don't do what they believe in, they do what's most convenient - then they repent."

Thanks, Mark! And, of course, Gerald's statement, as always, was brilliant and powerful!

We have a lot left to do here in Dallas, don't we?