Those on the political "right" continue to try to gut aid to individual citizens and families who are in need, while continuing to give HUGE "entitlements" to corporations, and allowing the wealthy not to pay their fair share of taxes...
A sampling of the IMMORALITY of this from The Word:
THE LAW:
Deuteronomy 15:7-11
Deuteronomy 24:14,15
... among others...
THE PROPHETS:
Amos 2:4-8
5:21-24
6:4-7
8:4-7
James 2:14-17
4:1-10
5:1-6
Ezekiel 34:1-10
... among others...
THE GOSPELS
Mark 12:38-44
Matthew 20:1-16
25:31-46
Luke 6:46-49
9:12-17
12:13-21
16:19-31
... among others...
Compassion for those whom Jesus loves is not a concern for those who are selfishly motivated by greed and have an interest to exploit the poor so they can get more for themselves. Since 1981, that has been the agenda of the political/christian "right", which is WRONG - the "Christians" giving lip service to Jesus while giving their devotion to Mammon, Mars and Bacchus (Mark 7:6-8)... mean-spirited, ruthless, self-centered, greedy, power hungry, exploitative, intolerant, classist, sexist, racist and homophobic are NOT Christian Values, not according to the Gospel of Jesus!
Who you vote for reflects whose way you value as a believer... read the Gospels before the election, concentrating on what Jesus taught and exemplified (especially His imperative statements), and look at what each candidate would do for the most vulnerable and what they would do for the most powerful and wealthy... on whose side is Jesus? It is clear...
Pastor Jamie
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Arrogance of Entitlement
It is with a strong sense of privilege, arrogance that anyone would -
Travel to a far away land, plant their own nation's flag on it, exploit and kill the people who were already there when they "discovered" it, and then kidnap people from another part of the world and use them for slave labor for 400+ years... believing that there should be no understanding of how that might affect those who were victims of it for generations or recompense for it...
Squat on lands that belonged to people of another nation for generations, claiming it for their own, and then squabble with them over it and claim to be victims when some of them who refused to leave were killed "defending" a mission, only to steal the land in a bogus treaty... and THEN treat shamefully others from that same nation who generations later come across the border "illegally" to find work so they can support their starving families who live in the nation that originally lost the wide expanse of land and water.
Plant the logos of our nation's corporations in foreign lands and get our government to manipulate international law to allow these corporations to pollute the air, water and land, waste the natural resources and exploit the poorest in their nations for our corporations' profits, giving them tax breaks in the deal and lay off our own nation's workers in the process... and THEN claim that people in foreign nations hate us because they hate "freedom"????
Claim that ANYONE stole their job, just because they are white and/or male and/or straight in America, as if they were ENTITLED to it to begin with.
Claim that they are JOB CREATORS and should not have to pay their fair share of taxes because they are so and might be less likely to employ people if they have to pay their fair share, being the SAME ONES who laid off millions for their own profit while they WERE getting tax breaks!
ANYONE who says, "We're going to take the country back.", while claiming that their statement has nothing to do with race.
Claiming ANYONE is engaging in "Class Warfare" when, for 31 years they have run roughshod over laborers in our nation at will, have kept people out of equal education, healthcare, housing, employment and empowerment and have done all they can to keep from paying their taxes, while millions suffer so they can get more profit for themselves.
Claiming that VOTER SUPPRESSION is to keep "voter fraud" from happening, when they themselves have rigged TWO ELECTIONS and there is such a small number of voter fraud cases cited that there is NO WAY it could EVER justify disenfranchising millions of voters who would most likely vote for the opposing candidate, all while claiming that they value democracy and that it has nothing to do with race or class?????
Leaving alone a political system that is run by corporations through their lobbyists, PACS and Wall Street, designed to keep those already with power and wealth in power and wealth, and keeps any other independent or third-party candidates from public view, cutting programs for the poor and most vulnerable among us while cutting the taxes of the wealthy, while actively working to keep the poor poor by keeping them away from the voting booths.
Leaving alone an economic system that is also run by the same corporate heads who designed the system to get their wealth on the backs of the poor and lower middle class (needing to keep 6% of the population unemployed for the rest of us to prosper), and who believe they should not have to pay taxes or have profit limits, and scream about "welfare" while collecting billions in "entitlements" - CORPORATE WELFARE... screaming "hands off" to government regarding regulation all the while as "free enterprise", while expecting bail-outs if they fail... and wanting to legislate what people do in their bedrooms...
ANYONE who believes that they are truly "self made", or that they could have "made it" with the obstacles and inequities that for generations others have had to overcome just to survive...
Those who stand on their rights to "religious liberty" in this country, while trying to keep anyone who practices another faith from having any expressions of their faith in public... who scream when the government makes it impossible for religious employers to discriminate against citizens regarding healthcare, even over "religious" reasons, while screaming that others might get ANY rights for their faith systems...
Believing that average American citizens should be able to own weapons of mass destruction (that can kill a person a second), while we should do WHATEVER IT TAKES to keep other nations from having nuclear weapon capabilities, while we have as many as we want...
Claiming to be RIGHT TO LIFE while being in favor of THE DEATH PENALTY...
Wanting to sanction other nations for their human rights violations, while we treat resident aliens shamefully, keep our women making 26% less than males in the same jobs, making a minimum wage that is not a living wage, refusing our citizens healthcare, enforcing strict penalties for "urban" drugs while making "suburban" drugs barely a misdemeanor, and KEEPING OUR OWN CITIZENS FROM VOTING... having UNEQUAL education, healthcare, employment, safety, marriage, housing and other basic human needs that should be basic, human rights for any CIVILIZED nation...
It is out of such arrogant beliefs in entitlement and privilege that revolutions are borne... taxation without representation... oligarchic rule... corrupt and greedy economics... inequality, inequity, mean-spirited, ruthless, selfish, greedy, hateful, arrogant claims of entitlement over others... just because... all the while claiming to follow JESUS!!!!????? It is time for HIS revolution to start again... forget "the church", let the MOVEMENT of following Jesus begin anew!
Claiming to love democracy while doing everything one can to thwart the voice of the people.
Claiming that an economic system that has been in place for 31 years and was perfected in the LAST administration to the disastrous end that MOST Americans have experienced, should be put back in place again... so that those already wealthy can make quick profits on our backs again, at OUR peril!
Claiming that Greed and Lust For Power are American virtues... and normative American values... and that anyone who values otherwise is labeled "Un-American", especially those who value TRUE DEMOCRACY and an ECONOMIC SYSTEM with Limits for the sake of ALL, equally, and not just the few, exorbitantly!
Humility is a Kingdom Value. Generosity is a Kingdom Value. Equality and Equity are Kingdom Values. Agape Love is a Commandment. An arrogant sense of entitlement is NOT a Kingdom Value. It is time for American Christians to value humility, generosity, equality and equity in order to be in line with Kingdom Values, at least that is, if you believe JESUS...
The Arrogance of Entitlement... ah, but PRIDE GOES BEFORE THE FALL...
I read that somewhere.
PASTOR JAMIE
Travel to a far away land, plant their own nation's flag on it, exploit and kill the people who were already there when they "discovered" it, and then kidnap people from another part of the world and use them for slave labor for 400+ years... believing that there should be no understanding of how that might affect those who were victims of it for generations or recompense for it...
Squat on lands that belonged to people of another nation for generations, claiming it for their own, and then squabble with them over it and claim to be victims when some of them who refused to leave were killed "defending" a mission, only to steal the land in a bogus treaty... and THEN treat shamefully others from that same nation who generations later come across the border "illegally" to find work so they can support their starving families who live in the nation that originally lost the wide expanse of land and water.
Plant the logos of our nation's corporations in foreign lands and get our government to manipulate international law to allow these corporations to pollute the air, water and land, waste the natural resources and exploit the poorest in their nations for our corporations' profits, giving them tax breaks in the deal and lay off our own nation's workers in the process... and THEN claim that people in foreign nations hate us because they hate "freedom"????
Claim that ANYONE stole their job, just because they are white and/or male and/or straight in America, as if they were ENTITLED to it to begin with.
Claim that they are JOB CREATORS and should not have to pay their fair share of taxes because they are so and might be less likely to employ people if they have to pay their fair share, being the SAME ONES who laid off millions for their own profit while they WERE getting tax breaks!
ANYONE who says, "We're going to take the country back.", while claiming that their statement has nothing to do with race.
Claiming ANYONE is engaging in "Class Warfare" when, for 31 years they have run roughshod over laborers in our nation at will, have kept people out of equal education, healthcare, housing, employment and empowerment and have done all they can to keep from paying their taxes, while millions suffer so they can get more profit for themselves.
Claiming that VOTER SUPPRESSION is to keep "voter fraud" from happening, when they themselves have rigged TWO ELECTIONS and there is such a small number of voter fraud cases cited that there is NO WAY it could EVER justify disenfranchising millions of voters who would most likely vote for the opposing candidate, all while claiming that they value democracy and that it has nothing to do with race or class?????
Leaving alone a political system that is run by corporations through their lobbyists, PACS and Wall Street, designed to keep those already with power and wealth in power and wealth, and keeps any other independent or third-party candidates from public view, cutting programs for the poor and most vulnerable among us while cutting the taxes of the wealthy, while actively working to keep the poor poor by keeping them away from the voting booths.
Leaving alone an economic system that is also run by the same corporate heads who designed the system to get their wealth on the backs of the poor and lower middle class (needing to keep 6% of the population unemployed for the rest of us to prosper), and who believe they should not have to pay taxes or have profit limits, and scream about "welfare" while collecting billions in "entitlements" - CORPORATE WELFARE... screaming "hands off" to government regarding regulation all the while as "free enterprise", while expecting bail-outs if they fail... and wanting to legislate what people do in their bedrooms...
ANYONE who believes that they are truly "self made", or that they could have "made it" with the obstacles and inequities that for generations others have had to overcome just to survive...
Those who stand on their rights to "religious liberty" in this country, while trying to keep anyone who practices another faith from having any expressions of their faith in public... who scream when the government makes it impossible for religious employers to discriminate against citizens regarding healthcare, even over "religious" reasons, while screaming that others might get ANY rights for their faith systems...
Believing that average American citizens should be able to own weapons of mass destruction (that can kill a person a second), while we should do WHATEVER IT TAKES to keep other nations from having nuclear weapon capabilities, while we have as many as we want...
Claiming to be RIGHT TO LIFE while being in favor of THE DEATH PENALTY...
Wanting to sanction other nations for their human rights violations, while we treat resident aliens shamefully, keep our women making 26% less than males in the same jobs, making a minimum wage that is not a living wage, refusing our citizens healthcare, enforcing strict penalties for "urban" drugs while making "suburban" drugs barely a misdemeanor, and KEEPING OUR OWN CITIZENS FROM VOTING... having UNEQUAL education, healthcare, employment, safety, marriage, housing and other basic human needs that should be basic, human rights for any CIVILIZED nation...
It is out of such arrogant beliefs in entitlement and privilege that revolutions are borne... taxation without representation... oligarchic rule... corrupt and greedy economics... inequality, inequity, mean-spirited, ruthless, selfish, greedy, hateful, arrogant claims of entitlement over others... just because... all the while claiming to follow JESUS!!!!????? It is time for HIS revolution to start again... forget "the church", let the MOVEMENT of following Jesus begin anew!
Claiming to love democracy while doing everything one can to thwart the voice of the people.
Claiming that an economic system that has been in place for 31 years and was perfected in the LAST administration to the disastrous end that MOST Americans have experienced, should be put back in place again... so that those already wealthy can make quick profits on our backs again, at OUR peril!
Claiming that Greed and Lust For Power are American virtues... and normative American values... and that anyone who values otherwise is labeled "Un-American", especially those who value TRUE DEMOCRACY and an ECONOMIC SYSTEM with Limits for the sake of ALL, equally, and not just the few, exorbitantly!
Humility is a Kingdom Value. Generosity is a Kingdom Value. Equality and Equity are Kingdom Values. Agape Love is a Commandment. An arrogant sense of entitlement is NOT a Kingdom Value. It is time for American Christians to value humility, generosity, equality and equity in order to be in line with Kingdom Values, at least that is, if you believe JESUS...
The Arrogance of Entitlement... ah, but PRIDE GOES BEFORE THE FALL...
I read that somewhere.
PASTOR JAMIE
Monday, October 1, 2012
The source of unrest
JAMES 4:1-3 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you as wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your own pleasures... 'God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble.'"
We are at unrest in our nation, because we want FOR OUR SELVES what we want and when we want it. Like spoiled children, when we don't get what we want and when we want it, someone else has to pay. We have a strong sense of entitlement to HAVE in abundance, so we EXPLOIT our own people and people across the world to get it.
Rather than ask for those things that do not only feed our own pleasures, we demand what we want and when we want it to please only our selves, and ignore the needs of others whom God loves. We get what we can on the backs of others and at their expense. We set up systems that allow us to do that at will, and wonder why we have such difficult turmoil in our nation and in the world. It is not because God does not answer prayer. It is because we have walked away from any decency, any concern and any consideration of what God wants.
Those with power in business do WHATEVER it takes to keep others with collective power from gaining for their families, all for their own larger profit margins.
Our corporations manipulate the World Trade Organization to make laws that benefit only our companies above whole other nations and their good.
Politicians, in the pockets of corporations, write laws that hurt the powerless and voiceless in favor of those with power and wealth, so that they can further exploit the powerless and voiceless for more profit for themselves.
Individuals keep the corrupt politicians in office because they either benefit from these practices, or hope to be included among the very wealthy someday - for most, neither of which comes to fruition.
Submitting to God and conforming to God's will means working for justice which brings peace. Where there is no justice in the world, there can be no peace. Until we commit to justice for ALL in ALL nations and not just our own, for ALL people and not just some, our nation's well-being will be in jeopardy.
According to James, the New Testament prophet, it is our adultery with God. We run off unfaithfully to please our idols... greed, lust for power, desire for prestige - OUR SELVES. We will not have
well-being in our nation or in the world, until we strive for justice for ALL. THEN there will be PEACE! THEN God will be pleased, and ALL those whom God loves will have enough.
We are at unrest in our nation, because we want FOR OUR SELVES what we want and when we want it. Like spoiled children, when we don't get what we want and when we want it, someone else has to pay. We have a strong sense of entitlement to HAVE in abundance, so we EXPLOIT our own people and people across the world to get it.
Rather than ask for those things that do not only feed our own pleasures, we demand what we want and when we want it to please only our selves, and ignore the needs of others whom God loves. We get what we can on the backs of others and at their expense. We set up systems that allow us to do that at will, and wonder why we have such difficult turmoil in our nation and in the world. It is not because God does not answer prayer. It is because we have walked away from any decency, any concern and any consideration of what God wants.
Those with power in business do WHATEVER it takes to keep others with collective power from gaining for their families, all for their own larger profit margins.
Our corporations manipulate the World Trade Organization to make laws that benefit only our companies above whole other nations and their good.
Politicians, in the pockets of corporations, write laws that hurt the powerless and voiceless in favor of those with power and wealth, so that they can further exploit the powerless and voiceless for more profit for themselves.
Individuals keep the corrupt politicians in office because they either benefit from these practices, or hope to be included among the very wealthy someday - for most, neither of which comes to fruition.
Submitting to God and conforming to God's will means working for justice which brings peace. Where there is no justice in the world, there can be no peace. Until we commit to justice for ALL in ALL nations and not just our own, for ALL people and not just some, our nation's well-being will be in jeopardy.
According to James, the New Testament prophet, it is our adultery with God. We run off unfaithfully to please our idols... greed, lust for power, desire for prestige - OUR SELVES. We will not have
well-being in our nation or in the world, until we strive for justice for ALL. THEN there will be PEACE! THEN God will be pleased, and ALL those whom God loves will have enough.
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