FOR PROFIT

For profit...
   Monsanto and other companies can genetically modify our food at will, with no legal ramifications for any consequences to our health...

for profit...
   tort reforms have been enacted that GREATLY LIMIT any financial liabilities in lawsuits, and severely limit the ability of citizens to sue companies, doctors or individuals, many times requiring that a hearing be held with an arbitrator paid by the company being sued

for profit...
   Lumber executives sit on the National Forestry oversight committees and make decisions regarding our national forests...
   Lobbyists influence government officials to legislate exemptions from over-harvesting our trees, the source of our oxygen...

for profit...
   Oil, coal, natural gas executives sit on our Natural resources over sight committees and make decisions regarding the oil, coal and natural gas extraction, cost and usage...
   Lobbyists influence government officials to legislate exemptions from pollution and safety standards
   and for the increased fracking, drilling (on land and off shore), pipelining and unregulated burning of
   these pollutants

for profit...
   we go to war so that military equipment manufacturers can make more, para-military and private security companies can make more, management companies like Halliburton can make more...
   Our government officials know it is good for profit and jobs, so we engage in the business of killing for profit as a nation

for profit...
   companies who claimed to be "job creators" laid off millions of employees so that when times got rough, they would still make gain...
   and their executives got bonuses for doing so, at the expense of those they laid off
   and government cut unemployment help to those who were laid off

for profit...
   corporations are now considered "people" so they can manipulate regulations to suit them
   PAC's can hide where their money comes from and are virtually limitless in how much money
they can pour into false, negative ads to dupe the public into support for their corporately owned
candidates

for profit...
   the companies getting "incentives" and "entitlements" have shipped thousands of jobs overseas, so that they can exploit people there, have even fewer regulations on pollutants, deplete their natural resources and pollute their land, water and air
   and our government officials allow it, even encourage it to happen

for profit...
   government has been busting up the power of organized labor, creating "right to work" states and undermining organized labor in other ways so that employers can exploit them at will

for profit...
   for generations we exploited migrant workers for cheap manual labor, made them live in horrid conditions, and ate the fruits of their labors
   then, when it cost us a little money, in the interest of profit, some of the same folks who hired them in their homes for little pay and great expectations, voted and demanded that we start rounding them up like criminals and deporting them... why?
   so that for profit prisons can make more profit by having their inmates work for low wages during their incarceration, in factories and fields...

for profit...
   neighbors engage in re-gentrification so that their property values will go out, pushing out those on fixed income and of lower income from affordable housing in the process

for profit...
  we refuse to limit assault weapons and large ammunition magazines that belong on fields of battle alone and not on our streets

for profit...
  we ignore the real science of global warming, so that our air, water and ground will not sustain healthy life any longer, but companies reap record gains without regulation

for profit...
  we privatize our schools... mental health facilities, healthcare, prisons, and other institutions so that we can de-regulate them and make more money

for profit...
  we de-regulate banks so they can engage in predatory practices in which thousands lose millions

for profit...
  we create food deserts, and make the cost of groceries, fuel, insurance and other necessities more expensive in poor, urban areas and keep them nice and low in affluent suburban ones

for profit...
  we refuse to make medicines more readily available and we charge more for them

for profit...
  we make the cost of healthcare outrageous, especially for those with no insurance

for profit...
   insurance companies receive premiums for years, and then cancel on people when they have one claim or find a reason not to pay for procedures they need when they need them

for the nation's profit (reduction in the deficit)...
  we balance on the backs of the poor by taking away from them, while refusing to require those
of means (individuals and corporations) to pay even their fair share of taxes toward that end
  because they have government officials in their pockets...

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  Jesus
"You cannot serve both God and wealth."  Jesus
"By their fruits you will know them."         Jesus
"These 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 ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your own pleasures.  Adulterers!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? ... 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"  James 4:1-10
"Now the whole company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.  ... There was not a needy one among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold... "  NOT Marx, Lenin... Acts 4:32-37
"For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose their life?"  Jesus   Matthew 16:24-26
"Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions..."  Jesus  Luke 12:13-21

We have met the enemy, and they are US!
Any apathy toward the needs of others, complacency about another's plight while I have plenty, any willing or out of chosen ignorance gain at the expense of others - ANY others, is NOT living the Agape Love (selfless, committed action on behalf of the other) Jesus COMMANDED US TO LIVE.
We have all gained affordable goods on the backs of others.  It is time for this to stop.  Jesus demands it.  Stand up.  Speak truth to power.  Demand justice for ALL and not just the wealthy and powerful.
Pastor Jamie