Democracy at stake

Laissez-faire (hands off, de-regulated, no limits, profit only matters) Capitalism is NOT Democracy. 
Oh, I know, having grown up during the cold war, about the "evils" of communism and socialism that we have been fed steadily for years.  I know that there are many who make NO distinctions, and that many of those who gullibly believe everything they say will fight to the death to defend our nation's Capitalism, because they have been told it is the same as Democracy... but it is not.  There are MANY democratic societies that have hybrid economic systems that include elements of socialism, because it balances fairness, equality, equity and safety for people who live within their nations.  Ours used to be a Relative Democracy, BECAUSE OF our "free market system".  Now, it is an Oligarchy... a Plutocracy... why?
It started in 1981 and a little before... the rhetoric, the fear, the lies, the deceptions, the extreme loyalty to the laissez-faire system that was systematically instituted by the wealthy to keep the poor exploitable, while at the same time blamable for the economic woes it created...
Jobs were sent overseas to make more profit for executives, stockholders and owners of corporations, because there were fewer regulations on pollution, waste and fair labor laws.  These "American" companies eliminated jobs for our own people and exploited people in other nations for decades.
Organized Labor was gutted of any power, so that "right to work (for nothing) states" could be developed that pay substandard wages with no job security.  The lack of balance did not benefit employees, even those who were duped into believing it was better for them.  It benefitted the owners who now have complete power over the economy and employees, and our citizens have been hurt with lower wages, longer hours and little chance of getting ahead.
The de-regulation of banks meant our great recession.  The de-regulation of industries means that now on the governmental oversight committees are full of the former executives who used to do all they could to use up the minerals, lumber, oil, natural gas and other resources for their own profit, even when it was devastating for our environment and health.
War is good business, so right wing administrations did all they could do to get into a couple of them to help out their buddies in the military industrial complex.  The lives of our citizens and those of the lands we occupied were expendable for the sake of their profit.
The very idea of universal healthcare is so repulsive to these laissez-faire folk, because it will mean less profit at our expense in the medical and insurance industries.
Voter suppression is the desperate tactic adopted by many now, because they do not want people of color or those whose interests might not match those of the ones with all the power and wealth, that they must do SOMETHING to make sure that people do not bring balance politically at the price of their own profit margins.  This is NOT the work of folk who LOVE Democracy.
PAC's, limitless and anonymous donations and lobbyists now are driving in the final nails in the equitability coffin for any representative, fair and equal government for all the people, as they are not able to BUY government like they can BUY everything else.

You KNOW what Party has been consistently behind this.  They claim to be Patriots, but do everything they can to kill Democracy for their own profit.  In fact, they HATE Democracy, because it puts a limit on how much they can exploit others for their own gain, and lets people collectively, and not their money or power, decide the direction and fate of the nation.  They HATE Democracy and LOVE their greed-centered, laissez-faire (unfair to all but them), free market (costly to everyone but them) system that now OWNS what used to be a great Democracy... 

What astounds me is the numbers of folks who have been HURT by them for generations, who still support, defend and VOTE for these folks. 

Clearly, Laissez-Faire Capitalism is NOT Democracy.
Clearly, Socialist Democratic systems are more fair and equitable.
Clearly, there are STILL large numbers of folks easily enough duped to believe this helps them.
I pray for our nation.  Apathy, complacency, hatred, ruthless greed, lust for power abound in it.

Pastor Jamie

by definition

Love lifts up
   Hatred tears down
       Apathy and Complacency do nothing.
            For what will you be remembered?

Agape Love is the active commitment on behalf of the other (see Luke 10:25-37).
The opposite of loving, as I learned from Leo Buscaglia, among others, is NOT hatred,
   but Apathy... the lack of caring...
   Complacency (self-satisfaction to the point of a lack of concern for others) is close...

Not caring is NOT following Jesus...
Caring is following Jesus.

Those who CLAIM to follow Jesus, and who
   do not care if someone makes enough to live on for their work
   do not care if others have affordable healthcare
   do not care if others are denied their right to vote for ANY reason
   do not care that women make less than men for the same job, with the same experience
   do not care that people who love each other are discriminated against
   do not care that the corruption of this plutocracy will hurt many who love democracy
   do not care that families are being split up, though living here should not be a crime
   do not care that our brown and black young men are being
           locked up at alarming rates FOR PROFIT
   do not care that more guns are on the street which WILL MEAN more innocent deaths
   do not care that new laws are proving to make it "open season" on people of color
   do not care that the poor have more taken away, so that the wealthy can have more
   do not care that the middle class dreams are being scrapped for those same rich to have more
   do not care that those same wealthy can now legally BUY government and own it
   do not care that this election may decide many of these important issues for our future
   do not care what cost their ruthless greed and lust for power and position will cost their souls...
           just do not care.

If that describes you, you can CLAIM anything you want, but you are NOT following Jesus!
The Agape Love Jesus COMMANDED (Matthew 22:34-40), does not ALLOW you to be Apathetic or Complacent AND be one of His followers... believe what you want, but you start smelling like a GOAT instead of one of His lambs about now (Matthew 25:31-46).
By definition, you are NOT going with Jesus on this.

Pastor Jamie

TRUE COLORS

I must admit that I am sometimes motivated by fear regarding the state of our nation and its people.  I am driven to point out things that are wrong and that hurt many millions who are our sisters and brothers in our nation and in the world, because I am afraid that our apathy, complacency and compliance with those whose ruthless efforts to exploit the rest of the world for their personal gain, will allow them to continue to get away with this, and more beloved will be hurt.
That is why I CONSTANTLY post political, economic and ecclesiastical articles that I find and why, as some have pointed out to me, I come across as ANGRY at times in my writing... Fear turns quickly to anger for me, especially when I see people who I love and who I know God loves, being hurt...

My beautiful, wise, intelligent and powerful wife pointed out to me this morning that all of these things are coming out in the open now that were once hidden, so I should even take heart in that fact.
I believe it is true...

"You will know them by their fruits..." is what Jesus said regarding false prophets (Matthew 7:15-20).  I believe we are seeing the fruits of those who have claimed to represent God and have shown their greed in their Prosperity Theology, and lust for power and position in pursuing their celebrity status, along with those who have tried to justify their own hatreds with The Word.  Franklin Graham has recently praised Putin of Russia for his cracking down on gay and lesbian folk, while criticizing President Obama for his "shameful" regard for them.  World Vision made a courageous stand to continue to hire those in same sex relationships and marriage, until fundamentalist "Christians" withdrew funding, preventing thousands of those they helped from getting daily bread... and although there was a movement of those who are gay and lesbian Christians and their supporters to bridge the gap by their giving on behalf of "the least", still WV reversed their decision... TRUE COLORS ARE SHOWING...

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  Jesus said this regarding earthly wealth (Matthew 6:19-24) and not trying to serve the idol of wealth AND God.  We are seeing where the hearts of those who favor the wealthy over the poor and middle class.  We see them giving tax breaks to the wealthy and taking away from the poorest sisters and brothers among us.  We see them breaking unions that level power in economics.  We see them using the Supreme Court, the Congress and billions of dollars that they have available to hurt the rest of America for their own, personal gain.  We see them dismantling even our relative democracy, in favor of a plutocracy.  We see them exploiting the masses for the opulent wealth of the few.  We see them doing that across the street and across the world.  They don't want women to be paid equal pay for equal work.  They don't want everyone to have healthcare coverage.   They don't want people to make a living wage for their work.  AND they don't want to help out the masses of people who they've rendered unemployed, even with temporary unemployment insurance, but especially with public assistance... all while they receive huge tax breaks and corporate welfare from the "evil" government.  The politicians who have been bought and paid for by these oligarchs (legally, because of lobbying laws and now "human" status for corporations laws and money as speech laws that THEY got passed), often run on their "Christian" values platforms... but their TRUE COLORS ARE SHOWING...

... and yet, out of apathy born of futility, or complacency because folk have a few scraps from the table, or compliance with their efforts in the deluded hope that they will be let into this VERY SMALL, VERY EXCLUSIVE club... people say and do nothing about it... and even VOTE for these ruthless, greedy, power hungry, position and prestige obsessed folk... uggghhhh

So THERE'S my dilemma... I can "take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them" (Ephesians 5:6-21) all I want, but the apathetic, complacent and compliant, along with the gullible and easily duped, will do what they will do... and PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO BE HURT BY IT...

So, I write... Honestly, I DO try to send along positive posts and write a brighter vision... why I wrote my books, in fact... but I also point out what I believe to be obvious, frequently and strongly enough that others cannot ignore what is happening...

The thing is... we see THEIR TRUE COLORS.
And, either by activity or inactivity, by what is said and by silence,  OUR TRUE COLORS are shown as well.

Pastor Jamie  

Agape Love

AGAPE LOVE-
this active commitment on behalf of the other,
and central teaching of Jesus,
Great Commandment of my Lord,
   as I live within my God
   as I meet the world around me
The "doing to others as I would have them do to me" kind 
The "forgiving as I want to be forgiven" kind
The "not judging as I don't want to be judged" kind
The "loving even stranger and enemy" kind
The "loving one another as Jesus loved us" kind
The "not making a liar by not loving my sister" kind
The "patient, kind, never envious, boastful, arrogant or rude" kind
   So beautifully calls me to "not look only to my own interests"
   So selflessly calls me to "count others as better than myself"
   So encouragingly calls me to "have the same mind in me that was in Christ Jesus"
This most Radical Love leads me to
   Radical Sharing and Generosity,
   Radical Advocacy toward Liberation,
   Radical Inclusion of all, equally,
   and in Radical Community to live and love.
        Because it is JESUS' WAY
        And if I want to follow JESUS
        I must go THAT WAY, too

Pastor Jamie

Prosperity Theology

One of the issues I have with PROSPERITY THEOLOGY...

  is that it gets folk focused on SELF, apart from the well being of the community. It is mostly about ME being blessed and highly favored, especially with an abundance - prosperity, about ME reaping the bountiful blessings... about ME getting more... the good of the community is often left out... it is not about US getting what WE need, but about ME getting more... given that some have very little, and the systematic efforts to keep them down in our society's economic and political systems, it is understandable... but preachers who constantly hit us over the head with SELF focus, and who portray God as an automatic formulaic equation of blessings by OUR actions, rather than about our dynamic relationship with God, can be a part of the predatory system themselves, especially because they demand folk give of their meager resources, promising a "return" by our supernatural God.

This leads me to another problem I have with it...

In our reliance for SELF on a SUPERNATURAL blessing that transcends the world, as a formulaic equation around our giving, folk do not so much gather with others to address the systemic holding down of our sisters and brothers who are in the same plight... we do not gather to CHANGE the unjust systems that hold people down, but rather look to the supernatural to fix our own situations... Those in the Civil Rights movement, many of them preachers, understood that God gives us minds and hearts - minds to understand the injustice and find ways to end it, and hearts to care, not only for our SELVES, but for the REST OF OUR COMMUNITIES, demanding justice, equity and equality... In embracing a focus on "ME", we lose our focus on "US", and we fail to address the injustices and inequities that hold MANY down among us... partly because the preachers who espouse this theology, out of fear of losing their 501c3 status, or in compliance with the system, hoping to be rewarded for it, or in order to personally profit from it, remain SILENT regarding the injustices and inequities of the system...

  In our faith history, God is NOT just the deliverer of individuals by supernatural means, but also the deliverer of whole peoples from their plight... whole communities...
When we understand that when EVERYONE has enough we ALL prosper, then we will stand together to demand enough for EVERYONE.

Until then, we will continue to hurt ourselves.  Silence implies compliance with or agreement with something.  It is wrong to remain silent, if we hope to follow Jesus, the one of Agape Love for Neighbor.

Pastor Jamie

kickin' them when they are down

The AJC is running an article that reports that 400,000 are being denied Medicaid because they make too much money, though they live UNDER THE POVERTY LINE...
In the mean time, large corporations are given tax breaks, as well as wealthy Georgia citizens, and corporations also receive "incentives" - aka - corporate welfare for keeping their businesses here, in order that they may hire more citizens, which they do at the very least, minimum level possible...

It is simply unconscionable and IMMORAL to hurt these families like this.  The governor, state legislators and parties to which they belong should lose their jobs for not representing their citizenry, and especially the most vulnerable among them. 

Yet, people VOTE for these soulless predators, believing them to be upright leaders who look out for their interests.  Why are people so easily duped?  Why do "Christians" not believe they have a moral, spiritual obligation to "the least of these", whom Jesus calls His sisters and brothers?  Why do "Christians" vote for them, knowing their history of unjustly siding with the wealthy and powerful?

The same goes for the extreme "right" politicians in Congress.  Their work to benefit the wealthy and powerful, while taking away what little the most vulnerable have, is CLEARLY, according to the Gospels, ANTI-CHRIST.  Yet, these politicians run for office on platforms of faith, and claim to represent all the people in their districts.  And people who claim to follow Jesus VOTE for them, knowing that they actively try to suppress the votes of minorities and others, actively take away what little the most vulnerable have and actively work to benefit the wealthy and powerful on the backs of the most poor and least powerful... intentionally, consistently, systematically...

The goats think that they can be the sheep and do this.
They think they can claim Jesus' name and ignore what Jesus commanded, taught and exemplified
          for His followers, and still be His followers.
They think they should be considered fully human, while clearly having huge areas of arrested
    development.
They believe they can serve both God and wealth and/or God and power.

What may be more sad than the vulnerable who are hurt by all these goats, is the level of delusion these folks live in, believing they could be not only be not doing the wrong thing, but actually that they are doing the right thing somehow... easily duped and gullible... unconscionable, immoral...

Compliance with evil is evil.
Silence in the face of evil is evil.
Actively hurting the vulnerable in order to benefit those with plenty is EVIL.

Pastor Jamie