God Is Punishing The Ultra-Conservative Christian Right
Over the years many evangelical ultra-conservative Christian leaders have claimed that God is doing horrible things as punishment for the ways of the world, especially the ways of the United States.
Oral Roberts claimed that God was going to "call him home" unless he could raise a certain amount of money. Pat Robertson has made so many predictions of God's wrath that it is hard to count them, including the abandonment of a town and school corporation in Pennsylvania. Jerry Falwell has not only claimed God's wrath against the sinful ways of the world, he has claimed special insight into how God works, including calling HIV/AIDS as a special curse upon gays and drug users. Jimmy Swaggart claimed the wrath of God was against those that commit the sin of fornication, and onced called the mere act of dancing to rock 'n' roll music as fornication (very early years).
Historically, there have been numerous claims of special insight into the mind of God and the wrath He is casting against sinners, many claiming knowledge of such impending doom that the world would end on certain, very specific dates.
As I have said before, I am a Christian of the Catholic ilk. I have a fervent faith and believe that there is a morality that God calls us to follow. However, my understanding of the Bible, God and that morality is singnificantly different than that claimed by the majority of ultra-conservative Christian Right. For instance, I do not see God as an almighty being hell-bent on destroying and/or punishing mankind. The way I figure it, mankind is punishing itself by being so far from God in its acts of terror, torture, control, manipulation, subjugation, oppression, suppression and extreme ideologies that God doesn't have to get into the business of punishment. For the most part, we are in control of our own destiny and we can create our own version of Eden or Hell according to our own actions and our willingness to follow the word of God.
But what is the word of God? Well, that is the tricky question. Some of us claim that the Bible is the word of God. But among those making that claim there are some that read the word of God in such a perverse manner that they forget all but the passages that they feel are important. They skip over inconsistencies that present puzzles and mysteries for us to figure out, and focus on the negative aspects alone.
The problem is that the Bible is not just a book about God... It is a book about us human beings. We are supposed to learn lessons from the Bible that takes us away from the negative and toward the positive. We are supposed to practice love, hope and charity... and the greatest of these is love. We are supposed to affirm each other. We are supposed to open up opportunities for each and every one of us. We are supposed to empower each other to become the best individuals, the best neighbors, the best parishioners, the best church, the best community, the best nation and the best worldwide community we can become.
We fail to do what God calls us to do all too often.
So, today I awoke to the news that there were storms of hellish proportion cutting across Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and moving toward the east coast, possibly toward Washington, DC. The skies opened up and God spoke to me, telling me the reason these storms were cutting across the Bible Belt and heading toward Washington was because He was punishing the ultra-conservative Christian Right for all the ills and evils they are committing in His name. He continued telling me that these storms were going to concentrate on the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court. Like Sodom and Gommorah, God's wrath was going to destroy all the evil of the world.... He had changed from the all-loving God I had come to know and understand into the wrathful, angry, all-powerful Punisher of the world...
Then I really woke up and found myself shaking off a dream influenced by the ultra-conservative preacher on the television trying to tell us that God was once again angry.
God is not the warthful creature that some of us make Him out to be. We are not called to be exclusive, judgmental, shunning, or controlling. We are called to be loving, hopeful, caring and to struggle through our trials and tribulations with hope and faith. It isn't always easy.
More often, it is easier to get judgmental, afraid, worried and act in an unloving manner. But God has given us the choice. We can choose to be murderous and uncaring, godless and unfaithful, or we can choose to be affirming, loving, charitable and hoepful.
President Bush claims to be a reborn Christian, as do so many of the Republican leadership. They claim Christian values. They claim family values. But their actions betray their real values. They do not care for the needy, but do care for Mammon... promoting corporate welfare for big business rather than programs that support the needy, ill or disabled... somehow claiming that the needy, ill or disabled are bilking the "system" and that helping these folks is evil. But I ask you, for all the grants, incentives, low-cost funding and tax breaks given to big business, what good has come from it? The ultra-conservative right will claim that big business produces jobs. But the reality is that big business only produces jobs when it benefits them. If the chief executives, board members and stockholders see their profits fluctuate even a small amount, there are big job cuts. Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrsyler (that once received a US government bailout) are all cutting jobs and downsizing plant operations.
Most big businesses ignore the obligation to contribute to the nations that gave them the opportunity to start up and grow. These entities have no loyalty except to their own greed. How many US corporations have moved operations outside of the US because they can exploit the labor pools of less developed parts of the world? How many corporations claim that they are doing "good" by opening up plants around the world, but are really only seeking to get out from under more stringent rules and regulations about pollution? Big businesses in the US are lobbying hard for restrictions and caps on consumer and product liability, claiming that the current system is defunct and costing them too much. Many of these same businesses have had a track record of death and destruction of families in the US without even a note in their own corporate history.
How many US businesses made their mark on the world by exploiting child labor in the late 1800s and early 1900s? How many are doing the same sort of thing in other parts of the world right at this moment?
Most big businesses offer the executives incentives and salaries that continue even when the corporation is run into the ground. For example, RCN (a company that I worked for) paid its CEO $1.5 million in salary, stock and benefits annually while he was busy running the business into bankruptcy... and walked away with a golden parachute, membership of five or six other big corporations, and enough capital to move on to start other companies.
Most big businesses do not have enough oversight and hands-on direction from its board of directors. As a result, management of these companies are free to effect scandals on its customers, stockholders and the public at-large. We have seen so many scandals in the last five decades, including Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco, and, if we reach back a bit, the Savings & Loan scandals of the 1980s. But if we research these scandals, we see that our political leaders have received support and finance from these corporations... and have often returned the support and finance with unprecedented access and influence in our government.
How many big businesses have overcharged the taxpayers because they could? How many defnese contractors have charged $500 for a hammer, $60 for a bolt or screw, $75 for a $12 toilet seat, $120 for an ashtray... etc., etc., etc. How many Halliburtins have there been?
How many big businesses have screwed workers out of pension benefits, health care and rewards earned from years of dedication from its employees. How many have quietly closed its doors to US plants without any notice (prior to the recent laws that prohibit this behavior)? How many corporations have received rollbacks from labor and then used the money generated by the rollbacks to move operations and cut those employees off altogether.
How many of these big businesses have executives claiming to have "family values" and follow the Republican ideology... and have been involved in all sorts of value-less scandals?
I am not just ranting against business. Business is one of the key components of a free society. But business is supposed to be focused on creating wealth for all of its stakeholders. There are big business celebrities that claim the only obligation of the corporation is to make money for its stockholders. But that is an errant understanding of the purpose of the corporation. A corporation has an obligation to its employees that generate the work that generates the capital and the profits. A corproation has an obligation of loyalty to the nation(s) in which it does business, especially the nation in which it got its start and incentives for growth. A corporation has an obligation to generate wealth through its interactions with vendors and consumers. These big business entities have an obligation to do good within a society... and avoid the evils that can be done.
But we cannot expect big business to do what our government is not willing or able to do. We have a congress, an executive administration and a federal bench that are not loyal to the obligations of the Constitution and the first principles embodied in that document. We have leaders that claim "family values" but do not value all of our families and dismiss families that do not look and act like their families. We have leaders that claim religious exclusivity in a land founded on the principle of religious tolerance. We have a government mired in scandal after scandal.
It is not God that is punishing us. We are doing enough harm to ourselves that God need not get involved in the business of punishment. My advice to the Christian Right is to stop being judgmental and preaching the wrath of God and start changing the world in a positive way. Let's start examining a problem in full detail and develop laws, programs and approaches that really solve the problems and resolve the issues. We have become so focused on our ideology and religious fervor that we have forgotten to do God's work.
So, the recent bouts with tornados and severe storms cutting across our nation, headed toward Washington is not a punishment of the ultra-conservative domination of our politics and political leadership. There may be some connection with the pollution and mistreatment of our environment, but that, too, is not in the hands of God. We are our own worst enemies and the creators of our own punishments. We could become our own best benefactors if we were to get serious about the first principles upon which our nation was founded... but we would have to cease many of our bad habits, including giving bug business and our politicians our un-ending trust and incentives to continue bad behaviors as usual.
Oral Roberts claimed that God was going to "call him home" unless he could raise a certain amount of money. Pat Robertson has made so many predictions of God's wrath that it is hard to count them, including the abandonment of a town and school corporation in Pennsylvania. Jerry Falwell has not only claimed God's wrath against the sinful ways of the world, he has claimed special insight into how God works, including calling HIV/AIDS as a special curse upon gays and drug users. Jimmy Swaggart claimed the wrath of God was against those that commit the sin of fornication, and onced called the mere act of dancing to rock 'n' roll music as fornication (very early years).
Historically, there have been numerous claims of special insight into the mind of God and the wrath He is casting against sinners, many claiming knowledge of such impending doom that the world would end on certain, very specific dates.
As I have said before, I am a Christian of the Catholic ilk. I have a fervent faith and believe that there is a morality that God calls us to follow. However, my understanding of the Bible, God and that morality is singnificantly different than that claimed by the majority of ultra-conservative Christian Right. For instance, I do not see God as an almighty being hell-bent on destroying and/or punishing mankind. The way I figure it, mankind is punishing itself by being so far from God in its acts of terror, torture, control, manipulation, subjugation, oppression, suppression and extreme ideologies that God doesn't have to get into the business of punishment. For the most part, we are in control of our own destiny and we can create our own version of Eden or Hell according to our own actions and our willingness to follow the word of God.
But what is the word of God? Well, that is the tricky question. Some of us claim that the Bible is the word of God. But among those making that claim there are some that read the word of God in such a perverse manner that they forget all but the passages that they feel are important. They skip over inconsistencies that present puzzles and mysteries for us to figure out, and focus on the negative aspects alone.
The problem is that the Bible is not just a book about God... It is a book about us human beings. We are supposed to learn lessons from the Bible that takes us away from the negative and toward the positive. We are supposed to practice love, hope and charity... and the greatest of these is love. We are supposed to affirm each other. We are supposed to open up opportunities for each and every one of us. We are supposed to empower each other to become the best individuals, the best neighbors, the best parishioners, the best church, the best community, the best nation and the best worldwide community we can become.
We fail to do what God calls us to do all too often.
So, today I awoke to the news that there were storms of hellish proportion cutting across Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and moving toward the east coast, possibly toward Washington, DC. The skies opened up and God spoke to me, telling me the reason these storms were cutting across the Bible Belt and heading toward Washington was because He was punishing the ultra-conservative Christian Right for all the ills and evils they are committing in His name. He continued telling me that these storms were going to concentrate on the White House, Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court. Like Sodom and Gommorah, God's wrath was going to destroy all the evil of the world.... He had changed from the all-loving God I had come to know and understand into the wrathful, angry, all-powerful Punisher of the world...
Then I really woke up and found myself shaking off a dream influenced by the ultra-conservative preacher on the television trying to tell us that God was once again angry.
God is not the warthful creature that some of us make Him out to be. We are not called to be exclusive, judgmental, shunning, or controlling. We are called to be loving, hopeful, caring and to struggle through our trials and tribulations with hope and faith. It isn't always easy.
More often, it is easier to get judgmental, afraid, worried and act in an unloving manner. But God has given us the choice. We can choose to be murderous and uncaring, godless and unfaithful, or we can choose to be affirming, loving, charitable and hoepful.
President Bush claims to be a reborn Christian, as do so many of the Republican leadership. They claim Christian values. They claim family values. But their actions betray their real values. They do not care for the needy, but do care for Mammon... promoting corporate welfare for big business rather than programs that support the needy, ill or disabled... somehow claiming that the needy, ill or disabled are bilking the "system" and that helping these folks is evil. But I ask you, for all the grants, incentives, low-cost funding and tax breaks given to big business, what good has come from it? The ultra-conservative right will claim that big business produces jobs. But the reality is that big business only produces jobs when it benefits them. If the chief executives, board members and stockholders see their profits fluctuate even a small amount, there are big job cuts. Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrsyler (that once received a US government bailout) are all cutting jobs and downsizing plant operations.
Most big businesses ignore the obligation to contribute to the nations that gave them the opportunity to start up and grow. These entities have no loyalty except to their own greed. How many US corporations have moved operations outside of the US because they can exploit the labor pools of less developed parts of the world? How many corporations claim that they are doing "good" by opening up plants around the world, but are really only seeking to get out from under more stringent rules and regulations about pollution? Big businesses in the US are lobbying hard for restrictions and caps on consumer and product liability, claiming that the current system is defunct and costing them too much. Many of these same businesses have had a track record of death and destruction of families in the US without even a note in their own corporate history.
How many US businesses made their mark on the world by exploiting child labor in the late 1800s and early 1900s? How many are doing the same sort of thing in other parts of the world right at this moment?
Most big businesses offer the executives incentives and salaries that continue even when the corporation is run into the ground. For example, RCN (a company that I worked for) paid its CEO $1.5 million in salary, stock and benefits annually while he was busy running the business into bankruptcy... and walked away with a golden parachute, membership of five or six other big corporations, and enough capital to move on to start other companies.
Most big businesses do not have enough oversight and hands-on direction from its board of directors. As a result, management of these companies are free to effect scandals on its customers, stockholders and the public at-large. We have seen so many scandals in the last five decades, including Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco, and, if we reach back a bit, the Savings & Loan scandals of the 1980s. But if we research these scandals, we see that our political leaders have received support and finance from these corporations... and have often returned the support and finance with unprecedented access and influence in our government.
How many big businesses have overcharged the taxpayers because they could? How many defnese contractors have charged $500 for a hammer, $60 for a bolt or screw, $75 for a $12 toilet seat, $120 for an ashtray... etc., etc., etc. How many Halliburtins have there been?
How many big businesses have screwed workers out of pension benefits, health care and rewards earned from years of dedication from its employees. How many have quietly closed its doors to US plants without any notice (prior to the recent laws that prohibit this behavior)? How many corporations have received rollbacks from labor and then used the money generated by the rollbacks to move operations and cut those employees off altogether.
How many of these big businesses have executives claiming to have "family values" and follow the Republican ideology... and have been involved in all sorts of value-less scandals?
I am not just ranting against business. Business is one of the key components of a free society. But business is supposed to be focused on creating wealth for all of its stakeholders. There are big business celebrities that claim the only obligation of the corporation is to make money for its stockholders. But that is an errant understanding of the purpose of the corporation. A corporation has an obligation to its employees that generate the work that generates the capital and the profits. A corproation has an obligation of loyalty to the nation(s) in which it does business, especially the nation in which it got its start and incentives for growth. A corporation has an obligation to generate wealth through its interactions with vendors and consumers. These big business entities have an obligation to do good within a society... and avoid the evils that can be done.
But we cannot expect big business to do what our government is not willing or able to do. We have a congress, an executive administration and a federal bench that are not loyal to the obligations of the Constitution and the first principles embodied in that document. We have leaders that claim "family values" but do not value all of our families and dismiss families that do not look and act like their families. We have leaders that claim religious exclusivity in a land founded on the principle of religious tolerance. We have a government mired in scandal after scandal.
It is not God that is punishing us. We are doing enough harm to ourselves that God need not get involved in the business of punishment. My advice to the Christian Right is to stop being judgmental and preaching the wrath of God and start changing the world in a positive way. Let's start examining a problem in full detail and develop laws, programs and approaches that really solve the problems and resolve the issues. We have become so focused on our ideology and religious fervor that we have forgotten to do God's work.
So, the recent bouts with tornados and severe storms cutting across our nation, headed toward Washington is not a punishment of the ultra-conservative domination of our politics and political leadership. There may be some connection with the pollution and mistreatment of our environment, but that, too, is not in the hands of God. We are our own worst enemies and the creators of our own punishments. We could become our own best benefactors if we were to get serious about the first principles upon which our nation was founded... but we would have to cease many of our bad habits, including giving bug business and our politicians our un-ending trust and incentives to continue bad behaviors as usual.
posted by Jim Downey at 5:07 AM
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