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... Americans, you may give your goods to feed the poor. You may give great gifts to charity. You may tower high in philanthropy. But if you have not love it means nothing.
- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech, "Paul's Letter to American Christians," Nov. 4, 1956. (Source: MLK Online)
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Changing the Script with Jon Stewart
Last night I was on The Daily Show again with Jon Stewart to talk about my new book. It’s always a fun show. I enjoyed the back and forth with Jon about values, economics, and the bad morality play of banks, bailouts, and now bonuses. I think Stewart is doing more than anybody else in the media to try to change the script.
If Twitter comments are any indication of public sentiment, my suggestion that the bankers give their massive bonuses to Haiti resonated with lots of people.
You can watch the interview and get a free download of the first chapter of my book, “Sunday School with Jon Stewart.”
This morning, I got up to do Morning Joe on MSNBC. The timing could not have been better, because today is the day that Goldman Sachs announces its record revenues and bonuses ($16.2 billion in compensation this year). My favorite moment was hearing the title of Goldman’s new charity giving program: “Goldman Sachs Gives.” I told Morning Joe how reassuring that is to me, and in response to a wry comment from commentator Mike Barnicle that they must be doing “God’s work,” I suggested that I was sure God really appreciated this public relations gesture on the part of the big banks. But then I said that in the midst of such suffering in America, these bonuses were more than a scandal and a shame -- they are a sin of biblical proportions.
I reminded everyone on the show that the bonuses are merely a symptom of a deeper erosion of societal values and spoke of the new maxims that have overtaken us -- Greed is Good, It’s All About Me, and I Want It Now. Those values wreak havoc on economies, cultures, families, and our very souls. In contrast I suggested that we need to rediscover some new/old spiritual virtues like: Enough is Enough, We’re In This Together, and learn to employ the Native American ethic of considering the consequences of decisions today by their impact on the seventh generation out. That would change the “short-termism” that has come to dominate our economic decision-making. I also learned that some people think “class warfare” only breaks out when the people who are having a war waged on them (us) get mad at the people who started the fight in the first place (Wall Street). Interesting.
Now we head to Chicago for a forum tonight with the city’s business and civic leaders.
Stay tuned.
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INSIDE SOJOURNERS MAGAZINE |
Video: David Bazan Interview
Since 1994, David Bazan has put sharp questions about faith, justice, and his Pentecostal-evangelical upbringing front and center in his songs. With his trademark candor and thoughtfulness, Bazan, former front man of Pedro the Lion and Headphones, spoke with Sojourners assistant editor Jeannie Choi in the musty green room of The Black Cat, a music venue in Washington, D.C.
Read the interview with David Bazan, or click to watch the video below.
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ON THE GOD'S POLITICS BLOG |
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Report from Haiti: Poverty and the Earthquake Collided
by Minyon Moore
Then it dawned on me -- poverty and the earthquake have now collided. Part of this is simply the poverty they live in every day and the other part is the devastation of the earthquake. It is all one horrific problem now.
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'Who Cares?' -- A Visual Guide to Americans' Charitable Giving
by Eugene Cho
Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot, right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over one trillion dollars needed to keep U.S. charities in operation...
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Health-Care Magic
by LaVonne Neff
Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele neatly summarized the prevailing American attitude: "Remember, 82% of the American people like their health-care plan. They just want us to address their costs." We want what we have. We want it to cost less. And, as other commentators this morning pointed out, we certainly don't want to raise taxes to pay for it.
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Now is the Time for Congressional Courage on Health-Care Reform
by Valerie Elverton Dixon
Are we a nation that creates public policy on the maxim, "I have mine, you have yours to get"? Are we a nation that understands life is better for each of us when life is better for all of us?
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Immigration: Drama and First Drafts
by Crissy Brooks
Last week a mother called crying. She was hiding in her closet with her four children, afraid to open the door to the immigration officers outside. "We have never had any problems with the law before," she cried, as my mind raced to know how to advise her. "I don't know why they have come."
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Who Would Jesus Shoot? Military Contractor Puts Bible References on Gunsights
by Justin Fung
In case you haven't already seen this, it's been discovered that gunsights on weapons used by British and American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are inscribed with coded biblical references.
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Video: Miraculously Alive in Port-au-Prince
by John Engle
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The Real Housewives of Orange County...Really?
by Jennifer Kottler
Here is a show that is purely and simply about the ethics that Jim is arguing against in the book -- greed is good, it's all about me, and I want it now. It lifts up these "real" families (not even "real" by Orange County standards) and it shows them at their absolute worst. The show is all about possessions, and getting more of them; relationships and how to irreparably damage them; and physical appearances -- how to preserve and protect them.
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Video: Haitian Determination at the Earthquake's Epicenter
by John Engle
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Five Steps to Avoid Financial Disaster (Inflated Expectations, Part 2)
by LaVonne Neff
I have no idea how the United States will or can get out of the economic mess we've spent the last 50 years getting ourselves into. As individuals, though, we can take steps to avoid disaster.
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Haiti: TPS and the Coming Negativity
by Martha St. Jean
My friends and I worried about the negativity that would emerge when the Department of Homeland Security granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian nationals, allowing them to remain in the U.S. for 18 months while conditions at home improve. Rush Limbaugh's hostile comments regarding aid for Haiti -- "Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax" -- I fear are only the tip of the iceberg.
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Haiti and the Wedding at Cana
by Nadia Bolz-Weber
Jesus says I too am thirsty. As we hear the cry of our Haitian brothers and sisters, let us discern the other voice we hear with them -- that of Christ saying, "I am thirsty."
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Poem: The Lorraine Motel
by Lisa Sharon Harper
come and witness the place where a fellow peacemaker fell
and inherited the kin-dom of god.
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50 Years of Inflated Expectations
by LaVonne Neff
Somehow we have come to think that we should (a) have more than our parents did, (b) never be asked to pay more taxes, (c) have guaranteed pensions, whether from our employers or the government, and (d) have state-of-the-art medical care, whether from our employers or the government. This is not a multiple-choice question: we want it all.
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Voodoo Haiti, Voodoo West
by Alfonso Wieland
Haiti does not deserve this type of life. It does not deserve the thousands of dead in its streets and throughout its history. Will we Christians be able to do more than cast out the demons from others, without as much as looking at our own? Will be able to take global solidarity seriously, setting aside racial, religious, and national prejudices? Haiti does not need charity, it needs justice.
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Vudu Haiti, Vudu Occidente
by Alfonso Wieland
Haití no merece esta forma de vida, no merece los miles de muertos en las calles, en su historia. ¿Seremos capaces los cristianos de hacer algo mas que exorcizar demonios en los otros- y ni siquiera los propios? ¿Seremos capaces de tomar en serio la solidaridad global, dejando de lado prejuicios de raza, religión, nación? Haití no necesita caridad, necesita justicia.
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An Audio Account from Haiti: A World Shaken
by Ben Depp
Mennonite Central Committee worker Ben Depp offers a first hand account of the earthquake and the devastating results.
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My Prayer for Haiti
by Martha St. Jean
We are a people well acquainted with grief, but you O Lord are still merciful.
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Haiti: 'How Long, Oh Lord, How Long?'
by Kent Annan
I believe in the God who multiplied fish and loaves to feed the hungry. I believe in the God who says I'm always with you. And right now, it's achingly clear -- heartbreakingly, angrily clear -- isn't it, that we who believe also believe in the God who is hidden sometimes, sometimes when we are most in need, to whom the psalmist cried out, "How long, oh Lord, how long?"
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Honoring King: Economic Justice for All
by John Gehring
As we pause to honor King's legacy, it's tempting to sanitize his radical call for economic justice or temper his prophetic words about war. We prefer King as an icon stored safely behind history's glass case.
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Devils in the Details: Robertson's Revision of Haitian History
by Obery Hendricks
As any clear-eyed perusal of history shows, the roots of Haiti's deep poverty lie in the economic exploitation it has suffered continually, from its colonial period to today's neo-colonialism.
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An Evangelical Missionary's Honest Perspective on Pat Robertson's Haiti Remarks
by Aaron Taylor
When I was a student at Christ for the Nations School of Missions, I learned about the so-called "pact with the devil" that the African slaves of Haiti made to free themselves from the French.... While I agree that Pat Robertson's comments were embarrassing and offensive (For the record: I don't think that anyone should ever claim they have divine knowledge as to why a specific natural disaster occurs. Luke 13:2-5 speaks loudly against that), I also think that the reaction of the secular media and some in the progressive faith community has been -- good intentions not withstanding -- condescending.
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A Prayer of Confession, Repentance, and Action for Haiti
by Melvin Bray
Pat Robertson was right about one thing. Haiti is a land that has suffered under the scourge of what might as well be called "curse." Typical of the colonially minded, Robertson just didn't spread the blame far enough around, and we would be remiss should we end our prayer without asking forgiveness for the part we've individually and corporately played as unwitting (and in a few cases witting) exploiters of Haiti. As Tracy Kidder reminds us, "while earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade."
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God's Economics: Pope Benedict -- and Jim Wallis -- Go Where Many U.S. Politicians Fear to Tread
by John Gehring
Pope Benedict goes where many U.S. politicians fear to tread in his call for equitable distribution of wealth, robust financial regulations, and belief in the essential role government has in promoting the common good. If the pope were running for political office in the U.S., you can imagine the attack ads blasting him as a socialist.
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Hearing MLK's Full Message
by Ruth Hawley-Lowry
As we see the devastation of our sisters and brothers in Haiti, perhaps it is timely to remember what Dr. King preached about the poor and let his words speak again (particularly as the poverty is Haiti is juxtaposed with the prosperity on Wall Street).
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Evaluating President Obama's Response to the Haiti Earthquake
by Martha St. Jean
President Obama's enterprise in asking former president George W. Bush to work with former Bill Clinton, the UN Envoy to Haiti, will be of great interest to Haitians living abroad, especially given the aversion many in the community still feel for the former Bush administration.
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More Haitian History and Perspective on Pat Robertson and the 'Pact with the Devil'
by Ryan Rodrick Beiler
Like many of you, my first reaction when hearing Pat Robertson's assertion that Haiti had been cursed for making a "pact with the devil" was, well, not appropriate to write on a Christian blog. But once I got over the shock of his blaming the victims, I'll be honest -- my next impulse was curiosity: What tattered shred of historical truth could he possibly be twisting? At the risk of lending any credence whatsoever to Robertson's claims and perpetuating a distraction from what should be our main concern: RESPONDING TO THE OVERWHELMING NEED OF SURVIVING HAITIANS (click here for for Sojourners' readers' recommended ways to help), I did some additional research, and here's what I found.
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The Devil's Reparations for Haiti's Debt?
by Elizabeth Palmberg
This might be a reasonable time to point out that, when Haiti threw out the French, it was the latter who were on the side of evil -- first, as slave-owners (Haiti was the only modern nation created by a slave revolt). And then, when Haitians had finally attained freedom from plantation chattel slavery, France forced Haiti to pay reparations to the former slave-owners, to compensate them for their loss of "property."
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