Progressive Ponderings: The Virtue of Profit
The radical Gospel of Jesus Christ has been turned upside down by our creation of a corporate god dedicated only to the virtue of profit
by Joe Mayer
Remember atheistic communism? For forty years we fought the evil empire and its autocratic hierarchical structure. We garrisoned the “free world” with our military bases and with “democratic” dictators repeatedly reelected with 99% of the vote. We fought wars on two continents, fearing the evil monster whose sole purpose was to eliminate freedom and democracy. In the name of fear and the accompanying hatred, we offered our treasure to protect (and bankrupt) ourselves with the world’s largest fighting force, sacrificing our young women and men on the altar of patriotism and exceptionalism.
Well after this monster died, an act of terrorism by a few individuals became a new cause for a culture based on fear and hatred and has generated a number of wars. But the monster again must be slain as we sacrifice our schools, our resources, our democracy, our freedom, our sanity, our youth and our treasure on this altar of patriotism and exceptionalism. Atheistic communism has been supplanted by atheistic terrorism with an Islamic flavor.
We do not recognize what atheistic capitalism has done to our own religions, our democratic government, our freedoms, our worldview and our personal value systems. I submit that the radical Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Gospel of inclusiveness and compassion, of justice and love has been turned upside down by our creation of a corporate god dedicated only to the virtue of profit.
The chief profiteers:
It mocks scripture’s concern for the poor and oppressed, for the sick and the young and the aged, for the position of women and foreigners, for the weak in any sense. Right now our politics targets all those that religions indicate should be the recipients of our justice, our compassion and love. Some of our religious and political leaders even label victims as deserving the wrath of God for their perceived sins.
Atheistic communism produced a society very similar to our distorted top-down democracy. Did democracy reinvent itself in this manner or did a capitalistic market-driven society, void of morality, depreciate our values to the point of succumbing to a self-defeating, self-serving ideology?
by Joe Mayer
Remember atheistic communism? For forty years we fought the evil empire and its autocratic hierarchical structure. We garrisoned the “free world” with our military bases and with “democratic” dictators repeatedly reelected with 99% of the vote. We fought wars on two continents, fearing the evil monster whose sole purpose was to eliminate freedom and democracy. In the name of fear and the accompanying hatred, we offered our treasure to protect (and bankrupt) ourselves with the world’s largest fighting force, sacrificing our young women and men on the altar of patriotism and exceptionalism.
Well after this monster died, an act of terrorism by a few individuals became a new cause for a culture based on fear and hatred and has generated a number of wars. But the monster again must be slain as we sacrifice our schools, our resources, our democracy, our freedom, our sanity, our youth and our treasure on this altar of patriotism and exceptionalism. Atheistic communism has been supplanted by atheistic terrorism with an Islamic flavor.
We do not recognize what atheistic capitalism has done to our own religions, our democratic government, our freedoms, our worldview and our personal value systems. I submit that the radical Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Gospel of inclusiveness and compassion, of justice and love has been turned upside down by our creation of a corporate god dedicated only to the virtue of profit.
The chief profiteers:
- dominate our church boards and handle church funds
- dominate our college and university boards and donate with attached ideologies
- control our airways and media with a market-oriented conservative bias
- purchase our politics and governance with campaign contributions, think tank propaganda, and lobbyist persuasions
- exploit our criminal justice system with “justices” that appoint presidents and create inanimate corporate rulers
- entertain a citizenry to passivity as their world crumbles around them.
It mocks scripture’s concern for the poor and oppressed, for the sick and the young and the aged, for the position of women and foreigners, for the weak in any sense. Right now our politics targets all those that religions indicate should be the recipients of our justice, our compassion and love. Some of our religious and political leaders even label victims as deserving the wrath of God for their perceived sins.
Atheistic communism produced a society very similar to our distorted top-down democracy. Did democracy reinvent itself in this manner or did a capitalistic market-driven society, void of morality, depreciate our values to the point of succumbing to a self-defeating, self-serving ideology?
Labels: social justice
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1 Comments:
Where is the virtue in taking from one and ‘giving’ to another? If you feel compelled to give to Cesar so Cesar can ‘help’ others, be my guest. What is wrong with the simple adage “When you see someone who needs help, help them.”
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