Monday, October 17, 2011

On God and Wall Street

We're hearing a lot from our elected officials about our values, actually, their values, because it is safe to assume from listening to them, that ours suck.  We have heard about what needs to be done to prevent gay marriage, a woman's right to choose whether she needs to have an abortion, and the decay of American civilization by allowing in the creeping scourge of immigrants and other religions.

But I never did learn in church about Jesus speaking out against love for one another, in fact, he lectured his apostles about their judging of a prostitute.  I never heard that Jesus spoke in favor of killing our enemies; in fact, he taught that we should love our enemies, which I find difficult to do when they are telling me the world would be better off without the likes of us breathing its air.

In fact, Jesus' message really was about looking inside ourselves, not about judging others.

The thing that drove Jesus crazy, though, was moneylenders, the ones that plied their trade in God's house especially.  The thing that Jesus spoke up against most was greed, the greed that hurts the poor, the children, the sick and the old.

So I applaud the Occupy Wall Street movement in this country and across the world.  Can it be that we are finally speaking out against greed instead of humanity, and beginning to work together to hold the wealthy and powerful accountable?

I believe Jesus would have been in that crowd.

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