Unfair – Get Use to It

In whose predictions of the future do you place your faith? Are there “idols” in your life whose wisdom or advice your credit above God's? What will you do to change that attitude? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1016).

The other day I heard a judge with complete seriousness tell a youthful offender that “Life is unfair, get use to it.” I saw the youth in the hall later and don't think by his demeanor that he had resolved to keep the judge's advice.

Several weeks ago we had a crisis in the NFL when relatively inept substitute referees were undercutting the sense of reliable fairness in the game of football. This threatened to undercut fan loyalty to the sport as well as the safety of the players. During this crisis I never once heard proffered the stultifying advice—life is unfair, get use to it.

Overwhelming, it is in the economic arena where we are asked to accept this philosophy. While quite rightly complete equality of earnings would not be fair, neither will I ever accept the doctrine that people should not be able to earn a living wage by their labor while others get rich off of it. We rail because people are not willing to work for the minimum wage. Without exception those who rail are better off and filled with patronizing advice.

Unlike in football, there is a widespread belief that God endorses economic unfairness. We say that God is in control therefore the status quo must be his will. What hogwash! All throughout the Bible God and the prophets of God and Jesus himself are always and forever challenging the status quo with its panoply of injustices.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The pledge of allegiance seems to suggest that the United States being “under God” has His endorsement including most especially His endorsement of the country's economic arrangements accepted by the privileged without question with the ardor of wild idol worship. I would rather think that a relationship with the Creator (as with the fairness crisis in football) calls for sane effective corrective action, not a bleating cry that “Life is unfair, get use to it.”

Get use to it?--No Way!



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Taken Aback

The Hay Harvest

Artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Year 1565

Type Oil on wood

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3 NIV).

Today Kathy and I had lunch with a young friend celebrating his 22^nd birthday. While a youth he received disability for mental impairment (slowness). Yet I have never found this to affect our relationship in any way whatsoever. The longer I live the more mystified I am by the concept of intelligence. Last night on CNN I saw an interview with an eminent CEO; I thought he had some very foolish things to say. Today at lunch I ask my young friend—“if life were a test, what would it be a test of?” He thought a moment and said soberly that it was a hard question. Then he responded that “life is a test of faith.” I was abashed. This was in no way the response I expected from a “slow” young man of 22. It seems to me that on the whole we pay way too much attention to official repositories of status—positions of power or prestigious credentials—and not near enough to the voice of more humble folk with a rare asset—having what Christ referred in the first Beatitude as being “poor in spirit.” After all, where are we more likely to come closer to finding the truth—among the humble or among the arrogant?

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How Capitalism Leads to Callousness

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24 NIV).

I have heard recently of a businessman who has become very successful. He has several homes and all the material goods required to make his life overflowing with possessions. Yet this same businessman rails at the fact that he wishes to hire people at $9.00 an hour, yet finds them reluctant to work at this less than living wage. He has come to see his own wealth as completely justified, while sharing it with other essential producers of wealth would be an outrage.

In my view it is clear that capitalism's tendency to filter wealth to the relatively few is hurtful to everybody, most especially those who acquire it. What is the mechanism that helps generate such callousness?

I know the man referred to and am aware that he was raised in a home where the Christian values of sharing and generosity were taught and demonstrated. Fundamentally, I know he appreciates that selfishness and greed are not good. Thus, on a primary level, his view of personal wealth is conflicted and disturbing to him. A state of denial as a defense thus comes into play. An “I earned every penny” psychological stance and a “circle the wagons” mentality serve to rationalize, justify, and legitimize his disproportionate earnings to himself and others whose complicity with this fiction he anxiously yearns for. In other words, feeling that his position is assailable and indefensible, he seeks and finds psychological defense and resolution in an ideological stance that would enshrine selfishness and greed within a shroud of rectitude. Capitalism as an ideology is shared by other devotees who similarly seek to justify basic unfairness and greed and earnestly seek solace from like-minded friends. Natural allies in this fiction are wealthy investors, professionals, and those of inheritance. They come to fancy themselves as the primary wealth creators. A key motto of this religion is “life is unfair, get used to it.” In other words, justice and fairness are not to be actively pursued or even thought about and the status quo, however remote from the kingdom of God, is to be accepted.

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Did Jesus Have It Wrong?

The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me (Matthew 26:11 NIV).

What world problems today seem to be beyond solution? What forces appear to be in control? Do you react to these problems with: Helplessness? Cynicism? Sorrow? Disgust? Hope? Why? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1015).

It is my hope and belief that in this one instance Jesus in a sense had it wrong. For, indeed, Jesus is always with us and it is my hope and belief that one day the poor will be no more.

The base of much mischief is the ideology of meritocracy. It is taken as a tautology that resources automatically reside with those who earn them. Nothing is more patently untrue. Hierarchical position becomes the ultimate test of worth. Thus CEO's are fairly seen to make millions while those in fact providing the most stressful and grueling service (and are the ultimate source of services and wealth) barely make a living wage. This fact is awesomely enervating to the majority of humanity. A side effect of this concentration of wealth instead of its broad distribution is that economies suffer greatly. The maldistribution of wealth hugely dampens overall demand and economic activity. The generation of wealth becomes much less than it should be.

Capitalism as traditionally understood has great and fatal limitations. Until basic fairness is devised and included within economic systems, we will continue to judge people as the culprit and rail against laziness rather than facing the challenges of a broader and fairer distribution of earnings.

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During the Interim

Would you like to know the exact date when you will die? What difference would it make in how you lived now...? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1010).

Speeding Down an Overgrown Road

By Wayne Standifer

I have been in love with speed--

With the simple passing on of things,

With hands tight upon the steering wheel,

With mouth dry and brow slightly cold,

With the whiplash terror of passing things,

And the running out of room.

What if on the day you were born along with your birth certificate a post dated death certificate was also issued. Thus, you could now rummage around in the trunk where such things are kept and retrieve the date you will surely die. Of course, a good rule of thumb to live by is to assume that today will be the last day of your life. Because then, one focuses on meaning as it is most highly cherished. The goal then becomes how to connect and express the fundamental meaning that signals your essential being and purpose. Of course, this need not be an exquisitely uplifting thing. Some may choose to spend their last day high on drugs, wallowing in money, or getting even with their worst enemy. Others may wish that their last day be just like any other—humbly lived within the will God.

Occasionally I think about this question and always conclude it is best not to know my death day. As a procrastinator and devotee of the dubious notion that I always do my best under pressure, I probably would end up dealing with it like I have college term papers—putting it largely out of mind until a crush date. During the interim, I chronically feel queasy and guilty about my irresponsibility. In many ways due to God's mercy life is more like a pop quiz than a term paper. Daily vigilance is encouraged. To quote from Joshua “then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...” (Joshua 24:15 NIV).

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Willing to Die For

He will judge between the nations

   and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

   and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

   nor will they train for war anymore.

(Isaiah 2:4)

What was the last time you or your city “danced in the streets for joy”? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1006).

My deepest joy does not bring on dancing but tears. Thus, there is a touch of sadness in it. For joy is testimony to pain. A scripture passage that affects me this way is Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV).

A New Heaven and a New Earth

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Similar joy can come from seeing someone with severe handicaps embodying a triumphant spirit and raw courage, or attending a wedding, or witnessing the birth of a child, or even yes, watching a sentimental movie in which with the apparent slimmest of chances kindness prevails over cruelty. Such joy comes when hope prevails over great odds.

Such times are profoundly important because they validate hope and thus take on the nature of a symbol. They are in the end what most folks are willing to die for. We come to feel that cherished abstractions are, after all, more concrete and real than anything else. Joy comes when we see spiritual victory snatched from the jaws of nihilism.

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The Christian Deportment of Conviction

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., right, accompanied by the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy,
 is booked by city police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala.,on
 Feb. 23, 1956.

When I think of people and causes that I have admired, a central ingredient is always a good measure of certitude. For those who have read my blogs mentioning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you know that I greatly admire him. In his deportment and speaking style one thing is abundantly clear—here was a man who had immense certitude about the rectitude of civil rights, about the wrongness of the Vietnam War, about the need for economic justice, and (vitally important) about the spirit in which his certitudes and convictions were to be expressed (namely, he was to manifest a Christian spirit even when under withering fire from the opposition). [But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Galations 5:22-23 NIV).] While giving full voice to his convictions, he was never to assume a mantle of angry self-righteousness; for to do so would render himself more culpable than even his most rabid opponents.

Thus certitude (which is undoubtedly warranted and the necessary psychological base for firm conviction and decisive action) must always be accompanied by charity, goodwill, and humility bestowed only by the grace of the Holy Spirit and our Heavenly Father. The final test of a Christian is not in harboring convictions but in pursing them with a Christian spirit.

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