Did you have another sentimental, repentless Christmas as most white American Christians did? No rejection of, repentance from, restitution for endless white ethnocentrism, white oppression. If so, this means another very bad year for the millions of America's poor and oppressed.
Here is how Jesus described repentless religion---the religion of the Pharisees, supposed experts on the OT Law which was built upon the principles of love and justice; "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money (Luke 16:11), neglected justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42)."
Here is how John Perkins, who was born and raised a poor black in segregated Mississippi, describes repentless religion in Mississippi (the bigoted Baptists): "The white church institutions of Mississippi have been the last bastion of racism and discrimination. So if somehow all the church and church institutions had been wiped out in Mississippi, we would be much further along in terms of progress than we are at the present time."
James Cone adds: "It is as if whites have been socially conditioned to be racist and thus dehumanizing for so long that they do not even recognize it any longer. . . . White church people seemed not to know the [biblically] obvious, that justice was God's will."
This is just the beginning of bad news for the coming new year. Some very bad news from Willian Nordhaus, Yale University expert on climate change and its economic impact. Nordhaus essentially says that all we have done so far on reducing climate change are bandaids when surgery is needed.
"The paper's findings "pertain primarily to a world without climate policies, which is reasonably accurate for virtually the entire globe today." "The results show rapidly rising accumulation of carbon dioxide, temperature changes, and damages." "there is virtually no chance" that nations will prevent the world from warming more than 3.6 degrees, the upper boundary for avoiding cascading catastrophes."
My interpretation: It is already too late to avoid catastrophe; drastic, quick action might slow things down somewhat, but even this seems highly unlikely. Batten down the hatches; prepare for the worst.
Can you handle even more bad news? The "American Dream is collapsing" asserts Jim Tankersley in a Washington Post article: "Trump's tax-cut plan will do little to improve economic mobility for struggling blue-collar families, even if they help accelerate growth because analysts predict the cuts would benefit high earners disproportionately. . . . . The surge in inequality over the past half-century is well documented. . . . the bottom 50 percent only gained 1 percent in earnings from 1962 to 2014. . . . From 1980 to 2014, nearly 70 percent of income gains went to the top 10 percent."
Are you up for some more bad news about our economic system? Read [Five] "Books that shaped our economic thinking," by Noah Smith, Bloomberg News. Concrete Economics, The China Shock, Rising Morbidity and Mortality, The Economics of Manipulation and Deception.
Now I shall end with some good news about what our economic system could be from a review of Viking Economics in the Jan issue of Sojourners magazine by Richard K. Taylor:
"A century ago, an economic elite ran each Nordic country. There was extensive poverty, lack of work, an enormous gap between rich and poor, even famines. To escape these conditions, Scandinavians emigrated to the U.S. in massive numbers: 1 million Swedes (1868-1914), 800,000 Norwegians (1825-1925,"
Today, things are radically different: free education through college, universal health care, social security, etc. A vibrant business sector. Very little military spending leaving monies available for social needs. In America we have gone part way: free education through high school, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. But we have enormous economic inequality and enormous military spending draining billions from meeting social needs.
In addition to government spending on social needs, Scandinavians have thousand of co-ops at the local level. In American we could and should do much better in terms of socioeconomic justice.
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