Joe R. Feagin, one of America's top sociologists on the topic of race/racism, author of Racist America and Systemic Racism, asserts that America is a racist nation "AT ITS VERY CORE," "born in violence and blood." against Native Americans, Afro Americans, against all non-WASPs. But America hypocritically poses as an exceptional nation, chosen by God.
Even most white American scholars still see "racism as something tacked onto an otherwise healthy American society." After careful historical and sociological analysis, Feagin concludes that systemic racism is at the very core of American society. I wholeheartedly agree that this is true both past and present.
But I would state the issue somewhat differently. First, ethnocentrism, supposed cultural superiority, was brought to America by British colonists [see A Different Mirror]. Next, came economic greed tied to the growing of tobacco. Then, the demand for cheap, reliable labor to grow tobacco fueled the creation of the biblical and biologically erroneous concept of black and white---race. Now, race/racism have taken on a life of its own.
Today, I still would put ethnocentrism ahead of racism as a fundamental cause, or put racism as a sub-category under ethnocentrism. And I think that economic greed, systems of economic oppression, drive a lot of current racism. We have to tackle all three categories at the same time: ethnocentrism (culture), economic greed/oppression (class), racism (race). All three impact all parts of American society---"economics, politics, education, religion and family." Racism is both individual and societal.
A bit of American history: In 1787, 55 men wrote of Constitution. Feagin describes the who, what and why:
"At least 40 percent have been or are slave owners, and a significant proportion of the others profit to some degree as merchants, shippers, lawyers, and bankers from the slave trade, in slave-produced agricultural products, or supplying provisions to slaveholders and slave traders." George Washington, a rich slaveholder---hundreds of slaves---presides. "We the People" excludes one-fifth of the population.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
The Church: Genocide or Justice
In the 1990s, the Rwandan and the Burundian churches, Protestant and Catholic, chose genocide. Tutsi and Hutu Christians killed each other on a massive scale---hundreds of thousands. In both countries, around 70 percent of the populations profess to be Christian. Pastors and priests killed parishinors; teachers killed students.
When churches neglect justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42), unchecked ethnocentrism and oppression can run wild. Why did Rwandan and Burundian pastors and priests ignore the extensive biblical teaching on ethnocentrism, oppression, justice, reconciliation and the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice? Why did they ignore the vast prophetic teachings on oppression and justice?
While he doesn't address ethnocentrism and oppression from a biblical perspective, Tracy Kidder in his excellent but profoundly disturbing book, Strength In What Remains, does write about genocide as he presents the unbelievably tragic life story of Deo, a Burundian Tutsi. The following are excerpts from Kidder's book:
The Hutu and Tutsi shared the same language, culture and religion; "They intermarried, too---more commonly after colonialism, at least in Rwanda. . . . it was hard to tell Hutu and Tutsi apart simply by looks."
But there were class distinctions; " . . . aristocracy was drawn from the population of cow-owning Tutsi's and their inferiors or dependents were predominately Hutu farmers."
". . . the effects of colonization were profound. . . ."
"Colonialism introduced new levels of violence and tools [guns] for violence." Europeans didn't invent the terms Hutu and Tutsi, but they "added poison to that terminology." "Europeans made the [Tutsi and Hutu] distinctions into a racial difference [Tutsis became a white race in a black skin]."
Hutus were treated as "virtual slaves"; Europeans created worse poverty and "periodic famines." This created "great resentment among Hutus."
"Rwandan economy and government entirely interwoven with foreign aid and dependent on it. The administration of that aid was a vehicle 'for exclusion and for the reproduction of privileges for a small elite."
" . . .structural violence [systems of oppression] was an essential element in the acute violence [genocide] that overwhelmed Rwanda in 1994."
My conclusion: ethnocentrism and oppressive economic systems always generate violence---sometimes extreme violence or genocide.
Unfortunately, genocide or something similar has been a common feature of the colonial era; here are three other examples:
1. West Africa: Europeans combined God, greed and slaves. They built churches o top of slave castles where slaves were stored waiting for slave ships. For me, the combination of the slave trade and slavery are another type of genocide.
2. Caribbean Islands: Columbus and his followers combined God, greed, gold and genocide. The result: TOTAL genocide; in the islands, there are no Native American peoples/cultures left.
3. Puritan colonists: They combined God, greed, land and genocide; this set the pattern for the rest of American history. Few culturally functioning tribes left east of the Mississippi.
Even today, there is little biblical teaching on ethnocentrism and oppression, justice and reconciliation. Among American churches, there is little repentance, restitution and repair. There must be a conspiracy to avoid these important biblical teachings in order to protect white supremacy/superiority and white privilege.
According to Luke 4, Jesus confronted the two major social evils of his time in one sermon: sermon A on oppression, 4:18-19 and sermon B on ethnocentrism, 4:25-30. Sermon B almost got him killed on the spot.. In my 89 years, I have never heard any white American pastor preach sermons A and B.
When churches neglect justice and the love of God (Luke 11:42), unchecked ethnocentrism and oppression can run wild. Why did Rwandan and Burundian pastors and priests ignore the extensive biblical teaching on ethnocentrism, oppression, justice, reconciliation and the kingdom of God as Jubilee justice? Why did they ignore the vast prophetic teachings on oppression and justice?
While he doesn't address ethnocentrism and oppression from a biblical perspective, Tracy Kidder in his excellent but profoundly disturbing book, Strength In What Remains, does write about genocide as he presents the unbelievably tragic life story of Deo, a Burundian Tutsi. The following are excerpts from Kidder's book:
The Hutu and Tutsi shared the same language, culture and religion; "They intermarried, too---more commonly after colonialism, at least in Rwanda. . . . it was hard to tell Hutu and Tutsi apart simply by looks."
But there were class distinctions; " . . . aristocracy was drawn from the population of cow-owning Tutsi's and their inferiors or dependents were predominately Hutu farmers."
". . . the effects of colonization were profound. . . ."
"Colonialism introduced new levels of violence and tools [guns] for violence." Europeans didn't invent the terms Hutu and Tutsi, but they "added poison to that terminology." "Europeans made the [Tutsi and Hutu] distinctions into a racial difference [Tutsis became a white race in a black skin]."
Hutus were treated as "virtual slaves"; Europeans created worse poverty and "periodic famines." This created "great resentment among Hutus."
"Rwandan economy and government entirely interwoven with foreign aid and dependent on it. The administration of that aid was a vehicle 'for exclusion and for the reproduction of privileges for a small elite."
" . . .structural violence [systems of oppression] was an essential element in the acute violence [genocide] that overwhelmed Rwanda in 1994."
My conclusion: ethnocentrism and oppressive economic systems always generate violence---sometimes extreme violence or genocide.
Unfortunately, genocide or something similar has been a common feature of the colonial era; here are three other examples:
1. West Africa: Europeans combined God, greed and slaves. They built churches o top of slave castles where slaves were stored waiting for slave ships. For me, the combination of the slave trade and slavery are another type of genocide.
2. Caribbean Islands: Columbus and his followers combined God, greed, gold and genocide. The result: TOTAL genocide; in the islands, there are no Native American peoples/cultures left.
3. Puritan colonists: They combined God, greed, land and genocide; this set the pattern for the rest of American history. Few culturally functioning tribes left east of the Mississippi.
Even today, there is little biblical teaching on ethnocentrism and oppression, justice and reconciliation. Among American churches, there is little repentance, restitution and repair. There must be a conspiracy to avoid these important biblical teachings in order to protect white supremacy/superiority and white privilege.
According to Luke 4, Jesus confronted the two major social evils of his time in one sermon: sermon A on oppression, 4:18-19 and sermon B on ethnocentrism, 4:25-30. Sermon B almost got him killed on the spot.. In my 89 years, I have never heard any white American pastor preach sermons A and B.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
White America In Crisis Mode
From hallowed? heritage to a hollowing out resulting in anger, fear and panic. Much of this blog is based Charles Blow's recent op-ed in the NYT titled "White America's 'Broken Heart'" At times, I felt like I was reading a modern version of the prophet Amos as I read Blow's remarkable essay. Blow discusses what's behind our weird and chaotic political season characterized by a brash, bigoted billionaire's rise to the top of the polls. Blow uses words such as disappointment, dislocation, disillusionment, demographic change, drugs and death to describe the state of white America.
Blow is black and very perceptive; he has been following the campaign trail so his observations are first-hand; he contrasts black and white America as only an American Afro American can. Blow quotes Chris Hayes: "This campaign is starting to feel more and more like a long, national nervous breakdown."
Blow describes this white breakdown with phrases such as these:
"profound disappointment with America and its institutions."
"dislocation of white supremacy" due to rapid demographic change.
"disillusionment that the economic game is rigged."
"death rates rising among middle aged white Americans caused by suicide, alcoholism and drug overdoses."
For many of these white Americans, our first black president is a high profile, visual symbol of their increasing loss of white supremacy and white privilege.
M. Crozier, a French sociologist who has visited America many times beginning in 1946 and ending in 1980. From 1946-1970, he noted a vitality and dynamic much greater than in France. But in a 1980 visit, Crozier observed a profound loss of vitality and meaning.
In my opinion, during the 1980s the American trinity of hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism and hyperethnocentrism exploded; this contributed to the hollowing out of America in 2016. White Americans are technological and production geniuses, but we are social and ethical morons.
Recently, I heard this stat over NPR; with only 5 percent of America's population, we use 80 percent of the world's pain killers. A few years earlier, we were using 50 percent of the illegal drugs. Why this enormous consumption of both legal and illegal drugs?
Two more quotations from the pen of Charles Blow:
White Americans "a people dying of sadness and vice were simply the leading edge of a tragic, morbid expression of a disappointment and fear shadowing much of white America."
Some "white Americans are coming to live an experience that many minorities have long lived---structural [economic] inequity has leapt the racial barrier."
The Bible asserts that whatever we sow, we also reap. The chickens are coming home to roost. But few white Americans are repenting. Instead, they are blaming, pointing to everyone else---Mexicans, Muslims and Obama---not themselves. They don't remember that when you point a finger at another people, you are pointing three fingers at yourself.
Blow is black and very perceptive; he has been following the campaign trail so his observations are first-hand; he contrasts black and white America as only an American Afro American can. Blow quotes Chris Hayes: "This campaign is starting to feel more and more like a long, national nervous breakdown."
Blow describes this white breakdown with phrases such as these:
"profound disappointment with America and its institutions."
"dislocation of white supremacy" due to rapid demographic change.
"disillusionment that the economic game is rigged."
"death rates rising among middle aged white Americans caused by suicide, alcoholism and drug overdoses."
For many of these white Americans, our first black president is a high profile, visual symbol of their increasing loss of white supremacy and white privilege.
M. Crozier, a French sociologist who has visited America many times beginning in 1946 and ending in 1980. From 1946-1970, he noted a vitality and dynamic much greater than in France. But in a 1980 visit, Crozier observed a profound loss of vitality and meaning.
In my opinion, during the 1980s the American trinity of hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism and hyperethnocentrism exploded; this contributed to the hollowing out of America in 2016. White Americans are technological and production geniuses, but we are social and ethical morons.
Recently, I heard this stat over NPR; with only 5 percent of America's population, we use 80 percent of the world's pain killers. A few years earlier, we were using 50 percent of the illegal drugs. Why this enormous consumption of both legal and illegal drugs?
Two more quotations from the pen of Charles Blow:
White Americans "a people dying of sadness and vice were simply the leading edge of a tragic, morbid expression of a disappointment and fear shadowing much of white America."
Some "white Americans are coming to live an experience that many minorities have long lived---structural [economic] inequity has leapt the racial barrier."
The Bible asserts that whatever we sow, we also reap. The chickens are coming home to roost. But few white Americans are repenting. Instead, they are blaming, pointing to everyone else---Mexicans, Muslims and Obama---not themselves. They don't remember that when you point a finger at another people, you are pointing three fingers at yourself.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Not A Needy Person Among Them
As usual Reta Finger provides fresh insights on the Jerusalem church in her article in March issue of Sojourners entitled "Not a Needy Person Among Them." I would like to add to her comments. She writes:
Few biblical texts have been more influenced by the social status of their interpreters than those that describe a community of pooled possessions. [Acts 4:32-35] If we have grown up in comfortable middle-class capitalism, such an arrangement seems foreign---even a threat to our life.
Economic systems tend to reflect the depravity of humans---greed and systems of oppression. According to the OT Sabbath/Jubilee laws, such economic systems need to be born again every seven years when a leveling of society, a fresh beginning takes place with all debts canceled and all slaves/oppressed freed. I think Acts 4:32-35 echoes the Sabbath/Jubilee year principles or it may even be a direct application of such.
The church in the book of Acts replicated on a large scale what Zacchaeus did at the individual level. Zacchaeus, a rich oppressor, met Jesus; out of this encounter, Zacchaeus recognized his sin, then repented and validated his repentance with large amounts of financial restitution. He gave back his extorted riches and then some.
During Jesus' time, religious, political and economic leaders rigged the financial/economic system to favor the powerful elite. Jesus called this system a 'den of robbers'. Some of these rich oppressors were converted on the day of Pentecost or soon thereafter. What should they do with their exploited riches---their extra houses and farms? Many voluntarily sold their extra houses and lands, brought the money to the church which then gave the monies to the poor. The Spirit-filled church was practicing generosity and justice.
Rarely do the American rich repent and share their riches with the poor; sometimes at the charity level, but seldom at the justice level. True conversion, full conversion results in repentance and restitution, repair and rebuilding, sharing and justice.
Few biblical texts have been more influenced by the social status of their interpreters than those that describe a community of pooled possessions. [Acts 4:32-35] If we have grown up in comfortable middle-class capitalism, such an arrangement seems foreign---even a threat to our life.
Economic systems tend to reflect the depravity of humans---greed and systems of oppression. According to the OT Sabbath/Jubilee laws, such economic systems need to be born again every seven years when a leveling of society, a fresh beginning takes place with all debts canceled and all slaves/oppressed freed. I think Acts 4:32-35 echoes the Sabbath/Jubilee year principles or it may even be a direct application of such.
The church in the book of Acts replicated on a large scale what Zacchaeus did at the individual level. Zacchaeus, a rich oppressor, met Jesus; out of this encounter, Zacchaeus recognized his sin, then repented and validated his repentance with large amounts of financial restitution. He gave back his extorted riches and then some.
During Jesus' time, religious, political and economic leaders rigged the financial/economic system to favor the powerful elite. Jesus called this system a 'den of robbers'. Some of these rich oppressors were converted on the day of Pentecost or soon thereafter. What should they do with their exploited riches---their extra houses and farms? Many voluntarily sold their extra houses and lands, brought the money to the church which then gave the monies to the poor. The Spirit-filled church was practicing generosity and justice.
Rarely do the American rich repent and share their riches with the poor; sometimes at the charity level, but seldom at the justice level. True conversion, full conversion results in repentance and restitution, repair and rebuilding, sharing and justice.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Christian Nation or Oppressor Nation?
Is the United States of America built upon the rock of Christianity or the sands of oppression?
Joe A. Feagin, a sociologist, may be America's top expert on white racism and its impact on various minorities; he has written or co-authored 60 books, mostly on the topic of race and racism. Late in his academic career, he was puzzled by the enduring persistence of white racism in America so he became a historian of sorts and explored the time of our founding fathers. There he found his answer---slavery and racism were everywhere in the American cultural and historical DNA. He titled his book Racist America, now in a 2014, 3rd edition.
Significantly, Joe Feagin gives Jennifer Harvey's book Whiteness and Morality high praise:
Drawing on recent interdisciplinary research and ancient moral imperatives, Harvey courageously probes deep truths of U.S. foundations in genocide and slavery. If Christian ethicists are serious about social justice, she avers, they must aggressively generate moral crises for self-named 'whites' who have maintained a nation created in extreme racial oppressions. Such disruptions encompass nation-shaking apologies and massive material reparations---the only ways those racialized as whites can become fully human. Harvey thereby suggests tough answers to an ultimate question: Is the United States actually an illegal and morally illegitimate nation?
For Feagin, the question Is the U.S. an oppressor nation at heart? is not a trivial question. Both Feagin and Harvey would answer a resounding YES!
After reading both Racist America and Whiteness and Morality, these are my reflections:
* Our historical past haunts our sociological present.
* America was founded on slave trade, slavery, genocide, stolen Native American and Mexican land, all legitimated by a deeply flawed, Americanized Christianity.
* In 2016, white ethnocentrism and white oppression are still widespread.
* The North is a racist as the South.
* Anglo America needs to REPENT:
Repentance as in fundamental change, not just a verbal apology.
Restitute---genuine repentance requires restitution, think Zacchaeus; no restitution, no repentance.
Repair---the people and communities damaged by oppression need to rebuilt.
* Anglos need to create a kingdom of God theology that destroys ethnocentrism and oppression; then replaces them with love and justice.
In the American context, apart from Anglo repentance (which is rare since self-righteous people seldom repent), WASPness is irreparably damaging and demonic. The incessant American ideological propaganda is that whiteness is divine, that blackness is demonic, dangerous and dysfunctional. In reality, white Christian is an oxymoron because most Anglos are oppressive and devilish. Especially when it is combined with perverted religion, the rich and the male, as is the common pattern in American history.
In America, the word white was created to justify and clarify white supremacy, slavery.
I dare to you read the following books in this order:
1. Inheriting the [Slave] Trade.
2. Between the World and Me.
3. Whiteness and Morality.
4. Dear White Christians.
5. The New Jim Crow.
And if you are a glutton for punishment, add
6. W.E.B. Du Bois: American Prophet.
7. Reforging the White Republic.
Then go back to the Bible and read Amos and the gospel of Luke.
Then . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Friday, February 5, 2016
Review of The Gardens of Democracy---a new type of capitalism
At the small scale level---family farms, small business, community banks, cooperatives---the capitalistic system works quite well. But when the financial/economic system becomes dominated by big corporations, big banks, Wall Street, the system, far too often becomes, as Jesus puts it, a den of robbers.
Enter Nick Hanauer, author of The Gardens of Democracy, who asks Americans to rethink their model of capitalism around the concept of a garden, not a machine. In summary fashion, Nick outlines what is wrong with American capitalism and how it should be changed. Remember, Hanauer is a venture capitalist.
Machine view: Markets are efficient, thus sacrosanct.
Garden view: Markets are effective, if well tended.
Machine view: Regulation destroys markets.
Garden view: Markets need fertilizing and weeding, or else are destroyed.
Machine view: Income [and wealth] inequality reflects unequal effort and ability.
Garden view: Inequality is what markets naturally create and compound, and requires correction.
Machine view: Wealth is created through competition and by the pursuit of narrow self-interest.
Garden view: Wealth is created through trust and cooperation.
Machine view: Wealth = individuals accumulating money.
Garden view: Wealth = society creating solutions.
If we are serious about creating wealth, our focus should not be on taking care of the rich so that their money trickles down; it should be on making sure everyone has a fair chance---in education, health, social capital, access to financial capital---to create new information and ideas.
Freedom without responsibility ends up as self-interest, greed; freedom with responsibility combines love and justice with freedom. Nick doesn't use the words community, love and justice often, but the following statement imply such:
"We're all in it together."
"Freedom is responsibility."
"We're all better off when we're all better off."
"True self-interest is mutual self-interest."
"With inalienable rights come inalienable responsibilities."
These comments remember me of Gal. 5:13: "You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love." From atomized individualism to networked interdependence.
Recirculation of wealth is as necessary to the economy as recirculation of blood is to the body.
In reading The Gardens of Democracy, I realized that capitalistic theory says little about economic oppression, the rich oppressing the poor. Instead, supposedly 'the market' efficiently distributes goods and services to the people; implied is that the poor must be lazy, ignorant, unskilled. Unacknowledged is that the rich benefit from 'trickle up'. The system is rigged in favor of 'trickle up', a form of oppression.
Enter Nick Hanauer, author of The Gardens of Democracy, who asks Americans to rethink their model of capitalism around the concept of a garden, not a machine. In summary fashion, Nick outlines what is wrong with American capitalism and how it should be changed. Remember, Hanauer is a venture capitalist.
Machine view: Markets are efficient, thus sacrosanct.
Garden view: Markets are effective, if well tended.
Machine view: Regulation destroys markets.
Garden view: Markets need fertilizing and weeding, or else are destroyed.
Machine view: Income [and wealth] inequality reflects unequal effort and ability.
Garden view: Inequality is what markets naturally create and compound, and requires correction.
Machine view: Wealth is created through competition and by the pursuit of narrow self-interest.
Garden view: Wealth is created through trust and cooperation.
Machine view: Wealth = individuals accumulating money.
Garden view: Wealth = society creating solutions.
If we are serious about creating wealth, our focus should not be on taking care of the rich so that their money trickles down; it should be on making sure everyone has a fair chance---in education, health, social capital, access to financial capital---to create new information and ideas.
Freedom without responsibility ends up as self-interest, greed; freedom with responsibility combines love and justice with freedom. Nick doesn't use the words community, love and justice often, but the following statement imply such:
"We're all in it together."
"Freedom is responsibility."
"We're all better off when we're all better off."
"True self-interest is mutual self-interest."
"With inalienable rights come inalienable responsibilities."
These comments remember me of Gal. 5:13: "You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love." From atomized individualism to networked interdependence.
Recirculation of wealth is as necessary to the economy as recirculation of blood is to the body.
In reading The Gardens of Democracy, I realized that capitalistic theory says little about economic oppression, the rich oppressing the poor. Instead, supposedly 'the market' efficiently distributes goods and services to the people; implied is that the poor must be lazy, ignorant, unskilled. Unacknowledged is that the rich benefit from 'trickle up'. The system is rigged in favor of 'trickle up', a form of oppression.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Reflections on Wall Street Capitalism
According to Bernie Sanders, our political system is corrupt and our economic system is rigged by Wall Street corporate capitalism.
According to Peggy Noonan, a conservative pundit, many young people have lost faith in American capitalism because of the economic earthquake in 2008 and the after shocks which have left them with uncertain futures. Their faith has been shattered so they are turning to Sanders in droves.
According to Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist and author of The Gardens of Democracy, for long-term survival, American capitalism must put the common good (justice for all) on a par with profits. I recently heard Nick on NPR and was amazed at his insight, wisdom and common sense.
According to Kevin Crause, author of One Nation Under God, much of the American church has been coopted and manipulated by corporate capitalism to provide moral legitimacy for Wall Street and Christian nationalism. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America has been reviewed by Randall Palmer in the Feb. 3, 2016 Christian Century. It wasn't always this way in the American church. The following quotations are from the Palmer review:
Building their case from scripture, evangelical reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries excoriated capitalism as inherently inconsistent with the mandates of the New Testament. Charles Finney thought the term 'Christian businessman' was an oxymoron because capitalism necessarily elevates avarice over altruism.
Jerry Falwell, Norman Vincent Peale and Billy Graham were among the many clergy who were influenced by The Committee to Proclaim Liberty. Key capitalists were Sid Richardson, James L. Kraft, J.C. Penny and Walt Disney.
The Committee to Proclaim Liberty enlisted still more clergy to perform the marriage between capitalism and Christianity, and by the dawn of the Eisenhower administration, all of this had somehow morphed into a kind Christian nationalism. Billy Graham played a key role.
They found no shortage of politicians willing to fly in the face of history to assert that the United States is a Christian nation, and no shortage of clergy willing to fly in the face of scripture to baptize free-market capitalism.
The Iowa Caucuses take place today. White evangelicals here in Iowa seem more than willing to marry capitalism and the church, and to promote the Christian nationalism heresy.
Pope Francis and Catholic social teaching provide a different alternative. See the Feb Sojourners magazine for an excellent summary in the article, "Economic Democracy and the Common Good." The common good would emphasize justice for all and cooperatives and some socialism, but not state socialism. The early church stressed generous sharing, priority of the poor, and equality in community, and kingdom of God Jubilee justice.
Another variation of a more just economy can be found in the book The Gardens of Democracy by a venture capitalist. Upcoming I will do a blog review on this book. Here are a few excerpts:
This book was conceived in the wake of the . . . 2008 Recession when giant financial institutions were obliterated, the net worth of most Americans collapsed.
At the same time, this has been an era of radical economic inequality, at levels not seen since 1929. Over the last three decades, an unprecedented consolidation and concentration of earning power and wealth has made the top 1 percent of Americans immensely richer while middle-class Americans have been increasingly impoverished.
Are the 2008 Recession and the vast income and wealth inequality related? Hanauer thinks so. He has concluded that "radical inequality and radical economic dislocation are causally linked: one brings and amplifies the other."
Book review to come
According to Peggy Noonan, a conservative pundit, many young people have lost faith in American capitalism because of the economic earthquake in 2008 and the after shocks which have left them with uncertain futures. Their faith has been shattered so they are turning to Sanders in droves.
According to Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist and author of The Gardens of Democracy, for long-term survival, American capitalism must put the common good (justice for all) on a par with profits. I recently heard Nick on NPR and was amazed at his insight, wisdom and common sense.
According to Kevin Crause, author of One Nation Under God, much of the American church has been coopted and manipulated by corporate capitalism to provide moral legitimacy for Wall Street and Christian nationalism. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America has been reviewed by Randall Palmer in the Feb. 3, 2016 Christian Century. It wasn't always this way in the American church. The following quotations are from the Palmer review:
Building their case from scripture, evangelical reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries excoriated capitalism as inherently inconsistent with the mandates of the New Testament. Charles Finney thought the term 'Christian businessman' was an oxymoron because capitalism necessarily elevates avarice over altruism.
Jerry Falwell, Norman Vincent Peale and Billy Graham were among the many clergy who were influenced by The Committee to Proclaim Liberty. Key capitalists were Sid Richardson, James L. Kraft, J.C. Penny and Walt Disney.
The Committee to Proclaim Liberty enlisted still more clergy to perform the marriage between capitalism and Christianity, and by the dawn of the Eisenhower administration, all of this had somehow morphed into a kind Christian nationalism. Billy Graham played a key role.
They found no shortage of politicians willing to fly in the face of history to assert that the United States is a Christian nation, and no shortage of clergy willing to fly in the face of scripture to baptize free-market capitalism.
The Iowa Caucuses take place today. White evangelicals here in Iowa seem more than willing to marry capitalism and the church, and to promote the Christian nationalism heresy.
Pope Francis and Catholic social teaching provide a different alternative. See the Feb Sojourners magazine for an excellent summary in the article, "Economic Democracy and the Common Good." The common good would emphasize justice for all and cooperatives and some socialism, but not state socialism. The early church stressed generous sharing, priority of the poor, and equality in community, and kingdom of God Jubilee justice.
Another variation of a more just economy can be found in the book The Gardens of Democracy by a venture capitalist. Upcoming I will do a blog review on this book. Here are a few excerpts:
This book was conceived in the wake of the . . . 2008 Recession when giant financial institutions were obliterated, the net worth of most Americans collapsed.
At the same time, this has been an era of radical economic inequality, at levels not seen since 1929. Over the last three decades, an unprecedented consolidation and concentration of earning power and wealth has made the top 1 percent of Americans immensely richer while middle-class Americans have been increasingly impoverished.
Are the 2008 Recession and the vast income and wealth inequality related? Hanauer thinks so. He has concluded that "radical inequality and radical economic dislocation are causally linked: one brings and amplifies the other."
Book review to come
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