America today is a brutal, angry and patently unfair nation. This fundamental unfairness makes America a desperately dangerous, crumbling nation state. Our government, legislative, executive, judicial punishes citizens, consumers, protesters….but rewards the diabolical criminal masterminds that caused the desperation that exists. Every day I see homeowners and their attorneys threatened with punishment and sanction for daring to challenge the grossly improper conduct that banks use in their efforts to throw families out into the street, but I can find no examples of real consequence or punishment for those who set these evil schemes in motion. It is truly frightening to appear in courtrooms, representing families that have not just homes to lose, but also their reputations. Worse by far than all of that is the fact that as these consumers find themselves thrust into a system of gross unfairness, they quite reasonably so lose their faith in what this governing system that is punishing them as become.
Americans, for far too long, lived in a delusional state where we felt that the goodness of the United States and her people and the benevolence of this government protect us from the flagrant evil that lives right in our communities, which manifests itself in each of our homes, these economic, social and legal policies and decisions which have crippled this nation.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the context of foreclosures. First the United States and frankly world governments encouraged dangerous and absurd economic incentives that placed people into homes they could not afford and sold themselves into debt slavery that they can never be released from. These corrupt economic and social factors steal mothers away from their children, fathers away from their homes as they work more and more to feed the ever accumulating interest on the assets and the “essentials” of daily living. Americans do this not because they chose to do so. Such choice, free will and self determination has been stripped from us. Socially, economically and through legal policy.
It is simply not possible to not be part of this crumbling, desperate, evil and unsustainable economic system. And when it goes wrong for the individual, as it inevitably will, when the undeniable realities of math and society set in, these Americans are subjected to the even more harsh realities of a legal system which is increasingly owned and controlled by the very same economic forces that set their punishment in motion.
It pains me to hear the expressions of failure from fathers and families who suffer and cannot realize that the failings are not their own. It pains me even more that a legal system fails and in fact an entire system of government fails to recognize that the failings are not (entirely) those of the hapless defendant that appears before them…..
The failings of defendants in foreclosure are failings of our entire society and government.
There is so much more. (entirely and purposely without attribution)
Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.
How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?
A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.”
To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits.
Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.
In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity. This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occuring in the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.
Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.
Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.
In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.
No to the new idolatry of money
One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.
While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.
No to a financial system which rules rather than serves
Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics – a non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs”.
A financial reform open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings.
So true…I was watching Billy Graham’s most recent sermon, probably his last since he is 95, from a couple weeks ago and he says:
“People don’t want to hear that they’re sinners. To many people it’s an offense,” Graham proclaimed. “The cross is offensive, because it directly confronts the evils that dominate so much of this world.”
He went on to explain that the Christian message demands that believers embrace a new lifestyle — one that directly confronts mankind’s sinful nature.
“Sin is a disease in the human heart. If affects the mind and the will and the emotions. Every part of our being is affected by this disease,” Graham said.
The evangelist told viewers, though, that God can renew their spirits and that “there is no other way of salvation except through the cross of Christ.”
Graham also warned of a cultural slide in American society — one that he is clearly worried about. He said that the nation is in great need of “a spiritual awakening.”
His video can be seen at
https://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/07/billy-grahams-powerful-final-sermon-to-america-ive-wept-as-ive-seen-how-far-people-have-wandered-from-god/