Rather than debate liberal vs conservative political ideologies, we could spend our time better by advocating for a radical return to biblcal principles of personal worth, social equity, and reconciling justce [both social and economic].We have a good exiting president that some belittle as un-American to say the least. A whole demographic of
Americans have arisen to demand a return to days of more nostalgic greatness –
I‘m not sure they are even aware there is a whole world of people out there who
want to share our greatness, nor am I sure they even care. They want to feel
well provided for and live comfortably and safely, as if who doesn’t?
People have voted. They are
asking questions. They are demanding change, and I AGREE. So, let me ask you
this question: Should a CEO be paid as
much as the market will bear? Some will quickly agree believing that is
free enterprise. Others will hesitate to answer without considering other
possible factors first. Some will say no; that is the way of Pharoah vs Israel.
That question came up in 2006
at which time median family income was up 18%. However,
income was up 200% for the top 1% of the wealthiest (16/War on the
Middleclass/Dobbs/2006). It has since gone to 400% in some
cases.
Dobbs a staunch Republican
reported CEOs had been paid over the five years before that an aggregate of
$865 million in compensation (CEOs of AT&T, BellSouth, Hewlett-Packard,
Home Depot, Lucent, Merck, Pfizer, Safeway, Time Warner, Verizon & Walmart)
while shareholders lost $640 billion.
That among many other
statistics found in book after book verify the economic trending of the past
forty-or-so years in which the gap between haves and have nots has been
widening, funneled up in a politically established, economically-motivated
ripping of the social fabric of American society. The rich were becoming richer
at the expense of the more vulnerable. And so it is today
So, while the masses rant,
rave, review, and revolutionize in forms that are sometimes conversational and
sometimes violent, I ask for a radical return to the teachings of Jesus, the
one who taught us to love our enemies and treat others as we want to be
treated. His principles can all be found in the Sermon on the Mount and the
four gospels and they form the heart and soul of the Christian gospel.
In Isaiah 58 that Old
Testament prophet told his people how to honor God: not with their usual
festivals of fasting and flagellating themselves and such but
“I will tell you the
kind of special day I want: Free the people you
have put in prison unfairly and undo their
chains. Free those to
whom
you are unfair and stop their hard labor. Share your food
with
the hungry and bring poor, homeless people into your own
homes.
When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,
and
don’t refuse to help your own relatives. Then your light will
shine
like the dawn and your wounds will quickly heal. Your God
will
walk before you, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from
behind.
Then you will call out, and the Lord will answer. You will
cry
out, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’”
How does this play out in this
election? It simply means that if one is pro-life (for example) one is not
simply pro-life for a fetus awaiting birth. One is pro-life in recognizing all
of life as sacred and of respected value. For a business man, it means treating
one’s employees as one wants to be treated and not just as a commodity to be
traded for larger profits.
The implications are great and
if we would we could dramatically change our lives. We could change our
relationships and begin envisioning everyone a winner rather than the current
“I win you lose.” We could recognize the global community as a human family.
From Warner’s World
this is
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com suggesting
our biggest problem is not
political difference or economic status;
we are our own worst moral
problem. It all comes down to the kind of ethics we are willing to live by.
