A (3:00 a.m.) - Personal Rant About: Our 700 Billion Dollars!!!

As of this week, whatever your investments were worth 8 years ago, they are now worth the same today- and someone else has YOUR money. Imagine that... In addition, many of those CEO's et al., on Wall Street, who made those financial decisions are dancing and whirling away with tens of millions of dollars, making them far, far, more wealthy then what they were before. They are now in clandestine fashion, hiding out in some recently purchased estate in Tahiti.

This is a perfect example of how a thing can be perfectly legal, but incredibly immoral and unethical.

Actually, we all lose in multiple ways:

1. This collapse means we lost whatever we gained in investments over the last 8 years in retirement etc. investments.

2. We will have to pay more taxes to finance this 700 Billion Dollars bailout! Parenthetically, by the way, only 50% of Americans pay taxes; and those making over $250,000 annually, pay about 50% of their income in taxes as it is (this group is about 5% of the tax paying population)... largely small business owners... the economic engine within our culture. The very group targeted by Obama, for substantial tax hikes, should he win. Interestingly, those 50% who do not pay taxes still receive federal stimulus checks... Hmnn...

3. This 700 Billion Dollars will go straight onto the national debt, further weakening the dollar and demasculating George Washington in over-seas foreign markets... Conversely, if foreign investors withdrew their monies because of a lack of confidence in the dollar, this could further deepen substantially the recession that we are now currently in. We are now wonderfully positioned to have little power to invest in and buy nothing oveseas, but it will allow those Investors overseas to buy us up. This, along with the Oil profits sent to foreign countries, have now become historically the largest transfer of monies internationally in the history of the world.

4. If the government does provide 700 Billion Dollars to salvage the economy, then we will experience an enormous surge in big government just to manage the dispersal of all that money - this too will be financed by our taxes... Great! More government bureaucrats, more offices, more paper, more expensive inefficiency! Not only that, but the Government will be buying bad paper worth only cents on the original dollar...

5. Retiree's (many of whom are elderly and they will suffer) have experienced significant losses in their retirement accounts, small loans for home improvements, buying furniture, financing cars etc., and paying for school will become VERY difficult to finance. Further, ostensibly, current jobs can be lost and new jobs will fail to appear...

6. Alarmingly my house, that I have been paying on for 11 years, (at around $560.00 a month), maybe worth LESS now than what it was originally financed. This will be largely true for anyone owning a home. And for those who want to own a home, they will have a much more difficult time getting financed to purchase one.

7. The impact of all this on "non-profits," I.e. Churches, Community Programs etc. could be c-r-i-p-p-l-i-n-g f-o-r y-e-a-r-s!

8. Any monies in the near future needed by the government for social issues are now off the table - potentially for years... The rich got much richer and the poor, are not only poorer; but are insured to stay poorer for the foreseeable future.

These "investors..." from speculators in the oil industry to Wall Street CEO's... ALL should be held accountable; and some should have to do jail time. These same people have in affect... by lending money so easily... and irresponsibly... - and at great risk (because of their greed) - have in essence yelled "fire!" in a crowded theater (to mix my metaphors). Their ecstatic, greed driven frenzy, has jeopardized the very life of the goose that has been laying the golden egg." My thought is that their personal income and assets, should be garnished to help pay back that 700 Billion Dollars; and whatever jail time they do should be paid from those sources as well...

Take a look at the tens of millions, upon millions, of dollars that these CEO's have made in salary and bonuses, in profoundly failed achievements and financial ventures, that will affect millions, if not billions of people world-wide! Round them up and put 'em in non-country club prisons (along with any complicit politicians)! Only then will those who have been ill-served begin to receive justice.

By the way! Thank you John McCain for your courage in putting your self interest aside and working to help solve the problem. I might also add that he warned of this very thing three years ago... Thanks Barney Frank, Chris Dodd et AL for nothing...

Christian Spiritual Formation and Appropriate “Rescue” Responses to Genocide

On the other hand, let us say that there are a group of Christians who successfully resisted in being swept up into the almost all encompassing vortex of a Genocidal situation. What then is their appropriate Christ-like response? To what Biblical principles do they avail themselves to? Would it be the kind of civil disobedience, magnificently led by the French Huguenot Protestant Pastor, Father Trocme and the village of Le Chambon (Hallie – Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed)?

For Trocme, to be spiritually formed properly was to fully embrace and unswervingly live out Jesus' Sermon on the Mount Discourse (Matthew 5:43-46, Luke 6:27-36). Trocme felt so literal in his view of the Sermon on the Mount, that he felt it necessary to tell authorities that they were in fact hiding a number of Jewish (Hallie pg. 128); and summarily refused to be involved in any kind of violence (Hallie pgs. 34-35). In addition, it was Trocme's intention for his village of La Chambon to function as a kind of "city of refuge," that Moses describes in Deuteronomy 19 (Hallie 283); to hide particularly Jewish children, so that "no innocent blood would be shed."

Others however might argue that because the evil associated with Genocide is so great, so pernicious, so comprehensive and unremitting, that the only way to stop it would be through the use of violence. How should we understand Proverbs 24:10-12 in contemporary times?
10 If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! ¹¹ Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. ¹² If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life knowit? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? (Proverbs 24:10-12)
Does the New Covenant in Christ alter how we should interpret the implied and potential use of violence in Proverbs 24:10-12? Given the historical context of this passage is there really any other way to interpret the possibility of violent or military action? Bottom line, can those made over in the image of Christ, after a careful "cost-benefits" analysis, initiate and prosecute a "Just War" as initially articulated by Augustine? This issue is massively complicated. What does the Bible have to say about this issue? We are confident, for example, when we say that Jesus would not "pull a trigger, wield a club or push a button" against those helpless victims selected for Genocide; but are we equally confident that in order for Christians to protect potential victims, and stop the perpetrators, that we can in the name and image of Jesus Christ "pull a trigger, wield a club or push a button in their defense;" and how do we interpret Matthew 5:38-48 in light of this?

By way of argument, I think it fair that hypothetically, if Germany had not been defeated would there have been even larger horrific possibilities than what took place against the Jews and other demographic groups? Can Genocide become so corrosive and far-reaching that not only a population group is in danger from ceasing to exist (the Jews); but entire population groups (Africans, Japanese, Indians of American descent etc.)? Ostensibly if the Allies had failed, would Adolf Hitler's doctrine (in his mad pursuit of racial purity) stopped only with the Jews? Was Martin Niemoeller being globally prophetic when he wrote:

First they came for the communists

But I was not a communist

So I did not speak out.

Then they came for the socialists and the trade unionists,

But I was neither,

So I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Jews,

But I was not a Jew

So I did not speak out.

And when they came for me,

There was no one left to speak out for me.

(Hitler Came For Niemoeller: Book Cover)

Perhaps a reasonable argument could be made that after his Master Race passion had eliminated the Jews; Hitler might have quite likely then turned his attention to anyone from say African descent? In what manner would the "cost-benefit" analysis come out in favor of the kind of theology rooted in ardent "pacifism" if a victorious Hitler set his sights on the African continent?

Scholars like Richard Hays (among others) postulates forcefully against any kind of violence, to stop any manifestation of violence; and in fact argues throughout his discussion in his book: The Moral Vision of the New Testament, that there is nothing Biblical in principle or text, in favor of Augustine's theory of a Just War (Hays pgs. 341); making and amplifying his argument from largely a single key text (Matthew 5:38-48).
Regardless of either theological tradition, the historical evidence is clear that with few exceptions, as individual Christians or as the institutional church, those who belong to the Christian faith simply do not perform very well Biblically, in favor of Genocidal victims. Other than a few, small pockets of Christian resistance, there is no clear, historical evidence of the Christian community responding on a massive scale to any major Genocide, either within it; or outside of it - particularly in the 20^th Century. The matter is obfuscated even more with what a mature, comprehensively mature Christian response would and ought to be.

The above difficulty aside I continue to be mindful of what my colleagues said to me when I attended the Conference on Genocide at Whitworth College in June of 2002: "The phenomenon of Genocide was more toxic than God's ability to overcome it (Psalm 37:17, 20)." Biblical Theology tells us that nothing more powerful than God and His ability to overcome it. The real issue is that God is allowing mankind to live out their own autonomy through their fallen nature; and the consequences and repercussions of our self-serving, antinomian, autonomy can be not only disastrous but horrific as well. And it is through the steady restoration of the God-image within us, that He wants us to respond and engage the great evils like Genocide as well. Bottom line we should be willing, because Christ was willing and able.

Regardless of what the great psychologists propose, the answer cannot come solely from us – the scriptures are clear on this. In the same spirit of Isaiah 60:1-3, It is the living light from Christ, and His incarnational presence within us, that illuminates 1. The way, 2. reveals wickedness and 3. brings hope by driving back the darkness.

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, brotherly kindness;and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8)

The Scriptures are clear that we are to be a "people of God" (1 Peter 2:9-12); and that through genuinely transformed (2 Cor. 3:18) lives made over in the manner of Christ. Therefore because of our newly transformed nature we can have the capacity, alluded to by Paul in Colossians 2:6:-13 - to transcend worldly, even malevolent circumstances like Genocide; freeing ourselves from the corruptive affects of the surrounding darkness. The more we mature in the light of Christ, the more He shines permitting us to be the kind of transformational agents (1 Peter 4:7-11) this is what the world desperately needs the Christian to be… steadfastly overcoming the particularly stygian dark pockets of Genocide within the world (2 Corinthians 4-6-11). Further permitting Christians to escape the charge of being complicitous or Bystanders and as we faithfully engage in the role of rescuers of victims within a Genocidal ethos, and call perpetrators to some kind of account.

In essence, the question should be asked: "What have to be the fundamental characteristics of a Christian that would transform their inner nature in such a way that they are able to transcend the present and great manifestations of evil; and become proactively a transformational agent over it instead?" What are some of the Biblical truths and principles that we could follow to help us in this way? How might one's Christian Spiritual Formation provide the necessary ingredients to equip Christians to keep from being a Perpetrator or Bystander within a Genocidal context on one hand; and to know the appropriate response of being some kind of rescuer for those who are Genocide victims?

Some Final Thoughts – A Biblical Understanding of Genocide and Christian Spirituality

 

On the morning of 15 April 1994, each one of us woke up knowing what to do and where to go because we had made a plan the previous night. In the morning we woke up and started walking towards the church[…] […] It was as if we were taken over by Satan. We were taken over by Satan. When Satan is using you, you lose your mind. We were not ourselves. Beginning with me, I don't think I was normal. You wouldn't be normal if you start butchering people for no reason. We had been attacked by the devil.

                                            Gitera Rwamuhuzi – Perpetrator: Rwanda Genocide 1994

 

Luke 11:24-26

24 "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return     to the house I left.' ²⁵ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and takes seven other spirits     more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

 

Ephesians 5:18b

"…be filled with the Spirit…"

 

2 Corinthians 4:4

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,

so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

    
 

    Becoming "mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13)" is what is essential and necessary for the Christian and the unified Church if we are to ever be able to inwardly transformed into the image of Christ enough, order to transcend the hellish conditions of Genocide in order to be transformational within it. This is because no human effort can counter those demonic conditions – only Christ and certainly only fully Christ in us.

    The affects of The Fall ultimately are to "dis-integrate." To disintegrate relationship between God and man; disintegrate man's relationship between men; disintegrate the internal nature within a man; and disintegrate mans relationship within the created order. In a demented effort to restore a fuzzy and residual sense of "Shalom" we can rationalize ANYTHING; even Genocide as a heightened form of "dis-integration" between man and man. It works well, even within the shadow of the Church and the presence of the Christian because they tend to be those things only in name and not in terms of authentic substance.

    We live life in the face of evil with a false confidence. We do this because regardless of our Biblical knowledge, vast array of Bible resources, sophisticated and thoroughly reasoned theological systems and modern worshipping facilities. Kierkegaard once said:

    Most systematizers stand in the same relation to their systems as the man who builds a great castle and lives in the adjoining shack; they do not live     in     their great systematic structure. But in spiritual matters this will be always a crucial objection. Metaphorically speaking, a person's ideas must be the     building he lives in- otherwise there is something terribly wrong.

                                        Provocations - Kierkegaard

    The empirical evidence over the course of two millennia, perhaps particularly this past century would demonstrate Kierkegaard as right. Genocide works within the proximity of the Church, because the Church and the Christian fail badly to live incarnationally, thereby preventing them from embracing the reality of "missio Dei." Despite our failures at Christ-likeness we must not shrink back from our responsibilities as living, resident incarnations in Christ – Acts 1 Christ ascended, and in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit descended to live in us, for the world (Acts 2:1-4); but in woeful fashion the Holy Spirit resides in stubborn, often uncooperative, corrupt "jars of clay."

    In addition, and more practically, Genocide flourishes within the "Christian" ethos, because we fail to see the truth, possibilities and implications of how our status as a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God… (1 Peter 2:9)," make everything else that was once a part of our old self – worldview, nationality, culture etc. entirely subordinate. Only Christ in us, "mature – 'to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ'" can prepare us adequately for every contingency in responding to evil and our eternal enemy. Christ, and Christ in us, supersedes all that came before...

    A sociopolitical statement: the work of God in Jesus of and through the kingdom to include the marginalized, to render judgment on the powerful, to     create around the marginalized (with Jesus at the center) an alternative society where things are (finally, by God) put to rights.

                                Scott McKnight