Wednesday, October 14, 2009
If the Shoe Fits
Very interesting thoughts--especially coming from Frank Schaeffer. I absolutely love his take on this. I want to write more, but later.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Cost of Embracing Avarice.
The CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, was recently let go. All over the media was the fact that he’d spent $1.22M redecorating his office at a time when his company was losing billions of dollars. As I tried my best to figure out how in the world he could spend that much money on an office, the answer quickly presented itself:
1) $2,700 for six wall sconces.
2) $5,000 for a mirror in his private dining room.
3) $11,000 for fabric for a "Roman Shade.”
4) $13,000 for a chandelier in the private dining room.
5) $15,000 for a sofa.
6) $16,000 for a "custom coffee table.”
7) $18,000 for a “George IV Desk.”
8) $25,000 for a "mahogany pedestal table.”
9) $28,000 for four pairs of curtains.
10) $35,000 for something called a "commode on legs.”
11) $37,000 for six chairs in his private dining room.
12) $68,000 for a "19th Century Credenza" in his office.
13) $87,000 for a pair of guest chairs.
14) $87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000.
15) $230,000 to his driver for one year’s work.
16) $800,000 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.
Add to this list a $1,400 wastepaper basket.
Lots of people are outraged by this, but I have a feeling that the outrage isn’t aimed in the right direction. Most people express outrage at Thain’s having spent $1.22M “in this time of crisis.” The implication by that statement is simply that if it were another time, it would be okay. I think it’s fair to say that most people probably do believe that.
I don’t.
What struck me as the great evil that everyone is missing is the very fact that there exists in this world a $1,400 wastepaper basket. That alone is sign of the unrestrained avarice of our society. We have become a society of greedy little pigs.
It’s not so much that all of us are such greedy little pigs, but that we, as a society, value, envy, promote, praise and encourage those that are.
I’m not against a person becoming wealthy. I hope to be very wealthy one day. But what I am against is a person doing whatever he or she pleases with that wealth without any sense of obligation to society as a whole. It seems that our whole nation is so concerned about the individual right to wealth that we don’t think at all about the responsibility of wealth.
Think back to Monopoly. I remember playing this game as a teen. In one game, I remember becoming very lucky with my rolls. I landed on none of the other players’ properties—except undeveloped ones. They, however, landed on all my most developed properties. The result was that I soon owned the whole board. In fact, there was no more money left in the bank. I owned it all. Even as a young teen I understood a simple fact—if I didn’t share my wealth, my fun was going to end. There is a point in Monopoly where you win. It’s when you own everything. The only rational solution is to declare the winner and either put the game away or start a new one. How could it possibly be that they would continue to play going deeper and deeper in debt to me on each turn—even as I continue to build more homes and hotels? What is the point of their playing if they have no chance to win? And that’s the point of this blog.
Our nation is economically unstable. This crisis is showing every single day that it is far deeper than we were told or could ever have imagined. It’s highly likely that all this money put into banks isn’t going to make one ounce of difference. Why? Because the underlying attitude of those who manage the system is fundamentally flawed. As long as it is okay to view our lives like a game of Monopoly, we are destined to end our economy at some point. As long as the “haves” feel they have the right to keep gains they only received because they manipulated, out lobbied, and deceived millions of people and the government, there is no way to move forward.
Another good metaphor might be the Titanic. The rich were allowed into rescue boats on the Titanic. Some of those boats left not even being filled to capacity because crewmen (those in charge) so desired to protect the lifestyle to which the rich were accustomed that they completely ignored the needs of the ship. That’s what this economic situation looks like to me today. The only difference is this—imagine if there were no rescue ships coming for those in the lifeboats. It would only be a matter of days before they’d die or freeze to death in the middle of the ocean. Their fate would have ultimately been no better than the rest of the passengers and crew. It just would have come a few days later. But in the meantime, everyone else dies.
The problem is the failure to realize we’re all in the same boat. Whether you call that boat the United States or the planet Earth, we’re still intimately dependent on each other for survival. If we see the world that way, perhaps the idea of someone demonstrating to us how greed-filled and arrogant they are—how much bling they have, how much cash they’ve amassed, how much they waste on selfish, pointless, trivial bobbles or lavish on monuments of self-aggrandizement in the form of pricey homes or jets or yachts or cars—wouldn’t be a cause for envy, but rather for rebuke and ostracism.
I wonder what the world would look like if there were no $100,000 cars simply because no car is worth $100,000 and no one would buy it because doing so would be a sign of massive financial and social irresponsibility instead of financial greatness. What if rappers sang about how much they gave? What if, instead of Fergie singing “Glamorous,” she sang “Generous?” What if there were no such thing as a $35,000 toilet or a $1,400 wastepaper basket simply because we all understood that somewhere in the world there is a child dying of hunger or disease or neglect, and that that child really is our little sister?
What if we all just woke up tomorrow and said, let’s end this game and start a new one with different rules that are fairer for all the players? What would happen? Those who are winning—those who think they are winning anyway—the ones on the lifeboats-- would say nay! They would fight to the death to preserve what they believe is their advantage, their right—even if it is just an illusion or temporary—even if it was gained through deception. They would argue that those who want to start over are the losers and that it’s “unfair” to winners to have to start over. That "starting over" would forever damage the nation--despite the impossibility of ever repaying a twelve trillion dollar national debt--of ever balancing budgets under these conditions. But somehow it’s not unfair to have everyone pay for this bailout so that the winners can keep their corporate jets and their illusions of success.
Avarice. It is one of the deadly sins that we’ve embraced. And sure enough, it is killing us.
--T.R. Locke
http://www.trlocke.com
1) $2,700 for six wall sconces.
2) $5,000 for a mirror in his private dining room.
3) $11,000 for fabric for a "Roman Shade.”
4) $13,000 for a chandelier in the private dining room.
5) $15,000 for a sofa.
6) $16,000 for a "custom coffee table.”
7) $18,000 for a “George IV Desk.”
8) $25,000 for a "mahogany pedestal table.”
9) $28,000 for four pairs of curtains.
10) $35,000 for something called a "commode on legs.”
11) $37,000 for six chairs in his private dining room.
12) $68,000 for a "19th Century Credenza" in his office.
13) $87,000 for a pair of guest chairs.
14) $87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000.
15) $230,000 to his driver for one year’s work.
16) $800,000 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.
Add to this list a $1,400 wastepaper basket.
Lots of people are outraged by this, but I have a feeling that the outrage isn’t aimed in the right direction. Most people express outrage at Thain’s having spent $1.22M “in this time of crisis.” The implication by that statement is simply that if it were another time, it would be okay. I think it’s fair to say that most people probably do believe that.
I don’t.
What struck me as the great evil that everyone is missing is the very fact that there exists in this world a $1,400 wastepaper basket. That alone is sign of the unrestrained avarice of our society. We have become a society of greedy little pigs.
It’s not so much that all of us are such greedy little pigs, but that we, as a society, value, envy, promote, praise and encourage those that are.
I’m not against a person becoming wealthy. I hope to be very wealthy one day. But what I am against is a person doing whatever he or she pleases with that wealth without any sense of obligation to society as a whole. It seems that our whole nation is so concerned about the individual right to wealth that we don’t think at all about the responsibility of wealth.
Think back to Monopoly. I remember playing this game as a teen. In one game, I remember becoming very lucky with my rolls. I landed on none of the other players’ properties—except undeveloped ones. They, however, landed on all my most developed properties. The result was that I soon owned the whole board. In fact, there was no more money left in the bank. I owned it all. Even as a young teen I understood a simple fact—if I didn’t share my wealth, my fun was going to end. There is a point in Monopoly where you win. It’s when you own everything. The only rational solution is to declare the winner and either put the game away or start a new one. How could it possibly be that they would continue to play going deeper and deeper in debt to me on each turn—even as I continue to build more homes and hotels? What is the point of their playing if they have no chance to win? And that’s the point of this blog.
Our nation is economically unstable. This crisis is showing every single day that it is far deeper than we were told or could ever have imagined. It’s highly likely that all this money put into banks isn’t going to make one ounce of difference. Why? Because the underlying attitude of those who manage the system is fundamentally flawed. As long as it is okay to view our lives like a game of Monopoly, we are destined to end our economy at some point. As long as the “haves” feel they have the right to keep gains they only received because they manipulated, out lobbied, and deceived millions of people and the government, there is no way to move forward.
Another good metaphor might be the Titanic. The rich were allowed into rescue boats on the Titanic. Some of those boats left not even being filled to capacity because crewmen (those in charge) so desired to protect the lifestyle to which the rich were accustomed that they completely ignored the needs of the ship. That’s what this economic situation looks like to me today. The only difference is this—imagine if there were no rescue ships coming for those in the lifeboats. It would only be a matter of days before they’d die or freeze to death in the middle of the ocean. Their fate would have ultimately been no better than the rest of the passengers and crew. It just would have come a few days later. But in the meantime, everyone else dies.
The problem is the failure to realize we’re all in the same boat. Whether you call that boat the United States or the planet Earth, we’re still intimately dependent on each other for survival. If we see the world that way, perhaps the idea of someone demonstrating to us how greed-filled and arrogant they are—how much bling they have, how much cash they’ve amassed, how much they waste on selfish, pointless, trivial bobbles or lavish on monuments of self-aggrandizement in the form of pricey homes or jets or yachts or cars—wouldn’t be a cause for envy, but rather for rebuke and ostracism.
I wonder what the world would look like if there were no $100,000 cars simply because no car is worth $100,000 and no one would buy it because doing so would be a sign of massive financial and social irresponsibility instead of financial greatness. What if rappers sang about how much they gave? What if, instead of Fergie singing “Glamorous,” she sang “Generous?” What if there were no such thing as a $35,000 toilet or a $1,400 wastepaper basket simply because we all understood that somewhere in the world there is a child dying of hunger or disease or neglect, and that that child really is our little sister?
What if we all just woke up tomorrow and said, let’s end this game and start a new one with different rules that are fairer for all the players? What would happen? Those who are winning—those who think they are winning anyway—the ones on the lifeboats-- would say nay! They would fight to the death to preserve what they believe is their advantage, their right—even if it is just an illusion or temporary—even if it was gained through deception. They would argue that those who want to start over are the losers and that it’s “unfair” to winners to have to start over. That "starting over" would forever damage the nation--despite the impossibility of ever repaying a twelve trillion dollar national debt--of ever balancing budgets under these conditions. But somehow it’s not unfair to have everyone pay for this bailout so that the winners can keep their corporate jets and their illusions of success.
Avarice. It is one of the deadly sins that we’ve embraced. And sure enough, it is killing us.
--T.R. Locke
http://www.trlocke.com
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Let's Talk About Sex, Baby!
Wow. This is really sad to me.
Girls having sex at that age is sad by itself. But having it unprotected and getting STDs and being afraid to tell the person they contracted it from? What is that about?
Friday, November 7, 2008
What Is Up With Christians?
This is my first post on this blog. I couldn't think of a better first blog than a Stephen Colbert interview with Tony Campolo. Compolo's new book Red Letter Christians pretty much lines up with my theological perspective. Listen to his interview. It reflects my views on the Bible and the role of Christianity in the world today.
As a Christian for 25 years and a veteran of Christian ministry in local churches, inner city missions, on the streets of Chicago with youth gangs as well as with Metro Chicago Youth For Christ and Moody Bible Institute, I often found myself surrounded by conservative voices that don't really reflect what I believe Jesus teaches in the Bible. In those circles, I'm a bit of a radical. My concern for the poor and the weak and for issues more associated with liberal politicians has often put me at odds with my fellow believers.
Much of the reason for the disagreement is the dogma spread through so called 'Christian' radio. Somewhere along the way, James Dobson and others usurped Christian radio, which was originally intended to encourage believers through songs, sermons and radio bible classes, and channeled it into a bullhorn for right wing political radicalism. The nasty repercussions of this usurping is the blending of Christian thought and right wing political thought. The only problem is that the two really have no basis for being blended. In so many obvious ways--once you think about it--right wing politics is mostly, if not completely, opposite of what Jesus taught Christians to do.
Sadly, one is more likely to hear hate speech on Christian radio than love speech. Try as I may, I cannot imagine that being Jesus's agenda.
Years ago, when I was an administrator and teacher at Moody, I learned to dispel arguments with far right wing Christian political activist by relaying my faith in the ideas of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. For a very small book, it handles the realities of the Christian role in the world quite well. C.S. argued that the different denominations and ideological factions of Christianity were like branches spreading out on a tree. The further out on a branch you ventured, the more distant the other branches appeared. Likewise, the further up the tree you went, the more disconnected you became from those other branches.
C.S. Lewis's idea of Mere Christianity worked to resolve the apparent varied differences of Christians so as to help unify us in our role in the world. Mere Christianity was the concept that although all these far flung branches existed on this tree, the further down towards the trunk we moved, the more we found we had in common. Mere Christianity was trunk Christianity. Keeping our beliefs squarely rooted in what we all understood to be common to all Christians.
There always seemed to me to be no clearer way to understand what those "common" beliefs were than to simply look at the actual words of Jesus in the Bible. If you're an old school Christian, chances are you had at least one Bible that printed the words of Jesus in red ink. That, therefore is the idea behind Tony's book. Once you strip away the commentary of the various theologians down through the ages, you come upon the really real stuff of Christian belief.
What's most amazing about the real stuff of Christian faith is just how similar it is to the greatest teachings we have from all faiths, practices and motivational speakers today. There's not much you can find that Jesus ever said that people would rise up in protest over. At least not today.
Jesus, however, was radically opposed to the religious leaders of his day. His words cut to the very root of their power and glory. I argue that his words still do. I argue that the reason so many different denominations and divisions exist in the world today is because different religious leaders, once again, sought to gain power over God's people. To do so, they needed to move up the tree and away from mere Christianity. Out on the branches you feel more separated and vulnerable. Every strong wind that comes affects you more and challenges your perspective. In feeling threatened you feel fearful. In feeling fearful, you become more vulnerable to the control of the leader.
I don't want to take this analogy too far, so suffice it to say that greater strength and unity and clearer identity comes from dwelling closer to the trunk of the tree. I am a Christian because I believe in and follow Jesus Christ. It would seem that anyone who claims to be a Christian would submit to this definition. To submit to this definition, it might help to know what Jesus said. To know what he said, you've got to read the stuff in red. Read the red to know what he said. But...
Don't just read the red to know what he said, read the red to know what he didn't say. I find the vast amount of issues that Jesus never addressed staggering. Especially considering that the vast number of things so much of the modern (particularly evangelical) church focuses on is never mentioned by Jesus. Did God not know these issues existed? Did he not know they would? He seemed so prescient about so many things that I hardly think he was in the dark. He didn't say anything because it wasn't important to him.
Let me share where this first hit me. In the school I attended and in many evangelical churches today, drinking wine or any alcohol was and is forbidden. Not just frowned upon--forbidden. Wine? Yes, wine. But doesn't the holy sacrament of communion involve drinking wine? Yes. So what do they do? They drink grape juice. Doesn't that violate the command of Jesus? Well, it says "cup" but we know there was wine in the cup. On top of that his first miracle was turning water into wine--so we know Jesus drank wine and approved of the drinking of wine. But apparently someones teaching is more important than Jesus's. In fact, that someone, because they abstain from all wine and view the drinking of wine as wrong or sinful, is therefore, by their own theology, holier than Jesus who regularly drank wine.
I call such people Hyperchristians. And they give people like me hypertension. The absolute ridiculousness of that ideology is completely non-apparent to them. But it is very evident of what we see in our world today. Our basic Christian beliefs have been so compromised that we actually preach hate now. We teach fear, isolation and money-grubbing from the pulpit. We parade our earthly goods as if we believed earth (not heaven) was our home. We judge others by how much they have or don't have. We elect warmongers. We completely ignore what Jesus taught while we fight for causes Jesus stood against--or at the very least was silent about. Christianity has become an assessory.
I don't know where this blog will lead, or if it will lead anywhere. But I feel I need a place to let this out. This blog is called N2-the-deep because it's not easy stuff to fathom. I hope you'll take this as an invitation to interact with me--sharing your views and comments. I look forward to hearing you--whether you call yourself a Christian or not. Either way, thanks for dropping by.
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