Saturday, November 26, 2016

Liberal? Conservative? Or Christian?

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.