Approaching a writing milestone, one wants to write something terribly profound. This is my 501st article for OpEdNews. It's late, I know. Actually, it's been a long time in coming, but so much of the usual crap got in the way, that profundity is virtually extinct in this author: last week Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Uganda, homelessness, Billionaire Jesus, and rape-hangings numbed the creative writing process (as well as normative thinking).*
Readers of progressive sites like OpEdNews, however, are aware of the effect the real world has on writers (much of the Right lives in its own 1% - or 1% wannabe - world), excusing the numbness and exhaustion, patient for the writer to revive himself.
The Last 500
Writing is always liberating: putting words out, crafting phrases to fit thoughts is freeing to the mind in a way few other mediums can begin to approach. Other art forms may come close: painting, for example, places emotions on canvas, but no matter how explicit, detailed the painting may be, no matter how vividly it displays emotion, it may not always achieve exactly what the painter feels.
And being allowed to write on many people and incidents is even more liberating. That's what OpEdNews has enabled me to do. It has permitted me to peruse headlines and pick up kernels of religion and politics (and the fusion of the two), investigate them and formulate ideas to throw out. It liberates me in being opinionated, as long as I back up my opinions with salient points and supporting links. In the last 6 years, it has allowed me to liberate my opinions - 500 times!
Sideline In The Forefront - The Last 6 Years
Let's get one thing straight as far as my writing is concerned: I'm not exactly a gay activist. I wish I were. I was at the forefront of the AIDS epidemic many years ago and experienced burn out by the late 90's. I now do things on the sidelines as it were. Writing as I do is definitely a sideline kind of deal.
Sideline in the struggle for equality, but forefront in my life. Writing about the inequalities, the absurdities and the atrocities of our real world sustained me through the last 6 years: taking care of a dying partner, struggling for housing, restructuring my life, finding a new love, getting married were all accompanied by the sense of liberation and completeness that goes with writing.
The Armageddon Of Billionaire Jesus - It's About Equality
My last series - Billionaire Jesus - has been about the major concern of the real world: economic inequality, as it relates to the country's 1% and it's religious proponents. Billionaire Jesus, you see, is greed personified and made holy, and it's a greed that lacks any form of "true" compassion**
The difference between the Scriptural Jesus and Billionaire Jesus is that Billionaire will not return after Armageddon. At least, humanity hopes he won't, for in Billionaire Jesus are the seeds of his own undoing: unfettered greed (unregulated capitalism) cannot hold it's own weight.
When will Armageddon commence? Probably when all progressive writers have their say, for progressive writers as a whole are against Billionaire Jesus. Probably when the 99% realize that they've had enough of the 1% who think that greed is good and that Billionaire Jesus is the answer to everything. Probably when certain forms of "freedom" (e.g. restrictive religious freedom - only for certain Christians, as Judge Roy Moore proclaimed) are exposed as tyranny.
Probably when equality gains momentum: equality in pay for both sexes, equality in education, equality in opportunity and even equality in marriage.
Armageddon will be sweet.
*Add Sarah Palin, Religious Right Persecution, Elliot Rodgers and Gay Marriage, Disney's Public Displays of Perversion ...
** True compassion having unequivocal acceptance.
Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered (Proverbs, 21/13)
Was there a "prosperity gospel" in the first century? Of course not. So what would happen if today's priests/ministers/bishops of "bling" met with the first Christians? Would they meet the same fate as Ananias and Sapphira, who withheld property from the communal group led by the apostles and were struck down?
I don't think "Bishop" Eddie Long wants to see God (or the Devil) just yet.
In these days of Billionaire Jesus, the BLING counts. And while lavish homes and lifestyles have been frowned upon by pope Francis, the Christian Right of America clings to the advantages of capitalism with a fevered grip: extravagant estates, cars and expensive jewelry are "gifts" from God never to be questioned. Greed has been replaced by "belief" (as in "Word of Faith") and the outward show of "belief" is prized above all else.
Where Jesus Christ's poor is in all this "belief", however, is another matter.
James 2:1-4 (ESV)
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
The struggle to paint Jesus - as a capitalist totally against shared wealth can get pretty thin - ergo WND's argument:
“Someone in the crowd said to Him [Jesus Christ], ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But He said to him, ‘Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?’”In just one verse, we see that God rejects the left-wing “Jesus Christ supported socialism” heresy. When Jesus was asked to support redistribution of wealth – to tell one brother to share the family inheritance with the other – Jesus refused.
Did Jesus actually refuse to support "distribution of wealth"? Refusing to be a judge is not refusing to support, but WingNutDaily advocates would have you think otherwise. For every "capitalist" verse, there are a dozen verses supporting the poor and championing compassion.
Blessed Be The Bling
As religion may be considered the opiate of the masses, bling might be considered the opiate of the needy and greedy. Consider this: the trappings of wealth signify release from need, the big sigh after winning the lottery, realizing that the one thing you worried about all your life - money - was no long a worry. Every diamond ring, every luxury car, signifies that the owner is not in need. And the easiest way to achieve that sublime status of non need is through greed.
But bling is a blessing! "He must have done SOMETHING right" is the oft-elicited response when confronted with a person showered with bling. Goodness!/Greatness!/Righteousness! in life must be rewarded! Surely there must be SOME good in greed! (see John Stossel's lame take on it here).
Put God to work for you and maximize your potential in our DIVINELY ORDAINED capitalist system. -Norman Vincent Peale
The End May Be Nigh
The Housing exemption case
(RNS) A federal judge has ruled that an Internal Revenue Service exemption that allows clergy to shield a portion of their salary from federal income taxes is unconstitutional.
Billionaire Jesus is in trouble: as with bishop's congregations, communities are starting to take a dim view of opulence and it's not all Francis' doing. The "greed is good" gospel is wearing thin as the gap between rich and poor widens in America. The above ruling cites the "unfair advantage" some preachers have in housing (not having to pay for a large portion of it). Even "compassionate" ministers like Steven Furtick have to answer for their excesses (see below). Many ministers (and some priests) are a part of America's ONE PERCENT and the public is getting more wary of them with each perk.
Proverbs 14:31 (ESV)Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
