By Thurman, on October 30th, 20092009-10-31T04:23:00ZF jS, Y%
What would Jesus do if he were the President of the United States?
Would he feed the hungry? Would he clothe the naked? House the poor? Would he heal the sick? Would he invest in the stock market? Would he pick and choose who we should help and who should be refused aid?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a big part of being a Christian involves the acceptance and earnest practice of the principles taught by the movement’s founder, Jesus of Nazareth; those ideals being love, charity, healing, and forgiveness. The whole divinity, Son of God, salvation aspect of Christianity, while accepted by most Christians, is irrelevant to this essay. This is about what Jesus taught regarding how we should live together compared with what most of his modern disciples preach.
Among the thousands of people railing against every progressive idea coming out of the White House and Congress are a large percentage of self-described Christians. I meet people every day who label themselves Christians and who are worried sick that the Obama administration is conspiring to turn the United States into a socialist nation. If these issues weren’t of such great importance to our collective future it would almost be comical. Continue reading Jesus Was A Socialist
By Thurman, on October 30th, 20092009-10-30T15:47:00ZF jS, Y%
I’ve got several essays started this week, but so far none of them seem relevant to current events, much less ready for publication. I’d really like to write something witty and thought provoking for your reading discomfort, but I’m just not feeling it this morning.
That’s the trouble with full time wage slavery; I get a good groove going, my writing hat starts to fit my head after a few days of productive time with my keyboard, then it’s back to the mindless grind for four ten-hour days at the semi-automated salt mine. There goes my rhythm.
Continue reading Insert Catchy Headline Here
By Thurman, on October 25th, 20092009-10-25T20:22:00ZF jS, Y%
A few Constitutional questions keep plaguing me as I ponder topics to write about in this space. More important than the questions themselves is the larger question of why brighter legal minds than mine haven’t brought these questions to court for some answers.
The first question, which I addressed in an earlier post is this: why is the question of marriage, same sex or otherwise, a legitimate question for government under the US Constitution?
The argument trotted out by conservative opponents of gay marriage always boils down to Biblical prohibitions. If marriage is a religious institution and must meet specific theological rules, then the institution of marriage is unconstitutional, period.
Read the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. It’s right there in the first sentence. “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion.” End of discussion, on religious grounds at least.
From that point the debate comes down to whether or not any and all consenting adults have the right to enter into civil, legally binding agreements with any other consenting individual(s) they wish. That’s a different issue for a different essay. Continue reading Constitution Blues
By Thurman, on October 23rd, 20092009-10-23T21:54:00ZF jS, Y%
To salvage the environment and reform our economy we must first break the stranglehold that the money mongers have on our government. The first priority for those of us concerned with any kind of economic or environmental reform must be congressional and election reforms. In order to accomplish these things we must infiltrate our Congress with representatives who are not beholden to corporate campaign financiers. Then and only then can we move forward with the electoral reforms which would allow all other changes to begin.
School children in the US are taught that we live in a democracy, but not until we reach adulthood do most of us realize the ugly truth: our representative democracy doesn’t represent very many of us at all. Our election process doesn’t allow us to elect people who represent our values and needs. Instead, we are presented with a handful of carefully vetted candidates willing to maintain the status quo of the corporate oligarchy that controls our government and enables their election. The true will of the people, those of us who work to produce the real wealth of this nation has virtually no representation in our government.
Continue reading We Are The Revolution
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a big part of being a Christian involves the acceptance and earnest practice of the principles taught by the movement’s founder, Jesus of Nazareth; those ideals being love, charity, healing, and forgiveness. The whole divinity, Son of God, salvation aspect of Christianity, while accepted by most Christians, is irrelevant to this essay. This is about what Jesus taught regarding how we should live together compared with what most of his modern disciples preach.
Best of the Webz – October 24 – Weekend Edition
Here’s a small collection of links to news and commentary that you might have missed in the past couple of days .
First to Great Britain, where Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, recently said that banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their employees.
Speaking about morality in the marketplace to an audience at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Griffiths said the British public should “tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all”. You might need to lay off the special Kool-Aid, Lord Griffiths. Continue reading Best of the Webz – October 24 – Weekend Edition