This is your brain

On poverty:

A study published by the journal Science found that poverty makes it hard to concentrate. The researchers asked participants to think about how they would pay for an unexpected $1500 car repair bill before cognitive performance testing. The personal finance mental arithmetic problem was associated with a large drop in cognitive function among participants from lower income brackets. It seems to disrupt their ability to concentrate on the task at hand. In contrast, financially secure participants were unaffected by having to think about an unexpected expense. A similar pattern was found in farmers in India who were tested before the harvest when they were poor and after the harvest when more financially secure. Their post-harvest cognitive test performance was substantially better than pre-harvest scores. You worry and pray that the harvest will be a good one since the consequences are dire if it is not.

The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy.

From "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function"

Poverty creates a preoccupation with economic survival that seems to prevent people from performing as well as they are capable. Indignity on top of indignity.

On materialism:

A multinational survey found that religion messes up the relationship between income and happiness. Happiness increases with wealth in people who are not religiously observant. Those darn religious people were even happier when they were less economically secure. Religion puts on burden on the rich to help the less fortunate. The authors wonder if religion is a hindrance to economic development and individual prosperity. Those pesky anti-wealth norms.

Higher income is related to better psychological adjustment. We propose that religiosity attenuates this relation. First, in comforting the poor, religious teachings de-emphasize the importance of money, which would buffer low-income's psychological harms (religiosity as poverty buffer account). Second, religious teachings convey antiwealth norms, which would reduce income's psychological benefits (religiosity as antiwealth norms account). A study involving 187,957 respondents from 11 religiously diverse cultures showed that individual-level, as well as culture-level, religiosity weakens the relation between personal income and psychological adjustment in accordance with the religiosity as antiwealth norms account. Performance self-esteem mediated this relation. Religiosity's moderating effects were so pervasive that religious individuals in religious cultures reported better psychological adjustment when their income was low than high.

If you believe that wealth signifies your worth to society, you do not want those religious folks pooping on your party. They try to make you feel obligated to do something for the less fortunate. Buzzkill.

Jesus said you cannot worship God and materialism. This study said you cannot love God and riches as much as you should. Fancy that.

Amen

The British parliament says no to joining the bloodshed in Syria:

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat that will almost guarantee that Britain plays no direct role in any U.S. attack on Bashar Assad's government. 

A grim-faced Cameron conceded after the vote that "the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action." 

The prime minister said that while he still believed in a "tough response" to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime, he would respect the will of Parliament.

I pray our government comes to its senses, but I have doubts.

Responding to the vote, the White House said that a decision on a possible military strike against Syria will be guided by America's best interests, suggesting the U.S. may act alone if other nations won't help.

There is no question that the videos of corpses lined up for burial weigh on our hearts. Yet, adding to the body count with people killed by our bombs will not bring peace to region or justice for the dead.

Isaiah 17:1 has suddenly become popular.

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
    but will become a heap of ruins.

Perhaps they need to read further. The chapter closes with a warning (Isaiah 17:12-14):

Woe to the many nations that rage . . .

The poverty line does not matter

We keep hearing things like this:

There's broad agreement that the way the U.S. measures poverty has some fundamental flaws — a topic that's likely to come up next month, when the new poverty numbers are released. Here are three key problems, as explained to me by Christopher Wimer, a researcher at Columbia. 

1. It doesn't account for geographic differences. The poverty line is the same, no matter where you live — whether it's in New York City or rural South Dakota. 

2. It's based on a 50-year-old formula that assumes Americans spend about a third of their income on food. But, after adjusting for inflation, the price of food has fallen significantly in the past 50 years. Today, people spend only about a sixth of their income on food. But they spend a bigger chunk of their income on other items, like child care and medical expenses. 

3. It doesn't consider the value of of government benefits, such as food stamps and tax credits.

 On the contrary, the problem is absolutely not the line used to arbitrarily define poverty. The real problem is that the distribution is wrong. There are too many people suffering at the bottom of the income ladder. Fighting about where to put a line is stupid. The real questions are: why there are so many people down there at the bottom and who is doing anything to help? Debating the poverty line ignores poverty as a problem. That ain't gonna fly with the Lord.

How you know greed is evil?

Here is some convincing evidence:

The lavishly compensated CEOs we spotlight here should be exemplars of value-added performance. After all, sky-high CEO pay purportedly reflects the superior value that elite chief executives add to their enterprises and the broader U.S. economy.

But our analysis reveals widespread poorperformance within America’s elite CEO circles. Chief executives performing poorly — and blatantly so — have consistently populated the ranks of our nation’s top-paid CEOs over the last two decades.

The report’s key finding: nearly 40 percent of the CEOs on these highest-paid lists were eventually "bailed out, booted, or busted."

Some meritocracy! Look how many of the highest paid are ethically bankrupt. They get more gold than they can carry, yet fear no consequences for failure. Sounds like Satan to me. 

Blessed are the peacemakers . . .

. . . for they shall be called the children of God. Does that sound familiar? Hold that thought as the war drums are pounding again across the world. This time it is Syria. A few years ago it was Libya. Before that, it was Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention occasional air strikes in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and God knows where else. We took sides in the Iran-Iraq war, knowing that our friend Saddam was using chemical warfare. Lebanon was a crapshoot in the early 1980s and again 25 years later. And let's not forget arming bin Laden in Afghanistan to fight former Soviet Union. We paid that evil forward.

Now according to some, many of these wars were justified. Just ask former head of ethics for the Southern Baptists. Richard Land promised God's blessings for war in Iraq six months before we conducted our glorious "shock-and-awe" campaign. The miserable failure of that prophesy should have been a wake-up call but there were no consequences for the prophets.

The just war in Afghanistan produced no good results. We installed a corrupt political leadership that will one day partner with the Taliban. The same militants will soon be able to say they won guerilla wars with the two superpowers of the Cold War.

Vietnam and Korea, two Cold War killing grounds, were considered just by many. The fruits of all that spilled blood have not been terribly sweet.

We know two things before we enter Syria. One is that it will be very expensive, even with using our long distance killing machines. From Matthew Yglesias at Slate:

Today that day has arrived in light of the increasing chatter that the United States government should drop a bunch of high-powered explosives in order to kill and maim a bunch of Syrian individuals while destroying some of Syria's physical infrastructure in order to help other Syrian individuals. One's thoughts naturally turn to NATO's 2011 military intervention in Libya, which proponents of killing-and-maiming as a humanitarian strategy like to point to as an effective kill-and-maim episode that debunked the concerns of skeptics.

Yes, it will frightfully expensive in dollars and half-hearted morality. We are tipping the scale in favor of one murderous group over another. Yippee!

Yglesias frames the issue nicely:

Now, before the kill-and-maim-for-the-sake-of-humanity crowd shoots a Tomahawk missile at me, it's worth conceding up front that none of this amounts to a logically airtight case against blowing up some Syrian infrastructure and killing various Syrian bad guys. It is very possible for a given undertaken to be worth doing without being the optimal policy. But I do think it's worth interrogating the larger political and ideological construct that says that spending a few billions dollars to help foreigners is a thinkable undertaking if and only if the means of providing assistance is to kill some people and blow some stuff up. The explosives-heavy approach to humanitarianism has a lot of unpredictable side effects, sometimes backfires massively, and offers an extremely poor value proposition. So whatever you think about killing some Syrians this summer, please consider throwing a few dollars in the direction of a cost-effective charity of some kind.

The second thing we know for  certainty is that bloodshed will continue for decades after we declare victory for our side. There have been no exceptions to that rule in the Middle East. Sometimes I swear we are deliberately stirring up trouble in what the book of Revelation suggests will be the future site of Armageddon.

As long as we are on the subject of just war, what has been the fate of Christians in these same Middle Eastern countries? They have been persecuted and forced to flee their homes and communities. Many line refugee camps in Syria and Jordan, while their wealthy brethren have fled to the West.

It is not difficult to understand why Jesus said people that pursue peace find favor in the eyes of God. The violent keep the cycle of violence going. Those that live by the sword, die by it sooner or later. Violence, after all, is the antithesis of forgiveness. It is soul-scarring vengeance.

We Christians in America live in a country that has been the biggest arms dealer in the world since World War II. What better way to drum up business than to show off the killing power of our weapons. Perhaps it would be wise for us to take the words of Christ seriously and speak out against violence.

One final question. Where was Saul traveling when he was on blinded on the road and became he became the Apostle named Paul? The Christians being displaced in this conflict trace their faith in Christ to Paul. The side we are helping will make the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ living in Syria even greater.

To recap, America and other western countries want to punish the sins of the Syrian government for using chemical weapons by spilling the blood of the Syrian military. The followers of Jesus need to find ways to stop the violence and heal the wounds of those hurt.

Raise your hand if you are a Christian

So you are a Christian. Great. Now what exactly does that mean to you?

You say you believe that Jesus is your savior. Nice. Ok, tell me more. What is required of you as a follower of Christ? You do your best to avoid sinning. That is a good start. What else?

How are you as a parent? You love your children. Good. Jesus said even the wicked love their children. Do you teach your children to love themselves and not others outside your family? Do you teach your children that the poor deserve to suffer? The answer better be no or you will have failed Christ. The Lord taught that you are to serve others in His name with no thought of recognition or reward. That is not charity. That is living grace.

What do you value? What do you prize most? Big house. Fancy car. Money in the bank. This is where you are supposed to say that those are just trappings of a life well lived, your heart has been filled with Christ. Jesus said you cannot equally value material things and God. You cannot have two masters. Jesus expects you to pursue spiritual things and serve God by serving others. There are no exceptions to those rules. The Lord said the rich are not likely to be welcome in God's presence. Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. If you value greed, you just might be screwed.

If you are loyal to Christ, then you have to be loyal to the teachings of Jesus. Those teachings were conveniently packaged in four short gospels. You better radiate grace and the love of God. You better attend to those who suffer in your presence. Your heart better be on them. The Lord said the spiritual pathway is narrow and difficult. You are to go out in the world and heal others to the best of your ability. You are to prepare the world for the Lord's eventual return and God's will finally being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Being a Christian is no idle pledge. It is about following Jesus.

Can you follow Jesus and ignore the injustices around you? Jesus calls us to action, not simple aesthetics. Action for Christ means action for others. Go read how the Lord will separate the sheep and the goats in Matthew chapter 25. I take it you understand that it will suck to be counted as a goat.

No points will be given for doctrinal correctness. None. Nada. Same for ritual correctness. What to hear the Lord laugh, share your infinite knowledge of God through your favorite theology. Christ will roll his eyes if you talk about predestination. And no points will be given for what you voted for, but points will be taken away if you helped take away the rights of others to vote and have a voice in society. You cannot cheer violence even if you think it is justified under the circumstances. Love others as you would wish to be loved.

Don't claim to revere God as creator if you do not revere God's creation. Cheering the destruction of forests, rivers, oceans, mountains, and animals by human hand is disrespectful of God's gifts.

We are the body of Christ. Not a bunch of very loosely affiliated churches or members of an exclusive club. We are to serve as the Lord's eyes, ears, heart, and hands. Our petty differences better not interfere with the function of this body.

More signs and wonders from Kenneth Copeland and company

You probably know of Kenneth Copeland from his advocacy of the prosperity gospel. Nothing like telling Christians that you can worship God and Mammon to attract a dedicated following. Now he seems to have caused a little plague. From Forbes:

A measles outbreak in Texas traces to a congregation of a megachurch whose leader, Kenneth Copeland, reportedly has warned followers away from vaccines, advocating for faith healing and pushing the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. One of Copeland’s churches, Eagle Mountain International Church in North Texas, is the epicenter of the outbreak, which now has hit at least 20 people.  

Nice work, Pastor Copeland. First you fleece your flock and then sacrifice them to disease. Bravo. Or maybe you just wanted to show off your miraculous healing powers to cure already preventable diseases. Glory be.

Love loses

Six churches have banded together for the past six years to feed the homeless in Raleigh, North Carolina. From the mission statement of Love Wins Ministries:

We want to build relationships that cross cultural and societal barriers. It is not that complicated: We love people – period. No agenda, no strings attached. People that society has left behind. People who wear dirty clothes. People who beg for money on the side of the road. People who are not welcome in most church buildings. People the city wishes would disappear. People made, we believe, in the very image of God.

In other words, they are working to translate the teachings of Jesus into action. They want to show love to the marginalized and downtrodden. Sadly, feeding the homeless is something that their city is cracking down on, with police officers threatening to jail ministry members for passing out food.

This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. 

Today officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested.

Government officials, no doubt at the behest of business interests, have decided to get tough with the homeless as part of an effort to revitalize this area of the city. It is a further hardening of hearts. By the way, the feeding program is necessary because of the lack of services on weekends.

We feed people and have been doing so, and much more, for six years. On the weekends people have no where else to go other than the park because Wake County and/or the City of Raleigh offers no soup kitchens or other options on the weekends. None. There is no “official” place you can get a meal if you are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. You are left to your wits, and for the last six years, you could get a cup of hot coffee and a hot breakfast sandwich from us – because you could not get one from any tax funded location.

The Love Wins blog post about their recent confrontation with the police attracted almost 400 comments. I was amazed at the number of people that suggested that the solution is to feed the homeless from churches participating in the ministry. Rather than bring the food to the homeless, the ministry should figure out a way to transport the homeless to the food. And, of course, some could not resist the temptation to throw stones at the poor.

It may be causing more of a problem, than creating a solution. I have worked and volunteered in a local ‘soup kitchen’ that fed people for free. Most of them were local people, who left their neighborhood homes, and were just to lazy to get food for themselves. Sure, somehow people really need help, but a large gathering of homeless vagrants may not be the best for a local park.

I have never run across anyone that goes to a soup kitchen because they are too lazy to prepare their own meals, yet here is someone claiming that soup kitchens are full of freeloaders. The myths of welfare "queens" and food stamps being used to buy luxury items like crab legs are very persuasive for the self-centered. Cynical politicians thrive on the ready acceptance of slander and scapegoating.

The Lord said that He will judge harshly anyone that neglects the suffering of others. Perhaps He was just being overly dramatic. Or perhaps repentance is in order. Giving the finger to the poor is like giving the finger to Christ. It is a big mistake, whether you think you are predestined or not. Failure to show God's love, especially for those crying out to God, is something you definitely do not want on your spiritual resume.

A little Micah in the morning

Micah 2:1-2:

Woe to those who plan iniquity,
to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
because it is in their power to do it. 

They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
they rob them of their inheritance.

America in the 21st century:

Back in 2012, the major US banks settled a federal mortgage-fraud lawsuit for $95,000,000. The suit was filed by Lynn Szymoniak, a white-collar fraud specialist, whose own house had been fraudulently foreclosed-upon. When the feds settled with the banks, the evidence detailing the scope of their fraud was sealed, but as of last week, those docs are unsealed, and Szymoniak is shouting them from the hills. The banks precipitated the subprime crash by "securitizing" mortgages -- turning mortgages into bonds that could be sold to people looking for investment income -- and the securitization process involved transferring title for homes several times over. This title-transfer has a formal legal procedure, and in the absence of that procedure, no sale had taken place. See where this is going? 

The banks screwed up the title transfers. A lot. They sold bonds backed by houses they didn't own. When it came time to foreclose on those homes, they realized that they didn't actually own them, and so they committed felony after felony, forging the necessary documentation. They stole houses, by the neighborhood-load, and got away with it. The $1B settlement sounded like a big deal, back when the evidence was sealed. Now that Szymoniak's gotten it into the public eye, it's clear that $1B was a tiny slap on the wrist: the banks stole trillions of dollars' worth of houses from you and people like you, paid less than one percent in fines, and got to keep the homes.

Never doubt the existence of evil, especially when greed is treated as a virtue.

Fifty years ago a pastor shared his vision

Five decades have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He spoke the hard truths about racism in America. He appealed to conscience and faith to change hearts, minds, and laws. Following Christ, he had a dream to heal a nation that denied some people dignity, freedom, and opportunity. A true prophetic voice.

I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of toclay and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.  I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

As a white kid growing up in the South, I watched this speech on television. It was the first time I understood that racism was far more that one race not liking the other. It was much more than slurs and slander. It was discrimination. It was near certain poverty. It was a systematic attack on dignity. It was hatred personified.

When I fell in love with Jesus as a teen, I saw Christ in action in Dr. King. He was preaching gospel truth about loving others before an enormous crowd on the very steps of power. It was an extraordinary witness for the love of God. King even dared us to look at each other through the eyes of God. What a radical concept!

I was enchanted by Dr. King fifty years ago and my admiration of him has grown with time.

Times have changed. Racial injustices are giving way to a widening economic gap between the affluent and everyone else. More are falling into poverty and struggling to find any semblance of financial security. Greed has become the only real virtue in our society. Some Christians even think the only sins that count are sexual. Love of money is no longer the root of all sorts of evil, but rather a fountain from which all blessings flow. Sure Christ said you cannot love God and wealth - that was long ago. Perhaps the rich of today are morally and ethically superior to the rich of Jesus' time. I think we need Dr. King's voice now more than ever.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/24/3580335_p3/full-text-of-martin-luther-king.html#storylink=cpy

What has not changed is our thirst for freedom and justice.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!

We need a new voice to channel Christ by reminding us what it means to be brothers and sisters in the family of God. To create that "beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Facebook friends and likes do not count. We are called by the Lord to love all, even strangers and enemies.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/24/3580335_p3/full-text-of-martin-luther-king.html#storylink=cpy

Christian ethics and homosexuality

Enough debate. There is little to discuss. Next to nothing. What we have here are two vastly different visions of Christian ethics.

One vision claims that homosexuals need to be chastised for being unrepentant sinners even though each and every one of us sin and continue to sin. The Law of Moses requires taking up stones. Paul would be okay with it as long as you do not throw the stones. Correct me if I mischaracterized  theological "conservatives" on this issue.

The other vision is that we are bound by the teachings of Jesus to love and respect all. The scriptures clearly state that same-sex relationships may offend God. Let people attracted to the same sex iron out their own differences with God. God does not need the rest of us as an intercessory. Christian ethics requires that each of us work on our own relationship with God, not stand in judgment of others. We have two simple commandments - love God and love others. You cannot claim to love God and then turn around and mistreat other people. Neither can you claim to love Christ and ignore the words of Jesus.

Consider this. Some Christians are doing everything they can to prevent homosexuals from reconciling with God. These warriors for Christ want to ostracize homosexuals from faith communities and the community at large. Treat them as second class citizens or even criminals. Marginalize. Dehumanize. Tell them they are disliked by God rather than loved.

It is not complicated. Jesus said no stones for anyone that is guilty of their own sins. That leaves no one holding stones. By the way, be especially careful if you are love to talk about hating the sin of homosexuality. It is very, very difficult to love another person while despising something about them.

While we debate the Christian response to same-sex couples, we are ignoring the suffering all around us. We live in a society where the most vulnerable are being kicked to the curb. The sick. The old. The mentally or physically disabled. Especially the poor. Too many of us that call ourselves Christians stand idly by and seem quite content to let the frail suffer. We are not repairing the world according to the Lord's instruction because it is more fun to debate doctrine than solve problems. I suspect there will be hell to pay for not loving others as Jesus taught his disciples through word and deed.

What better way to prepare for Christ's return than to lift the crosses of those in need and live in peace with others. Beacons of God's love as reflected in our love for all of God's creation. Love God. Love each other. No exceptions.

This is America

This is the country we live in during the blighted 21st century. The very same country God blessed with bountiful resources. Let's walk the mean streets of America.

Did you hear about the twenty-something overnight technology millionaire named Peter Shih? The one that thumbed his nose at everyone in San Francisco, with special animus toward the poor in his midst.

San Francisco has some of the craziest homeless people I have ever seen in my life. Stop giving them money, you know they just buy alcohol and drugs with it right? Next time just hand them a handle of vodka and a pack of cigarettes, it’ll save everyone some trouble. I’m seriously tempted to start fucking with people and pay for homeless guys to ride the Powell street cable cars in the middle of the day, that ought to get the city’s attention.

I liked the editorial comment by the Uptown Almanac:

Peter has been crushing it lately. Peter's start-up is seeing exponential growth. Peter is raising money. Peter is raising hell. Peter is about to hire a growth hacker. Peter is king. 

But San Francisco is bringing Peter down. San Francisco is allowing mentally ill, drug-addicted homeless people abandoned by society to be in the same 49 square miles as Peter. Peter does not approve. Peter just wants to make apps for other Peters, call out some women for being bitches, and put the world's issues out of Peter's mind. But Peter is a visionary. Peter is an innovator. Peter is going to disrupt the city's blindness to Peter's problem with homeless people by paying the homeless to hang out with tourists. Peter will solve homelessness for Peter.

Sounds like an Ayn Rand devotee. Those arrogant twits think themselves gods.

Not to be outdone by a rich slacker, cities in Florida and South Carolina have made it a crime to be homeless. Yes, make sure the people already deprived of every dignity face losing their freedom.

City council members in Columbia, S.C., recently voted unanimously to criminalize homelessness. 

Concerned that Columbia has become a “magnet for homeless people,” and that businesses and the area’s safety are suffering as a result, council members agreed on Aug. 14 to give people on the streets the option to either relocate, or get arrested, according to the city’s “Emergency Homeless Response” report. 

Cooperative homeless people will be given the option to go to a remote 240-person bed emergency shelter, which will be open from September to March. The shelter will also be used as a drop-off for people recently released from prison and jail, too.

Let me walk you through the math. There are more than 1600 homeless people in the Columbia, South Carolina. The city is a building a 240-person minimum security prison for the lucky homeless. The police will supervise all coming to going away from this newfangled "shelter." The even less fortunate will be carted off to city jails. Nothing opens up job opportunities like a criminal record.

I take it there are few followers of Christ in South Carolina. How could there be a real presence of Jesus in a place where so many affluent people blame their business and personal insecurity on the poor? It is not possible. You cannot claim to love an unseen God and mistreat people you see in need. Jesus made it abundantly clear that we are responsible to care for the people crying out for help.

“As small business owners on Main Street we see first hand how the homeless crisis is affecting the city,” Jessica and Joe Kastner, owners of Paradise Ice, said according to the report. “Unfortunately it seems the people who make their living off of caring for the homeless are the ones making all the noise at these meetings. They've had 20 years to fix the problem and it has only gotten worse thus ensuring their paychecks stay safe. Please think about the everyday citizens, the revitalization of Columbia and the safety of everyone.”

The Christ-less business people accuse organizations serving the poor of not solving economic disparities that leave some homeless. Although there are few economic opportunities for the poor, mentally ill, disabled, or suffering with an addiction, business owners are demanding more tough love for the less fortunate.

Here is a member of Congress from the great state of Oklahoma by the name of Markwayne Mullin. Mind you, he said this during a town hall meeting with his constituents:

In a video of the event posted by ThinkProgress, the freshman Republican said he was in Crystal City, Va., buying groceries in a nice but crowded store when he noticed something strange. 

"Every lane was open and it was backed up and I noticed everybody was giving that card," Mullin said, apparently referring to the electronic benefit transfer cards most states use to distribute food stamps. "They had these huge baskets, and I realized it was the first of the month."

Wait, it gets better.

"But then I’m looking over, and there’s a couple beside me," Mullin continued. "This guy was built like a brick house. I mean he had muscles all over him. He was in a little tank top and pair of shorts and really nice Nike shoes. And she was standing there, and she was all in shape and she looked like she had just come from a fitness program. She was in the spandex, and you know, they were both physically fit. And they go up in front of me and they pay with that card." 

Mullin knew what he'd witnessed. "Fraud," he said. "Absolute 100 percent, all of it is fraud. There's fraud all through that."

So this privileged politician claims that anyone who is not physically or mentally incapacitated should not be not be fed. Ironically, this man also claims to be Pentecostal Christian. He seems to think the spirit of God only moves among the economically secure. It does make you wonder where this man got the idea that what Jesus taught is less important than believing Christ will give you eternal life.

This is also the America that enslaves young people in crushing debt and economic despair.

Researchers from Northwestern University found that adults ages 24 to 32 with high financial debt are more likely to have poorer self-reported health (both mental and physical), as well as higher diastolic blood pressure. (Diastolic blood pressure is thebottom number on a blood-pressure reading; WebMD defines it as indicative of "the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats").

"You wouldn't necessarily expect to see associations between debt and physical healthin people who are so young," study researcher Elizabeth Sweet, assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We need to be aware of this association and understand it better. Our study is just a first peek at how debt may impact physical health."

 The young are being robbed of their economic and health security. Christ would be so impressed.

We are repaying the gift of God's bounty by allowing the affluent to increase the suffering of the poor. America has become vicious in the 21st century. Fear the rapture, folks. The Lord is coming and He will not be smiling.

Evangelist for guns

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. What is the witness for Christ by this pastor in Texas?

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Terry Holcomb Sr. is a pastor in San Jacinto County, but he is also a staunch advocate of the 2nd Amendment who is now taking his rifle on walks through Huntsville to get people talking about gun laws in Texas. 

In videos he posted on YouTube, Holcomb is shown walking into Double Dave’s Pizza, Starbucks, Jack in the Box and Walmart in Huntsville. He carries his AR-15 Bushmaster .223 slung over his shoulder, behind his back with the barrel pointed down. He said the magazine was loaded, the chamber was empty and the safety was on.

I understand that this man is strong advocate for guns. It is the pastor part that confuses me.

The words of Jesus recorded in the four gospels makes it clear that we are to pursue the things of God rather than the things of this world. We are to hold onto our mortal coil loosely. Very loosely. Being willing to sacrifice your life for a stranger or even a sworn enemy. He sacrificed his life for all of us. If you know the gospels, you know what I am saying is true. So what is the example being set by this pastor?

Guns are used to protect your life, often at the expense of another life. Guns are also used to harm others in the commission of sin. In other words, gun lovers value their mortal existence to the point of risking their very soul for killing an innocent person. Taking a life is even encouraged in places like Florida. The need for guns is just another manifestation of materialism.

It seems rather immature in Christ for a pastor to make a spectacle of his love for another form of materialism. The thing that drove him to the streets was a need to show off his assault rifle. Never mind the love of God. Never mind the people crying out from want, disease, or oppression. His aggressive performance art is to evangelize for guns, not God.

Holcomb said the reason he took the walk through Huntsville and through several private businesses was to educate people about Texas open carry laws and how he, and thousands of other gun rights activists, would like to see Texas law changed. 

Texas is not an “open carry” state. You cannot legally in Texas, like you can in the state of Virginia for example, carry a handgun openly on your hip. Texas law states the handgun must be concealed under your clothing.

It also makes me wonder what he is teaching his flock if this is his public example. Jesus allowed his own life to be taken. The Lord said we, His followers, are to set the bar as high as possible for loving others. Publicity stunts for Mammon seems questionable in the context of Christ.

This outrageous behavior has become all too common. We see Christian leaders everywhere you look singing the praises of "free market" materialism, politicians, guns, and war. Christian media routinely host guests that recommend policies straight from the pages of avowed atheist Ayn Rand. Richard Land blessed the Iraq war as "just" in the name of Southern Baptists. That Holcomb fellow down in Texas is just another in a long line of highly visible Christians doing their best to betray the teachings of Christ. We should be outdoing one another in acts of brotherly and sisterly love. 

Pray for peace in Egypt

The continuing violence in Egypt is a stark reminder of our capacity to harm one another. The chaos in the streets has left more than 400 dead and 3500 injured. Even journalists have been targeted with 3 killed and others wounded. Voices of peace, like Mohammed ElBaradei have been ignored.

“I saw that there were peaceful ways to end this clash in society; there were proposed and acceptable solutions for beginnings that would take us to national consensus," he wrote in a resignation letter. “It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one drop of blood."

Violence only sews the seeds for more violence. I pray for healing calm in the midst of rage. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

Unfortunately, the United States is generous with aid for weapons, but not for peaceful development. Our foreign policy is morally bankrupt. It has been that way for generations.

Standing up for God's creation in Kentucky

I have hillbilly blood. My father's people were from Pike County in eastern Kentucky. It is coal country. It is home to mountaintop removal mining, one of the most destructive practices ever devised to plunder God's creation. Here is a nice description:

Mountaintop removal (MTR) is a radical form of surface coal mining that has expanded rapidly during the last twenty years. MTR blasts off the tops of mountains, often as much as a thousand feet deep, to reach multiple coal seams that either are too thin to be extracted by conventional means or can be mined more cheaply by this method. As massive machinery and blasting replace underground labor, coal production is nearing all-time heights in the region but with only a small fraction of the former coal mining workforce. Kentucky is the third largest coal-producing state in the United States, yet today Appalachian Kentucky has less than 15,000 miners employed in the industry. Touted by the coal industry as a boon to economic development, MTR actually eliminates jobs and has devastating effects on the local environment. More than 500 mountains and one million acres have been affected and nearly 2,000 miles of streams have been harmed or buried as the overlying soil and rock formations have been pushed off the sides of mountains into “valley fills.” These fills cover the headwaters of Appalachian streams and rivers, killing micro-organisms that biologists claim are essential to food chains and the health of down-steam waters. The loss of trees and top soil has been shown to cause increased annual flooding and hundreds of millions of dollars of property damage. In some Appalachian counties MTR has ravaged between one-fourth and one-fifth of the surface.

Greed is destroying one of the most diverse ecosystems in the US. It is also degrading streams and rivers that provide drinking water to quite a few mid-Atlantic states.

One of the most powerful voices condemning the wanton destruction from mountaintop removal mining is Father John Rausch, director of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia. He is one of the leaders of "The Cross In The Mountains"protest against mountaintop removal mining.

It was a reenactment of the Stations of the Cross within sight of an active MTR operation. Protestants, Catholics, and non-believers alike carried small, handmade wooden crosses bearing slogans about MTR’s destructiveness to symbolize Jesus’ long, arduous walk to his crucifixion. In following the traditional form of the Catholic ritual, participants stopped at make-shift stations to commemorate the steps leading to the crucifixion. The traditional theological meanings associated with each station were recast to illustrate the suffering caused by the practice and consequences of MTR. Examples included: “Jesus Takes Up His Cross: Corporate greed abuses the people and the land;” “Jesus Falls for the First Time: Water pollutes the streams and rivers;” “Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother: Earth mourns her destruction;” “Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross: Religious leaders and friends of creation speak out;” “Jesus Dies on the Cross: Death stalks our land in many forms;” and, “The Resurrection of Jesus: Hope springs from sustainable jobs and lifestyles.” At the end of the service a huge cross, with a heart-shaped lump of coal affixed to its center with barbed wire, was erected in view of the MTR operation and flowers were laid at its base.

In an article he wrote for the volume Sacred Acts: How Churches Are Working to Protect Earth’s Climate, Father Rausch reflected on this interfaith effort. “In the end, The Cross in the Mountains crystallized nearly a decade of public prayer by using a traditional devotion,” he wrote. “It combined elements of a demonstration, a celebration, and a time of prayer that meant conversion for some and a deeper commitment for others. The way to the heart seldom seems paved with facts and figures. That path appears filled with spiritual moments that, with the help of public prayer and symbol, deepen the presence of God among us.”

The protests are ecumenical, including Christians of every stripe and flavor. It is long overdue. The coal industry has taken the wealth from area, given nothing in return, and left an unfathomable wasteland in its wake. Poverty plagues every holler in eastern Kentucky. More need to speak out against these injustices.

All this conflict between Appalachian environmentalists and the coal industry means that Father Rausch’s ministry operates in an intensely polarized setting. “Fox News Catholics,” as he jokingly refers to them, routinely criticize Rausch’s liberal views in his column, which is syndicated in Catholic newspapers across the country. He responds by declaring that the Catholic Church does not endorse “big government” or “small government;” it should endorse “appropriate government” aimed at “stemming the suffering of the people.” Do people of faith share Rausch’s commitment to “appropriate government”? Do people share his belief that the authentic voice of the Holy Spirit can be found in the voices of the dispossessed? If so, why are not all faithful citizens outraged by the environmentally destructive practice of MTR? As Father Rausch put it: “Most people come to church to go to heaven. They forget that the reign of God is at hand.” 

"Forget that the reign of God is at hand" is nice framing, but I am not sure that 'forget' is the right word. People of faith that turn a blind eye to the destruction of God's creation and poverty in this area seem to know nothing of the reign of God. You cannot forget what you never knew. 

The other scourge of Appalachia is natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale formation. Like coal, mineral rights are bought up cheaply and the money flows out of the area with the methane. Here are more people of faith making a clear statement:

Two Roman Catholic communities, which collectively own more than 3,000 acres in Central Kentucky, are refusing to permit access to their historic properties for a proposed underground pipeline that would transport flammable, pressurized natural-gas liquids across the state. 

The Sisters of Loretto in Marion County and the Abbey of Gethsemani in Nelson County have denied representatives of the pipeline developers permission to survey their property and said they won’t consent to participating in the project.

And what is the word for people that love to talk about God as creator, but do nothing to protect that creation? How about bullshit artists? Nothing good will ever come from the destruction of God's creation, but there will be a price to pay for the sin. 

We are number one in the world

The latest statistics are in. The U.S. leads the world in imprisonment. We have nearly 2.4 million prison cells and over 99% of them are occupied. No other developed nation has imprisonment rates that even come close to ours. It is difficult to look at these numbers and not think about grace.

The example God sets is forgiveness and mercy. Jesus reminds his followers to emulate those qualities in our dealings with others. So why have we collectively as a nation become so punitive and vengeful?

There are some obvious reasons. One is greed. Our politicians have fostered a rapidly growing for-profit prison system. These companies, in turn, lobby for mandatory minimum sentences that are growing ever longer and make generous campaign contributions to politicians to expand the prison populations. In short, our justice system has been subverted to serve the needs of corporations that run prisons. It is very big business. Here are the numbers for GEO, one of the largest prison companies.

In 2012, Geo (GEO) had revenue of $1.48 billion, up from $569 million 10 years earlier, with net income of $135 million. George Zoley, its chairman and chief executive officer, received almost $6 million last year, including a $2.2 million bonus for profit surpassing targets, according to company filings.

In order to maintain the cancerous growth in profits to keep stock prices rising, these companies need more prisoners and less staff, which has led to deplorable conditions at many facilities. Walnut Grove, a private prison in Mississippi for juvenile offenders, even attracted national attention for inmate violence and sexual abuse by staff. Curiously, these companies have kept their records secret despite receiving boatloads of taxpayer money.

No national data tracks whether the facilities are run as well as public ones, and private-prison lobbyists for years have successfully fought efforts to bring them under federal open-records law. Yet regulatory, court and state records show that the industry has repeatedly experienced the kind of staffing shortages and worker turnover that helped produce years of chaos at Walnut Grove.

The Apostle Paul warned that love of money was the root of all kinds of evil. He was right. You cannot love money and love others as Jesus commanded us to do. The temptation to chase after money is too great, even when our neighbors are stripped of dignity and hope as a consequence.

Racism and classism also play a role. Our prison populations are dominated by poor blacks and Hispanics. Again, these are remarkable failures to love others. The privileged, on the other hand, can get away with theft on a grand scale and even murder.

The hope of John Winthrop in 1630 was that America would become a model of Christian charity. Justice and mercy in our dealings with others were the cornerstones of that model. Instead of becoming that shining city on a hill, we set the bar high for vindictiveness and shameful treatment of others in service of greed. Since our politicians and religious leaders love to quote Winthrop, it would be wise to heed his warning.

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

We cannot claim to emulate God's grace when we imprison millions out of fear, hatred, and greed. Time for a little soul searching.

Larry Kudlow expects religious worship of Mammon

Larry Kudlow is paid millions every year to hawk stocks and political ideology to affluent people. His moral compass is a bit off.  Last week, he went on a tirade about Pope Francis because the pope has not bowed down to sing the praises of "free market" capitalism.

“Pope John Paul II, I think, had a much more market friendly approach to all of this over a period of time. And I think that’s because he lived under Soviet communist rule, which is even worse than Argentina, obviously, so he understood that the socialists systems or even the quasi-socialist systems have no freedom. I’m not sure this Pope really understands that.”

This tweet from the pope really stuck in Kudlow's craw.

"My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost."

How dare someone express concern for the losers in the global market and questions the virtue of our greed-obsessed capitalism! We are only allowed to show love for the winners, the captains of industry. Yes. In Kudlow's world, capitalism is the one true religion. Anything else is pure evil. Therefore, the victims in the "free market" deserve to suffer.

Poor Larry. His lust for money has blinded him. Please, Lord, open his eyes.

At least the religious studies professor on Kudlow's show asked the obvious quesion:

"Can we develop a free market that respects human dignity and human rights?"

The answer is no. A system with greed and materialism as its only virtues will never value human dignity. It is silly to even raise the possibility of reform. We are talking about a system that offers economic freedom to a select few and enslaves millions with no job or a low paying one. It is not a "tide that lifts all boats." Kudlow does not care. He is one of the chosen few.

If you want to worship an economic ideology, more power to you. If you want to pretend that it is fair and just, go for it. Just don't do it in God's name. And don't criticize those with a heart for the less fortunate.

Poverty as a life sentence

An article in the Arizona Daily Star describes how breaking the law is quickly becoming a life sentence to poverty for not only the offender but also their children. In this difficult economy, people with a criminal record cannot find jobs and housing, making it difficult to escape poverty and increasing the temptation to break the law again.

Ex-prisoners here face big obstacles to rebuilding their lives, says Andy Silverman, a University of Arizona law school professor who has led a civil-rights-restoration clinic.

"I get calls almost on a daily basis from folks telling me the problems they are having in getting jobs, renting apartments, applying for professional licenses, etc.," Silverman says. That's true even when the convictions are many years old.

The children of offenders fare even worse. Growing up in poverty takes a toll. The deck is stacked against them in every way possible.

Growing up poor dims kids' chances of success as adults. The chaos that comes with unstable housing, spotty school attendance and limited access to nutritious food and medical care increase the chances kids will grow up to be unemployed, unhealthy and in trouble with the law - in short, the responsibility of taxpayers.

Reporter Patty Malechor makes one other critical point in the article. Mercy works.

Texas in 2007 put a halt to its prison construction boom and instead invested $240 million in treatment and diversion programs. The results have been dramatic, says Pew Charitable Trusts: State taxpayers have avoided nearly $2 billion in new prison spending, and parole failure is down 39 percent.

 The real story, though, is the vengeful nature of our society. It is another sign of the hardening of our hearts.

Reactions to Pope Francis

David Gibson has an interesting discussion of the reactions of some Catholics to Pope Francis. His humility, simplicity, vibrancy, compassion, and focus on social justice have been sweet music to my ears. One need only look at the reactions of the massive crowds during his recent trip to Brazil to see something glorious happening. How could anyone that professes love for Christ not be ecstatic? It boggles the mind.

Yet not everyone is pleased.  One cardinal sin of the new pope is that he does not praise the godly "free market" and demands actions for those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Since Francis’ election, the anxiety on the right has only mounted as he has continued to model a radically different pontificate — preaching about the evils of the globalized economy while repeatedly reminding his followers to care for the poor and marginalized.

The very fact that the followers of Christ need to be reminded to care for the poor and disenfranchised is unsettling. With its clarion call for compassion, the entire gospel of Matthew is a blueprint for Christian praxis. How could someone that accepts scripture as the foundation of faith wring their hands over Francis' focus on social justice?

There are some remarkable and revealing quotes in this article.

Here is audacity:

Catholics on “the right wing of the church,” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said on the eve of the Brazil trip, “have not been really happy about (Francis’) election.” Chaput, a vocal conservative in the U.S. hierarchy, told the National Catholic Reporter that Francis “will have to care for them, too, so it will be interesting to see how all this works out in the long run.”

In most organizations, vocal criticism of the boss will get you in serious trouble. You would think that someone so far up the hierarchy would never go public with discontent about the boss of bosses. Of course, the archbishop betrays his true concerns. He views the pope as catering to a particular wing of the church hierarchy and feeling slighted, demands more attention for the "right wing." So he thinks that the pope is focusing on social justice to bless the pet causes of his supporters instead of genuine concern for the most vulnerable. I am sure Jesus would laugh heartily at the idea that the feelings of church leaders matter more than his flock.

Here is entitlement:

“They have loyally supported the church with donations and activism and can be expected to oppose any change in direction of the sort Francis has signaled,” Michael D’Antonio, author of a book on the clergy abuse scandals, wrote in a Foreign Policy magazine essay that asked, “Is Francis too radical for his flock?”

That seems like stockholders mentality. If you have contributed the most time and money, your wishes need take precedence. To paraphrase Orwell, all parishioners are equal, but some are more equal than others. Those without money and time to donate are less important. Huzzah.

Here is pure, unadulterated cynicism:

Some even think, as writer Elizabeth Scalia explained in the conservative journal First Things, that Francis may be manipulating journalists in order to insinuate traditional Catholic teaching into mainstream press reports.

If by some sick and twisted chance Pope Francis is engaged in deceit and subterfuge, Scalia will stand and cheer. By the same token, she will be deeply disappointed if the pope is actually speaking truth from his heart. Someone should cast out her demon.

And finally, here is an expert on religious heretics:

“To the extent that conservative Catholics in the United States find themselves actively disagreeing with Pope Francis’s emphases … it might help cure them/us of the recurring Catholic temptation toward papolatry,” wrote New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. 

 All of this begs the obvious question. With "friends" like these, who needs enemies?

What do the Millennials want from church?

I have lost track of the surveys that have shown the Millennial Generation walking away from organized religion in droves. Rachel Held Evans has become one of the strongest voices for reform, particularly within the evangelical tradition. Her recent article at CNN nicely summarizes some of her suggestions for making Christ and the church more attractive for these young adults as they find their way in this world.

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

It is difficult to argue with those points. They line up well with the results of survey after survey of attitudes of young adults toward organized religion in America.

Rachel describes the tone deafness of some religious leaders. They think can tweak the communication style but leave the substance unchanged. Same old wine in new and improved packaging. Bread and circuses instead of a vibrant body of Christ.

We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.

Perhaps we should also ask who stands to benefit from culture wars, political allegiance, and loud pronouncements of who is acceptable in God's eyes by religious authorities. It is about power and control by earthly men and women. It is nothing new. From Isaiah 29:13:

“These people come near to me with their mouth 

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me. 

Their worship of me 

   is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Bad Samaritans

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what he meant by loving your neighbor. It means being willing to take care of a perfect stranger at great personal expense, with bonus points if the stranger happens to be a race you do not trust. Given that narrative, I wonder what the Lord would say about this story.

Sarah Stillman paints a pretty clear picture in The New Yorker of abuse by law enforcement officials in a growing number of counties. The scam works like this. Cars with out-of-state or rental plates are pulled over for some manufactured traffic violation. The car is searched and occupants required to declare how much cash they are carrying. Cash, valuables, and even the cars are confiscated because of suspicion of ill-gotten-gains from drug trafficking. The county prosecutor demands the driver and passengers forfeit their assets (for an unproven charge) or be charged with drug-related felonies. No one even cares about whether the accused can prove the source of their cash was completely legal. It is a shakedown.

The county’s district attorney, a fifty-seven-year-old woman with feathered Charlie’s Angels hair named Lynda K. Russell, arrived an hour later. Russell, who moonlighted locally as a country singer, told Henderson and Boatright that they had two options. They could face felony charges for “money laundering” and “child endangerment,” in which case they would go to jail and their children would be handed over to foster care. Or they could sign over their cash to the city of Tenaha, and get back on the road. “No criminal charges shall be filed,” a waiver she drafted read, “and our children shall not be turned over to CPS,” or Child Protective Services.

Oddly enough, people with dark skin or Hispanic surnames seemed to be particularly popular targets of the legal smash and grab. Funny how works.

Here is the nitty-gritty of the shakedown.

In general, you needn’t be found guilty to have your assets claimed by law enforcement; in some states, suspicion on a par with “probable cause” is sufficient. Nor must you be charged with a crime, or even be accused of one. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which requires that a person be convicted of an offense before his or her property is confiscated, civil forfeiture amounts to a lawsuit filed directly against a possession, regardless of its owner’s guilt or innocence.

We also learn that there are few checks and balances on these asset forfeitures in some states. Weak oversight and need for funds by cash-strapped local governments is a recipe for disaster. Add in the high cost of fighting forfeitures in court and many people walk away.

Often, it’s hard for people to fight back. They are too poor; their immigration status is in question; they just can’t sustain the logistical burden of taking on unyielding bureaucracies.

These are antics worthy of the Sheriff of Nottingham. It is America becoming as dangerous to travel through as Sherwood Forest. It is also the antithesis of Good Samaritan. Instead of helping strangers, you steal from them. And you do it at gunpoint. Raise your hand if you think Jesus would approve of these unethical public servants. What about the public that supported the abuse of strangers as long as it fed public coffers instead of tax increases? Would the Lord give them a pass?

The police had confiscated a simple gold cross that a woman wore around her neck after pulling her over for a minor traffic violation. No contraband was reported, no criminal charges were filed, and no traffic ticket was issued. That’s how it went in dozens more cases involving cash, cars, and jewelry.

Just in case you still have any doubt . . .

Victor Ramos Guzman, a Pentecostal Church secretary from El Salvador, who lives in the U.S. under temporary protected status, is typical in all these respects. A year and a half ago, he and his brother-in-law were driving along Interstate 95 near Emporia, Virginia, en route, documents show, to buy a parcel of land for their church. When a state trooper pulled them over for speeding, Guzman and his brother-in-law disclosed that they were carrying twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars in parishioners’ donations. Although the trooper found no contraband, he seized the cash. By reporting the case to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Guzman was in the country legally, but he spoke little English), the state police could gain up to eighty per cent of the seizure through the federal Equitable Sharing program.

So much for contrition. One of officers that refined the traffic stop and grab into an art form blamed God. According to the officer, God told him to go to this town and work his magic. He also said Jesus was ok with it because his heart is pure.

“Jesus knows who’s done what, and what was fair and what was unfair. And I would never do anything to embarrass Him. And that’s it. That’s the end of the story.”

I am so impressed. I never met anyone that never does anything to embarrass the Lord. Most especially one using legal ambiguities to steal from and traumatize people that just happened to be passing through his jurisdiction. The Bad Samaritan.

Read Sarah Stillman's article. It is eye-opening and disquieting.

Forgetfulness

The millennial generation is already known for high rates of under-employment and debt. These economic stresses appear to be taking their toll on these young people. Here is another example. A national survey found that 18-34 year olds complain of forgetfulness in daily activities more often than people over age 55.

Millennials 18-34, in fact, are significantly more likely than seniors ages 55 or older to forget what day it is (15% vs. 7%), where they put their keys (14% vs. 8%), forget to bring their lunch (9% vs. 3%) or even to take a bath or shower (6% vs. 2%).

When life becomes stressful and chaotic, our attention to detail suffers. Forgetfulness is a canary in the mental health coal mine.

We asked Patricia Gutentag a leading family and occupational therapist what may be at the root of these relatively high levels of forgetfulness in millennials. “Stress! Stress often leads to forgetfulness, depression and poor judgment.” Indeed studying for finals and preparing for job interviews, not to mention relationship issues are leading stressors in young adults. Gutentag quickly adds, “We find higher rates of ADHD diagnoses in young adults. This is a population that has grown up multitasking using technology, often compounded by lack of sleep, all of which results in high levels of forgetfulness.”

As followers of Christ, we have a responsibility to lift their burdens and increase their opportunities. If we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their struggles, more will sink into despair and turn away from faith. We cannot claim ignorance. Most of us have close relatives in this age group and know their struggles first hand. The question is whether we have the courage to challenge economic injustices that are growing more common in our nation.

Peter Buffet questions the Charity Industrial Complex.

Philanthropy has become the “it” vehicle to level the playing field and has generated a growing number of gatherings, workshops and affinity groups.

As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity.

But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place. The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over. Nearly every time someone feels better by doing good, on the other side of the world (or street), someone else is further locked into a system that will not allow the true flourishing of his or her nature or the opportunity to live a joyful and fulfilled life.

He has a point. If there are structural barriers in our society that keep people from escaping poverty, charity will not solve anything. The question is how to foster real structural change in our economic system.

I’m really not calling for an end to capitalism; I’m calling for humanism.

Although he does not define humanism, I suspect he means greater value being placed on social capital rather than just profit margins and market value. Capitalism with a heart for the folks at the bottom of the economic ladder. Philanthropy can then become an engine for innovation and opportunities for people to escape poverty.

It all sounds a little pie-in-the-sky for my tastes. If greed is the only virtue in the market, we wind up with capitalism that exploits and grinds the soul out of the people without much capital. That is America in the 21st century. If not greed, what will motivate the private sector to consider the human costs of corporate policies? To insure that wealth is shared down to even the lowest paid employees rather than  hoarded in board rooms? Buffet is right to suggest we need less charity in a social justice-oriented society because less need and suffering are created at the hands of privileged. But where does the moral compass come from in this utopia?

This is where the body of Christ should come in. We should be a powerful voice against greed and materialism. We should demand economic justice for all in our society, particularly for those struggling with poverty. The Jesus we see in the Gospels makes it crystal clear what he expects from his disciples. I would not want to guess how many Christians in America The Lord sees that love wealth as much as God, if not much more.

The trouble, of course, is that we who make up the body in Christ have been the dominant moral compass in America for a long time. The Rapturists are mistaken if they think encountering the one true God will be an experience of glorious bliss. Would you really want to explain to the Lord of lords, King of kings, why our country is riddled with lust for gold while we ignore the suffering of our neighbors and squander the resources of creation? Love God and others, right? Everything follows from these two ideas said Jesus. Perhaps the Rapturists think they love God more than materialism and treat their fellow Rapturists with love and respect. I have my doubts whether the Lord will look on many of us with approval and pride, regardless of the brand of Christianity we have sworn our allegiance.

Let's take stock of our fruit. Survey after survey has shown that younger generations in America are turning away from organized religion in droves. The reason is simple -  they do not see Christ in us. They do not see a chorus of voices against social and economic injustices. They do not see compassion for the suffering of others. Yet they do see high profile religious leaders take to the streets about sexual morality. They do not see Christianity as instrumental to a fair and just society.

Buffet is right to question the sincerity and effectiveness of charity. If charity means throwing the poor just enough crumbs to survive but never escape poverty, then it truly is a failure of our moral imagination. So how do we improve our moral imagination? Buffet never addressed that question.

Paul Ryan hearts the poor

This is what passes for compassion by some of our elected leaders. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan declared the "War on Poverty" a losing cause because the poverty rate recently hit the highest levels in the past 50 years. He blames government assistance and the weak character of the poor for creating a culture of dependency that maintains a vicious cycle of poverty. He wants to help.

The War on Poverty, which President Lyndon Johnson declared nearly 50 years ago, has “failed miserably,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Thursday -- and he wants to figure out what approaches would work to get Americans out of poverty.

Ryan's solution is always the same. We need more tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor. He wants to create a work requirement to receive food stamps. It is economic darwinism at its finest. Poverty should only be tolerable for the people in low wage jobs or jobs training programs. 

While Ryan said that safety net programs must remain in place for those who are utterly incapable of work, he supports broadening and making more rigorous the work or job-training requirement for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly named the Food Stamp program). to work, to look for work, or to be in a vocational training program. “I think it’s insensitive to not have a work requirement for food stamps, and what I mean when I say that is: our goal in these programs is not to make poverty easier to handle and tolerate and live with, our goal in these program ought to be to give people a temporary hand so that they can get out of poverty.”

Think of it as a kinder and gentler version of the Hunger Games, where the poor can choose between starvation or slave-wage jobs. The challenge is how to sell that to a gullible public. Enter the tough-love approach. The people at the bottom of the economic ladder will suffer, but it is for their own good. If only our poor were better trained and willing to work harder while never earning enough to get out of poverty.

As touched as I am by Ryan's concern for the poor, I doubt his sincerity. There are three enormous flies in his ointment. 

First, supply side economics is a scam.  Thirty years of tax cuts for the so-called job creators have not created jobs and economic growth but the rich have gotten richer and the poor have grown in number and desperation. Greed is resoundingly condemned in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Paul said that love of money is at the root of all sorts of evil. Jesus said the rich will be judged harshly for greed. Note to all those biblical inerrancy fanatics. I take it the words of the Apostle Paul and Jesus carry enormous weight. Right?

Second, Ryan's favorite talking point that government austerity boosts economic growth has been thoroughly debunked. Even though the empirical foundation of his argument was proven false, he still talks up austerity as necessary regardless of the human costs for doing so. That seems pretty shallow. 

Finally, the private sector has failed to create living wage jobs that lift people out of poverty. Over the past four decades major corporations have exported manufacturing and technology sector jobs and replaced them with part-time service sector jobs that pay minimum wage. You don't need much in the way of a vocational training programs to prepare you for stocking shelves at WalMart or banging out fries at McDonald's. Ironically, service industry workers often need food stamps and Medicaid to survive on what these highly profitable companies pay them. And now billionaires are even campaigning to get rid of the minimum wage so we can teach the poor important career lessons. In other words, the private sector is working hard to take away opportunities for people at the bottom of the economic ladder. 

I would be shocked if someone guided by the Holy Spirit were blind to the despair being created by those with the most in our society.  Ditto for someone that claims government social safety net programs violate Catholic social principles. He even laughed off sternly worded letters from the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops taking exception to his interpretation. 

So who is to blame for the lack of living wage jobs in America? It almost seems that politicians like Paul Ryan are blaming government to distract from the abject failure of the private sector to create decent jobs. Perhaps we need to rethink our economic foundation.

As economic opportunity in America crumbles for all but the rich, more and more people find themselves flirting with poverty. Economic insecurity has become the new normal in this country. A recent survey found that Americans now have an 8 in 10 chance of experiencing a period of severe economic hardship between the ages of 25 to 60. 

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend. 

Children growing up in poor neighborhoods see no hope to escape poverty. That pessimistic appraisal is understandable. It does not matter if you are on public assistance, working a minimum wage job, or both because you will still be poor and struggling to survive. Where is incentive to work hard when playing by the rules will get you nowhere fast? That is the definition of learned hopelessness.

It is time for a theological critique of the laissez faire capitalism popular in 21st century America. We have a system that glorifies greed and materialism. It is purely of Mammon, not God. It is idolatry. 

It would be nice if House Budget Chairmen Paul Ryan did two little things. First, shut up about poverty. He doesn't give a damn about the poor. Second, shut up about Christianity. We all know that Ryan is a disciple of Ayn Rand. He once boasted that her books were required reading for his interns and staff. That is an interesting choice given Rand's rejection of God and religion. And as high priestess for Mammon, she taught that greed is the only virtue. Greed is the heart and soul of the Capitalism, which cannot thrive without complete freedom from laws and taxation. The Golden Calf has returned.