The Politics of Moral Values
Poverty became a major issue during the past 2 months after witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Americans have always claimed that we are one of the world’s economic superpowers, perhaps the world’s only superpower left. So, why is it that a large number of our citizens still live in poverty? Why do we still have people so poor that they don’t even have any means to get out of town during times of crisis? We’re not a third-world country. We’re the United States of America for crying out loud.
I started reading God’s Politics by Jim Wallis. This book was released right after the 2004 elections. At the beginning of the book, he started to talk about the “moral values” debate. He said that our politicians are making a mistake in narrowing down the “moral values” issue between gay-marriage and abortion. But if you’re going to talk about “moral values”, you have to include the issues of poverty, war, honesty, ethics, family, the environment, etc … He emphasized on poverty more than once already as the #1 “moral values” issue that is plaguing America. But, the religious right seems to have missed the boat on this problem. Jesus talked about feeding the poor, clothing the poor, and healing the sick more than a few times in the Bible. So yes, poverty is a big “moral values” issue – perhaps the biggest of them all. So how come we don’t hear it enough? How come our country still neglects the least fortunate among us? And how come it took a national tragedy to open people’s eyes? If our government were to spend our tax dollars on fighting poverty, foreign & domestic, instead of waging war on other countries, wouldn’t we be in a better shape as a society?
I can hear Jim Wallis saying now, “I told you so”.
Another point he brought up is the media’s mistake in putting microphones in front of the loudest, but often wrong, biased religious leaders. It’s unfortunate how we have strong Christian leaders with no political affiliation, doing good works, but are not being heard – unable to fully make a difference. Instead, we have T.V. evangelists who have political ties to partisan groups feeding the public with their own biased interpretation of Christ’s teachings and using the name of God to justify war and other foreign policies. He called this, “dangerous theology”.
As you can tell, I’m enjoying this book so far. Thanks, Gigi! More to come …
“God is not a Republican. Nor a Democrat”
- Jim Wallis
I started reading God’s Politics by Jim Wallis. This book was released right after the 2004 elections. At the beginning of the book, he started to talk about the “moral values” debate. He said that our politicians are making a mistake in narrowing down the “moral values” issue between gay-marriage and abortion. But if you’re going to talk about “moral values”, you have to include the issues of poverty, war, honesty, ethics, family, the environment, etc … He emphasized on poverty more than once already as the #1 “moral values” issue that is plaguing America. But, the religious right seems to have missed the boat on this problem. Jesus talked about feeding the poor, clothing the poor, and healing the sick more than a few times in the Bible. So yes, poverty is a big “moral values” issue – perhaps the biggest of them all. So how come we don’t hear it enough? How come our country still neglects the least fortunate among us? And how come it took a national tragedy to open people’s eyes? If our government were to spend our tax dollars on fighting poverty, foreign & domestic, instead of waging war on other countries, wouldn’t we be in a better shape as a society?
I can hear Jim Wallis saying now, “I told you so”.
Another point he brought up is the media’s mistake in putting microphones in front of the loudest, but often wrong, biased religious leaders. It’s unfortunate how we have strong Christian leaders with no political affiliation, doing good works, but are not being heard – unable to fully make a difference. Instead, we have T.V. evangelists who have political ties to partisan groups feeding the public with their own biased interpretation of Christ’s teachings and using the name of God to justify war and other foreign policies. He called this, “dangerous theology”.
As you can tell, I’m enjoying this book so far. Thanks, Gigi! More to come …
“God is not a Republican. Nor a Democrat”
- Jim Wallis
1 Comments:
"God is not a Republican, nor a Democrat...he's a dictator."
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