A Fork Cross in the Road

(Mike's Note: I started this post on the flight on Friday, and just finished it today.)

Preface:

I am nothing if not predictable. When I landed in Vancouver yesterday afternoon I found this email waiting for me on my phone:

"How come you haven't posted anything about what Bono had to say about the $700 billion bail out?"

I replied with this, as I waited for my luggage:

"Just wrote part of a post on the plane. It'll probably get me killed, or at least burned in effigy."

Here's what I wrote:

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If the church in the west hasn't already shattered into a thousand pieces--and it may very well have--it is about to.

I believe we're at a key milestone in the history of the People of God. This is it. I've had this uneasy feeling for a long time. Years, in fact. But in the last month or so it has grown, and reached critical mass. I think I have a theological migraine.

Bono, speaking from the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, has already been quoted all over the internets. Here's what I've seen posted on many sites over the past two or three days:

"It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger. That's mad, that is mad."

That statement is of course a powerful indictment. It speaks the truth; It speaks cold, hard facts. We can play at aid, play at badgering our governments to increase our giving to the world's poor. But this week we finally provided incontrovertible proof of what we already knew intuitively: We just don't care. Not really. Oh, we'll shed a tear, wring our hands and lament the 'fact' that the money just isn't there to help more, as much as we'd like to. You can't get blood from a stone, and all that.

We can't afford it. There's just no money.

At least, no money to spend on others.

However, when our greed, self-centeredness and old-fashioned stupidity threaten to put a curb on our own ability to buy more stuff, then we can find the money. Billions of dollars. Hundreds of billions, in fact. We have created this monster, and we will go to any lengths to keep it alive, damn it.

There's a term that has been bouncing around my head for the last week or so. At the same press briefing Bono put voice to the term. Here's what he said:

"This is moral bankruptcy."

I find it fascinating that it took the near financial bankruptcy of the United States to provide concrete proof of our moral bankruptcy. And before my American friends cry foul and accuse me of anti-Americanism, let me state clearly that we are no better here in Canada. Yes, we may have a budget surplus, and we might have a better grip on the fact that there is a debit and credit side of the ledger, but we demonstrate our moral bankruptcy in other ways. We have refused to live off 99.3% of our national income in order to give 0.7% to the world's poor--doubly embarrassing, as this was originally a Canadian idea. We have allowed Canada's well-earned reputation as a peace keeper to slip away. And now, we as a country have done everything we can to undermine the world's attempts to address climate change. (Did you know that at the UN Canada has been voted the worst country in the world on climate change? Three times?!) Many Canadians who proudly occupy the world stage have been telling us for some time now that our international reputation is in shambles. The lament, "Where is Canada?" is apparently not infrequently heard overseas. (In this regard I fear we have adopted the same posture as our neighbours to the south, who have voluntarily taken on an attitude of disregard and antipathy with respect to its reputation beyond its own borders.)

But, you say, "This is all politics and economics. What does it have to do with the church?"

The answer is, "Everything."

As I've said many times now, the Kingdom of God is not coming via the voting booth. That being said, the people in power are, in word, if not in deed, our representatives. They get to set the status quo. And we as the church are either for it or against it. Let me say that again: We are either for or against the status quo. There is no third option. We position ourselves as against it by standing and voicing our opposition. We stand up and as a collective entity say that this reality is not what Jesus would have us support, and as such, it is simply unacceptable. We reject it. (We then go on to articulate, illustrate and exemplify the alternative.) On the other hand we position ourselves as being for the status quo by simply doing (and saying) nothing. It's that easy. There is no "neutral" here. We are for or against the status quo, we are part of the problem or part of the solution.

Lets be very clear: Putting our own material wealth ahead of the deaths of countless millions is contrary to the teaching of Jesus. I say it's time we stopped using his name to describe ourselves if this is how we are going to behave. When there is money to save our own piggy banks, but no money to save the lives of the least of these, and the church, for the most part, remains silent, we have made our position clear. We have acquiesced. We've finally thrown the baby Jesus out with the bathwater.

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Epilogue:

As I write this I'm sitting in the international arrivals hall at YVR. I've come in from Calgary, and now I'm waiting for Pete to arrive from Amsterdam so we can go home together. Sitting here, watching the sea of humanity burst through the doors and wash all around me, I reach for the iPod and and dial up Wave of Sorrow, from the remastered Joshua Tree bonus disk. It's been a while, and the words are no less piercing with the passage of time.

Blessed is the voice who speaks truth to power

Will we as the People of God finally accept our Christ-given mandate to be that voice, or will we continue on this blasphemous, suicidal path to becoming the power?

Or is it too late to even ask the question?

Comments

[wilsonian]

Thank you for continuing to speak truth...

[brian in bc]

One point needs to be made...the use of "we"...when various polls show the opposition to the "bailout" at 76%. When calls to representatives offices are 10 to 1 in opposition to this action. When the majority of the population continues to scream THIS IS NOT RIGHT! to their elected officials and yet the monster keeps marching...it's time to ask a different question. Is this democracy? Is this freedom? Is this what "the people" want? I think not.

I see that in many cases the church has gone off the rails in one of two directions...either speaking as a "voice of Caesar" wrapped in the flag. Or alternately, terrified of losing "tax free status" refusing to speak out at all from the pulpit against the disaster of econo-dictatorship which is shredding the constitution as we speak.

The problem as I see it isn't that "we" don't want to do the right thing...the problem is that the voices of the majority are not being implemented by our so called elected leaders.

(As I type this the vote stands with 21 people the difference between one way or the other...)

[Mike]

Wilsonian - Thanks as always for the encouragement!

Brian - Great points. Particularly when government seems to act contrary to the wishes of its people... this is exactly when the church must find its voice!

[Martha]

Yeah, i am pretty frustrated at what part of NO from 'we the people' congress does not understand!

It sounds like 'WE' are prepared to bite the bullet if we must; perhaps because WE have pretty much nothing to lose. Just shows yah where the hands of the congress are...they are scared of losing their millions.

[brian in bc]

They listened...vote failed to pass...

Now things should get really interesting...

[Jeff]

Good post. I'd say a good first step is to limit church expenditures (i.e. quit constructing buildings) and put at least 50% of our revenue towards poverty relief. Yeah, it's probably idealistic. So?

[wilsonian]

I like how you think, Jeff :)

[Doug]

Have you been to Washington lately? I was a few weeks ago, and it struck me that we have such a rich heritage of trusting God. Our forefathers seemed to sense the only way they could succeed is to call upon his name.

Today, quite the opposite, I see that the law makers are more worried about coming up with plans to spend billions to bailout the economy. However, it is God's economy and we can never forget that. But we have. Jeff, I think we need more idealistic solutions. . . can you imagine if we stopped building churches, and gave aid to our own communities in need. . . . wow. . . that would be a God centered solution, and we wouldn't have to call it a bailout!

[Bill Kinnon]

Mike,
I fear we are consumers first, Christians a distant second...if we are Christians at all. ++Sentamu's strong word against this culture of greed was weakoned, ironically, by the reality that investors for the Anglican Church used the same practises he was railing against.

[Brian Bowen]

Well... do we really need to stop building churches to reach out and help the poor? OR if we as believers really believed what Jesus teaches... then dont you think there would be enough for both?

Im with Bill, we seem to be consumers first and church has become all about what I need instead of how can I serve.

Even if we stopped building the buildings... if the hearts arent changed... it still becomes a "Look what I did" sort of thing.

"If the church in the west hasn't already shattered into a thousand pieces--and it may very well have--it is about to.

I believe we're at a key milestone in the history of the People of God. This is it. I've had this uneasy feeling for a long time. Years, in fact. But in the last month or so it has grown, and reached critical mass. I think I have a theological migraine."

I totaly get that and agree, a time of testing is certainly on its way for the western church

[John Lunt]

It's not really about the government. It's not really what our churches are doing. That's too easy. We continue to decry what the institutions are doing.

Jesus didn't spend much time speaking to institutions. He spent his time speaking to disciples. Today that's us.

I have no problem letting my government and my church know where I stand on these issues. I've been a lightning rod most of my Christian life in some things.

However, the question isn't what the institutions are going to do about it. It's what we as believers, parts of the body of christ, are going to do.

What will we give up? Where will we give it? If our "church" is insistant on paying oversized salaries to our "leaders" and building more buildings, is that where we will give? How about giving to a food bank, a neighbor in need, the homeless guy you pass by, the co-worker who is struggling. Give to Feed the Children or World vision or some group trying to get food to starving children. Don't give a little, sacrifice yourself. That's what the Lord is challenging me to do this year. I've given more than every and now I sense he wants me to give more.

Bono is right. It is moral bankruptcy. I think a lot of people already know about it. We are Kingdom people. It we start acting like it, God may do wonders. He may take our five little loaves and two fishes and multiply it to feed thousands.

[nancy]

i am glad to hear that the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart and,
i believe, speaking to the body as a whole, as well.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:18