LION AND THE LAMB: 150,000 and counting

Opinion

May 12, 2009

By Ted Braun / Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Tue May 12, 2009, 05:06 PM CDT

Each day in our world, an estimated 150,000 people die. The reason may be old age, illness, injury, or a lack of what is necessary to sustain and nourish life. Although these 150,000 individuals are bound together by a common leave-taking experience, each of them represents a unique, never-to-be-repeated human experience.

Our uniqueness comes from many factors. It makes a lot of difference where a person is born, and into what nation, class or ethnic group. Differences result from the kinds of basic equipment such as genes and chromosomes we start out with. And it makes a lot of difference what kind of support, such as health care and education, we are provided as we grow.

Fortunate, indeed, are those citizens who are so valued and supported in their nations that they are able to enjoy access to adequate shelter, meaningful employment, free health care and education through university, and a variety of cultural opportunities. They are fortunate to have governments that consider these to be basic human and social rights and not special privileges for those who are more wealthy.

Of course, this does not always happen in the real world. In our own country, the gap between rich and poor is greatly increasing. Wealth determines who gets to run for, and be elected to, public office; what we get to see on television and read in our newspapers; where the best public schools are located; who is able to enjoy the best kind of health care and afford adequate housing, if not McMansions.

Some of the early Fourth Century church leaders, such as Basil and Ambrose, had strong words to say about the economics of privilege. Both of them shared the view that the world had been created as common for all, but that the rich had appropriated this commonwealth as their own. When human owners can exercise their claim to this wealth as their "right," they said, this legitimates unlimited greed in place of communal responsibility. Things are given more attention than persons.

Our nation is presently experiencing a serious financial crisis. Our current economic system, with its predatory, non-transparent and unregulated financing, has turned into a disaster. Our system of privatizing profits and socializing costs is bringing ruin to families and communities. To help in trying to solve this problem we have turned to those same greedy financial magnates, institutions and corporations that were causing this problem. In addition, we have turned over to them huge amounts of unsupervised taxpayer funding.

Some people believe that when we join the group of 150,000 taking leave of this earth, we will then move into a better habitat. But others are convinced that we need to work on some serious reforming of our economy before we take that leave.

There are several steps we can take to begin reforming our system, such as re-installing regulatory mechanisms, and making the meeting of human need rather than profit-making the bottom line. Perhaps this is an opportune moment for some directions in social and economic democratizing. One approach would be to create publicly owned banks to provide important financing for cooperatives, start-up projects in green technology, and mixed forms of worker-community enterprises that have been spurned by the traditional banks.

As Gary Dorrien, professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, has pointed out, "Economic democracy is a brake on human greed and domination; the whole point of it is to fight the universal propensity of dominant groups to hoard social goods and abuse disenfranchised people."

This fight against the "universal propensity of dominant groups to hoard social goods" is probably one of the most important battles on earth today. It's a challenge especially confronting each advancing group of 150,000 before their turn comes to leave.

Not only is this a political and economic challenge but a religious one, as well. If we believe in a God of the whole human family, and not just a tribal deity who relates to a part of that family, then we come to a radical new understanding. Each member in that global family is valued by God. And therefore we are also to value each member of that same global family: they are our own brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and children.

We have a lot of work to do before we join our group of departing 150,000.

Text Only

Opinion

GARY'S WORLD: A birthday worthy of celebrating
Sometimes it's good to rejoice over the simple things in life. In fact, I always have been thankful for the simple things in life that bring me so much joy.

February 9, 2012
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Will the bullying ever stop?
Memories of a 1980 visit to Dachau concentration camp are seared in my mind. They all came back as I read a travel story about Boston.

February 7, 2012
LION AND THE LAMB: The conspiracy against women
One can find many major conspiracies against women throughout history. Most of these have come out of a context of male domination and patriarchal mindsets.

February 7, 2012
WE THE PEOPLE: Meet Grover Norquist
Who is Grover Norquist? Norquist is a private citizen. He has never held an elected office. Yet, he has been called the most influential man in America. Grover Norquist helped cause our economic tragedy, putting millions of Americans out of work. Grover Norquist is dictatorial and uncompromising. Grover Norquist must be stopped.

February 7, 2012
TIDBITS: Duct tape fixes everything
There's an old joke about how all you really need in your tool box is a roll of duct tape and a can of WD-40. Use duct tape if it moves and it shouldn't and WD-40 if it won't move and it should. This fabric-backed tape is one versatile product.

February 6, 2012
STUMPTALK: Democrats dishonor their history
Once upon a time, in this very land, and not so long ago, there were Democrats who were able to summon the courage to provide direction for our nation during times when strong leadership was needed.

February 6, 2012
Gary's World: Game? What game? I'm watching the commercials
Anyone who really knows me, knows that I'm not much of a football fan.

February 2, 2012
We the People: Crime and Punishment
Maybe we don’t have enough tools. Maybe we don’t have enough imagination. Whatever the reason, we in the United States seem to be confused about finding and applying effective solutions to major societal problems. We seem to have a one-size-fits-all solution: use more force, increase the punishments. Our approach seems to be based on anger and revenge instead of logical thought.

January 31, 2012
Lion and the Lamb: Football and religion
Football games and religious services have many similarities. Both deal with the human struggle toward various goals in life, the importance of both individual and group effort, liturgical celebrations that include music, singing, pageantry, symbols, bidding calls and responses, and the ingestion of food and drink. Also, those sports and religious figures that are deemed most successful, such as by filling large gathering places with celebrants, are usually given special rewards and higher remuneration.

January 31, 2012
Random Thoughts: Enjoy a ride on a Merry-Go-Round
Our first son sent a picture of a sign which told about the man who hand carved the elegant animals on a carousel in San Diego, CA. A second picture was of that son, of retirement age but still working, and his young son mounted on two of those animals. Both males wore broad smiles.

January 31, 2012
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

LION AND THE LAMB: 150,000 and counting

Site Map

Contact Us