Changes

Fundamental changes for fundamentalist times.

Larry Norman was a pioneer musician, a troubled individual as many geniuses are, and a formative influence on many of my generation. A mixed legacy, but that man could really write, and was a great rock and roll singer to boot. I am remembering a song that he put on more than one of his albums, with these lines:

What a mess the world is in. I wonder who began it?

Don’t ask me, I’m only visiting this planet.

Larry wrote another powerful song he was asked NOT to sing when he visited the White House. The title is “The Great American Novel.” Since he was invited to sing for the president and specifically asked NOT to sing that song, that is the one he sang. At the height of the so called “cold war,” with the ink still metaphorically wet on the dollar bills, and a lot of heat over “godless communists,” Larry sang:

“And your money says “In God we Trust,” But it’s against the law to pray in school. You say we beat the Russians to the moon and I say you starved your children to do it. You say all men are equal, all men are brothers, then why are the rich more equal than the others? Don’t ask me for the answers I’ve only got one, that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son.”

That phrase “In God We Trust” was added to U.S.A. currency in 1956. It replaced the words used on the official seal of the USA government “E Pluribus Unum,” a Latin phrase meaning, out of many; one. A declaration of intent to bring unity out of diversity was replaced by a declaration that placed a religious statement at the centre of the life of a nation initially founded on a separation of the powers of the church and the state. That was seen at the time as a symbolic and ceremonial change. It was intended as a symbol of the difference between the faithful and god-fearing nation on this side of the Iron Curtain, and those atheist communists on the other side.

But the world is not that simple. The WORD is not that simple either. Nor is a word powerless or neutral. And no gesture is purely symbolic. Not that symbols are unimportant. Not that gestures are either. They in fact are extremely powerful. It could be argued convincingly that this one little change, one short line on a currency, completely transformed the culture of the greatest and most destructive military power in the known history of the world.

While the dies in the U.S. mint were edited for stamping coins, and the plates for printing paper, on the other side of the Iron Curtain; the Russian Orthodox church continued to minister to millions. Believers in Jesus, followers of the Buddha, and devotees to the Koran and the prophet Mohamed, all continued to live lives of deep and passionate faith. On both sides of the divided world, in the Russian dominated empire, and the American dominated empire, the power of faith was shifting.

Atheism was a minority force. It has always been so, even in the writings of the ancient Greeks, and anywhere it is found in the historical record. Karl Marx was a preacher’s kid. Like many of the founders of Marxist, Leninist states and other forms of communism, his ideas were grounded in the assumed world of the teachings of Jesus. One of the most famous phrases from communist writings: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” has a strong gospel ring to it. Let none go hungry or thirsty, but give to all what is needed; your shirt or your cloak, to one who has none.

What is missing from “In God We Trust” is an explanation of what kind of god is being trusted. I fear the print is placed precisely on the god to which it refers. Perhaps it more accurately could say “In THIS god We Trust.” Our culture has placed far too much reliance and trust in capital. In fact it looks to many like Capitalism is the true faith of the so-called developed world. So much that even the most horrific crimes against little children can be shrugged aside and declared irrelevant because “The Dow has reached 50,000!” How can anything in the world be more important than the ever rising numbers of the value of our imaginary riches?

But in a land where guns are more beloved than children, poverty is what is dominant. Where school shootings are used by cynical death merchants to flog their tools of murder and suicide, poverty is everywhere. No quantity of fluttering papers or jingling coins is compensation for the life of one child. Money can not buy life. Not millions. Not billions. Not trillions of dollars can pay for the life of a precious child. And that includes a child of one or two years, or a child of eighty or a hundred years. Life can not be monetized.

But there is an entire industry, the life insurance industry, that is based on exactly this. Placing monetary values on the lives of individuals. How is this allowed? I am a Lutheran pastor and Martin Luther had his deep and obvious flaws, but he also had some brilliant insights. One of his best was the declaration that there are three professions unsuitable for a Christian to practice or to encourage or support:

The first is easy. Thievery. Thou shalt not steal is pretty clear. And it is obvious why. I don’t think this requires a lot of explanation. If you have ever experienced a B. and E. in your home, you understand.

The second is also easy for most of us to understand. Prostitution. It takes the precious body of one of God’s children and reduces it to a commodity. It treats people as instruments for gain, and it cheapens a precious relational tool into a marketplace trinket. It is a sad and a deeply damning indictment of our culture and economic system that so many people find themselves in a position where this seems to be their only way to survive in a spectacularly abundant and rich world.

The third is banking. The charging of interest is very clearly condemned all through the Hebrew scriptures. We as God’s people should never profit of the needs of others. We are to give freely and share without demands.

Does that make you uncomfortable? It should. It certainly does me. I am caught up in the system just as you are. But all three of these have something in common: Money. Capital. We are in a capitalist system where the accumulation of wealth is the foundation of progress. We accumulate. We save. We invest. We store up treasures here on the earth below. And when our treasures increase we tear down our inadequate barns and build bigger ones to store our wealth. In the god of wealth we trust.

But Jesus says to the successful one, the person who has done everything right, the responsible investor and the good steward of resources: “Fool. This very night your life is required of you. And then who will have all that you have saved?”

But we are trapped. If we do not save up, we become a burden to those around us. We rely on programs and social safety nets that are frayed and tattered. We risk falling through them and the fear is that we will end up homeless, walking down the sidewalk with a shopping cart that holds a sleeping bag and maybe a tent, scrounging in dumpsters for scraps to eat.

Are we trapped? Can we not imagine something better? Is it really so hard? It has been said it is easier for us to imagine a zombie apocalypse, or the destruction of the whole world, than the end of this form of capitalism. Have we really become so impoverished in our imaginations? Are we that far gone that we can not even question what is and try to make something better? I hope not. But then, perhaps the shift will be forced upon us once more and we will HAVE to build something new. That is how it usually happens in history. Every empire declines. Every kingdom collapses. Every country falls. And then creativity is set free. Then the new arises.

But let’s not wait. Let us set our imaginations to work on something new. Why wait for it all to fall apart before trying something new? Here in Saskatchewan we tried something new in the beginning of the last century. We built medicare. The first trial, in the little Saskatchewan Rural Municipality of McKillop number 220, included full drug needs (pharmacare) and all dental needs (dental-care) and it was a great success. That was in 1947. Maybe we can be as creative as we were in the 1940’s? Maybe we are as smart as we were 89 years ago?

Maybe we can at least try. Everything changes. Can we try to make some good changes? We have done it before. We can do it again.