In the United States “corporate persons” began an Austerity Movement by lying off employees and hiring robots to work for them.  They instituted cost-cutting measures that reduced the quality of American products and services as well as the safety and security of workers.   Construction companies began using inferior products; customer service was outsourced to foreign countries and telephone menus.  Banks reduced interest rates and free services as compensation for the use of your money while introducing, and continually increasing, the cost of services from ATM’s to statement and transaction fees.  Retailers increasingly sell inferior products using branding as a tool for increasing profits.  Medical services are becoming increasingly unavailable largely because insurance companies are taking a larger and larger bite out of your healthcare dollar.  

Today, through the use of lobbying and the revolving door between business and government, they continue their austerity movement through deregulation allowing companies to continue to fleece the consumer and labor.  Government, “by the people and for the people” has been turned on its head with the so-called “Citizen’s United” decision by the Supreme Court giving the largest majority of citizenship to corporations. 

Now, through control of the government, they want to dismantle government services to “real people” in favor of more freedom and power for “corporate people”.  They want to bust the unions and lay off government workers claiming some magic (deception) that will create jobs in the private sector.  They want to gut entitlements (Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare) while increasing military spending to control their interests around the world.  They want to end constitutional government, as we know it.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely!  As the right continues to consolidate power in the 1%, the 99% must resist.  The nature of constitutional democracy is to provide a system of checks and balances on power.  Today all three branches of government have been co-opted in the service of the 1%.  Their plan continues unabated to consolidate power.   Austerity Movements are always aimed at those with the least.  They want the most vulnerable to contribute the most.   If you are not the least vulnerable you may be the next vulnerable.  The powerful do not want you to collectively bargain for your rights nor check their power through government regulation.  And they paint the political canvas as a fight between Socialism and Capitalism but that is not the issue.  Socialist government was corrupted by Stalinism and it became totalitarianism with the power concentrated in too few hands.  Democratic Capitalism has been corrupted by corporate personhood and its laser-focus on the development of capital instead of the common good and development of a society.  It is turning our democracy up-side-down in to a Capitalist Oligarchy.  

We are still the "people” of democracy, a form of government that came out of the Reformation.  It is time for the church to stop navel-gazing and worrying about if we like the color of the fabric on our pews or how right we are about doctrinal issues.  We need to laser-focus on the vocation of Christ – salvation.  This was not just a spiritual issue but a political one as well.  Salvation is not just an experience in the next life but meant for this life as well.  Christ died so his followers wouldn’t have to.  He gave his life for his friends.  We too need to give our words and our lives in service of others and that means we need to speak and work to re-form our government so that it is once again a government “by real people, for real people.”  Support mainstreet not wall street.

A study measuring religious bodies in the United States called the, “2010 U.S. Religious Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study (RCMS)” was recently released by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). The most comprehensive study of its kind, it provides detailed county by county information on congregations, members, adherents and attendance for 236 different faiths groups. (The survey differentiates between specific denominations within the same tradition.)

Of metropolitan areas with population greater than a million, the researchers found Salt Lake City to be the most religious city with close to 74 percent identifying as a religious adherent. The researchers found the greater area of Portland, OR-WA to be the least religious city with about 32 percent identifying as a religious adherent.

Given our Presbyterian Confessions (Larger Catechism Question 142) and what some in the church see as a prohibition on usury (lending for profit), John Calvin actually thought lending for interest could be a social good.  It could spur development and progress.  Unlike contemporary capitalism, however, Calvin favored regulations!  He thought the lender was entitled to some of the fruit of new development but not too much.  Further, if the borrower could not pay the interest on the loan then the lender should forgive the interest in favor of repayment of the principle of the loan, and in extreme circumstances, when the business failed, the loan was to be forgiven. No one was to be denied the basic necessities of life (food and housing), nor the opportunity to find a new way to contribute to the good of the society.  To date, the banking industry has not bought into a reduction of interest, the revaluation of principle, or the forgiveness of loans as a means to stall the foreclosure crisis.  For John Calvin this would have been considered morally unacceptable at the least, and thievery at worst. 

On the moral question, it is likely you know about the billions of dollars less fortunate citizens in the United States have forfeited to banks in foreclosure crisis.  J.P. Morgan Stanley, for example, is in the news.  Surely you have heard about the $10,000,000,000 (billion) J.P. Morgan Stanley received from the Federal government and maybe you heard they got another $34,000,000 (million) from the city of New York in subsidies.  Likely you heard that they lost $2,000,000,000 (billion) this year but they have not stalled the rate of foreclosure on subprime mortgages.  Many of you may not yet have heard what happened at the Stockholders meeting.  About 34 activists who purchased the right to be at the stockholders meeting asked the following questions of CEO and chairman of the Board, James Gorman:

1.     After listening to Gorman tout the companies commitment to diversity and inclusion, One activist shareholder noted that the board was mostly white with two Japanese men, all of whom were politically connected like Erskine Bowles (remember Simpson/Bowles plan that Obama is now so affectionately referring to), Laura Tyson,  (former Clinton economic advisor), the chair of Delta Airlines, the CEO of Caterpillar and the like.  “What”, he asked, “would it look like if the Board was really diverse and included some whose life situations were more Main Street?

2.     Another asked why the Board had approved the expenditure of $3,000,000 (million) to lobby against Frank/Dodd financial reform bill.

3.      One activist noted the connection Board members had to academic institutions and wondered what effect that was having on such high student debt. 

4.     Someone asked where the jobs the bank had promised New York were.   Since that promise was made the bank has lain off 1900 employees and plans to lay off another 5000 this year.

5.     When asked about why there were so many “common law fraud” suits against J.P. Morgan Stanley and why there were single settlements over a million dollars...  The answer:  “It is the normal course of business practice.”

Before an hour had passed, Gorman became impatient and called for the vote.  That was really unnecessary because proxy votes made up over 90% of the vote and they were largely in favor of reelecting the board.  Soon there was a verbal protest by activists chanting how the company “valued profits over people”.

The last speakers left the board with these thoughts:  Those of you who make decisions for this company need to remember that you have a moral responsibility to create wealth for everyone and that those of us who are young and protesting are the future.  We are the ones who will have to clean up this cesspool.  This is important to us.

I think this would qualify as the contemporary voice of John Calvin.

I'm back from visiting in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.  I wasn't surprised to see and hear that the church is poorly attended in the heart of the Reformed Tradition's homeland.  What did surprise me was how many people know Reformation history and revere the values they believe were at the heart of the Reformed movement.  At the Reformation Wall in Geneva I learned that the Wall is not a commemoration of the church - but of the values of freedom and democracy that were at the heart of the movement. 

Yes, you and I know that those values were born out of the Reformer's faith and devotion to God, but Europe is now post-Christian and North American (Canada is further along than the U.S.) seems to be moving in the same historical trajectory.  What is amazing is that the wisdom of the Reformation still has value in the post-Christian society. They honor the Reformation as the birth mother of freedom and democracy.  This could be instructive to those of us who read John Calvin from a purely religious point of view.  Yet, an acknowledgement that Calvin was first and foremost a lawyer, statesman, and politician might give us reason to read him a bit differently. 

In the weeks ahead I am going to occassionally reflect on some of the writings of John Calvin as they have come to be understood within the developed society of Geneva and more broadly in Europe.  They read him with much less interest in theology and much more interest in the social values that flowed from his study.  These values were a response to the oppressive rule of the Roman Catholic Church prior to the Reformation. 

Today, the authoritative and oppressive fundamentalism of the Christian right is pushing us further and further toward a post-Christian society.  Europe was ripe for a Reformation because of the same oppression by institutional Christainity at the time.  Freedom  and democracy are still desired values.  Luther and Calvin found them in Christian faith.  We who follow in that tradition can give them voice again, realiigning freedom with responsibility and democracy with the commpassionate community.

Easter has a lot of meanings but the one thing they all have in common is the central truth that the divine ecology is in support of life.  Liberals have a tendency to look at the large issues in the world and mirror those issues against the image of that which is life-giving and what is life-defeating, the powers of life and death.  But what if we are commenting on these issues and participating in them at the same time.  

This week, Keith Olbermann filed a lawsuit against his most recent employer, Current, a news network who reports with a progressive bias.  They were a good match ideologically.  However, something went wrong and now Olbermann is suing for $50,000,000.  Yes, you saw that right, fifty million dollars!  What further complicates this is, that’s what Current contracted to pay Olbermann for his commentary services.  Do you see something wrong with this picture?  You cannot comment on corporate greed when you are part of that system.  You cannot stand for Main Street when you are paying salaries like that!  You cannot comment on joblessness when the sum of money you are quibbling about is equal to 1000 jobs paying $50,000 a year.

This lawsuit is discouraging but this picture is mounted on the walls of the entertainment business, professional sports, and the liberal media.  It is hard to take seriously the advocacy for social justice that comes from those whose salaries are in the millions.  Large donations, fundraising concerts, knees bowed to Jesus in the endzone are hard to square with large figures of multi-millions of dollar salaries.

We should not take our eyes off of Wall Street, but for those of us who advocate for Main Street, for justice, for Jesus, lets make sure our actions are in line with our words.  

There are those among us who have strong feelings about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  Like most of us, the American media tend to take sides and cover the issues from a filtered perspective.  In the early years the media was consistently pro-Israel, now it tends to lean pro-Palestine.  The issues involved are deep and complex and some Christians have decided to side with Israel and others with Palestine.  Siding is what continues to fuel the conflict.  If we could agree on anything, it should be that the people of Israel and Palestine are both beloved by God and that the only solution to conflict is one in which the integrity and dignity of each is maintained. 

If you are interested in this kind of approach then you should be educated about the destabilizing political dialogue aimed at pressuring on the President to follow the path of "first strike" against Iran. So far the president has chosen not to stand in lock-step with Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu.  The president, when campaigning 3 years ago promised that foreign policy would be based on “talk” and “political” solutions before “military” options.  He has waffled on this promise or been pressured to favor “military” options so it is of concern that he may be persuaded again to side with an illegal “first strike” against Iran.  If you favor a position that promotes dignity and diplomacy, I hope you will write the President and encourage this.  For more information on the issues you can read this article by Barak Ravid in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz….

(NewsCore) –“ Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson said he might donate a further $100 million to Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, in an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday.

The Adelson family already donated $11 million to a super PAC backing Gingrich's campaign, and FOX News Channel reported last week that Adelson donated a further $10 million to the Winning our Future super PAC.

The businessman -- who has a net worth of roughly $25 billion, according to Forbes -- said he would not be stopped by critics who claim he is trying to buy the election for Gingrich and may donate even more.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama collected $86 million combined for his re-election campaign and the Democratic party during the past three months, giving him a large fundraising advantage over the Republican field seeking to challenge him in 2012.  Obama's advisers have told donors privately they hope to match or exceed the $750 million they raised in 2008

Please donate to some charity in stead this year.  There is already too much money in this election and whatever you contribute will not do half as much good there as it would if you supported Food for Lane County, Women’s Space, St. Vincent dePaul, or any other of our local mission causes or local charities.

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says President Barack Obama is beholden to "radical environmentalists" and has "a world view that elevates the earth above man." Santorum sought over the weekend to explain his statement that Obama practices "a different theology" that is "not a theology based on the Bible."

Santorum said on the CBS "Face the Nation" program yesterday that he wasn't questioning Obama's Christian faith in claiming the president subscribes to a "phony theology," the phrase he used in a speech to Tea Party activists in Ohio.

What is disturbing here is that American Christians are so ignorant about what the Bible says, how and why it was written, its cultural context, and a hermeneutic to interpret it; and so ignorant about basic science, that they have no basis to challenge the ignorance of potential leaders who call the most respected theology of the Bible, “earth stewardship” a “phony theology” and call the most respected climate science on “global warming” a “phony science.”

Rick Santorum home schooled his children and advocates that all parents should do the same.  Is this really what we want?  And some people think taxes for education are unecessary.

Unregulated free markets may be a good idea in theory but their only problem is people and their greed.  John Calvin said there are three purposes which the law of God serves, pedigogical, civil, and didactic -- that is, the law teaches us our sin, restrains our sin, and urges us to good works.  Government regulation fulfills the second use of the law, to restrain our sin. 

If you think we need to get government out of the way please watch the video below:

http://vimeo.com/35707564

“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, This way
of settling differences is not just. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift
is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.