Money or Revolution?
Several months ago, a friend and I were talking about what we would do if we won the Powerball jackpot (I think it was nearing $300 million then). Because of they kind of legacies we want to leave, we talked about how much we would give away and to whom. Then, my friend said, “You could do a lot of ministry with that kind of money.”
We can debate the ethics of churches and ministries accepting lotto winnings as tithes some other time. The above conversation popped into my head as I was thumbing through the pages of the newest issue of Forbes magazine
that lists all of the world’s billionaires. Page after page is filled with pictures, stories and stats of people who innovated, inherited, and invested their way to the top of the world’s rich list.
But the pictures of these deep-pocketed souls as they attend fundraising galas or take a quick jaunt on their 300-foot yacht get a little nauseating when contrasted with these stats:
But, in this free market world, you’ve gotta have bling if you want to get stuff done. In a country where people spend $10 million of their own money to get a job that pays $162,000, money talks – no, money shouts. And, while every one of these billionaires could give half of their estate and wipe out debt and disease, things may not stay that way. Even if you wipe out the symptoms, you can still carry the disease.
This is why Jesus’ reading in Luke 4 is so revolutionary, although many churches today gloss over it:
If you have it, money is wonderful. It can open doors, create opportunities and give you choices like nothing else in a capitalist world can. But, if you need it, nothing could be worse. You can work as hard as you physically can, scrap and save every penny, and even lie, cheat or steal, but at the end of the day, your bank account is the biggest determinant of what kind of food you get to eat, what kind of medical care you can receive, and therefore, how long you will live.
While money can get rid of some major symptoms of inequality, it is ultimately the source of most of the disease. Nothing else has the power to bring about positive change for those who need it the most, and nothing highlights the growing disparity across the globe. For every billionaire who can afford caviar and Dom Perignon, there are a million more who would just love some clean, cold water.
I believe that after the prophets come the revolutionaries. Many of these begin as prophets, telling their story to any and all who will listen. But, once the band-aid has been ripped off and everyone can see that the scar hasn’t healed and the disease still lives, it takes a special brand of radical to rise to the occasion and work for the justice and the equality the prophets point to. John the Baptist cleared the way for the revolutionary Jesus who didn’t just read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, but began to bring about a kingdom in which all were welcome.
Any physician will tell you that prevention is better than treatment, and money can only get us so far – unfortunately, it is not a vaccine. We need a different system that prevents our growing disparity in the first place. Every new issue of Forbes (two weeks) means that thousands more have died from causes that a few pennies (relatively speaking, for the billionaires) could have prevented. Revolutionaries will be the ones who bring about the vision of a new society (think kingdom of God) in which all are equal because all are fed, all are healthy, all are loved, and all, therefore, are rich – even if they don’t have a few billion in the bank.
We can debate the ethics of churches and ministries accepting lotto winnings as tithes some other time. The above conversation popped into my head as I was thumbing through the pages of the newest issue of Forbes magazine
that lists all of the world’s billionaires. Page after page is filled with pictures, stories and stats of people who innovated, inherited, and invested their way to the top of the world’s rich list.But the pictures of these deep-pocketed souls as they attend fundraising galas or take a quick jaunt on their 300-foot yacht get a little nauseating when contrasted with these stats:
- Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
- The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
- Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen.
- The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.
- An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
- 3 to 1 in 1820
- 11 to 1 in 1913
- 35 to 1 in 1950
- 44 to 1 in 1973
- 72 to 1 in 1992
- A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people.
- “The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.”
- “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.”
- The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.”
- The world’s 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity.
But, in this free market world, you’ve gotta have bling if you want to get stuff done. In a country where people spend $10 million of their own money to get a job that pays $162,000, money talks – no, money shouts. And, while every one of these billionaires could give half of their estate and wipe out debt and disease, things may not stay that way. Even if you wipe out the symptoms, you can still carry the disease.
This is why Jesus’ reading in Luke 4 is so revolutionary, although many churches today gloss over it:
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:What Jesus hints at is a reform of the entire system. Preaching to the poor, proclaiming freedom for prisoners, giving sight to the blind, releasing the oppressed and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor (Jubilee) is earth shattering type of action. If we opened the jail cells to the wrongly accused and unfairly tried, if we forgave debt (personal (credit card) and national), if we healed all of the sick, and if we rescued the slaves and the prostitutes, the world as we know it would fade away faster than someone who’s just been voted off of American Idol.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
If you have it, money is wonderful. It can open doors, create opportunities and give you choices like nothing else in a capitalist world can. But, if you need it, nothing could be worse. You can work as hard as you physically can, scrap and save every penny, and even lie, cheat or steal, but at the end of the day, your bank account is the biggest determinant of what kind of food you get to eat, what kind of medical care you can receive, and therefore, how long you will live.
While money can get rid of some major symptoms of inequality, it is ultimately the source of most of the disease. Nothing else has the power to bring about positive change for those who need it the most, and nothing highlights the growing disparity across the globe. For every billionaire who can afford caviar and Dom Perignon, there are a million more who would just love some clean, cold water.
I believe that after the prophets come the revolutionaries. Many of these begin as prophets, telling their story to any and all who will listen. But, once the band-aid has been ripped off and everyone can see that the scar hasn’t healed and the disease still lives, it takes a special brand of radical to rise to the occasion and work for the justice and the equality the prophets point to. John the Baptist cleared the way for the revolutionary Jesus who didn’t just read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, but began to bring about a kingdom in which all were welcome.
Any physician will tell you that prevention is better than treatment, and money can only get us so far – unfortunately, it is not a vaccine. We need a different system that prevents our growing disparity in the first place. Every new issue of Forbes (two weeks) means that thousands more have died from causes that a few pennies (relatively speaking, for the billionaires) could have prevented. Revolutionaries will be the ones who bring about the vision of a new society (think kingdom of God) in which all are equal because all are fed, all are healthy, all are loved, and all, therefore, are rich – even if they don’t have a few billion in the bank.
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