Tag: Matthew 6:24

Oligarchy Inaugurated

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Government Reform

January 20, 2025 was a day of extreme highs and lows for me and for many of my friends. It is a day that may go down in history as the day the American experiment in democracy died. As of yesterday we are living in an oligarchy, and whether we the people can survive it hangs very much in the balance. It will depend on how much courage enough people can muster to fight for their freedom before it is too late. Our democracy is on life support, and only the citizens of this country can determine if it will live or die.

For millions of Americans January 20 was also a unique and special day in the world of sports. The first ever 12-team College Football Playoffs culminated that evening with a championship game between two historic football power house teams, Notre Dame and Ohio State. Being a life-long Ohio State fan it was a special treat for our local team to play in that game, and for 3.5 hours it was a riveting and welcome distraction from the threat unfolding in Washington D.C.

After enjoying the post-game victory celebration for Ohio State for about an hour I made the foolish mistake of checking my phone for the news before going to bed. Needless to say reading about the plethora of executive orders signed yesterday by our new Supreme Leader quickly put a damper on my spirit. It wasn’t unexpected, and I should have known better; but it was a reminder that a much more important contest is being waged than a football game. It was time to come back to reality.

Ironically yesterday was also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the contrast between his dream for America and the Trump oligarchy could not be starker. One is a dream of justice for all described in the amazing founding documents of our nation 248 years ago. King’s dream is also grounded in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures which describe all people as being created in the image of God. King gave his life as Jesus did proclaiming a Gospel of love and non-violence.

 But the Trump oligarchy is one founded on capitalistic selfishness and greed. It is based on the exclusive doctrine of racism and white supremacy where strangers and neighbors in our midst live in fear of imprisonment and deportation. It is a message of imperialism and American exceptionalism where might makes right. President Trump’s promise of a new Golden Age is a barely disguised reference to the Gilded Age of robber barons which will take us back 100 years,  undoing the hard won progress on women’s rights, unionization, minimum wages, civil rights, global cooperation, the climate crisis, and humane working conditions. We have to look no further than Putin’s Russia to see what the nightmare of oligarchy brings.

Jesus directly warned us in the Sermon on the Mount that we cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24), and the proof that we worship the latter in this country was blatantly obvious as the richest men in the world were given the seats of highest honor at Trump’s inauguration. Today I am overwhelmed with feelings of anger, fear, and depression. I feel helpless to know how to combat the evil on full display in the White House. But tomorrow or one day in the future I will find a way to join the 50% of my fellow Americans who did not vote for oligarchy and together with God’s help we will find a way to turn this nightmare into a brighter, stronger, and more just democracy than ever before. I may not live to see that day, but in God’s due time I do believe that “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)

Blinded by Logs and/or $ucce$$

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics

I am still affected by the motto in my childhood home which said “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” But I am also a believer in what Jesus said about the truth setting us free. This post may or may not be a rant about the current state of our nation and world, and it may not be “nice;” so be forewarned.

The current extreme weather all over our country makes me wonder what more it will take before everyone can see that we and our planet are in deep do do? I just read an article about the ocean waters around Florida heating up much faster than usual this summer and threatening to kill the coral. Farmer’s Insurance is pulling out of Florida because of extreme weather threats. And what is the Governor of Florida doing to save his state? Nothing but trying to drag it back into the 19th century!! Are the fossil fuel felons of the world and the politicians they own so blinded by their wealth and profits that they can’t see the flooding in Vermont and the triple digit temperatures in the Southwest? Are they so deaf they can’t hear that the all time record for the earth’s temperatures have been broken multiple days in a row this month?

Meanwhile, in our nation’s capitol one football coach from a former Confederate state is single handedly weakening our military by holding up confirmation of hundreds of military officers because of his personal beliefs about reproductive rights. Who in the world wrote rules for the United States Senate that empower one senator out off 100 to hold the other 99 hostage?? How in God’s name is that even possible in a democratic government??

And across the pond Putin’s diabolical attack on Ukraine has now been committing war crimes for over 500 days. Yes, I’m glad NATO is stepping up and has recovered from Trump’s undermining of it, and that’s great; but at what cost in dollars and lives? And I don’t even want to think about the epidemic of gun violence in this country that just keeps getting worse. It is such a common occurrence now that mass shootings are not even headline news anymore. What in the world is the flaw in human nature that we cannot find ways to solve our differences without reverting to violence?

I had two short vacation trips recently where I visited historical sights that played key roles in American history. One was the Fort Pitt museum at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers. Being a strategic point in the 18th century for control of the land called the Northwest Territory the victory over the French at Fort Pitt is celebrated for securing the advancing settlement of that land by the British and the American pioneers who followed. The second place I visited was the Perry Monument in Lake Erie commemorating Commodore Perry’s victory over the British in the War of 1812. That victory secured American control of the Great Lakes and provided another critical commercial and settlement route into the Great Lakes region.

What struck me about both of those places was first that violence as usual was used to take control of desired territory, and second that almost no attention in the accounts offered in either place about these military victories paid any attention to the fact that there were Native Americans living on this land long before the Europeans arrived, and the might-makes-right doctrine of dominion trumped all other concerns that should be so obvious to an objective observer.

In all of these cases humans were and continue to be blinded to truth and justice by a political and economic system built on greed for power and wealth with no long-term concern for the consequences of our actions. How ironic in a country that calls itself “Christian” when the Christ we claim to follow said very clearly in the Sermon on the Mount that “You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24)

I thought I would end there until it hit me like a foul ball lined into the stands—what my ancestors did to the people living here first is no different than what Putin is doing in Ukraine! My rant against the speck in Putin’s eye blinded me to the log in our own. I don’t know why I didn’t see that much earlier, but I didn’t. I need some time to sit with that, and it won’t be comfortable.

The Dark Side of the Prosperity Gospel

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Faith and Values

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.” (Galatians 6:7).

It’s been a busy week since Monday night’s presidential debate. I don’t have time to say much but feel compelled to address something that struck me Monday night while it is still relatively fresh in our memories. There has been much debate about who “won” the debate and how you vote on that is pretty subjective. I think most of us heard what we expected to hear filtered through our own political lenses and that of the media analysis we choose to rely on for “expert” opinions.

What struck me most were two things. When Donald Trump said that not paying taxes makes him smart and that taking advantage of the foreclosures during the recession was “good business,” he showed again why he is the poster boy for the dark side of the prosperity Gospel and even of Capitalism itself. The prosperity Gospel is the misguided interpretation of Christian theology that emphasizes material blessings and rewards for those who proclaim their faith in Christ. It is responsible for the growth and success of many mega churches and television evangelists, but it is totally contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

There are too many examples to cite them all here but these quickly come to my mind. “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matt. 6:24, Luke 16:13). The parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21), the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3), and numerous times where Jesus says, “leave what you have and follow me.”

Mr. Trump said earlier in the campaign that his favorite Scripture is “An eye for an eye.” When one’s only concern for how to measure one’s worth is material wealth and power, that’s a great motto to live by, but I pray that some of Mr. Trump’s Christian followers will prevail upon him to someday learn what Jesus said about that desire for revenge by reading the Gospels or even just the Sermon on the Mount.

The Gospel of Christ has been twisted into the prosperity Gospel because it sells. Promising people they will have to take up a cross to follow Jesus, or to share what they have with the least of those as judged by the world’s standards, or to love their enemies and turn the other cheek – those just are not good marketing techniques. Promising potential church members they need to sell all they have and give it to the poor doesn’t entice many recruits to sign up. Maybe that’s why Jesus only had 11 faithful ones?

The spread of the prosperity Gospel also explains the conundrum many political commentators have wrestled with this year, namely how to make sense of Trump’s popularity among some Christians. Galatians 6:7 says it so well, “we reap what we sow.” Creating a flock of materialistic, wealth-worshipping “Christians” over the last few decades has produced this strange phenomenon of those who call themselves evangelicals enthusiastically giving their support to a man who is the antithesis of the values and lifestyle Jesus Christ calls us to live.

It also explains how those who claim the name of the Prince of Peace can be devout supporters of the NRA and gun rights. Fear of losing one’s prosperity leads to taking very drastic and unChrist-like measures to protect and defend those “things that thieves can steal and rust and moth can consume.” The rest of that advice from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, don’t put your faith in those perishable things, “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:19-21).

God is not mocked. We have planted seeds of greed and selfishness, and now we are reaping what we have sown.