Trump's Economy and its Evangelical Apologists

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-untold-story-of-trumps-booming-economy/

There are different ways to read such articles. On the one hand one could read it with a sense of outrage and great umbrage at the crimes of the wealthy.

Others will read it and get angry and defend the status quo. Employing a multitude of Right-wing and Neoliberal arguments they will quash all complaints and morally denounce those who would dare to question economic and market orthodoxy.

But there's another way to read it. First, I reject the assumption of middle class norms. I don't judge the right or wrong of it for workers by the standards of the middle class. I realise the average worker expects vacation days, sick days, a pension and all the rest. I don't and I don't have any of those things... and I don't really care.

So do I disagree with the author of the piece?

No, I largely agree with his criticisms of the system. It is unjust, exploitative, avaricious and frankly evil.

But reading my Bible that's what I am to expect. This is the nature of life in a fallen world and the rich and their corruption and abuses of power were around in the first century... and they're around today.

Nothing's changed.

Except in the Church.

In the Church, this system is defended and promoted as moral, even Christian. The Christians are often holding stocks and deeply invested in the system. We have financial advisors who encourage this and create funds which wed Christian money to the banking and insurance industries, the military industrial complex and to nations like Zionist Israel. And not only are individual Christians invested in this system. Denominations and ministries are as well. They are to put it crudely 'in bed' with the Beast system. They are 'one' with Caesar's coin.

I am not outraged by the lost of the world acting like they're lost. I'm not that upset by the fact that lost people make idols of their money and power and seek to rule the world.

But what I am disgusted by is the professing Christians who go along with it, who join the system, who serve it and defend it and craft theological arguments and paradigms to preserve, support and promote it. This is what's shocking and offensive.

The words and warnings of Scripture no longer apply or through sleight-of-hand they're made to apply to someone else. Both Old and New Testaments are riddled with condemnations of wealth and the rich. It is assumed they are exploiters motivated by wicked desire.

But this is not a problem for our modern Evangelical apologists.

'You can't condemn me for being rich because in America we're all rich.'

Well, it's true that even the poorest Americans are likely doing better than people in Mali or the Congo. I'm not sure why this gives comfort to some. And indeed no small amount of the poverty in the world is rooted in Wall Street exploitation, and the system these same middle and upper class Christians are invested in. Usurious international finance has long been pointed to as a villainous means of breaking smaller countries and forcing them open for exploitation. It is an essential and especially potent weapon in the imperialist arsenal. The collaborators and investors profit but the bulk of the population is reduced to destitution. The Christian wealth and investment sector is directly part of this. They're cashing in as indeed all who are invested in the US financial system are benefitting from it.

But to suggest that all Americans are rich is absurd. For some simpleminded commentators the demarcation of wealth is determined by whether someone owns an automobile, colour television or whether they have an air conditioning unit. This argument misses the point and misunderstands the nature of such consumer items and why more people today might be able to purchase them as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago. It also ignores the economic context, the elimination of localism and while a car was once deemed a luxury for many in the United States it is no 'extra' but a necessary even crushing burden. I have long argued that the automobile is the poor man's bane and yet unless you live in a unique urban situation it is almost impossible to function without one.

Additionally there are many people in the developing world that manage to buy a television or own a Smartphone. Does this mean they're no longer poor?

There's always a loophole, always a way out for the rich and the bought and paid for intellectuals to craft an argument defending them and their actions.

But those who are honest, those with an ounce of integrity, not to mention those who possess a modicum of reflection will know better.

In light of the article, it must be noted that some will criticise the tax system and argue that any form of graduated tax is unjust and unethical. But as I (and many others) have pointed out the present system contains regressive taxes as well... situations in which the rich pay less than the poor and working classes. The Social Security tax is but one example of this. The rich may pay a higher rate of income tax but there are 101 other ways for the wealthy to benefit from the system in ways the poor cannot.

Do poor people make poor decisions? They certainly do. And yet the rich make even poorer and more foolish decisions. The difference is very simple. They can afford to. They can absorb the waste and inefficiency. For the poor, one mistake can mean disaster. The financially secure can never hope to understand the frustrations of the poor, their stress, dilemmas, anxieties or how these things affect them, their judgment and their ability to think rationally let alone the impossibility of considering long term goals or consequences.

Is such middle class 'sensible' thinking actually Christian anyway? It's hard to think so when reading through the Sermon on the Mount or even the Epistles.

The system is rotten and it's a big game. Christians would do well to recognise this but instead they are invested, they are partisans for a faction, advocates for a system.

The American system is outrageous and evil and it has spawned great evil within its own borders and around the world. But I don't expect it to be any different. What should one expect from a system that literally worships money, that loves money and thus hands itself over to the root of all evil?

Such a society will (according to Ezekiel 16) turn into Sodom and indeed that is what has happened. The Sodomite Empire that is America is built on many foundation stones... one of them being the Christian Right and post-War Evangelicalism. It has crafted a Babel-theology of wealth and power. They have played the harlot and sold themselves out to this Beast, its marks, its agendas, its theft and murder and certainly its financial system. They worship its symbols, hand their children over to its service and its wars. They labour in their universities, seminaries and think-tanks to promote its ideology and devise evil plans and policies. Like sorcerers enthroned in dark towers, they sit in skyscrapers devising usurious plans to accumulate gold. Like alchemists they weave algorithmic spells to generate money from the rocks and the winds, to steal it from the pockets of the weak and to topple thrones. They feed and foster lust and covetousness and hide it under terms like stewardship, prudence, right reward, godly domesticity, blessing and the fruits of faithfulness. Rank avarice, concupiscence and ungodly appetites are glossed over, deemed respectable, frivolous or ranked as mere peccadilloes. They have deified a system of self-deification. The Edenic-Luciferian Boast has been theologically sanctioned. The blasphemous lifting up of the horn has been blessed by the hirelings. Is it any wonder that God has given them over? They've had their reward and now the shame has come and the collapse is even now underway. The doom and fiery destruction that awaits this culture and the apostate Church that helped to spawn it is on the horizon. It can be seen from the watchtowers and it's closer than many realise or dare admit. The very Beast system they have served is turning against them.

This pattern, this judgment and this reprobation of conscience are all in the Scriptures. But they have missed the mark and missed the message.

Evangelicals and other Christian Conservatives are deeply invested in this system and are willing to defend it to the death. That statement is not mere rhetoric or hyperbole. I mean it literally and I'm afraid the future will bear this out.

During this 'patriotic' summer season many will pay homage to the Beast and will bring its worship right into the meetings of the Church.

They have their reward, these sons of Ichabod, these sons of Belial.