Pray Immigration Reform Into Passage
by Jim Wallis, March 18, 2010
On Sunday, a major march for immigration
reform will take place in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of people
will gather to call on the White House to lead, and put forward an
immigration reform bill whose time has come. We will march and we will
pray. And the following morning, a high-level delegation of religious
leaders will meet with key White House officials to press the same
message. There are both Democrats and Republicans who in the past have
said they supported comprehensive immigration reform, and so there
ought now to be bipartisan support for such a bill. But in the
ultra-partisan and poisoned atmosphere of the U.S. Congress now,
bipartisan spirit has fled the halls of power. In Washington, politics
is now just a game of win and lose, and it’s only about the next
election; the process of politics in the nation’s capital is no longer
about solving problems. But the problem is that there are children and
families in the balance, and the politicians are now playing politics
with the lives of vulnerable people. Those people are our brothers and
sisters, they are our parishioners, and they are children of God. And
the faith community has come together to say the time for politics over
compassion is over.
The number of deportations in this
administration’s first year is higher than previous years, meaning more
broken lives, more families torn apart. That is not what we meant by
change. The president and members of Congress continue to assert their
support for immigration reform; but actions speak louder than words. We
all know that Congress is hesitant to tackle tough issues before
mid-term elections. But comprehensive reform legislation must be
introduced, and must be passed. We don’t want more verbal commitments,
we want action.
While politicians can write off one more piece
of legislation on a packed agenda, they won’t be able to write off, or
ignore, a movement rooted in our faith communities. If our political
leaders won’t make room for the “strangers” among us, we will --
because Jesus commands us to do so. It’s time to stop playing politics
with people’s lives.
We will surround our political leaders with the stories of suffering and pray this reform into passage.
The faith community is united on the moral imperative of this issue
like nothing we’ve seen in years, and we will do all it takes to see
this cause move forward. At this crucial turning point, we must take
the call of our scriptures seriously and act prophetically for justice.
If Washington fails to make room for the strangers in our midst, we
need to make it clear to Washington that we will do it ourselves, and
not leave them alone until they do what’s right.
For many of us,
faith is a catalyst to action that can solve the really big issues —
and this is one of the biggest we face now. People of faith need to
look beyond the political calculations and see this for the moral and
family crisis it is. It will take people of faith to knock down the
doors of Congress and bring the stories of immigrant friends,
neighbors, and family members as evidence of the injustices that are
experienced on a daily basis. Finally, we need faith in a God who is
larger than we can imagine, the God who weeps as we humans build border
walls to separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters on the other
side, the God of justice who isn’t persuaded by the political
timetables of Washington, D.C.
This is the message we will take
to the streets of Washington on Sunday, and to the White House on
Monday. We will boldly declare that it is morally wrong to keep
families apart, and that it is morally right to fix the broken system,
and to make sure that immigrants are treated with respect and mercy. We
will ask the president and the leadership of the House and Senate not
to wait any longer for bipartisan consensus to move immigration reform
onto the agenda. Introduce the bill, Mr. President, and don’t wait for
those in the other party or even everyone in your own party to join
you. Tell the country why this is both right and in the best interests
of the country -- of us all. Tell them why it is the American thing to
do. And then let us surround our Senators and Representatives with the
testimonies of those who have suffered, and with the prayers of the
people. We will create one of the most powerful prayer vigils for
compassion and justice that this nation has ever seen -- both
personally and publicly. Let us pray reform into passage.
Comment on this article on the God's Politics Blog
Tell Glenn Beck: I'm a Social Justice Christian
by Jim Wallis, March 11, 2010
Glenn
Beck says Christians should leave churches that use the word “social
justice.” He says social justice is a code word for communism and
Nazism.
But since the Catholic Church, the Black Churches, the
Mainline Protestant churches, and more and more Evangelical and
Pentecostal churches including Hispanic and Asian-American
congregations all consider social justice central to biblical faith,
Glenn Beck is telling all those Christians to leave their churches. Of
course, Christians may disagree about what social justice means in our
current political context -- and that conversation is an important one
-- but the Bible is clear: from the Mosaic law of Jubilee, to the
Hebrew prophets, to Jesus Christ, social justice is an integral part of
God’s plan for humanity.
Beck says Christians should leave their
social justice churches, so I say Christians should leave Glenn Beck. I
don’t know if Beck is just strange, just trying to be controversial, or
just trying to make money. But in any case, what he has said attacks
the very heart of our Christian faith,
and Christians should no longer watch his show. His show should now be
in the same category as Howard Stern. Stern practices pornography and
Beck denies the central teachings of Jesus and the Bible. So Christians
should stop watching the Glenn Beck show and pray for him and Howard
Stern.
Beck also said
that if his church was about “social justice” he would report his
church to the church authorities. What authorities? Church bodies as
diverse in their theology as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
and the National Association of Evangelicals have explicitly endorsed
social justice as a biblical imperative.
So here’s an idea: how about reporting ourselves to Glenn Beck as church members and pastors who practice and preach social justice.
Since Sojourners’ mission is “to articulate the biblical call to social justice,” I’ll be the first to turn myself in. And I invite you to join me in turning yourself in to Glenn Beck as a Christian who believes in social justice. Let’s send him thousands of names.
BREAKING
UPDATE: Our message to Glenn Beck is getting through. This morning on
his radio show Glenn responded to our challenge with further
distortions of the gospel and smears against Jim Wallis. Rather than
respond to personal attacks, Jim would like to invite Glenn to a
conversation about whether or not social justice is, as Glenn claimed
this morning, "a perversion of the gospel."
+Click here to tell Glenn Beck: "I’m a social justice Chrisitan"
Immigration Reform: Change Takes Courage and Faith
by Jim Wallis, March 4, 2010
The
window is closing on comprehensive immigration reform. At least that’s
what the politicians in Washington are saying. They’re afraid of more
demagoguery. They’re afraid of upcoming elections. They’re afraid of
the politics of fear. But I am more and more troubled by how little
they seem concerned about the worsening plight of many of America’s
most vulnerable families -- about how families are being broken up by
the U.S. government, forcibly separating children from their parents.
And for the media, immigration reform is just another looming political
conflict to report, more of the gamesmanship of Washington to cover.
As
always, the real stories of real people get lost in the win/lose
politics of the nation’s capital. Yes, the nation is going through some
tremendous challenges right now. And we all know that Congress is
hesitant to tackle tough issues before mid-term elections. But while
politicians can write off one more piece of legislation on a packed
agenda, they won’t be able to write off, or ignore, a movement rooted
in our faith communities. If our political leaders won’t make room for
the “strangers” among us, we will -- because Jesus commands us to do so.
Significant
social change does not begin with Congress, and it doesn’t happen
overnight; it usually takes a movement, and it always takes courage.
Sojourners has been convening, educating, and mobilizing Christians
nationwide through our Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
campaign for the past three years, and we are proud to be in good
company with the growing interfaith movement fighting for dignity and
justice for immigrants.
On March 21, 2010, tens of thousands of
supporters of immigration reform will join together in Washington, D.C.
for the “March for America: Change Takes Courage.” In the faith
community, we have amended the tagline to read “Change Takes Courage and Faith” because courage truly does come from our faith.
Changes
to our immigration system will simply not happen without both courage
and faith. For many of us, faith is a catalyst to action that can solve
the really big issues -- and this is one of the biggest ones we face
now. People of faith will look beyond the political calculations and
see this for the moral and family crisis it is. It will take people of
faith to knock down the doors of Congress and bring the stories of
immigrant friends, neighbors, and family members as evidence of the
injustices that are experienced on a daily basis. Finally, we need
faith in a God who is larger than we can imagine, the God who cries as
we humans build border walls to separate ourselves from our brothers
and sisters on the other side, the God of justice who isn’t persuaded
by the political timetables of Washington, D.C.
It’s time to
stop playing politics with something that should have been dealt with
long ago. The situation will only get worse for both citizens and
immigrants if we don’t resolve it now. That’s why Sojourners is
launching Voices of Immigration, a new campaign aimed at highlighting
stories of immigration in our country and exposing the flaws in the
current system. As people who believe that everyone is made in the
image of God, we want to restore the human element to the conversation
around immigration reform, including subsequent legislative and policy
decisions. Each day next week a new story will be highlighted on God’s
Politics with additional ones posted throughout March on CCIR’s Web site.
It
is our hope that bringing to light the human face of the social,
political, and economic problems caused by the current system will
demonstrate the urgent need for immigration reform. I hope these
stories will inspire you to join us in fighting to fix a broken system
that harms us all. We must boldly declare that it is morally wrong to
keep families apart, and that it is morally right to fix the broken
system so that immigrants are treated with respect and mercy. At this
crucial turning point, we must take the call of our scriptures
seriously and act prophetically for justice. If Washington fails to
make room for the strangers in our midst, we need to make it clear to
Washington that we will do it ourselves.
Health Care and Bipartisanship in the Balance
by Jim Wallis, February 25, 2010
Yesterday,
the Senate passed a jobs bill by a 70-28 vote, showing that even in
today’s polarized political climate, bipartisan solutions to the major
problems facing the country are still possible.
Today, President
Obama hosts a summit on health-care reform with the bipartisan
Congressional leadership. Can we hope for the same result? The
indications are, probably not. While there are real ideological and
policy differences, the bottom line, as some commentators have noted,
is that the president and Democrats want a bill to pass, and
Republicans don’t.
In the Senate bill that is the basis of the
president’s proposal, Democrats have made major concessions. Any
semblance of a public option has disappeared, and extended coverage is
through private insurance companies. Rather than offering universal
coverage, the bill would extend health insurance to 31 million more
people; however, 15 million would still not be covered, including
undocumented immigrants. Even so, Republican senators maintained their
stone wall of opposition, with none voting for the bill.
Democrats
could make further compromises -- reform of the malpractice system, for
example -- that go against their special interests. But without a
guarantee that this would result in Republican votes, there is no
incentive to do so. With the mid-term elections approaching, the
political reality is that not passing any health-care bill benefits
Republicans.
It’s simply the latest example of our badly broken
political system. What will win the next election is more important
than what policy changes will benefit the country and most Americans.
As
the health-care debate enters this final state, Sojourners and I joined
with 25 other religious leaders and 57 national organizations in
signing a letter delivered to the president and Congress, and an ad in
several newspapers read widely on Capitol Hill. In the open letter, we
said:
We write to you at this critical juncture to urge you
to complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left out
and left behind in our current health-care system ... We know that no
comprehensive health-care reform bill will be perfect. (Indeed, if any
piece of legislation ever fulfills our full vision, our vision is far
too small.) However, we also know -- as providers and consumers of
services and care -- that inaction at this critical moment is no way
forward ... Let us not delay health-care justice any longer. This is
your moment for political courage, vision, leadership, and faith. We
urge you to take heart and move meaningful health-care reform forward.
In
the next days, we must be clear on this one simple message. Inaction on
health care is not an option; too many lives depend on it.
My 'Daniel Fast'
by Jim Wallis
Sometimes
things get so bad that you really don’t know what to say or do. When
that happens, it’s a good time to fast and pray. Now, it’s always a
good time for fasting and praying -- especially during Lent, which
begins this week. But sometimes, the practices of fasting and prayer
feel more urgent -- which is how things feel to me right now.
I
believe our nation is in deep trouble. And it appears most Americans
also feel that way, with a large majority being very unhappy with the
direction of their country. Long-time senators are leaving public
office, naming the dysfunction of a system where politics has replaced
getting anything done, and where constant campaigning has replaced any
commitment to find solutions to our most pressing problems. Everything
in Washington now is about winning or losing the next election, not
about working together to serve the people who elected you. Veteran
members of Congress tell me that while their legislative bodies have
always been far from perfect, the atmosphere on Capitol Hill is now
more vitriolic and toxic than anyone can remember, with every
disagreement becoming an attack on an opponent’s character or
patriotism.
Health insurance is still a critical need for the
tens of millions of Americans who don’t have it; but the politicians in
Washington can’t get health-care reform done. Comprehensive immigration
reform is a crying issue of social justice for millions of our most
poor and vulnerable families; but it may not even come up in Congress
this session, for fear of unleashing a demagoguery that would make the
battle over health care look tame. Enormous debts and deficits keep
piling up, and a bipartisan commission to try to solve the deficit
threat to future generations was just rejected -- because it was
bipartisan.
The most pressing issue on Main Street America is
jobs, but the focus on Wall Street is billions of dollars in bonuses
being paid to top bank executives. The risky and greedy behavior of a
handful of huge Wall Street banks brought on the financial crisis that
led to this deep recession. Then they used taxpayer bailout money to
make themselves rich again, and are now passing out the shameful
rewards to their top executives while one of every two workers in my
hometown of Detroit is looking for a job. And it looks like the big
banks are going to get away with it; they will pay enough money in
campaign contributions to members of Congress to prevent themselves
from being regulated for the common good.
Then there are those
endless wars, with endless casualties and endless time frames. Both
parties and successive White Houses have become trapped into a
primarily military response to the real threats of terrorism. So here
is the metric of success: Are we killing more terrorists than the
number of new ones who are being recruited? We all know the answer to
that is no, and that we are losing ground every day; but nobody in
Washington is allowed to ask what would be the best policies to keep
more people from becoming terrorists in the first place. The math of
terrorism is against us.
In response to all these deep and
deepening troubles, I find it very difficult to really know what to say
or do, except to continue to struggle against all the bad things that
are happening. How do we clarify the issues? How do we offer an
alternative vision? How do we change the direction of our country,
which is leading us to more confusion, pain, and suffering? How do we
get political leaders (and even religious leaders) on opposite sides of
the partisan aisle to really talk to one another? How do we find a more
civil and moral tone for our national discourse? In seeking answers to
those and other more personal questions, I have decided to fast and
pray.
Fasting is intended to cleanse the body, clear the mind,
create some time and space, nourish the spirit, and focus the heart.
Prayer is for confession, repentance, turning back to God, and asking
for both discernment and courage.
During the first Gulf War in
1991, I experienced similar feelings and decided to fast only on
liquids for the forty days of Lent. Though strenuous, that fast brought
clarity, focus, and direction for me. Of course, Jesus taught us not to
fast to impress others (Matthew 6:16-18), and each of us must privately
discern our motivations for such an undertaking. But hunger strikes and
public fasting have served as powerful and prophetic witnesses in
spiritually-based social movements throughout history, and fasting with
others can provide much-needed encouragement and accountability.
This
time, my wife Joy and I have decided to do a “Daniel Fast,” a tradition
stemming from that biblical character’s 21-day fast -- eating only
fruits and vegetables with no meat, dairy, grains or starch, coffee,
tea, or alcohol. Again, it promises to be rigorous, but with promised
benefits for our bodies, minds, and souls. And of course, fasting is
intended to create more space for new and deeper disciplines of prayer
during the season of Lent, which we will also enter into.
I have
also decided to invite other religious leaders and clergy, students and
young people, and other people of faith (or no faith) who also feel so
led, to fast for clarity and direction in this Lenten season, hoping
that we can support one another and perhaps find some common
discernment about the way forward. Together we might fast and pray for
wisdom, truth, and love at this moment of national and global crisis.
If you feel the same kind of need, lament, and emptiness I do, I humbly
invite you to fast and pray in your own ways, with disciplines
appropriate for your own life and situation. This is not a campaign; it
is a prayerful fast inviting all who feel called to such an action.
There
are times when we come to the end of our own resources and must throw
ourselves on God -- which is really always our true spiritual state,
despite the illusions of our own self-sufficiency. And it is the very
turning away from our own devices, opinions, and strength -- and
turning to God once again -- that is the best way back to finding
ourselves, our voices, and our missions. That is my prayer for us all
this Lent.
Elizabeth Warren and Goliath
by Jim Wallis
I had a most instructive conversation this week with Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard economist who is also the Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel. Warren has a way of cutting through the jargon and confusion of many economists and of this economic crisis -- right to the moral core of the issues at stake. I knew her for her keen insights, but I didn’t know she was from, as she puts it, a “mixed marriage from Oklahoma” -- Baptist and Methodist -- and that she is a former Methodist Sunday school teacher. In the interview I did with her for Sojourners, her moral and even theological comments were as impressive as her economic analysis of our present crisis. She said the battle for financial regulatory reform is like the battle between David and Goliath. (You can read the interview in the April issue of Sojourners magazine, which comes out in early March.)
Warren’s narrative of the U.S. economy, and the banking industry in particular, was very clarifying. For most of U.S. history, our country went through repeated periods of boom and bust, with all the consequences of those cycles. But after the Great Depression, a number of new financial regulations -- rules for the road -- were put into place that were designed to protect average Americans in particular from the continued abuses of the big banks and the often terrible results in bad times for ordinary people. Two important examples were the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to protect people’s savings and the Glass Steagall Act of 1933 to prevent banks from speculating with depositors' money. And the new rules worked for several decades, creating both prosperity and security for many American families and an emerging middle class. But starting in 1980, the rules were first watered down and gradually removed, and banks were free again to engage in both the abusive and very risky speculative behavior that helped to bring on the Great Depression, and resulted again in the current Great Recession.
She explained how credit card and mortgage application forms used to be only a page or two and were both clear and understandable to the average person -- even allowing people to easily compare and contrast the deals offered. But now, as all of us know, these forms have expanded to 30 pages or more with lots of complications, hard to comprehend provisions, and “fine print” that cleverly hides a long list or traps, tricks, and a myriad of both exploitive arrangements and outright abuses that greatly benefit banks at the expense of borrowers and card holders. In clear moral terms, Warren described the current behavior of our biggest banks as deliberately deceiving, entrapping, and cheating unsuspecting customers into very precarious and ultimately disastrous financial positions. And with no more rules of the road, the banks were leading their customers into the financial ditch. An economic crisis has been the result with massive suffering and pain for millions of Americans.
We are now living in a “lawless” economic environment, according to Warren, where our biggest banks have become our most dangerous predators -- and with no protections for the rest of us against the “law of the jungle,” as she puts it. The consequences for our economy, our culture, our families, and even our souls have been disastrous. This is not the way we should want to live, Warren says, and it is creating a world which we should not want our children to grow up in. She makes the urgent case for reform with the compelling analysis of a top economist, the family values of a grandmother, and the moral arguments of a person of faith. The sins of the financial world have become both a moral, and even religious, issue from the perspective of the Methodist tradition “which still shapes me.”
Warren is the “mother” of the idea for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA),which is in the current financial reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, and is now slowly making its way through the U.S. Senate. But the big banks are aggressively fighting back, trying to prevent their own regulation only one year after the financial meltdown for which they were in large part responsible. There seems to be no remorse, let alone repentance, from the big banks -- only record new profits enabled by their taxpayer-funded bailouts, and enormous bonuses to the executives who made the very decisions that brought the economic system down on the heads and hearts of so many Americans. The biggest banks in America are giving shame a bad name.
Why are new rules, regulations, and protections necessary? Because of the human condition, the realities of human nature, and a biblically orthodox understanding of human sinfulness. Yes, the reasons we need the protections offered by a Consumer Financial Protection Agency are as theological as economic. And it is amazing to me how many of those who oppose any regulation of Wall Street also claim to be religious conservatives. They subscribe to what I label in my new book, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street — A Moral Compass for the New Economy, “the myth of the sinless market.” I am a conservative Christian too, conservative enough to have a healthy appreciation for human sins, human failings, and fallen-ness, and after witnessing the behavior of America’s biggest banks during this economic crisis, an old theological term called human depravity. It is simply bad theology to trust large corporations not to pollute our waters, poison our air, or cheat their unsuspecting customers. They have to be prevented from doing so for the sake of the common good. Good financial and economic rules reflect, not only good economics, but also good theology. And the free market fundamentalism of Wall Street’s defenders is, among other things, bad theology.
But as Elizabeth Warren, a good Methodist, warns, the banks are trying everything they can think of to kill financial reform. And we must not let them do that. In the name of a fairer economy, of family values, of moral values, and of sound biblical theology, the faith community must now make itself heard on the urgent issue of financial regulatory reform. We must hold our biggest banks accountable to the common good. So let our Senators not just hear from the bankers, but now also from pastors who see what such abusive banking behavior has done to their families and parishioners, to devastated communities with shuttered houses, to the prison of debt that more Americans find themselves in. People of faith across the land must now tell their elected representatives that we will be “watching and praying” to see what they will do about necessary financial reform. We don’t have the money in our financial coffers that the banks do to finance their political campaigns, but we do have our voice and our votes which will be turned against them if they vote against the best interests of our people and for the greed of the bankers. Jesus said it well -- choose this day who you will serve, God or Mammon (Money). Let’s now put that choice to our Senators, who need to hear from us this next week while they are in their district offices during the Presidents' Day recess. Critical decisions are being made for or against critical financial reform right now.
Jim Wallis' interview with Elizabeth Warren will be featured in the April 2010 issue of Sojourners magazine.
Cut the Deficit--Cut Military Spending
by Jim Wallis
President Obama’s 2011 budget, submitted to Congress this week, totals $3.8 trillion and projects a deficit of $1.6 trillion. And while analysts have had only two days to dissect the massive document, the president’s priorities are clear: jobs and the military. The biggest problem he faces is the rapidly growing deficit.
With the economy still in recession and unemployment still at 10 percent, the domestic priority is clearly job creation. The budget includes a $100 billion jobs program, with substantial amounts targeted to tax breaks for small businesses in order to stimulate job creation. Also included are tax credits that assist lower-income workers with expenses such as child care, which make it more possible for them to find employment.
And despite the administration’s plan to enact an overall freeze on discretionary domestic spending, it appears programs that focus on low-income and poor people were increased. Bob Greenstein of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said in a statement on the budget that “Contrary to fears expressed last week that the President’s proposed freeze on total non-security discretionary funding would provide inadequate support for education, for vulnerable Americans, and the like, the budget actually does well in these areas.” It appears that major programs in nutrition, housing, education, TANF, etc. all are higher than last year.
But as usual, the sacred cow that cannot be touched is the military. First, a thanks to the administration for having the honesty to include the funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the budget, rather than waiting several months and then coming back with requests for supplemental funding as has been the practice in past years. Let’s at least know up front what we’re dealing with. In round numbers, the military budget includes an operating budget of $549 billion, plus funding for the two wars at $192 billion (including an already planned request for $33 billion this spring), for a total of $741 billion.
I, too, am concerned about the rapidly growing deficit. While some degree of deficit spending is necessary in a time of severe recession, it is growing so fast that it threatens our future and our children’s futures. Last night, I ran into David Walker on the Amtrak train coming home from Philadelphia. We are both on book tours, and his new book is Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility. David and I had talked over the holidays, but now we had the chance to sit down and have a long train conversation about this topic. He is also concerned that the deficit not be cut on the backs of our poorest people and that the most vulnerable be protected. And he also thinks cutting excessive and wasteful military spending must be part of the solution. So here’s a suggestion: Let’s start with the military.
In a preliminary analysis of this budget, Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, and other defense experts said that:
A close analysis of the FY 2011 defense budget reveals that it does not go far enough to impose real fiscal discipline on our defense spending ... There are a number of reasonable cuts that could be made to this portion of the budget without sacrificing national security or undermining our troops.
Congressman Barney Frank was also at Davos and told me that he is proposing a 25 percent cut in the military budget. He said he will need help from the faith community. I support his effort, and we will be saying more about it as details emerge.
The wars we have been fighting are a huge part of the massive deficit we now face, wars that I have also challenged on many other grounds. It’s time to stop subsidizing the shameful profits of the “military industrial complex” that former President Eisenhower warned us about long ago. I personally would favor spending more on the returning veterans who are too often abandoned when their service is over. But cut the defense contractors who serve their own profits much more than any true idea of national security. Protect the veterans, cut the contractors. Now there is one way to attack the deficit.
We in the faith community say we subscribe to the biblical injunction to “beat our swords into plowshares.” So let’s be in the middle of the budget deficit debate and push hard for the right priorities. As David Walker and I agreed last night on the tracks between Philadelphia and DC, this is a moral question.
Changing the Script with Jon Stewart
by Jim Wallis
Last night I was on The Daily Show again with Jon Stewart to talk about my new book. It’s always a fun show. I enjoyed the back and forth with Jon about values, economics, and the bad morality play of banks, bailouts, and now bonuses. I think Stewart is doing more than anybody else in the media to try to change the script.
If Twitter comments are any indication of public sentiment, my suggestion that the bankers give their massive bonuses to Haiti resonated with lots of people.
You can watch the interview and get a free download of the first chapter of my book, “Sunday School with Jon Stewart.”
This morning, I got up to do Morning Joe on MSNBC. The timing could not have been better, because today is the day that Goldman Sachs announces its record revenues and bonuses ($16.2 billion in compensation this year). My favorite moment was hearing the title of Goldman’s new charity giving program: “Goldman Sachs Gives.” I told Morning Joe how reassuring that is to me, and in response to a wry comment from commentator Mike Barnicle that they must be doing “God’s work,” I suggested that I was sure God really appreciated this public relations gesture on the part of the big banks. But then I said that in the midst of such suffering in America, these bonuses were more than a scandal and a shame -- they are a sin of biblical proportions.
I reminded everyone on the show that the bonuses are merely a symptom of a deeper erosion of societal values and spoke of the new maxims that have overtaken us -- Greed is Good, It’s All About Me, and I Want It Now. Those values wreak havoc on economies, cultures, families, and our very souls. In contrast I suggested that we need to rediscover some new/old spiritual virtues like: Enough is Enough, We’re In This Together, and learn to employ the Native American ethic of considering the consequences of decisions today by their impact on the seventh generation out. That would change the “short-termism” that has come to dominate our economic decision-making. I also learned that some people think “class warfare” only breaks out when the people who are having a war waged on them (us) get mad at the people who started the fight in the first place (Wall Street). Interesting.
Now we head to Chicago for a forum tonight with the city’s business and civic leaders.
Stay tuned.
Haiti: God Is Suffering With Those Who Are Suffering
by Jim Wallis
There are times when events make everything else pale in comparison. I’m in Los Angeles today on my book tour, but the news of Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake hitting Haiti is one of those times. Over the past few hours, I haven’t been able to take my eyes off CNN. The tragedy in Haiti is unbelievable -- the pictures of the pain and destruction are haunting. My heart breaks for the families and the victims of this tragedy.
Information continues to develop, but what we already know staggers the imagination. Both the Haitian prime minister and the consul general to the U.N. have said that as many as 100,000 people are likely to have died. The International Red Cross estimates that one-third of Haitians -- about 3 million people -- were affected by the earthquake. The Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince is known to be dead, and the chief of the U.N. mission in Haiti remains missing.
In a heart-rending story, the The New York Times reported on the scene in Port-au-Prince:
The tiny bodies of children lay in piles next to the ruins of their collapsed school. People with faces covered by white dust and the blood of open wounds roamed the streets. Frantic doctors wrapped heads and stitched up sliced limbs in a hotel parking lot.
The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, still struggling to recover from the relentless strikes of four catastrophic storms in 2008, was a picture of heartbreaking devastation Wednesday after a magnitude-7 earthquake.
In response, the world is mobilizing. President Obama, in a statement, said:
I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief -- the food, water and medicine -- that Haitians will need in the coming days. In that effort, our government, especially USAID and the Departments of State and Defense are working closely together and with our partners in Haiti, the region, and around the world.
The U.S. has sent Agency for International Development helicopter search-and-rescue teams, a U.S. Navy amphibious ship with medical capabilities, and is sending the USNS Comfort hospital ship. Other military and civilian aid teams are also on the way. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has canceled the remainder of her trip in Asia to return to Washington to help direct the relief efforts. Canada, European nations, and countries across Latin America have mobilized supplies and aid.
In this kind of natural disaster, it is almost always the poorest who suffer the most -- those who have the least to lose are often those who lose the most. Life is always hard for poor people -- living on the edge is insecure and full of risk. Natural disasters make it worse. Yet even in normal times, poverty is hidden and not reported by the media. In times of disaster, there continues to be little coverage of the excessive impact on the poor.
Tragic moments like this bring out the best in global citizens, as we put aside our differences and unite in support of the victims and their families. Haiti is no stranger to hardship, poverty, or sorrow. As Katrina revealed in New Orleans, this earthquake will once again unmask the unbelievable poverty that exists in countries like Haiti. Nearly 80 percent of Haiti’s population lives in abject poverty. I pray that this is not simply another tragic event we see on TV as we channel surf, but I hope it reminds us of our brothers and sisters around the world and down the street, who suffer not only from tragic events -- but who suffer every day.
I also want to say a word about God and evil. Pat Robertson said that Haiti’s earthquake was caused because of the country’s “pact with the devil.” I don’t even know what he means, nor do I care. But I want to say this: My God does not cause evil. God is not a vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down; instead, God is in the very midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who are suffering. When evil strikes, it’s easy to ask, where is God? The answer is simple: God is suffering with those who are suffering.
Let us all keep the people of Haiti in our prayers. And let us all give what we can to help in the relief efforts. Sojourners readers are posting recommended ways of responding to the Haiti earthquake on our Facebook page. Please click here to post your suggestions there or to find ways to help.
The Parable of the Unmerciful Banker
by Jim Wallis
This week, I joined a press conference with People Improving Communities through Organizing and the Center for Responsible Lending on the steps of the United States Treasury. The first three speakers were not the usual Washington talking heads. Instead, they were American homeowners who were losing their homes to foreclosure—a terrible thing that now happens to another American family every 13 seconds (6,600 per day). And a rapidly increasing number of them are now due not to subprime mortgages, but to the loss of employment. That’s what had happened to those who told their stories on Monday in Washington D.C. across from the White House and just down the street from the huge Bank of America and PNC Bank buildings.
Mercy Martinez began to cry as she spoke. She had saved for years and put $100,000 down to buy her first condo. Choking back tears, she recalled her meeting with the Countrywide Financial mortgage broker. “I had enough money for a traditional, 30-year fixed rate loan; but the loan servicer unethically tricked me into an adjustable rate loan that could put me in foreclosure at any moment.” Now she waits for the “time bomb” of her loan to explode, and when it does she will join the millions of Americans facing foreclosure. Mercy is not alone: in 2006, 61 percent of subprime borrowers were forced into mortgages more expensive and riskier than what they qualified for.
Meanwhile, inside the White House, the heads of the nation’s biggest banks and financial institutions were meeting with the president. They were told that since the American people had bailed them out, they now needed to do something for the American people by beginning to lend again and to agree to loan modification plans enabling homeowners not to lose everything. But so far, those admonitions are falling on deaf ears. Indeed, I learned this week that the bonuses and extra compensation paid to the executives at the big banks are on track to exceed the 2007 level of $162 billion (even after some banks, like Goldman Sachs, have switched compensation packages away from cash and into stock bonuses). At the same time, the Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the bonus pool of just one of these big banks would have been enough money to prevent or significantly delay foreclosure for all 2.3 million people who lost their homes last year. And what about loan modifications to help homeowners stay in their homes? To date, Bank of America has agreed to fewer than 100 permanent home loan modifications. Amazing.
At the press conference, I pointed out the fundamental moral contradiction of this situation: Those whose behavior is most responsible for causing this economic crisis are being saved from failure and suffering by the American taxpayers, while those least responsible for causing this recession are now losing both jobs and homes — with no bailouts for them on the horizon. My friend Rev. Derrick Harkins made a point about “grace.” He suggested that in order to try to save the economy from a feared massive meltdown, some real grace was extended to the big banks; but they now seem unwilling to extend grace to anyone else. Does this sound like a gospel parable to you?
What it sounds like to me is a very bad morality play — one that I write about much more extensively in my new book Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street—A Moral Compass for the New Economy. The book says we need a new national conversation about all this, a return to some basic values, and a moral recovery to accompany an economic recovery. We cannot go back to normal this time; we need a new normal. It’s time to change the script of this play. That is the only way all this suffering and pain can be redeemed.
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