ELECTION REFLECTIONS

Our nation was devastated by the 2014 mid-terms. The cultural and political divide was glaringly revealed! The descent precipitous. The Biblical text that speaks to this time is the Magnificat in Luke 1. Notice the contrast, the irony. Replace the Trinity with the powerful elite, the greedy banker, the Wall Street mogul, the bought-off politician who breathes only the air of profit and perks. 

MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD: Money and the power of the elite was magnified. Winning trumped concern for the common good. Citizens United became the flood covering the goodness of life rather than a cleansing agent. The ark is nowhere to be found. Our god is the belly filled with poisonous ego, turned in upon itself with ulcerous pain.

FOR THE MIGHTY ONE HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR ME: The mighty are the corporate leeches who refuse to pay decent wages, seek ways to pay lower taxes, take jobs overseas and take advantage of overseas workers, who seek ways to avoid capital gains taxes, who suck money out of our society like a vacuum cleaner, who deny adequate health care to all, who stifle attempts to rebuild our infrastructure, who bleed the environment of health, who choke the air with carbon for profit's sake, who punish those immigrants yearning to breathe free and find sustaining labor and fair wages.

The mighty ones are Wall Street and Big Banks who refuse to help homeowners, who play with people's money by investing in the market rather than people, who feel entitled to yachts and holiday homes in Aspen, Nice, the Hamptons, and Chamonix, who refuse to refinance student loans, who want relief from regulations to the detriment of the national financial health.

The mighty ones are the politicians who sell their souls to the wealthy who buy their fealty with campaign contributions, who bow to the Big Banks, to Wall Street, and the corporate moguls believing it in the best interests of the country, who do not acknowledge the increasing economic inequality, who still believe that unfettered capitalism will right the sinking ark of the people, who believe the military will lead us home and is blindly deserving of our bended knee.

HIS MERCY IS FOR THOSE WHO FEAR HIM: Profit is mercy's pathological instrument. The record setting Dow juices the filled pockets and demands the peons fear their suited presence. Mercy is not what they give, but what they demand in payment.

HE HAS SHOWN STRENGTH WITH HIS ARMS: That the people will be crushed, that the people be low-wage slaves, that the people be denied jobs worthy of their talents, that teachers be layed off, that public schools be stiffed of adequate resources, that the majority of students be walled-off from learning, that higher and advanced education be only for those who can afford it.

HE HAS SCATTERED THE PROUD IN THE THOUGHTS OF THEIR HEARTS: A person's pride in their work and ability to support their family is squashed in the pulverizer of greedy power. The only pride is in profit and only the well connected deserve it because only they know the true capitalistic methodology, or so they believe. The rest of us just don't get it, as we are lazy, we are the undeserving.

HE HAS BROUGHT DOWN THE POWERFUL FROM THEIR THRONES: The Everyman, the Everywoman, the Everychild are the powerful, and their bodies litter American streets and soil.  They have been brought low from their thrones of home and family.

AND LIFTED UP THE LOWLY: Where? How? The lowly are ground up like hamburger.

HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS: Only with fast food and dumpster leftovers.

AND SENT THE RICH AWAY EMPTY: Empty of restraints and regulations, empty of accountability in the courts, empty of empathy, empty of love, empty of justice, empty of God.

Rise up, O People of God! Reclaim the True Magnificat! Demand the Reign of God and the building of the Kingdom! Let God's grace guide, empower, and provide! The time is ripe for transformation!

Peace!

Ron