The New Reality vs. an American Calvinist Meme

Lost between the “blessed be” in the Beatitudes and the “damned is” in modern American fundamentalist group think is economic reality. The outcast rabble that used to listen to a radical rabbi from the iron ages were taught that its harder for a rich man to get to heaven than a camel to fit into an eye of a need (Mathew 19:24) and  “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God”  (Luke 6:20) The downtrodden up there on the mount would probably not recognize today’s pious pharisees as the legacy of their community.  It’s probably still a way of justifying Armani suits and Mercedes for the leaders of the flock and their beneficiaries, but it’s impacting our policy in a detrimental way.

Many of these folks preach the perversion hat there is something inherently wrong with poor and jobless people.  They really believe that the poor and jobless just haven’t deserved god’s blessings like the uber rich.  It really shouldn’t take a little ol’ atheist like me to point out that it’s a stellar example of hypocrisy.  I should mention that I am a member of Buddhist clergy.  We’re really not supposed to point out the short comings of others’ spiritual paths but contemplate the notion that its just not their kalpa for enlightenment and apply bodhicitta.  However, this meme flies not only in the face of teachings out there in their own Gospels, it flies in the face of today’s reality. Again, it’s shaping our policy.  We’re in this mess because of that type of thinking.

We already talked some about an Esquire article called  ‘We Are Not All Created Equal; The truth about the American class system. It’s got a pretty good example of what I’m talking about.  Herman Cain is not only a right wing pundit among all the other things, he is an associate minister of a Baptist Church.

Herman Cain’s [fig. 6] comment in a recent interview on the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is by no means an uncommon opinion, was this: “If you’re not rich, blame yourself.” The old Calvinist strain that connects prosperity to divine election runs deep. Work hard and stay late and you get to be a banker or doctor; drop out of high school or start using drugs and you’ll end up at McDonald’s. Even among liberals, the new trend toward behavioral economics demonstrates how poor people fare worse on tests requiring self-control, how their personal weaknesses create cycles of poverty. You don’t have to be on talk radio to believe that the poor must be doing something wrong.

The Great Outcry that has filled the country with inchoate rage is the bloody mess of this fundamental belief in the justice of American outcomes crashing headfirst into the new reality. The majority of new college grads in the United States today are either unemployed or working jobs that don’t require a degree. Roughly 85 percent of them moved back home in 2011, where they sit on an average debt of $27,200. The youth unemployment rate in general is 18.1 percent. Are these all bad people? None of us — not Generation Y, not Generation X, and certainly not the Boomers — have ever faced anything like it. The Tea Partiers blame the government. The Occupiers blame the financial industry. Both are really mourning the arrival of a new social order, one not defined by opportunity but by preexisting structures of wealth. At least the ranters are mourning. Those who are not screaming or in drum circles mostly pretend that the change isn’t happening.

Reconcile Cain’s repeat of the meme with this reality.

For years, the food pantry in Crystal Lake, Ill., a bedroom community 50 miles west of Chicago, has catered to the suburban area’s poor, homeless and unemployed.

But Cate Williams, the head of the pantry, has noticed a striking change in the makeup of the needy in the past year or two.

Some families that once pulled down six-figure incomes and drove flashy cars are now turning to the pantry for help.

A few of them donated food and money to the pantry before their luck soured, according to Williams.

“People will shyly say to me, ‘You know, I used to give money and food to you guys.  Now I need your help,’” Williams told The Fiscal Times last week.  “Most of the folks we see now are people who never took a handout before.  They were comfortable, able to feed themselves, to keep gas in the car, and keep a nice roof over their head.”

Suburbia always had its share of low-income families and the poor, but the sharp surge in suburban poverty is beginning to grab the attention of demographers, government officials and social service advocates.

The past decade has marked the most significant rise in poverty in modern times.  One in six people in the U.S. are poor, according to the latest census data, compared to one-in-ten Americans in 2004. This surge in the percentage of the poor is fueling concerns about a growing disparity between the rich and poor — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent in the parlance of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But contrary to stereotypes that the worst of poverty is centered in urban areas or isolated rural areas and Appalachia, the suburbs have been hit hardest in recent years, an analysis of census data reveals.  “If you take a drive through the suburbs and look at the strip mall vacancies, the ‘For Sale’ signs, and the growing lines at unemployment offices and social services providers, you’d have to be blind not to see the economic crisis is hitting home in a way these areas have never experienced,” said Donna Cooper, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

The economic data show some distinct changes that have occurred some where between the end of the 20th century and the onset of the 21st.  Income inequality has worsened.  Upward mobility has reversed.  Unemployment has become pervasive and long term.  This isn’t just the reality for a sliver of the population.  The downward spiral is pulling more and more Americans from all walks of life.  It’s not a lack of skill, work ethic, or education.  It’s a lack of opportunity and economic policy that is hell bent on destroying the US middle class.

I have to say that much of this has to do with the herd of Republicans and some DINOS that have bought into the ‘prosperity’ theology.  It is part and parcel of the “dominion” movement which is characterized  by the creepy C Street cult and wealthy religious preachers like C Wagner, Rick Joyner, and  John Eckhard.   Bostonboomer has written extensively about these guys based on the research of Jeff Sharlet.  She also wrote in the Tuesday morning post about some of the even creepier conspiracy theories these folks harbor surrounding any action to promote women’s self autonomy or environmental protection. Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry have ties to this cult.  They are major Republican political figures and have input to all kinds of US policy.

If you want to understand Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, understanding Dominionism isn’t optional.

Put simply, Dominionism means that Christians have a God-given right to rule all earthly institutions. Originating among some of America’s most radical theocrats, it’s long had an influence on religious-right education and political organizing. But because it seems so outré, getting ordinary people to take it seriously can be difficult. Most writers, myself included, who explore it have been called paranoid. In a contemptuous 2006 First Things review of several books, including Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy, and my own Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, conservative columnist Ross Douthat wrote, “the fear of theocracy has become a defining panic of the Bush era.”

Now, however, we have the most theocratic Republican field in American history, and suddenly, the concept of Dominionism is reaching mainstream audiences. Writing about Bachmann in The New Yorker this month, Ryan Lizza spent several paragraphs explaining how the premise fit into the Minnesota congresswoman’s intellectual and theological development. And a recent Texas Observer cover story on Rick Perry examined his relationship with the New Apostolic Reformation, a Dominionist variant of Pentecostalism that coalesced about a decade ago. “[W]hat makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government,” wrote Forrest Wilder. Its members “believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take ‘dominion’ over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the ‘Seven Mountains’ of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world.”

In many ways, Dominionism is more a political phenomenon than a theological one. It cuts across Christian denominations, from stern, austere sects to the signs-and-wonders culture of modern megachurches. Think of it like political Islamism, which shapes the activism of a number of antagonistic fundamentalist movements, from Sunni Wahabis in the Arab world to Shiite fundamentalists in Iran.

Dominionism derives from a small fringe sect called Christian Reconstructionism, founded by a Calvinist theologian named R. J. Rushdoony in the 1960s. Christian Reconstructionism openly advocates replacing American law with the strictures of the Old Testament, replete with the death penalty for homosexuality, abortion, and even apostasy.

While these two presidential wannabes are dragging their knuckles along the bottom of the polls right now, their messages are still being repeated seriously by main stream media.  Actual economists and scientist can’t get on TV these days but these perverted messages brought by idiots are all over the place.  We need to realize that these people have brought on policy that has created a fundamental, underlying change in our country.  There are 13.3 million unemployed people in the United States. Who can seriously argue that these folks are on some kind of long vacation?

Many pundits and some GOP lawmakers excoriate all unemployed for being lazy and enjoying life on the dole. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)recently said, “People are gaming the system and refusing to take jobs because they get unemployment benefits and food stamps.”

Paul Krugman repeated today the very simple reason why the economy is going nowhere.  There is a lack of aggregate demand.  This is because wages are stagnant, wealth is down, and job security is nonexistent for nearly all Americans. There is also a large amount of household debt.  This problem has an easy solution.  The government can boost aggregate demand by spending money and creating jobs. This won’t happen, however, until we make a concerted effort to get rid of the people and the meme that considers problems associated with a financial crisis and recession to be based on personal shortcomings of unemployed people instead of problems associated with wealthy gamblers and the pols that protect them.

Most people understand that worshiping wealth and doing anything to attain it is not moral behavior.  Well, that doesn’t count the folks at Fox News who have just started a war on the Muppets for indoctrinating children in “class war” and ecology. Again, I may be a Buddhist and atheist, but those quotes up there in the first paragraph seem to make Jesus to be one of the first warriors in the class war.  It certainly wasn’t Kermit the Frog.

Bolling’s guest, Dan Gainor of Media Research Center, added: “It’s amazing how far the left will go, manipulating your kids to give the anti-corporate message.”

Bolling followed with: “Is liberal Hollywood using class warfare to brainwash our kids?”

“Absolutely, they’ve been doing it for decades,” said Gainor.

Gainor said Hollywood hates the oil industry and corporate America. In addition to “The Muppets,” he cited “Cars 2” and “There Will be Blood” as examples of anti-oil movies.

He complained that Hollywood does not tell the positive stories about oil, such as its role in fueling ambulances.

He also linked the Occupy Wall Street movement to “indoctrinating” shows like “Captain Planet.”

Andrea Tantaros, a commentator Fox Business, added that liberal media wants to target children at the “youngest age” possible.

She also complained about the Muppet Lily, a “hungry” Muppet, and linked her to entitlement programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

At the heart of Bolling and his guests’ complaint is that liberal Hollywood allegedly paints material success as “evil” and indoctrinates children with the ideology of class warfare.

Spot the Dominist memes in that long list. Then, try to read the Beatitudes.  Then, just for kicks, read the first amendment about the wall between state and religion.  How on earth could anything have gotten so turned upside down?