I find myself feeling more and more ignorant about a particular theological subject and would like to know your opinion on it, so please feel free to respond. I’m not looking for an argument, I’m not looking for a “your right, I’m wrong” response. I honestly want to know what exactly I am missing, because I feel like I obviously must be missing something.
Most of you know our project but for those of you who dont: We are building a farm/homestead in order to provide food for people. Good, nutritious, whole foods at reasonable prices, and what we don’t sell we are giving away to food banks, homeless shelters, etc. I’m not telling you this to make myself superior in any way, It’s just what we feel called to do. We have been poor to the point where we couldn’t fed ourselves and we don’t feel that anyone should have to do that, ever. We are still what society would call “poor”, we would qualify for food stamps if we wanted to, but we have more than enough food to feed ourselves so we don’t need to tap into that resource. We know that people look down on us for being poor and we have come to terms with that. We started this project after watching people exploit their employees time and time again for their own gain and realized we needed to be the change.
Now on to my question.
So many Americans have the claim that America is a “Christian Nation”, so my question is this: If we are a “Christian Nation” why do we not only allow but encourage greed and pride? I know that’s a super loaded question that begs the answer “we shouldn’t, these people are wrong, blah blah blah”, but our words and our actions are totally different, so here is what I mean. We encourage, promote, and give money to people who openly steal from people, whether that be time, money, or resources.
We come across this scenario far too often. It’s a classic Christmas Carol scenerio: A person is the owner of a large company. This is a company where the employees do a lot of traveling and hard labor. The business is very successful, allowing this person to live a very lavish lifestyle, yet they still yell at their employees on a weekly basis for “stealing money” from him because they don’t work fast enough, yet he forces massive unpaid overtime on his salaried employees, reimburses them for only a portion of their travel (and they travel a lot), and is constantly discussing his superiority as a Christian. This person is also a highly regarded member of his church.
Or how about the Waltons who are known for having the most employees on welfare, yet they are the richest family in America.
Or how about this: The owner of Papa Johns owns a freaking mansion with a BAT CAVE yet he upped the price of pizza because he was being forced to give more of his employees healthcare.
These are just a few examples, there are so many more. Why do we back these people? Why do we allow these people to not only be in positions of power but to be respected members of the church? Aren’t we supposed to call out fellow Christians who are not following Christ, not praise them?
Shouldn’t we, as people in general but I’m asking as a theological question so I rephrase and say shouldn’t we Christians WANT to help our employees by giving them a living wage, or healthcare, or even supplying a business credit card to be used for travel so travel money isn’t taken out of your employees pockets? Shouldn’t we as Christians call out our fellow brothers and sisters who are acting like Ebeneezer Scrooge? Am I missing something? I really do want a REAL answer because I’m frustrated and confused.
My reply would be too controversial. I shall refrain.
You probably know how I feel anyway.
The concept of a “Christian Nation” was created in the 90’s during the republican shift from a centrist party into the Conservative party we see today. Bush 2 was the one who most famously used the rhetoric to gain support from evangelicals.
In truth our nation was founded on the principals that religion has no bearing on the governing of the nations people.
However, being raised by Christian parents who felt that so long as I was doing right and showed empathy to others was all they wanted of me I see what you are doing as noble. You also will likely eventually see your work rewarded as people love to support businesses that support others. You will of course be better off not promoting yourself as doing this because of a religious agenda as in today’s climate that will gain you some business but turn away others who will think you side with a Kim Davis or another of her type.
It’s just unfortunate that we have moved into the state we have now where rich white people have decided that since they are losing their power to persecute others they are going to claim to be persecuted.