Debt
I just finished watching 'Maxed Out', which is a documentary on the debt situation in the American economy. I highly and urgently encourage anyone who has not seen this to watch it and take it seriously. I'll just say a few simple points here:
1. It is readily apparent to anyone who thinks about it that debt is thinly disguised slavery. To be in debt is to lack total freedom.
2. The Judeo-Christian religion began with a people escaping slavery and in the process of doing so finding awareness of God. To anyone who claims either religion, the situation of debt and financial repression that this documentary pointed out should stand as a fundamental abomination to God. Those who would put others in debt are in a literal sense Satanic, they are opposed to their intrinsic humanity of the individual. I have no trouble therefore labeling our current president, or any of the corporations which support him in allowing the growth of public debt, as anti-Christian on all levels.
3. The situation of debt in America is successfully serving to eliminate the middle class. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer the polarizing effect does not have much tolerance for people in the middle. The middle class are presented with a dilema of contributing to the corporate oppression and enslavement of lower classes, or in the long run, joining the enslaved.
4. The structure of corporations is a hierarchy in which instructions flow downwards, and the people on the lower tiers have no ultimate say in decisions. Since they rely on this corporate structure for their well being they are basically in a situation of enslavement to the 'anonymous few' at the top. There is a word for this type of 'corporate structure': Fascism.
5. These are issues that are of utmost importance to Christian faith. The fact that churches are scarcely involved in the opposition of such social evils is blasphemy, and is evidence of why the Christian faith has ultimately been deemed irrelevant. More than seeking to keep its own members out of debt, churches should and must seek to oppose the corporate enslavement of greater society. We are a people who have been saved by faith, and liberation/freedom is inseperable from salvation. In so far as we tolerate people falling into slavery we have betrayed everything it means to be Christian. This includes changing the heart of the person to be freed of the life-style and choices that lead to slavery, but just as much, even more, to oppose the structures that would seek their enslavement.
6. This is one area where faith meets politics. To think we can keep politics out of church is delusional.
posted by Joe @ 17.7.07
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Although very difficult, I believe it's necessary for people to start throwing out the idea of getting into debt for anything. It's still hard for me to think that way, but the more I work at it, the more normal it becomes. Sure, it's easier to accept the defeat of having payments for the rest of your life as long as you can have what you want right now. But it's just not worth it in the end.
i like this post...its a bit overwhelming because i dont have the knowledge base about certain things to think along the same lines of thought as you do here. but its good.
i agree with marcos and so does travis. i would like to watch this doc.
kelley told me yesterday that she just paid her last car payment...paid off one of her two cc (w the other slated to paid off by nov) and something else...its very exciting! T and I only have school debt (and A LOT of it ...) which is good...but not if you think of it in terms of what you say here about those who put other people in debt.
missed your phone call last night ;)
call me and T tonight. we will be home.
love
school debt is a difficult one. generally the interest rate of school loans is actually managable if one puts their mind to paying it off. the problem is to pay off a loan and thus free oneself of corporate demands requires that one raise this freedom to a priority level that very few do. the other problem is that many people go to school to learn subjects that society does not place much value on, and therefore they get into debt and are then stuck with a degree that will never earn enough money to be paid off. as a nurse I can pay off school loans quickly, but if I had chosen to get a masters in philosophy i would have the luxury of all the world's knowledge and be broke and thus a slave.
I think this is something universities cover up well, especially for entry level teenagers who are encouraged to follow their ideals . . . which frequently leave them stuck with minimum wage jobs and massive loan repayment bills.
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