Lately I’m struggling with my liberal contingency. I’m hearing the same “liberal” rhetoric of improving social services, education and civil rights. I’m hearing the anti-war, anti-oppression and pro-choice messages that separate “us” from “them.” And we fervently bond on those issues, but the fight for justice ends at the point where any degree of sacrifice becomes necessary in order to promote environmental, social or economic justice. Someone tell me I am wrong here! I have heard many conservative religious folks preach and teach that God rewards the blessed/good with wealth, health and prosperity. It is that God-is-love theology gone bad. God loves me. God is all-powerful. God is just. So God will reward me for my goodness by keeping me from suffering and making me luxuriously comfortable in this human life (perhaps to prepare me for the even more lavish abundance that I will experience in heaven). Why are we buying into that belief? With a short-sighted view it might appear to be good for us (we get to FEEL good anyway with our material possessions, free access and a soaring (if not self-sustaining) ego; we can eat what we want, when we want and in as high a quantity as we want; we get new clothes, new cars, all kinds of stuff; we can buy disposable everything so as to avoid cleaning or bothering with re-use). With a more far-sighted view though don’t we (liberal folk) all agree that gluttony is bad. Isn’t it that simple? A chronic sense of entitlement, greed and privilege leads to oppression, violence, war, neglect, fear and other results that I think we acknowledge are negative for us individually and also in our local, national and global communities. Right?
posted by Pam at 2:29 PM
2 Comments:
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Hi Pam! I haven't read your blog in ages but saw you on fb and was curious. Here is my humble opinion of what you just wrote: not ALL conservatives buy into the prosperity preaching either! I certainly don't. The Lord blesses us in many different ways: financial, health, peace, etc...but there are seasons in all of our lives where times are hard in all of these areas as well. Even for the believers. Sometimes this is a good thing...hardship sometimes makes our faith grow stonger. So prosperity preaching, in my humble opinion, is a joke! Also, though, the amazing thing about faithful millionare's that I have come to know at my church is that they are sooooo generous and are able to do so much for God's Kingdom, which is really what it's all about, right? I can actually understand where you are coming from on this subject, though, because I too have struggled so much with prosperity preaching and wastefulness in believers. Basically, I have decided that I must leave the judging up to God and listen to what the Holy Spirit tells ME to do regarding my finances, my political views, my child rearing, my marriage, etc...I must remember that only God can truly be the one to know someone's heart.
As for you, I so admire your sincerity for your views and the passion that you strive to live your life by. You try not to be a hypocrite and I think that is the most important journey that we must all take. Liberal or conservative, we are ALL human and can never be perfect. That job is already taken.
BTW, from the studies that I've read at least, most middle-class Americans are either moderate or conservative...most liberals are either extremely rich or poor. It's hard to be in the middle when you aren't, is what I'm trying to say. So perhaps this is why you are finding it hard to identify.
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