What the World Thinks of the GOP

Recent European press op-ed about the American Republican primaries

THE GERMAN PRESS

The Republican presidential contest in America is a “freak show,” said

Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one another

to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions,  denying evolution while

endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants. How

did a major  party in the world’'s sole superpower become a “club of

liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators,  hypocrites, and

ignoramuses?”

These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been “neutered by

 the demands of political correctness” so that it can'’t say what’s

obvious: These people are daft! Instead, it “proclaims one clown after the

next to be the new front-runner.” The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is 

actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences

with multiple clauses. Scarcely a  one has even the most basic grasp of

foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban

rule  in Libya. Collectively, “they expose a political, economic,

geographic, and historical ignorance that makes  George W. Bush look like

a scholar.”

THE FRENCH PRESS

That’'s the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation.

The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is

dead last in most polls. The others “careen to extreme positions that

include starting new wars and abandoning old allies.” And that’'s when

they even have a position. Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race,

was the front-runner even though he couldn't find a single coherent word

to say about President Obama'’s policy on Libya. He even boasted of

knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was his adultery, not

his astounding ignorance that brought him down.

THE BRITISH PRESS

There’'s a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max

Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the “lunatic, gun-toting badlands of

America'’s Hicksville, Tea Party country,” it'’s considered suspiciously

elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond

America’'s borders. “Say what you like about British politics, no MP of

any party would dare to offer themselves as town dogcatcher while knowing

as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates.” We

take public service seriously. Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest

of the world, will suffer if “one of the lunatics” vying for the

nomination makes it to the White House. “The American political system has

seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate.”

Don’t worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent. The fact that

Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney’'s inevitability just

“confirms how inevitable” Romney’'s nomination is. The thrice-married,

ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the

nominee will be Romney, “the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for

president since...well, ever.” So sit back and enjoy this circus passing

for a presidential election. It can’'t possibly end in a GOP victory. Can

it?

Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists and Horse Racing

The Roman Catholic Bishops and their consistent stance against birth control reminds me of my years in Oklahoma, when I was a Presbyterian pastor in a smaller community just outside of Tulsa.

During horse racing season, there was many a trip to the race track in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and at the betting windows, many a known Southern Baptist, enjoying the day, cheering on the horses, lamenting their losses or celebrating their wins right along with the Presbyterians, the Roman Catholics and even some Methodists from the town.

Yet, the following Sunday, these known Southern Baptists would be in church, listening to a rousing sermon that might well include condemnations of gambling, drinking, dancing and other such forms of social deviance.

And the good folks would nod their heads, come forward and get saved again, and on the following weekend, make a trip to Hot Springs with their Presbyterian friends.

I was asked by the local Rotary Club, of which I was a member, to speak about "the state of religion" in our town, and while emphasizing the strength of religion and its positive influence on the community, I described this disconnect between pulpit and behavior - and noted that this might well be labeled hypocrisy.

Afterward, many thanked me for my observations, yet I'm sure some were discomfited by them.

What with millions of Roman Catholics practicing birth control, and countless sermons and pamphlets and other such strategies employed to align the loyal with the strictures of the church, there is a disconnect here. 

While deeply conservative Roman Catholics like Rick Santorum and Mel Gibson adhere to, support and practice "irresponsible sex," it would seem that the majority of Roman Catholics are far more sensible and realistic.

While I have the greatest respect for the Bishops and their social agenda regarding unions and immigrants, I find their stance on birth control to be regressive, imbedded as it is in medieval convictions about women and their central purpose as "baby factories," in view of the fact that Europe was, for centuries, devastated by recurring war, disease and famine, thus requiring an emphasis upon birth to sustain the population. Rather than seeing this as a matter of simple economic survival, the church turned it into a holy war on women and legitimated male dominance. By the way, the population issue was also central to slaves (a word derived from Slavic) in Europe and then in the "new lands" opened up by Portugal, and the need for labor in the burgeoning sugar and coffee trade and ultimately the cotton trade in the United States.

This fixation on pro-birth policies helps no one, and only further isolates the bishops from reality, and, sadly, plays into the hands of far-right "Protestants" who have similar views on the "holiness of sex," a woman's job as a baby-factory, and the absolute duty to give birth no matter the origin of the conception.

Oh well, just some rambling thoughts about Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists and horse racing.

Government Doesn't Create Jobs?

"Government doesn't create jobs, business creates jobs!" is the boring mantra of the GOP these days, and worse than boring, it's just plain inaccurate, and, perhaps, even worse, malicious and ill-intended.

"Government doesn't create jobs!"

Tell that to tens-of-thousands of aero-space workers in Southern California and around the country who rely on GOVERNMENT contracts.


Tell that to tens-of-thousands of farmers and food-industry workers who rely upon farm-subsidies to sustain agricultural production and artificially lower the price of commodities such as corn, the staple of the meat-industry - every time we buy a hamburger at In-n-Out or Burger King, we're enjoying GOVERNMENT oversite and regulation.


Tell that to tens-of-thousands of steel- and auto-workers who are employed today because of the "bailouts," but more importantly, over the years, tariffs and other such forms of GOVERNMENT regulation and oversight to keep American products competitive on the world market. Every time a Great Lakes ore-boat docks in Chicago, Gary or Detroit, it's possible only because of state and federal GOVERNMENT regulation and oversight - from the earth-movers to the trucks to the processing plants to the ships and the Coast Guard patrol boats and ice-breakers, GOVERNMENT plays a positive and essential role.


Tell that to tens-of-thousands of truck-drivers who fuel their trucks with diesel at prices lower than the rest of the world and drive on highways built and maintained through government contract, regulation and oversight.

Tell this to thousands of railroad employees whose trains run on tracks laid down on land granted to the railroads by GOVERNMENT legislation - land that was handed to them, without cost, and to this very day, GOVERNMENT regulation and oversight sustains interstate commerce and continues to benefit the railroads.

Every time an airliner flies overhead, or lands at LAX, it's GOVERNMENT that makes it possible.

In the past few days, gas-company workers have been repairing a gas-line in the alley behind our condo - their jobs are the result of GOVERNMENT regulation and oversight so that gas production on government lands can proceed and the price of gas remains reasonable. Transmission lines across the country, storage and production facilities, and gas-lines running beneath our streets into our homes - all of this through GOVERNMENT.

Several days ago, an auto accident on our street - several vehicles involved, lots of damage, no injuries - but firefighters and police were there, to direct traffic, investigate and keep folks safe - GOVERNMENT at work.

A strong national defense is possible only with a highly-trained professional army - in a world so complex as ours, state and national militias would fall far short of what's needed. Only GOVERNMENT is big enough to sustain a strong national defense, provide research for the best in equipment, fund hospitals for the injured and pensions for the disabled.

Though the conservatives promote and support private schools and home-schooling, American education relies, and will continue to rely, if we know what's good for us, upon an American invention - Public Education - the level playing-field where children early-on play and learn with children of other cultures and economic status, with teachers trained in colleges supported with GOVERNMENT grants and tuition-support  through scholarships and loans, in buildings built by GOVERNMENT, salaries paid by GOVERNMENT and pensions maintained and guarded by GOVERNMENT.

President Jefferson, a man often quoted by the conservatives on "small government," was quick to realize that the physical growth of the United States needed a strong and aggressive federal GOVERNMENT to negotiate for the Louisiana Purchase, and then to fund the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And throughout the early 1800s, highways and canals to further trade between the states, bring produce to the coast for shipment to Europe and strengthen our sense of unity - only GOVERNMENT could make all of this happen.

"Private business" is a misnomer - nothing is private, and though Laissez-faire has been the by-word of conservatives, the reality has always been a partnership between business and government, most often to the benefit of business as well as to the consumer.

Millions of jobs throughout the nation are directly or indirectly connected to GOVERNMENT. That's the way it's always been - kings and queens and bishops have always played a major role in the management of land and production and the military.

Big business is big because of big government, and jobs are created when the two work in partnership. Clearly, historically, from George Washington and his interests in canals to virtually every aspect of our life, GOVERNMENT is the essential player and the senior partner.

Jesus, the Temple Cleansing and OWS

The Jerusalem Temple was Judah's central bank and financial institution.

It traded in commodities: sheep, lambs, goats, bulls, doves and grain - thousands of animals slaughtered, and while some of the meat was entirely consumed in the fires of sacrifice, most of the meat was sold in the market, and much of the grain was made into flour and bread for the Temple employees, along with some of the meat, cooked right there. It was a huge enterprise, and only got bigger on the Festivals, especially The Passover, when tens of thousands of pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire.

The Temple was where financial records were kept - loans and ownership, to which Jesus refers when he speaks of the "legal experts" (Matthew 20.45ff) who cheat widows out of their homes and then walk around in "suits" - long robes, and say long prayers.

It was no accident that when Bar Kochba led a revolt (132-36) against Rome, they stormed the Temple and burned all the financial records, which, in effect, brought about the Jubilee, or the Year of the Lord's Favor (noted by Jesus in his hometown sermon in Nazareth).

Debt was a huge issue for the people - so it's no accident that Jesus zeros in on the wealthy and says, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God."

It is no coincidence that Jesus uses "debts" in the Lord's Prayer, in spite of the fact that some English translations prefer the word "trespass," or "sins" - the word would have caught the ear of many a listener. Clearly, there's a double meaning here: the spiritual debts incurred to God by our many failures, the breaking of covenant with God; but for the people to whom Jesus was speaking, the burden of debt was always in mind, as it is for us. And the center phrase, "as we forgive our debtors" would surely have been the Jubilee dream of a fresh start for all, free of the crushing burden of debt - the moral and spiritual debt to God, and the burdens of financial debt - for both the debtor and the creditor.

When Jesus storms into the Temple upon his arrival in Jerusalem (the Synoptic Gospels; John places the Temple cleansing early in the story) and overturns the money-changing tables, he's going after the central financial system of Judah ... claiming that Judah had, in fact, made mammon it's god.

If Jesus were to do the same thing today, would he storm into a church somewhere?

Not likely.

He'd more likely storm into a bank lobby and break a few things.

Would he join the ranks of OWS?

The poor, the outcast, the debtors?

What do you think?

Obscene in the Extreme

"Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath'" by Rick Wartzman - detailing the response of the growers and Bakersfield, CA politicians to Steinbeck's book, and to union efforts to organize pickers - fascinating … 

The behavior of the growers with regard to "immigrants" (in this case, Okies) and their absolute resistance to unions (after all, we don't want anyone usurping our "right" to arbitrarily set wages) hasn't changed one iota. 

On the one hand, the Okies were "dirty and immoral and a drag on local resources;" on the other, they provided cheap labor, and the more of them that came, the more competitive grew the job market, to the benefit of the growers. 

The parallels to our current debates about "immigrants" and labor and unions and Capitalism are uncanny, until one realizes that these debates have been an integral part of the American story, indeed, the human story.

The only element lacking today is the easy way in which the far-right then characterized labor organizing as "communistic" and un-American. It's fun to read how the growers and politicians labeled themselves "true Americans" and that capitalism was, of course, the American way.

Also, worth noting - rather than directly going after Steinbeck's social message, the book was attacked as "immoral" - as one politician said, "I wouldn't want my daughter reading this filth."

Some politicians said to the immigrants, "Either work at the wages offered, or no welfare."

http://www.amazon.com/Obscene-Extreme-Burning-Banning-Steinbecks/dp/1586483315

Not quite 50% through, I'll update frequently.

As with so many things, a little history sheds light on our current debates and conflicts.

A Letter to the Presbyterian Layman

October 26, 2011

Editor, Layman,

Your newsletter has been a constant presence in my mail for many years, though I find most of what it offers offensive, dysfunctional and saturated with hubris.

With that said, blessings on the Fremont Church - they will continue on, as many have, with a slow drift into irrational fundamentalism, leaving behind the great Evangelical/Reformed Tradition. In place of faith, will be money, David Barton's/Rousas John Rushdoony's weird reconstructionist vision of America, private schools, creationism, anti-intellectualism, a diminished role for women, and an abiding James Dobson hatred of LGBTQ people (there is no such thing as hating the sin and loving the sinner - that's an example of pious muddled thinking that closes doors even as it prides itself on open doors).

I find it tragic that many Presbyterians have sold their Evangelical/Reformed soul for a mess of potage seasoned by Americanism, nationalistic illusions, a love of money and big buildings (even small conservative churches look to the big boys as if size mattered in the Kingdom of God), a world-denying version of "salvation," faith without exegesis, tradition without thought and a bitter dogmatism driven by the Westminster Catechism (a 17th Century example of mostly where not to go).

I've been following the Layman since 1973, when I was a pastor in Altoona, PA. I know well the contours of your soul, and it's a jumbled and sad landscape.

Though I've sometimes been sympathetic to your original theological intentions, I've watched the Layman drift all the more into bitterness and darkness of spirit, while claiming to have the greater share of light in the PCUSA and assigning itself the task of guarding and traveling the higher road of faith, feeding the demons of fear and anger, aiming for a new denomination all along.

And, frankly, as someone from the north, I'm no longer saddened by Southern Tier Churches leaving (formerly PCUS) - while the vision of reunion was worthy, and driven by some extraordinary leaders, too many of the Southern Churches brought very little to the health of the church, often requiring the Northern Church to walk on eggshells, cater to their theological sensibilities, parochial attitudes, the "spiritual nature of the church," and, yes, the remnants of racism which remain unresolved in the South, and, yes, in all parts of our country.

Meanwhile, the PCUSA will sharpen and expand the biblical vision of inclusivity and welcome. New congregations will be planted, folks brought to the Christ of the New Testament, and lives changed. Theologians like N.T. Wright are leading the way, along with Newbigin and his missional insights, and young-generation historians like John Fea and Darren Dochuk, not to mention Mark Noll. 

It will be a better day for the PCUSA when the dust settles, and perhaps you'll be happier, too, though the mindset of the Layman is always in need of an enemy, so it will be fascinating to watch who the next enemy will be. I doubt very much if you and gang will ever find happiness this side of heaven, and, frankly, if Matthew 25 has any bearing, it's likely that unhappiness will plague your house even then.

I realize that my note is headed for the trash bin, or, if published, will be edited and then heralded by the "righteous" as just another example of liberal insanity and progressive blindness.

Well, so be it, and baloney to you.

BTW, if you want to remove my name from your mailing list, go ahead.

But I bet you won't.

And as long as you send your nonsense to me, I'll send my comments to you.

Is that a deal?

Faithfully in Christ, and in always grateful for the Amazing Grace that saves, and looking for better days in the PCUSA, with windows and doors wide open to the gospel of faith, hope and love, because Christ is risen from the dead.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas P. Eggebeen, HR and Interim Pastor

Calvary Presbyterian Church

Hawthorne, CA

Kindness is always in season! And so is truth!

Church and Welfare

Some Christian churches have created a "golden age" for the church - some sort of happy village when everyone cared for everyone else. Baloney! That world has never existed. In the Middle Ages, when the church and the state overlapped and the church controlled huge amounts of land, and bishops reaped huge incomes for the diocese from taxation on trade and commerce, with wealthy princes contributing large sums to the church to pay for building, gain penance and purchase indulgences. The church then used money for welfare, not unlike gov't today. The corporate role of the church in the Middle Ages was huge, and, today, has been replaced by gov't. There never was the "happy village" imagined in some Christian circles.