In the 1960s, a generation of youth began to not just blindly take the positions on social justice issues that we were being taught to take in our mainline denominational Christian Churches. And by doing so, we, for the first time in our lives, began to develop good moral consciences. And when we began following the dictates of our newly formed good consciences, we ended up taking a lot of counter-cultural positions on social justice issues. But when we tried to persuade our parents, grandparents, and uncles and aunts to both take a look at our counter-cultural positions on social justice issue as well as to examine why we had taken these counter-cultural positions, most of them would not even lessen to us. They had been taught not to question the majority’s position on social justice issues and to just go with the flow of the majority; and that if they were to continue to follow this principle they would be doing the will of God; and that if anyone were to try to persuade them to take their counter-cultural positions on social justice issue they should not lessen to them because they were “false prophets”, and that if they were to lessened to these “false prophets” and then take their counter-cultural position on social justice issues they might end up burning in Hell. We, at the time, found that most of our parents, grandparents and uncles and aunts did not really care what was right or wrong and that the only thing they cared about was that they were living in conformity to the majority, and that they, therefore, did not have good moral consciences, something necessary to get into Heaven. (Jesus said: “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many go that way.) And most of them still, to this present day, follow the principle that Jesus said leads to “destruction”. And that is why our country has become such a cesspool of evil. Alcohol and drug abuse runs rampant causing health epidemics and social atrocities. And our country is the biggest exporter of pornography at a time when there is a world wide venereal disease pandemic; and it has legalized abortion, and since it did, a great multitude of pre-born babies have been killed. And in the name of "freedom", "democracy" and "Christianity" our country is spreading, by war and economic coercion, an evil hedonistic so-called "freedom loving" culture throughout the world. Our country’s pollution kills great multitudes of people and animals and threatens the continuation of all live on earth by way of global warming, acid rain etc.. And because of our country’s materialistic greed for oil, it is now waging a war in Iraqi, an injustice war that has kill 176, 000 Iraqis and over 2000 of our country’s military people. And then there is the so-called U.S. "freedom" to become obese by pigging out on food, to the degree that it creates a very serious national health epidemic. There are more obese church-going Christians in our country than there are in our country’s general population, and in our country obesity is an health epidemic that causes over 300,000 deaths a year. In some Islamic nations alcohol, tobacco, abortion, pornography, adultery, “free love” (fornication) , obesity, health and earth destroying pollution, etc. are illegal, but by our country’s “Christian" sanctioned imperialistic efforts these evil so-called U.S. "freedoms" are being spread throughout the world. And our country has many toxic waste dumps, including nuclear waste dumps that will remain toxic for 10,000 years. And our country is helping other nations to build nuclear power plants so that they too can have the so-called "freedom" to pollute the earth with toxic nuclear waste. And our country - by helping nations all around the world to build nuclear power plants - is giving those nations the "freedom" to use the spent nuclear fuel to build nuclear bombs or “dirty” nuclear bombs. And by doing so, our country is contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. All this evidence indicates that cultural mainstream "Christianity" in our country is really apostate "Christian" hedonism and that these hedonistic people are spreading their evil health and earth destroying religion and culture throughout the world. Our country is a war making, earth and health destroying nation that is corrupting the whole earth by her immoral imperialistic behavior, a nation that is trying to usher all nations and tribes into a one world corrupt mentality that promotes corporate greed and rejects good moral values. And in spite of this terrible situation, most of our country’s mainline denominational “Christian” ministers still teach their congregations to blindly conform to the (apathetic) majority, a principle that leads to “DESTRUCTION”. A former governor of Minnesota (Jesse Ventura) made the following statement durring an interview for a popular national magazine: “Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak minded people who need strength in numbers.” When the Star and Tribune asked Minnesota’s religious leaders to answer the question: “Where is religious outrage for the poor?”, Bishop Peter Rogness, a Lutheran Bishop, answered the question. He wrote: “We are awash in a culture of individualism, with powerful forces at work that bombard us with the message to take care of our own needs as much as we want”. And in a recent Time Magazine article, Melinda Henneberger wrote: “In 1979, Pope John Paul II bluntly compared Americans to the rich man in the Bible story who is dammed for all eternity after a life spent feasting - contentedly oblivious to Lazarus, the beggar who longed for the scraps from the table. ‘It is not right,’ the pope preached in English at a mass in Yankee Stadium, ‘that the standard of living of the rich countries should seek to maintain itself by draining off a great part of the reserves of energy and raw materials that are meant for the whole of humanity.’ It was the pope’s pronouncements on sexual issues - from birth control to homosexuality - that got all the media attention, of course. Yet John Paul never stopped decrying our ‘excesses of capitalism.’ Last summer, the pope lectured American bishops that their people were ‘hypnotized by materialism, teetering before a soulless vision of the world.’”
I agree, and one need only look to this one example: I have a friend who comes from a family of very staunch Catholics. They consider themselves moral people, very concerned with (and against) abortion and gays and such. But they are also pretty rich. Now, being rich in itself isn't bad, or it wouldn't be, if it weren't at the expense of the millions (or billions) of poor, third world folks who've been exploited so that we rich Americans can have X-boxes, computers, dishwashers and 4 cars to a household. Now, considering this, if you were God, how would you deal with a person who follows the words in an ancient book, condemns the gays, the abortions, and the atheists, but who's entire lifestyle is subsidized on the pain and misery of millions? Can you consider such people moral? The problem is, we are all living like this, or most of us are anyways. I think about this every day, because I know it to be true of myself but I don't know how to get out of it. Now, I can't stop others from making war, or selling porn, or any of the other things you listed; I can only live my life in a good way and hope others do too. But I don't even see how that's possible anymore, in this society. What is an honest living anymore? As far as sending aid to other nations, well, that's an endless cycle. If we'd stop sucking their countries dry of resources, we wouldn't have to send them money so they can afford food. Of course, it would have helped if we hadn't forced them to give up their traditional, sustainable lifestyles that had allowed them to live well for millenia in what's now the third world.
Uhhh, they probably didn't listen to you because you hadn't done anything that they respected. Like, say, get a job.
and now there are billions of people aspiring to this american model of success. we have been urged to consume because without consumption, the production will collapse. break the cycle
John Paul II is known for having fought against communism, as the system that went wrong somewhere. The sad thing is that what was left after was certainly not really better in some extents. What happens to us is a continious change of scale. The only fact I,you, almost everybody exist, not as a being, but as an economic identity is our problem. Since one has a coin, Since one has a bank account, His money is existing as another entity than him, but he still is it. it makes him responsible for it, he is it but in a way he is not responsible for it, he does not know he could choose to not choose, he still would be responsible somebody would choose for him. Financial markets are monsters, we could enter theory discussion for hours, (if not decades) to explain how it does happen in there. The fact is, we are mislead, or misleading us more or less by ourselves, we all come to be conscious of it It makes those that are conscious of it feel down Energy must then be found elsewhere to keep going The fact is, the trust in the whole system is lost Which make people look and act at individual interest level Which leads to many mistakes and people feel lost Which is sad, as we are in a period where scales change The fact is, if Benedict XVI, or the next pope, try to bring capitalism down, what will he come with for after if he meets success? Hard question What I find interesting is that the very principle of capitalism leads to monopolism There was people to make shoes for all citizens of the world if they considered they needed shoes in year 1006. One shoe maker name let say, pro 1000 citizen. His workshop was certainly not big and his customer not far. Every shoes were, in a way, different from each other. One day, one shoemaker decided to hire more people, to open new workshops and to buy others producing facilities whose owner just was driven out of business. Our shoemaker has now more power, he rules over more people, and if he runs his business well, he now earns more money. It does influences the whole economy in a way... umm let's say we skip the rest of the story to come to year 2006 ok? It is these 2006 monopolisms that create a part of our identity. As far as we let them come in. But who will take them out of others so that we can exist an other way? What can we do if who is we? I got two questions to have fun: Make fair trade or make trade fair? What is competition? Peace Ps:I study economy, I understood for a while that shit was screwing our story, and decided to study it. and... It is boring!
