“THE REAL STRUGGLE”

By Jim Jordal

“The real struggle is whether we can prevent this country from moving to an oligarchic form of society in which virtually all economic and political power rests with a handful of billionaires.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, Vt., speaking at the Brookings Institution, Feb. 9, 2015. Reported by the web site Too Much, March, 2015.

America is finally awakening to her impending peril. We cannot long continue our greedy, malevolent policies of allowing predatory corporations to rape the earth, destroy cultures, and press an ever growing number of people into lives of poverty and desperation. Nor can we continue to allow those with great fortunes to build even greater fortunes on the backs of poor workers and indigenous peoples of the earth.

But we’re still missing the point of all the endless unrest here and abroad. Yes, oligopoly is a pervasive threat, but it’s not the cause, but rather the outcome of a larger issue: Will we as a nation move into the impending Kingdom of God on Earth by following God’s laws of justice, truth, and mercy,  or will we continue wandering in the present moral and ethical wilderness of total reliance on human wisdom and technological progress?

The prophet Hosea perhaps says it best: “I have given to him (God’s people) the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing” (Hosea 8:12). This nation was founded by men who believed they were initiating the kingdom of God on Earth. They thought America would be exceptional, not as destroyer of people and nature, but as servant to humankind and preserver of the natural order. They envisioned what some called “The New Order of the Ages,” and built an enduring political structure of liberty, justice, and equity that is still copied by many new nations.

Had we not allowed ourselves to be seduced by the idols of growth, bigness, money, and power we could literally have created a nation living up to its ideals of “liberty and justice for all.” We could have fulfilled our Divine mission as servants of humankind rather than exploiters and oppressors.

And we still can accomplish this great calling. But only under certain conditions.

Principles of God’s law would tell us, contrary to what the Supreme Court says, that corporations are not people and are not reasonable beneficiaries of human rights like freedom of speech and equality under the law. Their welfare is not above that of people or the earth. Their rights do not supersede human rights, or those of the earth. Nor do their top executives deserve salaries, bonuses, and stock options amounting to thousands of times what their short-changed workers receive.

God’s law also tells us that money is not a fit subject of worship. It should be only a medium of exchange and way of storing value, but should never become an instrument of control and oppression. But now under our egocentric and idolatrous human wisdom money “covers all things,” as Scripture says. The amassing of huge fortunes by those few persons able to manipulate markets and control resources has literally driven the nations mad. Conflict over resource development, pollution, indigenous rights, conditions of labor, market development, and access to global wealth have created gridlock in legislative institutions and a form of learned helplessness in administration.

Scripture labels the immoral domination system now afflicting us, including the many adverse uses of money, as the “hammer of the whole earth,” “scepter of wickedness,” “throne of iniquity,” and “destroyers of My heritage.” Yet we and our leaders fall prostrate before this Monster of destruction as if it were a god to be worshiped absolutely and completely. And that’s what money has become.

So Sen. Sanders is correct in his assessment of the direction we are moving. But the “real struggle” between earthly dominators and Almighty God is moving in a direction totally missed by those who would reduce most of the human race to indentured servanthood. The dominators believe they are succeeding in moving the nation toward the world decried by Sanders. But God says we are moving toward his earthly kingdom. So stay tuned to see what happens.