#OTB

According to the GOP, when Jesus said feed the poor, he didn’t really mean we should do that all the time.

GOP passes cuts to food stamp program, quotes Jesus to justify it.

At least that’s the biblical interpretation of some Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee and their justification for approving a sweeping farm bill that would cut $2.5 billion a year – or a little more than 3 percent—from food stamps, a crucial anti-hunger program.

Due to the “Great Recession” and jobless recovery, one in seven Americans now use this domestic food aid program. So clearly, according to Republicans, too many people are eating.

One of the faces of hunger in the U.S.

Representative Juan C. Vargas, Democrat of California , who opposes cuts to the food stamp program, quoted from Matthew 25 to argue against the cuts to food stamps.

This was an excellent choice by Rep. Vargas as Matthew 25 shows exactly how angry Jesus gets at those who refuse to feed the hungry, as readers of #OccupytheBible know.

“I’m a Christian, and this chapter talks about how you treat the least among us,” said Mr. Vargas, adding that he would not support a bill that made such deep cuts to the antihunger program.

Exactly.

That was much too much biblical literalism for some GOP members of the committee. K. Michael Conaway, a Texas Republican, pushed back.  Jesus didn’t really mean we should all do that together as a nation, he argued. “I take umbrage to that,” he said. “I take Matthew 25 to mean me as an individual, not the U.S. government.“

Except Matthew 25 is called “The Judgment of the Nations” because “All the nations will be gathered before him.” (Matt. 25:32)

Oops.

To make it worse, Stephen Fincher, Republican of Tennessee, then quoted Matthew 26, arguing the “poor will always be with us” in his defense of cuts to the food stamps program.

Here’s some news for you, Congressman Fincher, that text doesn’t mean ‘be sure you keep some people poor.’  And Congressman Conaway, Matthew 25 has no “opt out” clause that means you don’t have to vote for programs to feed the poor because “individuals” and “churches” will take care of it.

“Judgment of the nations” means just that.  Read the text.

If you GOP congresspeople want to call yourselves Christians, you don’t get to opt out of your religious values when it’s a “government program.”

As I’ve been interviewed over and over on conservative Christian talk radio on #OccupytheBible, this is the crisis we face that is generated by a hyper-individualized and incorrect interpretation of scripture.  These Republicans want you to believe individual charity is fine, government programs are bad.

But that’s not what the Bible actually says.

“Grover Norquist told me so” is not going to be enough of a defense when Jesus asks you why you voted to literally take food out of the mouths of children.

Judgment of the nations. Get it?

Senator Elizabeth Warren is still at it, overturning the tables of the moneychangers in Washington DC.

Occupy protestor dressed as Jesus

Today, Senator Warren just introduced the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, her first piece of stand-alone legislation.

The bill would allow students who are eligible for federally subsidized Stafford loans to borrow at the same rate the big banks get through the Federal Reserve discount window.

If Congress does not act, July 1, 2013 the interest rate paid by student borrowers will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.  Double.

Meanwhile, the big banks, you know, the same big banks that wrecked the economy, can get a preferred rate of .75%.

Warren’s bill proposes that students be able to get the same preferred rate as the big banks.

This is in line with the biblical trajectory on charging interest. Remember: ““If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to them, and you shall not exact interest from them.” Exodus 22:25

Or at least no more than .75%!

The full text of Sen. Warren’s remarks may be found here.

Basketball center Jason Collins just came out for the teachings of Jesus. “My parents instilled Christian values in me. They taught Sunday school, and I enjoyed lending a hand. I take the teachings of Jesus seriously, particularly the ones that touch on tolerance and understanding.

He also came out as a gay man.

Let’s all try to be sure the spiritual logic of Jason Collins gets passed around far and wide. These things go together: following the teachings of Jesus, being who you are, and treating others with tolerance and understanding.

Jason Collin’s coach at the Washington Wizards seems to be reading from this same biblical playbook:

He commented, “Black, white, Jewish or Christian. Religion, sex. It’s all the same. Who gives anybody the right to judge anybody?”

Apparently, ESPN analyst Chris Broussard didn’t get that far into reading the Bible when he ranted against Collins for “walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. So I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I don’t think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian.”

Nope.  Not even close.

Not only hasn’t Broussard digested the biblical text that says “Judge not, or you too will be judged” (Matt. 7:1),  but misinterprets the rest of that chapter in Matthew:  in his ill-considered rant, Broussard said, “the Bible says ‘you know them by their fruits.’”

Mr. Broussard, I strongly commend all of Matthew 7 to you.

In that chapter, when you judge others you are called a hypocrite and you are advised to take the log of your own eye before you point out the speck in someone else’s eye.

Just to drive the point home, Jesus gives this explicit instruction on how to treat others:

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the whole Law and the Prophets.” (7:12)

Jason Collins knows that’s real “Christian values” and the meaning of “good fruit.”

When someone robs you in a hold up, it’s quick and you can see it easily.  But when someone takes a couple of years to pick your pocket, it’s harder to see.

But we have to see it, feel it and act on it. We’re getting robbed.

The prophet Ezekiel had it right.  Economic oppression is robbery, pure and simple. (Ezekiel 22:29) Ezekiel is so “on the money” about the dynamics of economic exploitation that he even includes how immigrants are abused, as they “have extorted from the alien without redress.”

This describes what is happening today in the U.S. The upward wealth transfer in the U.S. that has occurred over the last three decades has increased alarmingly from 2009 to 2011 as this new Pew study indicates.

The graph is below is, shall we say, graphic, as it documents the way “recovery” now means increased upward wealth transfer.   This isn’t “trickle down” economics.  It’s raining upward, driving assets from the poorest to the wealthy.

Pew Study graph

As we preach, teach and #OccupytheBible, it is crucial to keep coming back to charts and videos like the viral “Wealth Inequality in America.”

There’s so much push back against the viral video “Wealth Inequality in America” that we know we’re doing something right.  But we have to keep showing it because the spin doctors are out and about, yelling about creeping socialism and class warfare.

“Wealth Inequality in America”

“It’s not class warfare, it’s Christianity,” as I wrote for the Washington Post.

But while we need economic analysis, and visuals on data, we always, always, always, have to remember to put a face at the center, and that face is often the face of a child.

One in four children in America is hungry.

This is completely immoral.

See the data, feel the pain, act to change it.

See, feel, act: that’s how we #OccupytheBible.

The biblical prophet Isaiah had a vision of peace: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)

Today that little child is 8-year old Martin Richard, killed in the bombing at the Boston Marathon.  A friend of his teacher apparently posted a picture Martin had made that is leading the nation, teaching of peace.

Martin Richard, “No more hurting people. Peace”

“You shall not hurt or harm on all my holy mountain,” Isaiah continues (11:9)

It is breathtaking and heartbreaking that the wisdom of the ages comes through the words of this child, teaching a nation.

This time, we don’t yet know who designed and orchestrated this act of terror.  There is a collective national breath-holding, as we are poised to find someone, blame someone, punish someone, maybe just anyone, so we can relieve the tension and vent.

Martin’s here, teaching peace.  Peace means not hurting people.  Peace means not wanting a scapegoat, a political club with which to beat the other side, and a way to vent our very justifiable rage.

If you honor this little, very brief and wonderfully important life, take a moment and let his words teach you.

Click here to read the whole post in the original at On Faith at the WashingtonPost.com.

This statue called Jesus the Homeless was rejected by two prominent churches before finding a home outside Regis College, a Jesuit school of theology with an emphasis on social justice, at the University of Toronto.

Statue of “Jesus the Homeless”

The rejection by churches of “Jesus the Homeless” is what I find we are up against as we try to spread a message on how economic justice is at the core of the Gospel message.  People are really threatened by an image of “Jesus the Homeless” because it rips away the pretense that Christianity is about rewarding the wealthy.

Who is on that bench, under that blanket, shivering in the cold? God-with-us.  It shakes you to your core if you let it.

The heart of the Kingdom of God program of Jesus is community organizing against Roman taxation, peasant indebtedness, loss of land, urban poverty, and the abuse of religion to justify that.

Jesus, and his disciples, lived the alternative as revelation. That is why, as Jesus is journeying toward Jerusalem, he talks to them about the “Human One” (Oxford Inclusive Translation) having “nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58).  It’s the revelation of how this is God’s program, not just a human program he is about.

But the ownership crowd is not going down without a fight. In an amazing tweet-back, I was informed that “Jesus owned two homes. One in Nazareth and one in Capernaum. Plus a temple in Jerusalem.”  Yes, I’m sure. That’s probably why Jesus cleaned the Temple, he “owned it.”  You have to work hard to misread the life and teachings of Jesus that way.

But I’m finding there is a longing, in our local churches, to just tell the Gospel truth about this economy, and what it is doing to community, to education, to retirement, to actually being able to have enough to eat and a safe, warm place to lay your head.  There are people sitting in our pews, right now, who are food insecure, who are drowning in debt, who aren’t sure how they will make the mortgage payment, who are facing a retirement in poverty.

Reality.  It’s the best interpreter of scripture.  But incredible art helps a lot. That’s why it’s so often rejected, as was the very Jesus it depicts.

While Jesus was clearly not a member of the National Rifle Association, many Americans might be under the impression that Moses was.

Charlton Heston and his famous defense of gun ownership have done a lot to cement the idea in our mad gun culture that unfettered gun ownership is a positive value, even a religious value.

Heston: “You can have my guns when you take them from my cold, dead hands.”

Heston’s pose with this rifle has a striking resemblance to Heston’s famous pose as Moses parting the Red Sea.  Oh, the power of image.

Heston as Moses

We need an equally powerful and emotionally compelling image to counter Moses/Heston and the ways guns have been imprinted on the American people as an emblem of freedom and even “Christian” values.  Yes, you have to see Moses as representing “Christian” values for this image to imprint, but surprisingly it’s not the biggest contradiction we face.

As I watch the Senate dithering around over getting to a vote on a fairly weak background checks bill, I have to applaud those citizens who are working to change the positive image of guns in our society.

Moms Demand Action has done it. They have released a new video that gets right to the heart of the pain and the cause.  It’s the guns.  It’s the ammo.  It’s the shooting.  It’s wrong.

I support Moms Demand Action (love the #strollerjam).  This is the counter-messaging we need. It is deeply faithful and effective.