Woe to Wealthy US Catholic Bishops So Obsessed With Below-the-Belt Issues That They Miss the Main Message
Whoa, Jesus! by UCC Pastor Matt Laney June 19, 2021
Jesus said: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” – Luke 6:24-25 (NRSV)
(Satire alert.)
Whoa, Jesus. What do you have against happy, wealthy people? This is America for God’s sake!
Are you a socialist, Jesus? All this hoopla about abandoning material possessions, common ownership, the meek inheriting the earth, doling out free food and free health care. Are you angling for a radical redistribution of wealth? Millions of decent people will lose their jobs and then where will we be?
Be careful, Jesus. That’s mighty inflammatory talk. I’d hate to see any harm come to you. Best to keep your politics out of the pulpit. Why not stick to spiritual matters and leave economics to the experts? If you alienate the rich, who’s going to fund your ministry?
Get a grip, Jesus. Maybe you need to take some time off. Set some realistic goals. Learn to thread the needle. This pie-in-the-sky, commonwealth-of-God business could only happen by divine grace and a total overhaul of the human heart. Good luck with that.
Ray elaborated on that question and on other summit issues, including the ones briefly discussed below, during a 15-minute interview today with “The Critical Hour”.
Ray on Critical Hour; June 17, 2021
At President Putin’s press conference right after yesterday’s summit meeting with President Biden, Euronews journalist Galina Polonskaya asked Putin if he had reached “a new level of trust with the U.S. president”.
In response, Putin quoted Leo Tolstoy:
“Tolstoy once said, there is no happiness in life, only lightening flashes (зарницы) of it — cherish them. I believe that in this situation some kind of family trust is not possible. However, it seems to me we have seen “lightening flashes” (“зарницы” промелькнули) of it.
In a speech in St. Petersburg two weeks ago, Putin identified the huge fly in the ointment. Acknowledging the political pressures any US president faces in trying to carve out a more sensible relationship with Russia, Putin asserted that “to a certain extent, Russian-American relations have become hostage to internal political processes in the United States itself.”
Putin added:
“I hope it ends someday. I mean the fundamental interests in the field of at least security, strategic stability and the reduction of weapons dangerous for the whole world are still more important than the current domestic political situation in the United States itself.”
Biden’s prickly defensiveness, including ranting at journalists, who intimate he might be too trusting of Putin and too confident that Putin “will change his behavior”, is part and parcel of what Putin was alluding to.
Here, for example, is how Biden answered a journalist who asked at his press conference, “Do you believe you can trust him [Putin]?”
Look, this is not about trust; this is about self-interest, and verification of self-interest. That’s what it’s about. … I don’t say, ‘Well, I trust you. No problem’. Let’s see what happens.
Last but hardly least, Putin is well aware that although Biden is president, he is not only “hostage to internal political processes” but is likely to be thwarted by the formidable Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex, should he try to bang some heads together and force steps toward rapprochement with Russia.
The MICIMATT has extinguished many a “lightening flash”. If — and it is a big “IF” — President Biden does try to take it on, the odds are heavily against him, barring some kind of miracle.
Julian Assange’s father, John Shipton, and his brother Gabriel, together with Jill Stein and me among others, spoke briefly earlier today at Community Church of Boston as the “Home Run for Assange” U.S. Tour/2021 reached New England.
The highlight was Julian’s father accepting the Sacco and Vanzetti Award given annually for the past 45 years by Community Church of Boston — the first church to protest loudly the travesty of justice accorded Sacco and Vanzetti, both of whom were falsely convicted and executed in 1927. A Community Church stalwart, David Rothouser, presented a brief summary of that sordid affair and discussed the continuing support for justice provided by 101 year-old Community Church.
Order of Talks
Fast-forward: The actual event does not begin until minute 26:05 of the YouTube video (see link below) with a song and brief welcome by Dean Stevens, musician and a leader of the church. David Rothouser begins speaking at minute 29:00; Jill Stein at min. 37:00. I speak for 11 minutes, starting at min. 49.
John and Gabriel Shipton are then interviewed before the Sacco and Vanzetti award is accepted by John on behalf of the awardee — his son, Julian Assange.
Musician David Rovics provides a moving coda to the affair, singing a song he composed about Julian — a song he actually performed in front of the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh. The song is “Behind These Prison Walls”.
June 8, 1967 is the day Israel learned it could get away with premeditated murder, killing 34 crew, wounding 171. Israel smirked as LBJ, Congress, the media, and (to its shame) US Navy joined the coverup that continues to this day.
