Christian clergy join fight against Golden Calf of “corporate greed”
Ken Hechtman writes:
Life imitates Lord of the World [see earlier exchange on that Book of Revelations-based 1908 novel].
Here is the
item Mr. Hechtman sent, from
Think Progress, a leftist site:
Christian Leaders March With Occupy San
Francisco To Financial District Carrying
Golden Calf, Protests Corporate Greed
By Lee Fang on Oct 25, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Bay Area Christian leaders [dressed in business suits
to play role of corporate plutocrats] march against
corporate greed and big bank corruption of government.
KGO ABC News San Francisco reports that a group of clergy members joined the 99 Percent Movement yesterday for a march to San Francisco’s financial district, including the office buildings for JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The demonstrators hailed from different parts of the Bay Area and carried a golden calf, which “represented a young version of Wall Street’s golden bull.”
And from the ABC article that’s linked in the Think-Progress article:
A diverse coalition of Bay Area clergy used the biblical false idol to represent corporate greed, taking the bull on a stroll with stops at what protesters call some of the biggest temples of money making—JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The bull was carried during the march by men in suits, who are dressed to look like businessmen.
Unbelievable. People are mass protesting against mindless, hackneyed, cartoonish slogans. They actually believe that “greed” (along with “banks”) is the main problem facing America, and all we have to do is stop “greed” (and beat down “banks”) and all will be well. And mainstream news organization are reporting on the protests against “corporate greed,” as though “corporate greed” were a fact rather than an assertion, as though it were established and generally agreed upon where good “non-greed” leaves off, and bad “greed” begins.
Here is the rest of the Think-Progress article, which includes a TV news video:
“We are creating our own version of a lobbyist for the poor and the middle class. We don’t have a lobbyist to send to our representatives, who often have expensive lobbyists coming to them and speaking their issue. So we are coming here, lifting our voices and getting their attention,” said Rev. Donna Allen of New Revelation Community Church to an ABC News reporter. Watch a video of the broadcast here:
The clergy is right to target both big banks and their lobbyists as equal parts of the problem. A ThinkProgress investigation found that California, a state suffering from one of the worst foreclosure crises in the nation, failed to enact mortgage mitigation policies after lawmakers close to the mortgage banker lobby killed a bill this year. State Sen. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) went to dinner with a Bank of America lobbyist after he voted against an effort to address the widespread robo-signing scandal. Experts believe robo-signing, or the mass forgery of mortgage documents by several bank-related companies, has led to thousands of fraudulent foreclosures.
[End of Think-Progress article]
But how did the mortgage crisis begin? Not through the monetary greed of banks, but through the egalitarian greed of liberals such as President George W. Bush, who insisted that all racial groups in America including Hispanic illegal aliens must have equal rates of home ownership, and pressured banks to give mortgages to people who were unable to maintain the payments and were unqualified for mortgages under normal lending rules.
Now here is the ABC article:
Religious leaders join ‘Occupy SF’ march
Heather Ishimaru and Amy Hollyfield
Monday, October 24, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO)—On Monday, a march through San Francisco’s Financial District included Northern California religious leaders that wanted to take a stand against economic inequality. The clergy members said they want to give the “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy San Francisco” protests some validation.
They said they wanted to be the lobbyists for the poor and middle class who cannot afford real Washington lobbyists who work the halls of Capitol Hill.
There was a “follow the money” march and appropriately enough in this case a “follow the golden calf” demonstration. The marchers had a golden calf, which represented a young version of Wall Street’s golden bull.
A diverse coalition of Bay Area clergy used the biblical false idol to represent corporate greed, taking the bull on a stroll with stops at what protesters call some of the biggest temples of money making—JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The bull was carried during the march by men in suits, who are dressed to look like businessmen.
“We feel as though the American institutions, the financial institutions, are morally dead,” said Jusone from Occupy SF.
The clergy members chanted a response to that: “And all of us together become the beloved community.”
The religious leaders came in support of the Occupy SF protesters, but not many of those came along on the march. The message of the march was that there is too much money concentrated in the corporations and in their executives’ personal accounts.
“When things become so out of balance, there needs to be a rebalance,” said Bill Peebles from the Orinda United Church of Christ.
“Christians all over the world on Sunday morning pray ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’ and I think that is the common message that all people of all faiths are seeking,” said Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae from the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco. [LA replies: what “forgive us our debts” practically means in this situation is that the government will continue to force banks to give home mortgages to people—namely millions of blacks and Hispanics—who are unable to pay for them, and when the mortgages fail, society must take up the slack and maintain the mortgages. What “forgive us our debts” means is that “society”—i.e., white people who have the ability and drive to make a good income—must provide black and brown people who lack the ability and drive to make a good income with home ownership. It’s not enough that black and brown people rent their homes. No, the regime of social justice and “non-greed” requires that society guarantee that incapable or improvident blacks and Hispanics own homes at the same rate as whites. What “forgive us our debts” means is—racial socialism.]
The crowd also chanted: “We come celebrating our diversity, we come affirming our unity.” [LA replies: Translation: White people are “one” with the “diverse” black and brown people and are morally obligated to make them materially equal to themselves by transferring their wealth to them.]
Across the street from Bank of America, spectators seemed entertained. This man says he works for a big bank.
“Do you think they have a point or are missing the point? Everybody has a point, an opinion, so everyone has a right to do it,” said
“I applaud them what they’re doing, but actually all this picketing, spending the night out here, it’s not going to work. It’s going to be the same thing tomorrow and next month,” said Aleisa Chenault, who works nearby the Occupy SF encampment.
Chenault’s thinks to get the attention of Wall Street and corporate America everyone needs to take their money out of the banks and not spend any money for three days.
The clergy in Monday’s march represent a wide range of religions and communities from Protestant to Muslim, from Vacaville to Santa Rosa. The 170 clergy members were confirmed and it appeared to be a large turnout. The “Occupy” protesters were happy to be marching with the clergy members.
“I think it’s wonderful. I think we need more stuff like this. We need to connect with all aspects of the community, especially positive people like this. I know Occupy doesn’t try to stand for any political or religious persuasion—that’s fine. This is a multi-congregational, multi-faith delegation,” said Jusone of Occupy San Francisco.
“We are creating our own version of a lobbyist for the poor and the middle class. We don’t have a lobbyist to send to our representatives, who often have expensive lobbyists coming to them and speaking their issue. So we are coming here, lifting our voices and getting their attention,” said Rev. Donna Allen of New Revelation Community Church.
The religious leaders said they marched for peace and justice and are hoping to change people’s perspectives of the protesters. They don’t want them seen as a fringe group of anarchists and that they represent every man.
[end of ABC article]
- end of initial entry -
James R. writes:
Re the “Fight Against Greed,” if you’re a progressive, it’s easy to draw a bright-line distinction between good “non-greed” and bad “greed.”
Wanting to have something of someone else’s without having to work for it, or wanting take stuff from others to give to myself and my friends, that’s good non-greed.
Bad greed is wanting to keep what I have or opposing letting those who want to take it from me, so don’t have to work to pay off student loans they undertook voluntarily (“But the tuition is too damned high!” Why aren’t they protesting the universities?) or so that they can assign themselves a “social minimum” that will allow them to get stoned on my dime and sit in a hippie drum circle all day, every day, or be an intern at Tides or Center for American Progress without those entities having to pay them.
The problem with conservatives is they can’t understand very clear distinctions that are intuitively obvious to every good, decent progressive in the wonderful global community that these fine clergymen are helping us move towards. The movement lives on, and the dream will never die!
James R. continues:
The end of the article on “Religious Leaders March” was most revealing:
“The religious leaders said they marched for peace and justice and are hoping to change people’s perspectives of the protesters. They don’t want them seen as a fringe group of anarchists and that they represent every man.”
They don’t want them seen as a fringe group, they want them seen as representing every man (“how sexist!” screech the protesters themselves), they want them seen as representing the mainstream, as representing even those of us who disagree (we must be blinded by false consciousness). They want them seen not for what they are, but for what they aren’t. If they were understood as what they truly are, we would at worst not pay them any attention at all and at best treat them as what they obviously are, and as what they understand themselves to be: the sworn enemies of our civilization, dedicated to tearing it down and replacing it with the usual hellhole.
Mark Jaws writes:
At times like this we need to review and share this clip of the Great Milton Friedman as much as possible. These so-called “religious leaders” in San Francisco need to hear this message too.
Thomas Bertonneau writes:
You wrote:
Unbelievable. People are mass protesting against mindless, hackneyed, cartoonish slogans. They actually believe that “greed” (along with “banks”) is the main problem facing America, and all we have to do is stop “greed” (and beat down “banks”) and all will be well. And mainstream news organization are reporting on the protests against “corporate greed,” as though “corporate greed” were a fact rather than an assertion, as though it were established and generally agreed upon where good “non-greed” leaves off, and bad “greed” begins.
The images held aloft for group revilement signify a classic scapegoating scenario in preparation for a climacteric actual sacrifice or expulsion or the equivalent. The “Occupy” people have so deconstructed their own civilized character that they are now a prehistoric proto-tribe in crisis looking to organize itself by the formula that René Girard names unanimity minus one. Girard’s Scapegoat is a point-by-point commentary on mobilized masses in Manhattan, in San Francisco, in Tunis, in Sirte, and in Cairo. That’s despite Girard having written it thirty-five years ago.
Incidentally, Gustave Le Bon’s study of The Crowd, written 120 years ago, is also a point-by-point commentary on “our” mobs of 2011. There will be violence—as there already has been (perpetually, you might say, in the Islamic world) because the “Occupy” people are looking for a victim to immolate. What a legacy the left has left us, dragging us back to prehistoric collective in its degree-zero of culture.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 26, 2011 02:00 AM | Send