Saturday, April 9, 2011

Thoughts on our government

If, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."(Mark 10:25) And, at least 237 member of Congress are multimillionaires.  Then perhaps we need to take a closer look at who we trust with running our government.  Now, I know that all things are possible through God, but Christ didn't make that statement for no reason.  We also need to take into account the context of the statement.  It was made right after the encounter known as The Rich Young Ruler.

When you take this abstract thought, and then look at some examples of how our representatives act it becomes a little clearer to me:
She is earning $174,000 per year and won't be able to make ends meet if she misses a pay check.  If that weren't enough, we also have an example of what our representatives think of us, the unwashed public:
Now, when it come time to get re-elected we will hear all the things we want to hear from our representatives.  We will hear about their faith, caring, how they fight for us in Washington, how they are just like us.  I think we need to go further than listening to their words and look at who they are and what they do.  Beyond that we need to look at the entire political system and how polluted it is with money.  In an environment like that it would be darn near impossible for even the best person to maintain their moral compass.

In our culture we now venerate the rich, we hold them up as better than us, somehow more trustworthy than us.  The idea that if they are rich they are beyond being bribed or tempted by financial gain.  In fact, if they are wealthy they have already been bribed.

3 comments:

  1. I think that having rich people at the Congress is not that bad, because they already have made a fortune and it will be very hard to be attempted for corruption than if they were poor!

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  2. I am not sure that rich people are not corrupted. I even think that they are much more greedy and thirsty for more money and power.

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  3. Kim - I've heard that reasoning before, but I don't think it is true. Wealthy people tend to be worldly and worried about protecting their wealth. The story of the rich young ruler shows just how attached to things the rich are. People should always come first, not stuff.

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