Thursday, May 17, 2007
An Odd Thing for a Bible Believer to Say
Sorry to jump on the insult a person when he's dead bandwagon, which is, like so much nowadays, somewhat distastefull, but this quotation jumped out at me: "The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability"
But isn't the whole point of the environmentally protecting Levitical laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years to destroy economic stability? To redemonstrate the lesson of the Exodus -- that man does not live by bread alone? To show the rich what the poor see every day: life is precarious? And, since Falwell at least claimed to be Christian, let us consider whether Jesus interested in preserving economic stability and free enterprise when he overturned the tables of the money-changers?
From a Biblical perspective, Falwell's paranoia wasn't that far off -- it's just that from a Biblical perspective, this is not a bug but a feature.
Not to get all commie on y'all -- but is an unfettered free market such a good thing? Is economic stability the end-all and be all of everything? After all, an economically stable system is one which isn't adapting, one which isn't evolving (is that why the neo-feudalists hate evolution), one which isn't growing. Feudalism, in which the serfs remained serfs and the gentry remained gentry was an economically stable system -- until it catastrophically collapsed.
And feudalism is exactly what the laws of Jubilee prevented for Israel, nu? You can't keep a family in serfdom if they get their land back every 50 years ...
Yet, in the name of preserving Biblical morality, people like Falwell insulted Biblical morality when it was placed right in front of them?
Oy ... What a world!
But isn't the whole point of the environmentally protecting Levitical laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years to destroy economic stability? To redemonstrate the lesson of the Exodus -- that man does not live by bread alone? To show the rich what the poor see every day: life is precarious? And, since Falwell at least claimed to be Christian, let us consider whether Jesus interested in preserving economic stability and free enterprise when he overturned the tables of the money-changers?
From a Biblical perspective, Falwell's paranoia wasn't that far off -- it's just that from a Biblical perspective, this is not a bug but a feature.
Not to get all commie on y'all -- but is an unfettered free market such a good thing? Is economic stability the end-all and be all of everything? After all, an economically stable system is one which isn't adapting, one which isn't evolving (is that why the neo-feudalists hate evolution), one which isn't growing. Feudalism, in which the serfs remained serfs and the gentry remained gentry was an economically stable system -- until it catastrophically collapsed.
And feudalism is exactly what the laws of Jubilee prevented for Israel, nu? You can't keep a family in serfdom if they get their land back every 50 years ...
Yet, in the name of preserving Biblical morality, people like Falwell insulted Biblical morality when it was placed right in front of them?
Oy ... What a world!
# posted by alberich @ 1:28 PM 
