Money and Power

Matthew 25:16-17 – "Immediately, the one given five talents went and traded them and made five more. Likewise, the one who received two earned two more."

This gives a very unrealistic expectation of gains. Or maybe it doesn’t, and I’m just not rich enough to appreciate how money makes money. I’m curious how usury plays a part in this? Usury in the Old Testament was charging any interest whatsoever for a loan. We have redefined it to mean exorbitant interest and gone even further by not caring about such interest in loans to poor people. There is an erroneous and egregious idea that poor people are less skillful at handling finances, therefore they are charged higher interest. Those who can least afford it are charged more. 

This contributes to the immorality of being wealthy in today’s world. We punish poor people with higher interest rates. When they cannot pay, their credit rating goes down, and their interest rate goes up even higher. How is this sustainable? This is not a fault of poor people. Poor people are kept poor by the system, which is designed to benefit rich, white men to the detriment of everyone else. We as a nation have not made our peace with how unjust our system is and has always been. Not capitalism per se but the unfettered, unregulated capitalism we practice here in the US. 

It’s not only economic injustice, it’s criminal injustice as well. We need look no further than the newspapers this morning, declaring that the DOJ has interfered on Roger Stone’s behalf in his federal criminal trial. All four federal prosecutors quit the case in protest. I understand one quit the DoJ entirely. This is retribution for impeachment, plain and simple. Black people and other people of color are given harsher and longer sentences, but the DoJ will intervene on behalf of those the president deems worthy. Donald learned the lesson that Republican senators, including my own senator from Ohio, Rob Portman, taught him by voting to acquit. He learned that they have his back, and he can do whatever he wants. They won’t stop him. It’s a soft coup.

You may wonder what that has to do with making money. Money is power. When the Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, they screwed over 50% of Americans, whose voices are now drowned in the clinking of coins raining down from billionaires and corporations. Both of these groups take without giving back, in part due to Donald’s tax scam of 2017. In addition, we have documented the funneling of Russian money supporting Republicans through the NRA and associated SuperPACs. This is treason, pure and simple. We are in a cold war with Russia and Donald is their asset. Whether he is indebted to them, or he’s being blackmailed, or even if he doesn’t realize it, he’s a Russian asset. His policies serve Russia’s interests. For all their talk about national security, the Republicans don’t care about it. They care about money and the power that money represents.

I read an interview with Kevin Kruse, a history professor at Princeton, in which he mentioned a 1989 book, The Culture Wars, by James Davison Hunter. “Con­servatives saw freedom in economic terms (tax cuts, deregulation) and justice in social terms (upholding moral standards), while liberals saw freedom in social terms (being pro-choice, supporting gay rights) and justice in economic terms (minimum wage, union rights).” This may have been true in 1989, but it isn’t true any longer. Republicans have thrown any claim of personal morality out the window by virtue of their support for this corrupt regime. They worship money and the power that money represents. In order to keep the money flowing, they need to stay in office, and they'll do anything to stay in office. Even staging a coup.

It is as if. It was the same in Jesus’ day.

B