By Rudy Barnes, Jr., Dec. 28, 2024
Christmas is a time for nostalgic remembrance of good times in the past; and the new year a time to make resolutions for the coming year. In a democracy we are the masters of our political destiny. Having elected Donald Trump President in 2016 and 2024, we should be concerned over whether and how we can save American libertarian democracy.
Once the largest religion in the world, Christianity is shrinking. Greed, materialism and hedonism have corrupted America the Beautiful over the years. A moral revolution is needed to resurrect the altruistic and universal values taught by Jesus by giving them priority over exclusivist church doctrines doctrines that were never taught by Jesus.
Thomas Jefferson was a universalist who considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code developed by man.” Jesus was a universalist Jew whose teachings are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and regions as we love ourselves; and it was accepted by Islamic scholars as a common word of faith.
Christian Universalism was a separate Christian denomination until it merged with Unitarian Universalists (UU) in 1964. Since then no religion has promoted the teachings of Jesus as a universal and common word of faith. Exclusivist religious doctrines continue to discourage Jews, Christians and Muslims from advocating the teachings of Jesus as a common word of faith.
Universalism in religion is not an attempt to make the mystical nature of religion uniform, but to focus on voluntary moral standards of legitimacy common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, such as the greatest commandment to love God and all of our neighbors as we love ourselves. As a common word of faith, it’s a moral imperative to provide for the common good.
The inauguration of Trump is on January 20. His statements about what he and his minions like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, fellow but unelected billionaires, plan to do after January 20 make it a moral imperative to support a Congress that will prevent Trump and his super-rich minions from further corrupting American democracy.
Jesus did not teach that riches were evil, only that the love of riches corrupted the soul (e.g. the story of a rich man at Mark 10:17-27; parable of the rich fool at Luke 12:15-21; treasures and the heart at Luke 12:33,34; and you cannot serve two masters at Luke 16:13). And St. Paul confirmed this, warning Timothy: People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap…For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
America is a rich and powerful nation, but its very soul—the American civil religion—is threatened by the danger of riches. Self-centered materialism and hedonism have displaced the altruistic faith and collective civic responsibilities that are needed to provide for the common good, and polarized partisan politics are exacerbating that danger to democracy.
Notes
On Whether America the Beautiful has lost its beauty as well as its political legitimacy, see
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/02/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.
On Musings on on the Teachings of Jesus as a Universal and Common Word of Faith, see
https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/12/musings-on-teachings-of-jesus-as.html.
On a recent commentary and notes on The teachings of Jesus as a universal and common word of faith, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/12/musings-on-teachings-of-jesus-as.html.
With Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, fellow but unelected billionaires--with whom Trump has already shared his power and made greed an imminent moral threat to American democracy. “We see a host of billionaire Scrooges bubbling over with plans to enhance their idea of good business at the expense of random, heartless suffering of those in the middle and lower ends of society. Vivek, a pharmaceutical billionaire, has suggested, for example, that the Social Security rolls could easily be reduced by randomly eliminating people based on even or odd Social Security numbers and without due process. Elon Musk is seeking to increase his federal contracts and shut down federal investigations of national security and other legal violations. For good measure, he demanded a government shutdown right at Christmas that intimidated Republicans in Congress and undermined a bipartisan agreement. Meanwhile, the CEOs of all the “tech giants” and major corporations are heading to Mar-a-Lago to bow and scrape to make more money at public expense. Most Americans were converted from supporting Scrooge policies when a depression in the 1920s and 1930s occurred because of corruption and lack of accountability by millionaires and banks. But voters returned them to power after 2000 and brought on the same problems in 2007 and 2008, yet the suffering was not deep enough to prevent returning them to power in Congress in 2010. Even the unnecessary death of half a million people in 2019-20 was not enough to warn the public against delusions of prosperity and competence under the rule of Scrooges. This time the crisis could come toward the beginning of a presidential term, as with Herbert Hoover, rather than at the end of terms as with George W. Bush and Donald Trump. It would appear that at least three or more years of horrific collapse might be necessary to lead supporters of the Scrooges to decide that the business of government should have been (in the words of Marley) the common welfare, charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence.
Christmas is a time of prayers for peace and justice in the world at a time when international conflicts are highly volatile and American leaders are more concerned about their own wealth and power. There is always room for hope that some of the Scrooges will have Marley insights that lead to conversion—that even evangelical Christians will rediscover Jesus’s message that the best way to show dedication to God is by loving neighbors as ourselves.
Let us pray that a new and deeper world depression or another world war caused by Scrooge indifference will not be necessary before the American people and leaders in Congress put aside delusions and stand up for charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, and the common welfare.” See A Prayer for Biiionaire Scrooges for Christmas 2024 at https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/a-prayer-for-billionaire-scrooges-for-christmas-2024/.