The War On Poverty Has A New Enemy... The Poor

According to Wikipedia: "The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United Sates President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent (in 2009 it was 14.3% with another 4.6% at risk - US Census data). The speech led the US Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty." The idea was to provide community service, support and opportunity, so that poor people could climb out of poverty and discover one of the Four Freedoms along the way: "Freedom from Want (for you Franklin D. Rooseveltand Norman Rockwell fans). Unfortunately, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear have both seemed to have left the building, or at least the halls of good governance these days.

Case in point... Did anyone catch House Tea Party Caucus Leader: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on ABC's Good Morning America on November 16th. Please check it out: http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2010/11/michele-bachmann-supports-tax-cut-compromise-but-not-if-tied-to-unemployment-benefits-.html. Not only were her facts incorrect and twisted to elicit fear, but she seemed to totally mis the point of George Stephanopoulos' question; "Why is it OK for the wealthiest Americans, earning over $250,000 a year to have their tax cuts extended... but for people who are out of a job, needing unemployment benefits, not to have their benefits extended?" For Rep. Bachmann extending unemployment benefits will increase our massive spending problem, but extending tax cuts will help everyone by creating jobs... anyone else confused by her logic and sense of service to her fellow citizens?

Maybe you need to read two other articles: 1) "More than 40 of the nation's millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration"http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20101119/ts_yblog_theticket/millionaires-to-obama-tax-us.

2) "Despite a stubbornly sour national economy congressional members' personal wealth collectively increased by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to a new study by the Center for Responsive Politics of federal financial disclosures released earlier this year."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/congress-richer-recession-millionaires_n_785222.html

Wow... that's right... Congress has done alright in the wealth department during these economic hard times and 40 of the wealthiest Americans don't want the tax cuts. I wonder how many Senators and Representatives are members of the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength?

Somewhere along the line, and maybe it's the fear factor that seems to be pervading every aspect of our political, social and economic lives these days... you know, that has caused our generally kind, generous and compassionate culture to become so self-serving and protectionist... but somewhere somebody got it all wrong. Maybe it's people like Rep. Bachmann who make a congressional salary of $174,000; receives approximately $25,000 annually in farm subsidies for the family farm; who's husband, Marcus runs a Christian counseling service (Bachmann and Associates, Inc) that receives approximately $10,000 annually in state funds; and, we don't know what Marcus' annual salary is... maybe these are the wealthiest Americans who are so worried and confused. Confused, because they have somehow turned the War on Poverty into the War on the Poor; making them out to be shiftless, users that want nothing more than a handout from hard working Americans.

A wise friend, The Rev. Bill James, once said to a group of seminary students that I was a part of; "No one wants to be poor. Most of the time the poor lack the skills, support systems and opportunity to get out of the cycle of poverty." I wish we would focus on teaching job and money management skills; being part of a support system; and, work to ensure opportunities to work at a living wage... as much or more than we seem to focus on those who are abusing the system (on either end by fraud or corruption). If we did, we might actually be able to take on poverty, rather than further victimizing the poor.

Want to rethink fighting poverty? Check out some of the work www.MoveTheMountain.org is doing. Also, remember your faith more than your fear... "'When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then God will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'" (found within Matthew 25:31-46)

O.K., The World Has Officially Gone Crazy!

During the course of this past week three issues came to my attention that have me wondering just how ridiculous people will ultimately become in terms of their prejudices, bias and downright contempt for other people...

1) And you thought we had come a long way on the issue of race over the past 50 years. Consider the case of a Louisiana Justice of the Peace, Keith Bardwell, who refuses to marry an interracial couples. Here's the Associated Press release on the story:

AP) NEW ORLEANS A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said. "I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.


2) How literally do the so-called Bible Believing folk really take the Bible? Or are we now seeing that many of them aren't simply satisfied any longer with being selective literalists, but have decided that being a revisionist is o.k. after all? That is as long as the revision backs their beliefs. Here's the story:

I read in "The Tennessean" newspaper, "Andy Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, wants to save the Scriptures from liberals with his latest venture, the Conservative Bible Project. He says translations like the New International Version have added socialist ideals to the Good Book. But his rewrite of the Bible has drawn criticism from biblical scholars, liberals and conservatives.

Schlafly, the son of national political activist Phyllis Schlafly, says a conservative Bible should be masculine, for example, using the words mankind and man rather than more inclusive language. It also should shun terms like laborer or comrade. It also should put a free market spin on the sayings of Jesus."

3) Finally, 30 US Senators voted against Al Franken's proposal to get rid of an old clause in government contracts, that makes it impossible for someone to sue if they are raped on the job. Say What??? John Stewart picked up on this one on the Daily Show and you can watch his satirical attack here:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-14-2009/rape-nuts
It would be funny if it weren't so sad and offensive.


My friends... pray for our land and its people!

What Happened to Bishop Gene Robinson's Prayer for President Obama?

"Sunday afternoon, HBO televised the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial — a concert planned by the Presidential Inauguration Committee — to kick off the festivities surrounding Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.

Openly gay bishop Gene Robinson delivered the opening prayer before the start of the concert, but the prayer was not included as part of HBO's broadcast.

Contacted Sunday night by AfterElton.com concerning the exclusion of Robinson's prayer, HBO said via email, 'The producer of the concert has said that the Presidential Inaugural Committee made the decision to keep the invocation as part of the pre-show.'"

To get more of the story: check out
Michael Jensen’s Blog: AfterElton

Below is the text of Gene Robinson's Prayer for President-elect Barack Obama:
(Click Here: to View the Prayer on You Tube)

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
by
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event ~ Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

With all of the controversy that has been building around the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at President-Elect Obama's inauguration, based on Mr. Warren's anti-LGBT stance; is it any wonder that members of the LGBT communities are feeling slighted? I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.