Another Conservative Camel

This essay, like the previous, is adapted from one that will appear on my science website.

In the previous essay, I wrote about how conservatives, such as Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern, are straining out gnats and swallowing camels, to use the same wonderful imagery that Jesus used in criticizing the conservatives of his day. In that essay, I explained that the gnat that the conservatives were straining out was gay rights. They claim, totally without evidence, that homosexuals will bring about the collapse of America. Meanwhile, they ignore the clear dangers posed by our destruction of the environment, dangers that are severe enough to cause our downfall. Conservatives supposedly believe that the environment is God’s Creation, but they seem to not believe this very passionately. And the Bible has identified one particular environmental problem—the loss of topsoil, resulting from the failure to let the fields rest from agriculture—as one of the principal reasons that the Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians.

There is another major theme that conservatives ignore. While they scream about homosexuals, they ignore the problem of poverty. I know that some conservatives (among them Sally Kern) make a show of working in soup kitchens, but they staunchly and zealously support the economic structure that reinforces poverty. They want what they call a “free market” in which the rich can get richer by oppressing the poor. For example, they believe that banks should have unlimited rights to do whatever they want to their poor creditors, such as charging usurious interest rates that not only force the poor to remain poor but drive them further into poverty and prevent them from ever repaying their debts. (At the same time, conservatives utterly reject a free market approach to solving the marijuana problem.) The burden of debt is so heavy, and the bank CEOs are getting so rich from it, that most Americans (the middle class, not just the poor) feel utterly crushed by it. But conservatives want to maintain this system. The freedom of the free market is enjoyed only by the very wealthy. Judging from its actions, the Republican Party would rather have America collapse than to have the taxes on millionaires raised even slightly.

This situation brings to mind some things that the Old Testament prophets said. The second prophet who went by the name Isaiah (chapter 40, verse 1) spoke words that have been immortalized in the music, played each Christmas, by George Frideric Handel: Comfort ye my people, cry unto them that their warfare is accomplished. How can I express the feeling of relief that comes from this music and these words? You can just feel the burdens of a nation sliding off of our shoulders. But how is this to be accomplished? Not by the free market. According to the third verse, a voice cries in the wilderness. And what does this voice say? The fourth verse says, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low.” The meaning of this passage is clear to everyone except conservatives. The rich and powerful will be humbled, and the poor shall be raised up. Not just given some food in a soup kitchen, but actually lifted out of grinding poverty. The only way that our nation, like ancient Israel, can experience relief from our burdens is by making our social relationships more equitable. This is not a call for socialism or communism; there will always be some people who are richer than others, often but not always because they deserve to be. But the extreme disparity between rich and poor in America—which is greater than any other nation in the industrial world and greater than any time in the last hundred years—has to end. The laws and policies that enforce this disparity have to change. As the first Isaiah said (chapter 3, verse 15), God opposes those who “grind the faces of the poor into the dust.”

The solution to our environmental problems also depends on bringing relief to the poor. If people are desperate, they will do whatever they need to do in order to survive. For example, they will try to raise food in marginal soil, which will erode away and cause deserts to spread. There is no hope for our Earth, just as there is no hope for our society, unless the valleys are exalted and the mountains humbled.

Conservatives consider themselves defenders of Biblical religion. But the only thing some of them talk about is how evil homosexuals are. And their solution is that these evil people need to come to their churches and donate money. Conservative churches cannot make money off of denouncing the rich or defending the Earth. On the issues that the Biblical prophets considered most important, conservatives are eerily silent.

Announcement: I want to ask again if anyone wants to submit comments on what you would like to discuss. Unfortunately, at the moment, Blogger is malfunctioning and I cannot read your comments. I hope I can fix that problem soon.