Ronald J. Sider

"Do we sin when we participate in evil social systems and societal structures that unfairly benefit some and harm others?

"Neglect of the biblical teaching on structural injustice or institutionalized evil is one of the most deadly omissions in many parts of the church today. Christians frequently restrict ethics to a narrow class of 'personal' sins. In a study of over fifteen hundred ministers, researchers discovered that theologically conservative pastors spoke out on sins such as drug abuse and sexual misconduct, but failed to preach about the sins of institutionalized racism and unjust economic structures that destroy just as many people.

"In the twentieth century, evangelicals have become imbalanced in their stand against sin, expressing concern and moral outrage about individual sinful acts while ignoring, perhaps even participating in, evil social structures. But the Bible condemns both...

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world." (1 John 2:15-17 NRSV)

Reach Christians in an Age of Hunger. Word Publishing, 1997 (page 110)

Back to Table of Contents

Papal Politics for Cuba

by Anthony Stevens-Arroyo

"...the long-term implications of this papal visit may be felt well outside Cuba. The Holy Father promoted a 'third way' between Communism and Capitalism previously described in his social encyclicals for developing countries. This was not a repeat of his visit to Poland, which contributed to the Communist collapse, nor did he succumb to the partisan stances he adopted while in Sandinista Nicaragua. The Pope described democracy, respect for human rights and religious liberty as part of the dynamics of Cuba today. Since Cuban socialism has demonstrated its ability to change, the church will work within the system in a mutual effort to thwart the effects of neoliberalism. Looked at as politics for eternity, John Paul II's visit means that Cuban socialists may serve as a model for countries that wish to consider alternatives to the global capitalism that has so devastated the poor countries of the world."

The Nation, March 2, 1998.

Back to Table of Contents

HOW THE PIE IS SLICED
America's Growing Concentration of Wealth

Edward N. Wolff

"Conservative economic policy has one central idea: just create a bigger pie, and everyone will have a bigger slice. In fact, conservatives predict that if we cut the rich a bigger piece by lowering their tax rates, the resulting growth will enlarge everyone else's slice, too. This was the core idea of Reagan's tax cuts, and it is central to such current conservative goals as lower capital gains taxes.

"Unfortunately, since the 1980s the great majority of Americans have not been getting bigger slices from a growing pie. As many people have noted, median family income has failed to grow. The picture is even more stark for gains in wealth than for gains in income. New research, based on data from federal surveys, shows that between 1983 and 1989 the top 20 percent of wealth holders received 99 percent of the total gain in marketable wealth, while the bottom 80 percent of the population got only 1 percent. America produced a lot of new wealth in the '80s--indeed, the stock market boomed--but almost none of it filtered down."

Edward N. Wolff, "How the Pie is Sliced", The American Prospect no. 22 (Summer 1995): 58-64.

Back to Table of Contents

Isaiah 58:5-8
"Your light will break forth like the dawn"

"(5) Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? (6) Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? (7) Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (8) Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard."

Bible GateWay

Back to Table of Contents

Just Other Evolutionary Thing

"Chrysler Corp. said Monday that it will keep producing far more trucks than cars, even though a new agreement on global warming threatens to force more small-car production. Thomas T. Stallkamp, Chrysler's new president, said the auto maker is giving consumers what they want by producing bulky, lower-mileage vehicles. 'We are still trying to make all the trucks and sport-utilities and minivans we can. ... Climatic changes have always occurred,' he said. 'I'm not convinced that global warming is in fact a result of industrialization or if it's not just some sort of other evolutionary thing--if it's happening.'"

From Los Angeles Times, cited by The Progressive, Feb. 1998. 

Back to Table of Contents

Helping Hands

The Watsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church is participating in the Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program. This program provides year-round shelter services for homeless people in both Watsonville and Santa Cruz. Currently, in Watsonville there are seven churches of different denominations participating in the program, each of which serves food once a week. A dozen volunteers from the Watsonville SDA Church served more than 220 meals to homeless people during last January.

Back to Table of Contents

A Radical Revolution of Values

Martin Luther King

". . . Increasingly by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken: The role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible, by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures, that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society, when machine and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people. The giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.

"On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's road side, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must cometo see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed, so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make that journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam. April 1967, Riverside Church, NYC.

Back to Table of Contents

Raw Data

• Ratio of the number of prisoners per 100,000 people in China to the number per 100,000 in the U.S.: 2:5
• Ratio of tax dollars spent each day on a U.S. public-school student to the amount spent on a prisoner: 2:7
• Ratio of U.S. defense spending to the combined total spent by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Libia: 2:1
• Number of countries whose GNP last year was less than the amount spent worldwide at Wal-Mart: 161
• Chance that the winning candidate in a 1994 congressional race spent less than his opponent: 1 in 10
• Chances that a person directly affected by the welfare-reform law signed two years ago could vote: 2 in 5
• Percentage of elderly Medicare patients in fee-for-service plans whose health declined during a four-year study: 28
• Percentage of elderly Medicare patients in HMOs whose health declined during the study: 54
• Chances that an evil character in a Disney animated movie speaks with a foreign accent: 1 in 2

Back to Table of Contents

The Economics of Despair:
FALLING WAGES

Andrew M. Sum, Neil Fogg, and Robert Taggart

"Prior to 1973, the annual and weekly earnings of both young adults and older workers had been improving markedly. Since 1973, however, the earnings of young adults have fallen almost continuously. Between 1973 and 1979, the weekly earnings of young men working full time fell by 7 percent. Young men experienced a 19 percent decline in earnings (a real value of $72 per week) between 1979 and 1989. This decline cannot be attributed solely to business cycle contractions. About half of the 19 percent decline did take place during the recessionary period of 1979-1982. But between 1982 and 1989, a period of strong overall job growth, the weekly earnings of young men fell by another $33, or 9 percent. Earnings declined still more between 1989 and 1994, dropping yet another 9 percent. The result of all this decline? A young man under 25 years of age employed full time in 1994 earned 31 percent less per week than what his same-aged counterpart earned in 1973.

"Annual earnings trends display the same pattern. Using findings from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual work experience surveys, we estimate that between 1973 and 1993 the median real annual earnings of young males employed on a full-time basis for at least 27 weeks fell from $18,600 to $13,700, a decline of 26 percent. Young male high school dropouts experienced a 32 percent decline in real annual earnings, while high school graduates with no college education experienced a 29 percent decline. In 1993 a young male high school graduate earned in real terms only what a comparably aged high school dropout was earning in 1973. And a four-year-college graduate in 1993 earned only slightly more than a high school graduate earned 20 years earlier."

Copyright 1996 by New Prospect, Inc. Preferred Citation: Andrew M. Sum, Neil Fogg, and Robert Taggart, "The Economics of Despair," The American Prospect no. 27 (July-August 1996): 83-88.

Back to Table of Contents

Back to Table of Contents

Created by chepibe