So, there are a bunch of us stranded on an island…rather than fighting against unknown monsters or DARPA nut jobs, our island is at peace. On our island, we have lots of coconuts, shells, water and other resources. Lets say that there are 40 of us. How do we share the resources? Can we all get along like a commune? Will the commune environment give the right incentives to ensure that the islands resources are properly exploited and fairly allocated? Can we keep Jack happy and treating sick people, and keep Sawyer from stealing all of the medicine and guns? Will Hurley eat all of the food? I read a lot of stuff from the Christian community about social justice and anti-corporate ethics, but I don’t think that things have been stripped back and really examined to say that “corporate” is bad and “poor” is good (or pick your own social justice phrase). I don’t think that Christian liberals (lets assume that this means those who desire social justice) have looked very hard at the issues; nor have Christian conservatives (I state the obvious here).
The heart of ethical analysis for liberals seems to be how to reallocate or compensate for the mal-behavior of evil people (normally via evil governments and evil corporations). The heart of ethical analysis for conservatives seems to be how to give rewards to those whose conduct complies with the conservative idealogy. How about an economist ethicist? Or a Christian economist ethicist? Maybe that person would make the very Christian assumption that all people are messed up sinners…as Chicago scool economists have put it “self interested.” This ethicist would ask how to structure society (or our coconut island) in such a way that the self interested nature is harnessed for the greater good of the society. I don’t think that the politics, society and culture of THIS particular coconut island would end up either “conservative” or “liberal.” I suspect that it would end up with a disparity between those who have a lot and those who do not have a lot. However, this society would give incentives to exploit the islands resources to encourage self interested people to harvest coconuts, fish, offer medical services, cook, build, etc. Those who are most resourceful at exploiting these resources would be the most successful: they would “have more” as a result of their efforts; the incentives would exist to encourage this behavior because the whole society gains from it. Of course, the incentives would not be without limit lest the “self interested” nature be permitted to amass and exploit without balance. A smart society that recognizes the “self interested” nature of humans as basically evil when unchecked would see that the exploitation of resources beyond certain limits would eventually lead to an imbalance that ultimately leads to disincentives for the other island occupants. No coconuts left? Big disincentive to everyone else. All coconut trees owned by one dude (Sawyer, for example): big disincentive for everyone else.
Look. Our sin nature is ignored in communalism, communism and related ideologies. We have to incentivize behavior that is good for society and disincentivize behavior that is bad for society. Social justice does not always do this. Obviously conservatism does not either. I have a lot of stories about landlording and dealing with drug addicted tenants. However, it never ceases to amaze me how many benevolent organizations are there to help the “poor” tenants who are being evicted by their ‘bad’ landlords (me?). They don’t seem to care that the woman that they are helping this week claimed she couldn’t pay rent last week but she had a stack of 100 bills in her wallet (I’m not making this one up). Or that she deals drugs and her unit is basically a drug store…she doesn’t want to get evicted because it’s her “store front” just like a 7-Eleven. If social justice helps her out, it is bad for society; her store stays open, takes rent money from other tenants and drags the whole block down. Get the picture?
At bottom, I am trying to reconcile my faith to money just like most other honest Christians. How much can I spend? How much can I keep? Should I give money away rather than buy an apartment complex? I am not reflecting on money, ethics and justice in a vacuum. In fact, I guess that I am accusing both liberals and conservatives of doing just that.
March 12th, 2006
I had the pleasure of receiving my first copy of Geez Magazine before the holidays. I meant to post right away. I gobbled it up and enjoyed its message and its general approach to faith and, well, everything else. It’s not always clear in the magazine how much cynicism might not be cynicism, which is not a good thing…it can piss off people who are offended by the cynicism and snub the people who are reading it because they are cynical. In any event, its a great approach and I hope that they kick ass. Subscribe at Geezmagazine.org
The magazine touched some nerves that have been on my mind recently that I’ll post on soon. There’s a particular aspiration toward a sort of spiritual “Theresa-ism” or “Ghandi-ism” that I’m not sure that I agree with, both in the Geez edition, and generally in socially-conscious people of faith. It raises questions about the core of social ethics and politics: poverty; the ethics of money; wealth; power; etc. To take on this subject, we could look at Locke and Hobbes, we could look at the Chicago school of economics, we could compare Jesus with the Patriarchs. Instead, we will take our analysis of wealth and poverty to a remote island, a sort of hypothetical Survivor island where we can play with the ideas on a very basic level. More to come on Coconut Island.
January 21st, 2006
I was stuck in the Las Vegas airport for longer than expected last week. I sat in a cafe and watched the travelers come and go for two hours. After about an hour, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. I didn’t know why, but I felt like I was totally out of place. It could not have been the airport, I’ve been there about 200 times…I found myself looking at the crowds around me and realized that every single person around me was fat. I’m not talking ten pounds around the waist, I am talking 30 plus pounds and most even more. I realized that the whole flippin airport was full of fat people. All ages, most ethnicities, most fatties. I ran a little non-scientific experiment and counted for two minutes, every person that went by and out of 60 people only 10 were “normal” in that they were average looking, no bulges. I figure that there was a 10 lb threshold. If they had an extra ten, they were on my normal list. I ran this a couple of times with the same results.
They say that 60% of Americans are obese, that’s a politically correct way of saying fat. I hear “obesity is an epidemic” and that sort of thing. Now, 60% seems generous and must count kids or something, because the cross section of people who passed through the airport that night was over 80% obese. What the hell is wrong with everyone? Have we completely lost our self control? Have we such low self-discipline? No wonder the heath care costs keep soaring. No wonder we are so fucked up in every way. I am totally disgusted.
Does the Bible say anything about this? I guess its not as important as what it says about being a republican and praying for a conservative Supreme Court.
January 21st, 2006
Here the thing that has struck me recently. With all of the pop-evangelical desire to have “christianity” influence (impact, effect, change, help, guide, control, or enter another synonym) society, why is it that they only want to influence society on “key issues”? American society is full of selfishness, impatience, greed, gluttony, anger, cheating, fraud, disrespect, ignorance. Yet, the largest voting contingent in the U.S. gives all of its political power to ensure that gays can’t marry and to stop abortion. That’s the “moral majority.” There you go. Forget about all of the ways in which the church, god’s people, people of faith whose lives have allegedly been transformed, COULD influence society both through politics and through conduct. As long as we put our social and political power into the hands of those who claim to also be christians, we can go on with our lives. Why would we do this? Ah, we then get to discharge our christian duty and then go on living in selfishness, impatience, greed, gluttony, anger, cheating, fraud, disrespect and ignorance.
Here’s a novel idea for Christians. Lets live the way our Jesus would live. Lets get that sermon on the mount into our heads and live it. Lets spend our lives fighing the selfish asshole within and root out the ignorance by learning; get rid of the greed with generosity; give up the anger, pride and arrogance; stop consuming to stem the gluttony and terrible excessiveness in which we live; live at peace with all men without disrespect; lets stop cheating and defrauding in business and life; and lets be patient, patiently deferring our own damn gratification for the sake of others.
If Christians would do this, then society would change. Christians then could take pride in having an influence on society. Christians could brag about how they have been a part of bringing the Christian ethic to bear in American life; they will have changed culture; made America more moral. That would be something to be proud of.
January 7th, 2006
So, as some of you may know, a cluster of bloggers, lead by Zeke, participated in a gift exchange…well not real gifts, but virtual gifts, with a value not greater than $25. So, I drew Zeke himself as my giftee…so here you go Zeke….
I’m going to say that Zeke is a 40 year old professional from the O.C., probably coastal. He probably works in some shiny building in Irvine, and as a professional has the occasional freedom to hit the blogs, while his cubicle minions grind out the daily bread. He probably commutes and uses that time to listen to podcasts, as well as audiobooks. So, I’m thinking of some kind of audio book, but not the usual suspects: he’s already read or listened to most of the top stuff. He needs a book that when mentioned amongst intellectuals acts as a sort of shibolet for the intelligentsia. He is interested in politics, Christian history, history and how religion has interacted with society in history. He does not swear like the rest of us bloggers; so the book needed to be without dirty words, while not necessarily rated “G.” He’s an honest person that calls bullshit what it is, while of course not actually calling it bullshit. So, here’s your Christmas gift: Extraordinary Popular Delusions: the Madness of Crowds written by Charles MacKay in the 1700’s, and reduced to cassette (remember those?) in 1993: GO HERE for the cassette version. They don’t make this kind of book for easy download on Audible. But, even though he is a mod, podcasting, iPod using hipster, he is 40 and will in fact have an old school cassette player at his disposal. In the event that he has trashed the cassette player, the paperback makes excellent reading: PAPERBACK
The book is well known amongst economists, and is in fact an excellent commentary on money and investing. However, note the sections on alchemy and brilliant commentary on the Crusades. It never occurred to me how ridiculous the “Harvest Crusade” name was until I read this book. Merry Christmas my thinking friend.
Charles
December 12th, 2005
I went to see the indie flick Naked In Ashes, a sort of documentary of the lives of wandering yogies and babas of India. It was well produced, and interesting, if not a bit long and a bit slow moving. I found myself thinking about their lives, which are largely ascetic, and trying to figure out what was at the core of why they do what they do. They live their lives in denial of the world and pleasure; homeless, poor, yes naked too. They claim to live for others, which appears to mean that they are there in spiritual service to bless people. They are “god men” and thus are endowed with special powers and they serve people by praying and blessing them. But, really they seemed to live their lives in abstract from people and people’s needs. They really lived their lives for and to themselves. Their spiritual exercises were to attain personal holiness; to deepen their personal experience with “god” and increase their spiritual knowledge. This is at bottom mysticism: a spirituality of self improvement and personal experience.
Hasn’t modern christianity, or more specifically evangelicalism, become nothing more than christian mysticism? Is this the kind of religion that Jesus preached, or that we find in the Bible? As a product of pentacostalism, I was a mystic; I thought that praying for hours was what I needed to improve my spirituality; I thought that austerity was what I should pursue to increase my spiritual “strength”; I read the Bible with the idea that it was a pathway to an experience with God.
Is this what Christianity should be? Do we live to improve our individual spirits? Do we pursue paths of experience? Should we seek emotional and “feeling” based experiences, and if we do should we place those experiences as monikers of spiritual maturity, or spiritual “betterness?”
I wonder if now, ten years after leaving ministry, if Christ ever taught about experience, emotion, feeling, or mystical spiritualilty. I wonder if we have simply imported mysticism as a natural sinful inclination to make spirituality personal, to own it and to be empowered by it. If Jesus called for us to die with him, then is death to self consistent with mysticism? Do I trash all of those close-encounters with God now? When I studied with the Presbyterians, I was appalled that they did not believe in experience at all. At the time, I just thought that they were unspiritual. Now, I don’t know. Maybe I was unspiritual in my pursuit of personal experiences.
Lately I have been questioning some key evangelical ideas like mysticism because I have been asking why a bunch of people who say that they believe in Jesus, literally and wholeheartedly, yet they fail to live like it. I have been thinking that it must arise from some failure in theology. In the case of mysticism: we fail to do what Jesus “would do” on all levels because we believe that what we “ought to do” is to pray more, sing spiritual songs, have more meetings, preserve ourselves from the “world” and other things that are basically mystical or monastic; our faith is about us, not about others.
November 27th, 2005
I’m sure that everyone has heard that Pat Robertson has claimed that the termination of a school board that had required the school district to adopt a cirriculum for science that was based on “intelligent design” should not be surprised when they have a natural disaster. They have “rejected God” and so they should not call on God when they have a disaster. Check out the story on Yahoo!
I happened to turn past Fox News last night, while the other networks were reporting on Pat Robertson. Fox had Dr. James Dobson on. I figured that maybe they had him on to say, “that’s crazy all that Pat Robertson crap….God is not rejected by a city, lets forget all this nonsense…etc.” but no. He was there to discuss the war in Iraq, which he commented that he felt was “justified” because of all of the innocent people that were being killed by Saddam, etc. He must not know that in our attack, we killed thousands of people, including women and children, who were “collateral damage” in our effort to save them from the murderous dictator.
I have wondered how so many of my evangelical family can think that they are sooooo right! Why should they think they are crazy, when their leaders are on national television telling it like it is. This nonsense has to stop. The news needs to find a real christian leader who will speak truth; who believes in Christ, but also believes in separation of church and state; who believes that Jesus would not support the war, even if Dr. James Dobson, child psychologist, does.
November 11th, 2005
Thanks to the One True and now Reverend Dan Tripp for reopening the outchurched dialog. We did a podcast conference last night between Dan, McCormick (www.asevidencethatiexist.com) and me. While I had hoped to contribute intelligently to the conversation, I had been obliged to attend a Haloween party which involved a bunch of people older than me acting younger than me, with a live band in the back yard of a rich San Diego neighborhood. Much to Dan and McCormick’s chagrin, there was tasty and expensive adult libations on the premesis. This caused me to be in a sad state of moderate inebriation for our 8:00 PM Skype conference on deep and important issues. I had fun, whether or not anyone else did…and hope to be invited back to the conversation next week, for which I promise only to have one (1) strong drink.
Here I am with my “costume” as an angry-at-the-Man-80’s Punk. In the spirit of my punk constume, I’ll renew my thoughts on anti-establishment and counter culture issues.
October 30th, 2005
I’ve noticed more and more Christians lately that are not-so-evangelical sounding. Maybe its wishful thinking. My most recent example is a guy who I know from 15 year ago. He’s hanging in church still, but he’s remarkably not party-line anymore. He and his wife were with us recently, and it wasn’t until I showed reckless disregard for the typical “chrisitan right” politics that he and his wife opened up. Both are teachers, and both were disturbed by the fact that so many christians disregard science and evolution as inconsistent with the Bible. I’ve seen this in a few others as well: people who say “I believe” but who refuse to buy into the other typical evangelical positions. I find myself in good company…well for the most party. Not many are willing to buy my argument that “church is a tool of the devil to prevent christians from following Christ.” But, that’s okay. I think I’d “go to church” or even “be part of church” or even “pastor a church” if it was something where truth mattered more than sentiment; where the stuff that makes up today’s evangelical churches was washed out and the only thing left was the real stuff. I’m stoked to find some real christians and talk about some real stuff….
October 15th, 2005
Back online after a few months. I had to drop bblog fast, with huge spam problems. WordPress seems to have resolved it and is a much easier app. I’m going to post on accasional podcast as well. Here’s my first little “welcome” in audio format. My wife is sick of hearing me, so I’ll turn my love of hearing myself speak into a podcast here and there. www.charlesgrasty.org/podcasts/welcome.mp3
HUGE props to Dan Tripp for the help saving the old bblog posts and most comments. Eye O’hue.
October 15th, 2005
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