We never had much money when I was a kid. It’s not like we were dirt poor. But it was always clear that if I wanted something special, I would have to find a way to earn the money to buy it. Paper routes were my path to profitability. Some months were more profitable than others, since in those days I had to collect what was due. People didn’t buy a subscription ahead of time like today, and some of my customers were never at home when I stopped for payment; at least they never answered the door.
Since my father was a minister, we lived in a parsonage (a church owned home) most of my life. In my father’s time, it was compensation for a rather modest salary. I suppose people thought, why would you need a large income when you’re getting a home to live in? Never mind that you have four young and growing kids, with four mouths to fill.
Mind you, I’m not complaining. I learned the value of work and the value of money. There was no silver platter. Neither was there the poverty and penny pinching of the truly poor. Ours was an experience of lower middle class life. There was enough but not too much.
I knew there were people of wealth. We always had a few in our church, who seemed to exhibit an inordinate amount of power when decisions needed to be made, including whether to keep or fire a pastor. But money did not move my father. On more than one occasion, I watched as he successfully stood his moral ground in the presence of big money. Looking back on those early days, so many of my own values were developed not through words or sermons, but through deeds; through the life and actions of my parents.
I fear big money holds sway over our lives in much more significant ways these days. Wealth can still be determinative in much of church life, especially in evangelical circles, where Christian Nationalism has its roots. And wealth is even more entrenched than ever in our government. Although in a democracy, our votes are all supposed to count the same, actual decisions get made not for the majority but for the moneyed.
A recent example is in the preparation for and follow up to the Iran war. Apparently our defense industrialists were encouraged to ramp up production three months before the actual movement to go to war in Iran. And then a week after the war began, the president met with defense industry leaders (Wait, should they be called “war industry leaders,” since it’s now the “War Department” hiring them?) at the White House to “quadruple production of the Exquisite Class Weaponry.” The president said, “we want to reach, as rapidly as possible, the highest levels of quantity.” Apparently, he does understand that these wars of choice can drag on interminably, like in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the meantime, chiefs of our war industry and their market supporters stand to make fortunes as billions are spent for blowing up Iran.
Or, a second example involves the Epstein files. Much is still hidden. But there are names of some of the world’s rich and powerful slowly being released. A couple of countries have responded appropriately with the dismissal of their persons of privilege. But far more needs to happen in terms of accountability, particularly here in the U.S.
Think about it. Hundreds, some say more than a thousand, children and adolescents have been trafficked to rich men. To my knowledge, only two have been held partially accountable. How is it possible that these women have been left waiting for justice for years? And still, with everyday publicity, justice is not yet a reality.
We need to realize that wealth, power and privilege, are moral impediments. Too often they determine what decisions a person makes and how they interact with others. They shape ones’ worldview. And they can get so embedded in the values of a country, that people turn a blind eye to injustice, death and destruction, moral depravity.
There are alternative values. There is “enough.” There is “nonviolence.” There is “respect.” There is “treating others the way you would like to be treated.” The old values of my childhood are still valid today. Dress them up in different clothes if you wish, but they still cover our moral nakedness, as always. And they can help protect us from the finery of the rich and powerful, that doesn’t cover, but exposes, their moral nakedness.
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