Was watching something the other day that said in the wake of the 14th Amendment the corporation through a process of 288 court cases established itself as a "person." Meaning that the rights of a person were transferable to this Corporation.
So that is weird.
But I was thinking that if each corporation is a person, then, if a corporation is owned by largely Christian members, that Corporation should then act as a Christian person? Right? Other wise the corporation is being owned by Christians and operated as an atheist? That's really bizzare...
What's more interesting is the whole workers thing. If a corporation is making people work in sweatshops and then telling us that a portion of the proceeds are being donated to help children... i mean, if the corporation is a person, then this person must be insane. Paying people 3/10 of 1% of the retail price for the manufacture of this stuff just can't possibly be ok.
Then we look at the level of pollution that corporations put out. The number of chemicals that have come through "the magic of research" is staggering.
There was a time when public regulation kept these things in check... In the 14th and 15th century there was a shared collective responsibility. Things were shared as commons, the church and lords administered this as stewards...The privatization of everything runs against this idea, and in someway could be considered un-Christian as well.
The same corporation that makes the seed for the food we eat made agent orange and paid 80 million in damages to the guys who spread the stuff during Vietnam. Think on this for a moment... we create seeds that have "terminator" genes in them. After one generation of life every seed it creates is dead. Aside from the the health implications this has (what kind of nutrient does a "dead" seed have when a lot of what we eat are seeds?) this is a new kind of insanity. For thousands of years every human on the face of the earth has worked to keep and refine better and better generations of seeds. Through this process many have survived famine and pestilence. What would we do if all the current seed were corrupted? And we had no others to rely on? Where would our food come from?
If the corporation has the freedoms of a person, then we need to perceive it as such. Do we really want to be around this person? Should we hold this person accountable for its actions? The truth is calling something a "corporation" seems to only make it easy to pass of the incredibly evil and heinous actions as part of a faceless thing that cannot possibly be held for its actions.
If the corporation is a person, it might be a psychopath: Callous unconcern for the feelings of others, incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness, incapacity to experience guilt, failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior...The present day corporation has the diagnosis of a frightening guy.
Fanta Orange was created by Coke for the Nazis.
IBM systems were in place in every railroad and concentration camp.
FDR was undermined by involving General Butler who was fed up with being a "gangster for capitalism" who admitted to setting up a faciast regime. GP Morgan, Dupont and Goodyear Tire were fingered as the main men in the conspiracy.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
What do you Really Want...
During worship while we were praying we did something so powerful that it actually made me stopped praying in order to really focus on what we were saying. The prayer said that we were asking Christ to change our world and our lives. It struck me that we pray this sometimes without fully being prepared for what the answer to that prayer might entail.
A few months ago there was a speaker in Charlotte NC addressing the situation between Palestine and Israel. This little hotbed hasn’t gotten much attention in the wake of our own financial woes and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. An interview was preceding his speaking engagement, the interview being broadcast on “Charlotte Talks.” So much of what the man said was so false, the interviewer couldn’t have possibly been expected to keep up with it all. The guy stated statistics of casualties and injured civilians, never mentioned the equal or greater number that the Israelis are also responsible for. Not to mention the American civilians that Israel has murdered. (See Racheal Corrie, a 23 year old who went to bid for peace and fairness on behalf of the Palestinians in 2003 and was crushed by a bulldozer)
He mentioned the relationship between Palestine and other Arab nations and even the Russians, and all I could think was that when an overwhelming force is opposing you, there is no where you won’t turn to protect your homeland and your freedom. I mean, the US even turned to France once upon a time. The truth of the matter is that Israel pushes the Palestinians into seeking allies wherever it can because of the level of injustice being visited on it. Israel is trying to make the other Arab countries responsible for the Palestinians so that Israel can continue to push them out of a country that was theirs to being with.
He cited a 1947 UN Agreement that established the statehood of Israel (one that was made without the input of the people that lived on the land that was being declared a state), and yet failed to mention that even though it was Harry Truman’s vote and persistence that forced the vote through, Truman was never comfortable with the idea. He is quoted as saying, "I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."
The truth is that the creation of Israel is not a Jewish practice. Nor is it a religious one. It is a political movement created with propaganda to do what men have been trying to do since the dawn of time. Establish their own greed and consolidate their power. That it comes in the guise of a holy nation should come as no surprise. Somehow they did such a good job of convincing the first world powers of their gentleness and peaceful nature we allowed them to secure nuclear missiles. As the only country in the Arab world that has them an imbalance of power was immediately created. This daggers drawn mentality does nothing for peace in an already tumultuous arena.
As I was listening to this interview a thought struck me in conjunction with our prayer from church. We don’t want peace. And we do not desire change. Our asking for Christ to change our world can only be one of two things; simple lip service, or a conditional asking that is based on our own expectation. Our actions as a country are neither Christian nor just, and in the face of these we cite that some things must be protected, must be fought for. But these things are the way of the Christian or of Christ, and no matter how we try to dress it, our actions to the contrary are in betrayal of our allegiance God.
A few months ago there was a speaker in Charlotte NC addressing the situation between Palestine and Israel. This little hotbed hasn’t gotten much attention in the wake of our own financial woes and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. An interview was preceding his speaking engagement, the interview being broadcast on “Charlotte Talks.” So much of what the man said was so false, the interviewer couldn’t have possibly been expected to keep up with it all. The guy stated statistics of casualties and injured civilians, never mentioned the equal or greater number that the Israelis are also responsible for. Not to mention the American civilians that Israel has murdered. (See Racheal Corrie, a 23 year old who went to bid for peace and fairness on behalf of the Palestinians in 2003 and was crushed by a bulldozer)
He mentioned the relationship between Palestine and other Arab nations and even the Russians, and all I could think was that when an overwhelming force is opposing you, there is no where you won’t turn to protect your homeland and your freedom. I mean, the US even turned to France once upon a time. The truth of the matter is that Israel pushes the Palestinians into seeking allies wherever it can because of the level of injustice being visited on it. Israel is trying to make the other Arab countries responsible for the Palestinians so that Israel can continue to push them out of a country that was theirs to being with.
He cited a 1947 UN Agreement that established the statehood of Israel (one that was made without the input of the people that lived on the land that was being declared a state), and yet failed to mention that even though it was Harry Truman’s vote and persistence that forced the vote through, Truman was never comfortable with the idea. He is quoted as saying, "I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents."
The truth is that the creation of Israel is not a Jewish practice. Nor is it a religious one. It is a political movement created with propaganda to do what men have been trying to do since the dawn of time. Establish their own greed and consolidate their power. That it comes in the guise of a holy nation should come as no surprise. Somehow they did such a good job of convincing the first world powers of their gentleness and peaceful nature we allowed them to secure nuclear missiles. As the only country in the Arab world that has them an imbalance of power was immediately created. This daggers drawn mentality does nothing for peace in an already tumultuous arena.
As I was listening to this interview a thought struck me in conjunction with our prayer from church. We don’t want peace. And we do not desire change. Our asking for Christ to change our world can only be one of two things; simple lip service, or a conditional asking that is based on our own expectation. Our actions as a country are neither Christian nor just, and in the face of these we cite that some things must be protected, must be fought for. But these things are the way of the Christian or of Christ, and no matter how we try to dress it, our actions to the contrary are in betrayal of our allegiance God.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Solving our Differences
William Ury
TEDx Midwest Talk October 2010
Solutions to peace: actions as a surrounding community to any conflict
Living with Saan Bushmen
One person hides the poison arrows
The community comes together and talks for days until there is resolution or reconciliation
Or people are placed with family in order to cool off
The Third Side : the surrounding community (Them v. Us + Community)
Remind the parties what is at stake
Easy to loose sight of things, we are reactionary beings
Need to “go to the balcony” get perspective for a distance
Where is the third side in the Palestine?
Stories Matter
Are the key, keeping us engaged in this conflict
What is the story here?
Origin story, 4,000 years ago Abe walked across the dessert
A message of Unity, family and of all things
Respect and kindess to strangers, hospitality
The symbolic 3rd side
Retrace the footsteps of the third side, gain the balcony perspective
Walking from Urfa, to Haran, Alepo, Damascus, Ajloun, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and to Hebron
The Abraham Path
Terrorism
Taking a stranger who is treated as an enemy who you kill to create fear
Hospitality
Taking a stranger who is treats as a friend who you treat well to create hope
TEDx Midwest Talk October 2010
Solutions to peace: actions as a surrounding community to any conflict
Living with Saan Bushmen
One person hides the poison arrows
The community comes together and talks for days until there is resolution or reconciliation
Or people are placed with family in order to cool off
The Third Side : the surrounding community (Them v. Us + Community)
Remind the parties what is at stake
Easy to loose sight of things, we are reactionary beings
Need to “go to the balcony” get perspective for a distance
Where is the third side in the Palestine?
Stories Matter
Are the key, keeping us engaged in this conflict
What is the story here?
Origin story, 4,000 years ago Abe walked across the dessert
A message of Unity, family and of all things
Respect and kindess to strangers, hospitality
The symbolic 3rd side
Retrace the footsteps of the third side, gain the balcony perspective
Walking from Urfa, to Haran, Alepo, Damascus, Ajloun, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and to Hebron
The Abraham Path
Terrorism
Taking a stranger who is treated as an enemy who you kill to create fear
Hospitality
Taking a stranger who is treats as a friend who you treat well to create hope
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)