Working-Class Solidarity Matters

 

When interpreting The Bible...

 

Think about this...

 

Luke 6:17-26 & Lightnin' Hopkins

Luke 6:17-26:

17.  And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

18  came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.

19  Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

20  And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.

21 Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.

22  Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.

23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

24 But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

25 But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.

26 Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

* * *

Well, today's sermon was on Luke 6:17-26, and I thought that the pastor did a pretty good of speaking to the reading and I liked the violin solo that followed. As the pastor said, after that solo we all knew what it was like to be blessed.

Three thoughts came to me as the sermon was progressing. One, when the pastor was emphasizing how it's the poor that are blessed and that the rich have a more difficult time I started thinking that I wish that I had not been so blessed for so much of my life to be a (relatively) poor man. I could have done with just a little less blessing and a little more rent money quite a few times. Second, I figured out pretty quickly that part of his sermon was for people who are doing better than I used to be and I do so appreciate the effort to explain things to them. Last, I thought of Lightnn' Hopkins' great sermon on this reading. Here it is:

  

Pain---A Poor People's Campaign Introduction to Affliction in America

You're not alone.

We're not alone.

We can overcome.

We will overcome.

More Working-Class History

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-zmss8-11a4da4

Irish immigrants, who toiled in the mines of Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1800s are largely forgotten. Many died penniless, buried in paupers’ graves.  But now a Colorado professor has dug up their stories and their struggles. The Heartland Labor Forum brings us a report on the Irish Immigrant Miners’ Memorial. Then, Remember our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon, who covers the 1916 Springfield (MO) Streetcar Strike.

From the Irish Times

See the Irish Times story here.

Yara Allen - Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody

 

More from Fratelli tutti...

Photo from Catholic Relief Services

See here for the complete text

21. Some economic rules have proved effective for growth, but not for integral human development.[16] Wealth has increased, but together with inequality, with the result that “new forms of poverty are emerging”.[17] The claim that the modern world has reduced poverty is made by measuring poverty with criteria from the past that do not correspond to present-day realities. In other times, for example, lack of access to electric energy was not considered a sign of poverty, nor was it a source of hardship. Poverty must always be understood and gauged in the context of the actual opportunities available in each concrete historical period.

Insufficiently universal human rights

22. It frequently becomes clear that, in practice, human rights are not equal for all. Respect for those rights “is the preliminary condition for a country’s social and economic development. When the dignity of the human person is respected, and his or her rights recognized and guaranteed, creativity and interdependence thrive, and the creativity of the human personality is released through actions that further the common good”.[18] Yet, “by closely observing our contemporary societies, we see numerous contradictions that lead us to wonder whether the equal dignity of all human beings, solemnly proclaimed seventy years ago, is truly recognized, respected, protected and promoted in every situation. In today’s world, many forms of injustice persist, fed by reductive anthropological visions and by a profit-based economic model that does not hesitate to exploit, discard and even kill human beings. While one part of humanity lives in opulence, another part sees its own dignity denied, scorned or trampled upon, and its fundamental rights discarded or violated”.[19] What does this tell us about the equality of rights grounded in innate human dignity?

23. Similarly, the organization of societies worldwide is still far from reflecting clearly that women possess the same dignity and identical rights as men. We say one thing with words, but our decisions and reality tell another story. Indeed, “doubly poor are those women who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, since they are frequently less able to defend their rights”.[20]

24. We should also recognize that “even though the international community has adopted numerous agreements aimed at ending slavery in all its forms, and has launched various strategies to combat this phenomenon, millions of people today – children, women and men of all ages – are deprived of freedom and forced to live in conditions akin to slavery… Today, as in the past, slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person that allows him or her to be treated as an object… Whether by coercion, or deception, or by physical or psychological duress, human persons created in the image and likeness of God are deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced to being the property of others. They are treated as means to an end… [Criminal networks] are skilled in using modern means of communication as a way of luring young men and women in various parts of the world”.[21] A perversion that exceeds all limits when it subjugates women and then forces them to abort. An abomination that goes to the length of kidnapping persons for the sake of selling their organs. Trafficking in persons and other contemporary forms of enslavement are a worldwide problem that needs to be taken seriously by humanity as a whole: “since criminal organizations employ global networks to achieve their goals, efforts to eliminate this phenomenon also demand a common and, indeed, a global effort on the part of various sectors of society”.[22]

Conflict and fear

25. War, terrorist attacks, racial or religious persecution, and many other affronts to human dignity are judged differently, depending on how convenient it proves for certain, primarily economic, interests. What is true as long as it is convenient for someone in power stops being true once it becomes inconvenient. These situations of violence, sad to say, “have become so common as to constitute a real ‘third world war’ fought piecemeal”.[23]

26. This should not be surprising, if we realize that we no longer have common horizons that unite us; indeed, the first victim of every war is “the human family’s innate vocation to fraternity”. As a result, “every threatening situation breeds mistrust and leads people to withdraw into their own safety zone”.[24] Our world is trapped in a strange contradiction: we believe that we can “ensure stability and peace through a false sense of security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust”.[25] 

Prepare To Meet God and "Great Big Hand Of God" and "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore"

 

A Simple Truth

 

"Peacemaking doesn't mean passivity..."

From St. Alban's Episcopal Church on Facebook.

These are points worthy of discussion. My response is that if oppressed people determined a course of action that rested on confrontational honesty with our oppressors and if we were able to somehow disarm our oppressors by honestly insisting on social justice then they would be forced out of power and love could prevail. That would be so different then what we know that it is hard to imagine or plan for. In all honesty we would have to give up our self-loathing, self-deception, distractions, and all that the ruling class puts in our way to block and distract us. "Love your enemies" would have meaning a be applicable because the preconditions for love---equality, need, patience, kindness, honesty, common interests, sustainability, vulnerability, shared priorities---would be available to all. Until then there is no basis for enemies loving one another and antagonism is often an expression of dysfunction; We aren't so much building a new society in the shell of the old as we are playing roles and using socially acceptable means that don't lead to lasting wins for the oppressed. That is a "third way" as mentioned above, but it is also a fight. And I believe that Scripture may support my view. 

Two videos with Yara Allen, a great teacher and organizer

I always deeply appreciate the patience of great organizers like Yara Allen and the willingness of people in the Poor People's Campaign to reach beyond the usual spaces and engage and teach. I also appreciate the Jewish community of Temple Emanuel in the video above for being open to Sister Allen and be learners. I'm sorry that reaching across the chasms of race and experience is so difficult, but we need this.

 

From Fratelli tutti by Pope Francis

15. The best way to dominate and gain control over people is to spread despair and discouragement, even under the guise of defending certain values. Today, in many countries, hyperbole, extremism and polarization have become political tools. Employing a strategy of ridicule, suspicion and relentless criticism, in a variety of ways one denies the right of others to exist or to have an opinion. Their share of the truth and their values are rejected and, as a result, the life of society is impoverished and subjected to the hubris of the powerful. Political life no longer has to do with healthy debates about long-term plans to improve people’s lives and to advance the common good, but only with slick marketing techniques primarily aimed at discrediting others. In this craven exchange of charges and counter-charges, debate degenerates into a permanent state of disagreement and confrontation.

16. Amid the fray of conflicting interests, where victory consists in eliminating one’s opponents, how is it possible to raise our sights to recognize our neighbours or to help those who have fallen along the way? A plan that would set great goals for the development of our entire human family nowadays sounds like madness. We are growing ever more distant from one another, while the slow and demanding march towards an increasingly united and just world is suffering a new and dramatic setback.

17. To care for the world in which we live means to care for ourselves. Yet we need to think of ourselves more and more as a single family dwelling in a common home. Such care does not interest those economic powers that demand quick profits. Often the voices raised in defence of the environment are silenced or ridiculed, using apparently reasonable arguments that are merely a screen for special interests. In this shallow, short-sighted culture that we have created, bereft of a shared vision, “it is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new wars, albeit under the guise of noble claims”.[12]

Yara Allen sings in remembrance of Middle Passage --- "Oh Freedom!"

 

I interviewed Joe Rastatter and Dr. David Wheeler about Portland's Faith & Labor Committee---Please listen!

Would anyone in the Keizer-Salem, Oregon area like to help form a Faith & Labor Committee? Please be in touch.

Listen to the interview here:  https://bit.ly/3syBoDk

Taken from Arise Chicago

Somebody's Hurting My Brother