A Biblical parable for Occupy Seattle: the issue is fairness
After the public bailed out the banks, the banks turned around and kept foreclosing, handing out bonuses, and hoarding their cash. The Bible tells a story about people who get all kinds of help and will not share.
Jordan Royer
I was listening the other day to an Occupy Seattle protester make her case. Her argument ran like this: “When the banks were in trouble and might have failed, they were bailed out — bailed out by the government, the taxpayers, all of us. But then the banks turned around and kept on foreclosing on people, taking their homes. And the banks are sitting on money instead of investing it to create jobs. We helped them, but they aren’t helping us.”
I thought to myself, “Where have I heard that before?” I scrolled back over the gospel lessons for the last couple weeks and recalled this one, “The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant,” a story told by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
Jesus spoke of a king who was settling accounts with his servants. He discovered one fellow who owed him a mega-sum, say a gazillion. When the king threatened to have the guy and his household on the auction block to recover something, the servant implored him, got on his knees, and begged for more time. Really no amount of time would have done the trick given the enormity of the debt. Then a wonderful thing happened. The king decided to write the whole thing off. He forgave him the huge debt. He cleared the books and gave the guy a fresh start.
The next thing you know, however, this servant who had just had his huge debt forgiven grabbed a fellow servant, who owed him a relatively measly amount, by the throat and demanded repayment. That second servant also begged for more time. Since there was some actual hope of repayment, that request even made sense. But servant number one would have none of it. He had his debtor thrown in prison where he had no hope of making it good.
Meanwhile, those watching this little drama were totally ticked off. They reported to the king what the fellow, whose own debts had been forgiven, had done — his harsh and unforgiving treatment of his own creditor. “You wicked servant,” said the king to the man whose huge debt he had written off. “I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?” So saying, the king has servant number one tossed, not just into jail, but into “the outer darkness.”
You can read it yourself in Matthew 18: 21-35. The point couldn’t be clearer. Someone gave you a break. Do the same, pass it on.
Not only is the point clear, but it's precisely the same one that the Occupy Seattle protester was making. The banks, owing a ton, got help. But they haven’t passed it on. Instead, they’ve foreclosed on homeowners, returned to the practice of paying themselves huge salaries and big bonuses, all the while hoarding their growing capital on the sidelines. What gives? People are as offended by these practices as were those who watched the action unfold in Jesus’ parable.
While Occupy Seattle, a spinoff of Occupy Wall Street, may not have its agenda all spelled out, it is appealing to a basic sense of fairness. You’ve been given a break, a really big one. With that you incur an obligation, to give others a break.
The underlying notion here is one that Wall Street, big banks, and economic elites seem to have missed: we’re in this thing — the economy, the society, the country — together. You’re not all on your own. You didn’t get rich all by yourself. You had help. You have an obligation. Jesus said something about this, too. “To whom much is given, of him much will be expected.”
The big banks, hedge funds and the super-rich seem to think of themselves not as obligated but entitled. With the outlandish bonuses, unregulated exotic instruments aimed at short-term gain, and advocacy of minimal and reduced taxes for themselves, they seem to have overlooked something crucial, namely, that they didn’t get where they are by their own efforts alone.
Recently Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the U. S. Senate in Massachusetts reminded us that there is a social contract. Here’s Warren:
There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory beause of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for . . . You built a factory and it turned into something terrific . . .? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay it forward for the next kid who comes along.
When some Republicans hear this, or the chant of Occupy protesters, “We’re the 99 percent,” they cry “class warfare.” It’s difficult to take that seriously. For 30 years, the very rich and their political servants have waged war against the working and middle classes in the name of their claim to be the goose that lays the golden egg. The chickens, to mix birds if not metaphors, are coming home to roost.
How far Occcupy Wall Street will get, we don’t know. Unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, they’ve taken to the public squares in the fall, as it gets colder rather than the spring when it’s getting warmer. Even if that proves a tactical error, it’s a good symbol. It’s been getting colder and darker in America for lots of people, and its getting worse.
If the season is different the message is similar. We’re tired of it. Tired of basic lack of fairness. Tired of people who have gotten all kinds of help not helping others. Apparently, Jesus was tired of it, too. “I forgave you all that debt because you appealed to me. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?”
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 8:23 a.m. Inappropriate
I think an appropriate parable (fable) is Aesop's The Ant and The Grasshopper. In that:
Tea Party = Ants
OWS = Grasshoppers
http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_fables_antgrasshopper.html
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 8:45 a.m. Inappropriate
You are right, Tony, the issue is fairness---and fair play. Interestingly,
leaders at the Treasury, New York Fed, and Fed all thought at the time of TARP that the bailed-out institutions would use their bailout money to keep other parts of the economy afloat. They, of course, did not do so but mainly used it to strengthen their balance sheets (which their reckless risk-taking had damaged). Meantime, Wall Street and banking executives continue to compensate themselves as if nothing had changed from the go-go days.
The Wall Street and local demonstrations do have something in common with the Tea Partiers, who are not the reactionary or racist know-nothings
many in the media depict them to be. Both groups are protesting what they see as the screwing of the average citizen by public- and private-sector big shots who could care less about the effects of their irresponsible actions. Tea Partiers rallied around the issue of public debt and deficits. The Wall Street and related protesters thus far have a more inchoate agenda but, in the end, it can be reduced to one protesting
unfair behavior by the favored few at the expense of the victimized many.
This not only violates Biblical teachings but the unspoken social contract
among citizens on which our society depends.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 10:59 a.m. Inappropriate
Speaking of what the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have in common, there's an interesting Venn diagram in this post that's been making the rounds:
http://howconservativesdrovemeaway.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-vs-tea-party.html (http://goo.gl/Jle9c for short)
What Occupy Wall Street protesters are upset about:
Large corporations have way too much power.
What Tea Party members are upset about:
The government has way too much power.
Where the two circles overlap is labeled:
Large corporations lobby for the government to have more power, and in return the government enacts laws and regulations favorable to large corporations.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 11:40 a.m. Inappropriate
Blue light, Me thinks the better fable would be Aesops' fable of the Lion, the fox and the Wolf.
http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-lion%27s-share.htm
Lion: banks
Fox & Wolf: the rest of us.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 11:46 a.m. Inappropriate
Or perhaps this one suits you better?
http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-woodman-and-the-serpent.htm
Woodsmen: 99%
Serpent: banks
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 12:14 p.m. Inappropriate
Haven't several hundred banks gone under in the last few years? Where are Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and WAMU? Where is Bernie Madoff? If the federal gov't forced banks to make bad loans and then forced them to take part in TARP, then the overly religious occupiers might want to occupy Washington, D.C. instead of coddling the real culprits.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 1:17 p.m. Inappropriate
With so many hypocrite-Republicans talking about Jesus while supporting a government that takes from the poor and gives it all to the rich, it is nice to see someone actually point out what Jesus said ("you will know them by their fruits" is a favorite Jesus quote of mine).
But I also want to add that I think it is misleading to say the most important differences between the Koch-funded-TeaParty and the OccupyWallStreet are their viewpoints about "big government;" because, if 'democracy' really means "informed citizens deciding what their government does," then it is obvious which one wants democracy restored and which one hates it and wants it destroyed.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 1:27 p.m. Inappropriate
Mr. Robinson's article is interesting, and completely in error. It shows a very shallow understanding (or no understanding) of Jesus' message and is taken entirely out of context. To actually understand the message Christ was delivering, one needs to have the Holy Spirit (I COR 2:14-16). Mr. Robinson, I encourage you to actually search out what Jesus' message is (salvation), vice trying to fit it into your socio-political world view to score points. Jesus did not waste time with such ridiculous and trivial worldly things. You have completely missed His message just as the Pharisees did. If you knew Him, you would know this.-A_Goodman <
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 6:55 p.m. Inappropriate
The true Christians would then be represented by the General Motors Corporation,
they graciously accepted government aid and then shared it with their workers. Jesus
must be pleased.
Posted Thu, Oct 13, 9:50 p.m. Inappropriate
"Interestingly, leaders at the Treasury, New York Fed, and Fed all thought at the time of TARP that the bailed-out institutions would use their bailout money to keep other parts of the economy afloat."
You must be joking, Mr Van Dyk. No one with a brain believes that they truly thought that.
Posted Fri, Oct 14, 12:45 p.m. Inappropriate
I would gladly have bailed out the auto corporations, not that they didn't make stupid financial decisions either. The MAIN problem with letting the banks fail, which I would gladly have done, is that in bringing down the major banking system, the public would have suffered also, greatly. If nothing else, this dependance on banks, mortgage companies, investment firms, etc should show the American people how tied up they are to Wall Street. If you have a checking and savings account, business account, 401 k ir IRA, you have to HOPE that the funds managers and bankers know what they are doing and have the interest of American investors in mind when making financial decisions. We Americans, WANT that big return, we WANT our houses to increase 3 times what we paid for them in a 5 - 10 year period. Sadly, we are SO dependant on Wall Street that we have to tolerate and hope that these degenerate gamblers and instigators of the downfall of our economy will be careful when making financial decisions. But of course they won't so a complete collapse, which will HURT may be the only damn thing that gets Wall Street's attention, and the politicians also!...nature has a way of dealing with a fuck up, it is direct, lethal and quick, but it is NOT painless!
Posted Sat, Oct 15, 1:45 p.m. Inappropriate
Someone I was reading recently (history of Hedge Funds) pointed out that very few
HFs went bust in the recent economic storm and, those that did quietly doled out
their losses to their investors and , just as quietly, ceased to exist. I am guessing that
Jesus would respect, maybe even admire that. Not all investments prosper and those
that fail lose money and, perhaps, gain some knowledge. I don't think we need
a Loving Government to save the biggies so we can all wait for our rewards to
trickle down, we need responsible biggies and we have few of those.
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